<p>I'm an Economics & Math joint major at Emory, and I'm planning to study a second undergrad degree in mechanical engineering after I graduate (a year early).</p>
<p>Exactly how hard is it to get good grades at Georgia Tech? I have a 3.65 at Emory right now, and I don't want that to get destroyed because I hope to get into a top MBA school down the line. Keep in mind I'll have taken all the prereq math/science courses at Emory; I'll be taking only mechanical engineering courses at Tech.</p>
<p>The main issue is the difficulty of getting an MSME without undergrad engineering coursework. Emory and GT have an MSME joint program too; however, I have been told that it would be a painful experience for my brain and my GPA.</p>
<p>It’s actually not that hard to get good grades at GT. My suitemate is a second-year ChemE and has a 4.0. By getting his stuff done earlier and avoiding procrastination, he’s never had to pull any all-nighters. He is very smart, but what he does is not special to him; anyone could do it. The key really is planning. Get your work done first. After that, you can do whatever you want.</p>
<p>You mentioned that you eventually want to get an MBA. Why do you want to study mechanical engineering? If you’re a econ & math double major, your quantitative background should be more than sufficient for MBA-level coursework.</p>
<p>I disagree with Fabrizio. I’m a very organized person and I was never able to get all of my work done to the point where I had nothing to do. As soon as I finished one assignment it was on to the next assignment for another class. Once I finished them all it was the next week and I was handed more assignments. I usually didn’t study on Sunday but this went on for my entire career. Always busy and pulling a few all nighters here and there (they call finals week dead week for a reason), but not because I was lazy, because I had too much $#^@ to do. </p>
<p>The tricky part about getting good grades at GT is that you have to know your stuff better than the next guy. There is no set grading scale in the majority of the classes you’ll take and professors only hand out a certain % of A’s, B’s, etc. You could very easily have a class of 30 students where the teach hands out 10% As and 20% Bs. If you aren’t in the top 9 you’ll get a C. That doesn’t mean you don’t understand the material very well. It means you didn’t understand it as well as 9 others. The thing with tech is that, for the most part, everyone is really smart at math/science in the engineering classes. So you have to be able to edge out people to make sure you’re ahead/apart of the curve.</p>
<p>I don’t know vblick, so I have no reason to doubt anything he says. I can only give anecdotes, and as always, other’s mileages may vary.</p>
<p>My ChemE suitemate had enough time every day to watch the Daily Show, go to the CRC, and play at least two games of Warcraft III. What’s more, ChemE is notorious for having a lot of “grinding”; it’s not a cakewalk major. Yet, he still had enough time to get his stuff done and do all those recreational things.</p>
<p>Is he a really smart guy? Absolutely. He’s way, way, way above “average.” But, I’m not convinced that only he is capable of doing that.</p>
<p>I agree with fabrizio. I’m a CS major and I am pretty organized… and I get my work done plus a job plus extracurriculars plus a social life… I get good grades… it can definitely be done…</p>
<p>It’ll be harder than it was at Emory to get an A that’s for sure. I say this based on two things:</p>
<p>1) engineering majors are just harder and have more work. no way around it.
2) elite private schools like Emory have massive grade inflation. I’m not knocking the school as I’m cross-enrolled there for Econ (funny… you want to do engineering, I wanted to do Econ) and the quality of education is very good. However, you don’t know who’s a trust fund baby funding the school’s endowment. Plus, private liberal arts schools have this “coddling” going on with their students. I’ve written on here many a time about the 50% rate for As at Harvard and other Ivies as an example. At schools like GT, MIT, CalTech, and Berkeley, it ranges from 20-30% As using some form of B- curve.</p>
<p>In the Medical school there, though, they don’t have the same atmosphere. That’s their bread and butter of research. They don’t need as much student/school funding due to all the research grants. Same thing with Tech: we actually spend more per student than is paid for out of state tuition… something to the range of 75K per undergrad student. State funding only comprises about 25% of the budget from the state gov and 12% from tuitions. That leaves 63% to be funded by research and grants. So, again, heavy research means you don’t necessarily have to treat your students like gods.</p>
Yes. In many geek cultures, he’s considered omnipotent.</p>
<p>The thing is, most people aren’t as smart as your friend. They can’t instantly grasp concepts like he can.</p>
<p>I’m an ECE major, usually ranked the hardest major (up there with ChemE) and I get the material because I have a natural ability at it. Same with Econ: very analytical, seems logical to me without any work, but others have a hard time grasping it. I forget that other people aren’t so lucky and need time to do it. The thing is, it’s the analytical subjects with a lot of logical and mathematical reasoning that most don’t get because they aren’t prepared to in our liberal-arts focused society. I always enjoyed logic and analysis and math, so it was no prob. Now, if we talk about English Lit, I’ve had nights where I read classic literature all night and day and don’t get a word of it.</p>
<p>As a poster said above, you can be prudent with your work, but usually by the time you finish, it’s time for round two. It’s like a boxing match without breaks.</p>
<p>Well that actually sounds pretty reasonable. I called that my “decompression” time which came after a day full of classes. However, after that I would probably put in on average about 3-4 hrs/night. Classes like CS really sucked up all the time.</p>
<p>Vblick might have had some profs that graded to the curve, but they don’t all do it. Many will say – and mean it – that if everyone earns an A, then everyone gets an A. The problem for some students is that there are some really phenomenal students at Tech, and profs sometimes adjust their expectations. And the grade inflation comments are correct: it hasn’t happened here. But employers and grad schools know it. The pre-law program used to send out letters to law school admissions officers to let them know a 3.2 at Tech was equal to a 3.7 at… a school down the road. They stopped sending those letters because the law school people said “we’ve seen your students; we understand.”</p>