<p>I'm going into nuclear engineering and I have a list of about 12 colleges right now. I want to reduce the list to 8 or 9. So I want to find out some negatives on each college to help narrow it down. I can find positives for GT all day long. Its the negatives I can't find easily. So what are some negatives?</p>
<p>I'd also appreciate any advice if you care to give any.</p>
<p>O and I am OOS... just for the record.</p>
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<p>I can</p>
<p>[GT</a> Sux…Enough Said](<a href=“Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos”>Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos)</p>
<p>The site won’t be around much longer though as Geocities is closing down for good soon.</p>
<p>Just so you know, I’m an OOS first-year ME, so I can’t speak with much experience or be discipline-specific for you.</p>
<p>Negatives: first, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The only negatives I can think of is that if you’re a dorm room hermit that doesn’t socialize easily, then this may not be the best place for you, as you have to do all the work in earning a social life (and there definitely is one; there really is absolutely no excuse to be bored in Atlanta). This IS a school for nerds and you WILL find plenty of them, but so far I’ve had loads of fun and the educational quality is fine (but again, first-year, can’t say much atm). Oh, also apply asap for housing, and if you can easily accomplish the above statements, I wouldn’t recommend freshman experience, but it’s not a bad idea either. The only real bonus is that there are tutors in the FE dorm basements (but you can find way more at the library).</p>
<p>Advice: I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but college is completely different from high school. If you have the initiative, you’ll find that you can do almost anything you want here on your own. Again, no reason to be bored here. Talk to people, and make friends fast.</p>
<p>LMAO that link is hilarious. I cried reading that thing. I’ve heard crap like that on other sites too. So I agree that the GT might not be all it is hyped up to be but it can’t be all that bad. As Wordnanoslen said… its Atlanta.</p>
<p>I read the GTsuck web site. There are some truths to that.</p>
<p>In general, introduction courses are hard classes (shaft classes). Calculus II, Physics II, Introduction to Computing are some examples of that. Good news is that grading is easier in junior and senior year.</p>
<p>There are indeed lack of girls in engineering/CS Schools. There are around 30% of students at Tech are girls (incoming freshmen had 33% makeup). However, most girls are either in College of Management, College of Science or College of Liberal Arts. Those three schools seems like normal college around 45 to 50% female population. The CS/engineering schools has only 20% population. However, that is probably true for most engineering colleges. CS/engineering majors are just not popular with female students.</p>
<p>OMG, I saw that website! My son will have to go thru all that???</p>
<p>No. The first thing to realize is that the site is almost 10 years old. It was put up in 2001.</p>
<p>But it’s the usual “complain” website. If you can’t find a girlfriend, it’s the school’s fault. If you don’t do so well in Physics I, it’s the school’s fault. If you can’t make it through as a CS major and have to drop out of school, it’s the school’s fault.</p>
<p>You see people like this at any school. They expect that as long as they show up, grades should be handed to them and their social life should be just like Animal House. They don’t want to work to improve their grades or meet people, so they just complain. It’s best to ignore them and move on.</p>
<p>Oh, thank you! I was really worried and was thinking is there any school out there which is going to be problem-free? </p>
<p>GP, are you a student?</p>
<p>The following is a bit lengthy, but I hope it will express some thoughts to ponder.</p>
<p>Son is currently a Freshman GT student. He is doing just fine and enjoying everything. </p>
<p>Sure, there are moments of challenge, but… this is true regardless of any college he might have attended. As parents we encouraged him to enjoy the whole college experience. As an OOS student, he was one of a select few from his school to decide to attend GT and an out of state school - so he was going there knowing no one. On a scale 1-10 with 10 being really hard, he said its a 7 due to the workload. Lets keep in mind GT is ranked in the top 10 nationally and internationally - this is for a reason. If you want ease and comfort, seek that enviornment. If you want challenge and opportunity - seek that and be ready for what that it might require.</p>
<p>Our son decided to forgo testing out of his AP calc, physics, chem. to allow him a fresh and hopefully successful first semester. It was a wise choice on his part. He has time for fun too as a result and its allowed him to get used to college. There are some great Christian groups on campus, a wonderful gym, and tons of clubs. Is it challenging - for sure, but this is far better than going to some less challenging school where getting all A’s was almost a certain outcome. Bottom line, if after a semester/year, he decides to seek a different direction - he can. Who says someone has to go all four years to a school they don’t like? But for now, this is a good choice. </p>
<p>The websites that dump on any university, not just GT, have to be read for what they are. I read the entries in the website and besides the language - it really wasn’t a place to visit. Why read garbage? Any college, any place will have its pros and cons. None are perfect. If you are use to being at the top of your class and getting all A’s, this may or may not happen at GT. If this will trouble you and make you question yourself as a person, a school like GT may not be a fit. On the other hand, if you are able to be realistic about college and realize you are going to be challenged and will have various issues to contend with, onward and upward.</p>
<p>As a parent, paying out of state tuition, trust me, we want our son to be successful and enjoy the experience, but this also is a choice - will he have bad professors, probably, will he get questionable grades, probably, will he have moments of frustration, probably, but so what… this is college, its all part of the package. This is no free ride for any of us. So, if you want to enjoy college, you will find a way to do so, even if the classes are hard and you may not get all “A’s”. If you want to be unhappy where you attend - that is a choice too. Be ready for everything and anything - its all part of the ride that is college. </p>
<p>So, jump in 100%, don’t second guess your choice regardless of where you go and above all, avoid people who like complain - its your life, your choice and your decision to enjoy or not your college experience. For real, college is preparation for life. This is a microcosm of what will face you for the rest of your life. You can join the throngs of complainers or be a contribuitor. Its all comes down to choice and character.</p>
<p>Hey, and by the way…Good Luck as you make sift through your options. This too is all part of the “experience”!</p>
<p>Well said Skylark. I am a parent of a prospective student OOS. Son can take on a challenge for sure and he is not even an easy A student, so he will have to work hard at GTech and he says if he gets to learn in a challenging environment then he is game. </p>
<p>I went on that crappy website but got disgusted with the language and left in 2 secs. Cannot believe and college student can write such things about their school.</p>
<p>I think the story on that guy is he got caught cheating, and instead of facing up to his violation, he decided to take it out on GT. Aren’t you glad you weren’t that guy’s roommate?!</p>
<p>Obviously this website is exaggerated but there are some truths to his stories.
The physics WebAssign is brutal. The CS lectures are worthless. The CS autograder was a little unfair. You could spend weeks programming something, to meet all the requirements of the project, and get a zero because that program found an infinite loop. For CS you’ll pretty much learn most stuff from recitation and problem sets. I found my TAs to be extremely helpful and I took advantage of their office hours. I even had some of them on instant messanger and would msg them questions. In general, teachers were helpful but their office hours are far and few, not to mention the lines of people ahead of you. When your kid gets to tech he’ll find out which class he needs to be on *alert for. No one signs up for a class and finds out it’s a weed out course when it’s too late. Just advise him to put more effort into these classes and to find study groups. Things will get better once he’s taking major classes.</p>
<p>I heard a story about a few guys that were busted by the cheatfinder. Apparently they all misspelled the same word in the same line of code, in same position. There used to be zero tolerance with cheating. Busted = Kicked out of school. There is also that story that was on CNN (after I graduated) where cheatfinder busted 200+ kids. It was an intro CS class. In my experience you have to be pretty ■■■■■■■■ to get caught cheating in CS. In the higher level CS classes, if you work on code with someone, they at least allow all parties to use the same bit of code as long as you annotate your comments to reflect that you worked with so and so.</p>
<p>Thanks Pixeljig. Best wishes as your son embarks on this next adventure. It is a fantastic experience even with the bumps.</p>
<p>"But it’s the usual “complain” website. If you can’t find a girlfriend, it’s the school’s fault. If you don’t do so well in Physics I, it’s the school’s fault. If you can’t make it through as a CS major and have to drop out of school, it’s the school’s fault.</p>
<p>You see people like this at any school. They expect that as long as they show up, grades should be handed to them and their social life should be just like Animal House. They don’t want to work to improve their grades or meet people, so they just complain. It’s best to ignore them and move on. "</p>
<p>Thats the impression I got too.</p>
<p>Pixeljig,</p>
<p>Where else besides Ga Tech and Tulane is your s considering? I know you told me, I just can’t recall at the moment :(</p>
<p>Jym, son is considering UT Austin, Rice, USC, Santa Clara U.</p>
<p>Rice is a high reach, USC is a reach, the rest are 50-50 chance per our naviance.</p>
<p>I feel that because son has lived in so many diff places and attended many schools due to our constant moving, he would be better off in a multi-cultural environment. I know UT is large and getting in may be hard.</p>
<p>I have put Oxy in front of him to consider but he is not sure. Husband thinks Tulane academics may be too easy?</p>
<p>Would you suggest any hidden gems? Thanks.</p>