I’ve read that the area surrounding GT is kind of dangerous. It looks like GT is right next to the downtown area though, so I imagine lots of students go out to downtown, unless it really is that dangerous. Is this something to worry about?
GT is in the Midtown area of Atlanta. I wouldn’t say it is any more dangerous than other metropolitian areas. Students walk around the neighborhood all the time. There is an area off of 10th St. where some students live called “Home Park.” Based on the Clery Act notifiications it seems like most serious crime occurs in that area and the Varsity parking lot. As with any metropolitian area, you want to be smart, don’t walk alone very late at night and pay attention to your surroundings.
Midtown is an exciting area with restaurants and shops and the Fox Theatre. I feel GT Police really try to make the area safe for students. They post on GT’s Reddit and answer student’s questions. you can also see GTPD’s crime logs at this link: http://www.police.gatech.edu/crimeinfo/crimelogs/
This whole issue has my mom concerned, especially if you compare it to my state schools which have hardly any crime, really super low. There is a website where you can look up the crime stats and compare schools and among my schools Ga Tech doesn’t look great, I have to admit. If I get into both GA Tech and Purdue I know this could tip it toward Purdue. It sure will for my parents.
Are you confusing GATech with Georgia State? Georgia State is adjacent to downtown Atlanta. GATech is some distance away in Midtown.
If you are that phobic about crime you should go to a rural or college town school.
My 16 year old daughter did a summer camp in 2015 at Tech (we live in atlanta, and have for decades).
Her room, and the entire floor, was robbed on the first day she was there. There’s a police report if you want to look it up. In fact, I would encourage you to look at the police reports for that area.
eta: I see that @itsv already posted this. It bears repeating.
Georgia State (very nearby) had an armed robbery at the student library last year, as well. In my opinion, it is not very safe, and you have to be REALLY careful when you’re in that area. That said, GT is an amazing school and the education is top-knotch.
From personal experience, it’s relatively safe if you stay on campus. Going off campus is a little more iffy, but if you stay in well lit areas and be smart, you’ll be fine.
My DS is a freshmen at GaTech. He lives in Towers, his room faces I-85. Campus is quite safe, thanks to GTPD, they do a great job! That being said, we knew going in that GaTech campus was in an urban area, near some of the nicest and not so nice areas of Atl. It’s so important to follow safety rules at all times. Be aware of your surroundings, travel in groups if your heading off campus, and don’t be out wandering the streets at all hours of the night. Theres a lot to do in Atl and it can be a fun and safe place to live. But there will always be bad guys doing bad things to good people, so you’ve got to be careful. Very recently there were a couple of armed robberies just off campus where students live, in broad daylight. Both victims were students held up at gunpoint with the suspect taking their belongings and running. And a few nights later, AtlPD apprehended two armed suspects who ran onto campus during a chase. Students were told to stay in their dorms until everything was safe. It was GaTech fall break, so campus was almost empty and my son was home, thankfully(we live 35min north of Atl).
My son prefers the city to the suburbs now and feels safe at his new home on campus. He loves GaTech!
Agreeing with the others that the surrounding area is not one in which I’d be cavorting about after dark, but the campus itself is safe enough. GT police officers are everywhere; I would encourage concerned parents or potential students to drive around campus and look for them. We also live just north of Atlanta, and my then-16 yo daughter commuted to campus for dual enrollment her junior and senior years of high school. She was occasionally on campus until all hours of the night while studying for finals, and she insists that the only time she ever felt unsafe was when she stopped for gas on Northside Drive on her way home one night. She just pulled out of that station and went to another that had a police car in the parking lot. That said, I do know of people whose cars were broken into in broad daylight (laptop in the back seat, usually), and that someone has the nerve to break a car window in the middle of the day is certainly concerning. My daughter is living on campus now, and the students are not cavalier about safety issues; they (especially the girls) take it very seriously, as far as I can tell. It probably is not as safe as a rural campus, but it is safe enough that students and parents can be comfortable with the risks. Also, GT sends students regular email summaries of crimes on and around campus, which no doubt keeps students from getting complacent.
GTech is a city school. My D2 is a Junior and lives just off campus (Square on Fifth). She drives to her part time job once to twice a week. She has never complained about crime being off the charts or something that she is overly concerned about. One has to be careful. No different from downtown Pittsburgh (where D1 goes to school), Cambridge (where I went to grad school), or Boston (BU where I consult from time to time). I live close to Columbia in Manhattan now. College is time for folks to grow up. When it comes to a few years down the road, folks may not have too many options of selecting the locations where they work !
My GT freshman son has walked with friends from campus to the Aquarium area and felt safe during the daytime. There are a lot of buses on and around campus and I felt very comfortable on the campus itself, it does not feel like a standard urban campus to me, but more leafy, green and beautiful. Tech Square, which is across the highway, feels very safe, with the Barnes and Noble, various Asian noodle shops, hair cut place, waffle house, and a bus running to and from the main freshman dorms on campus. I walked back and forth maybe three times, its all students largely.
The positives of an urban location are: there is more to do than study some more, or get drunk or find a one night stand, on a Friday! Also, the job market in Atlanta for business, finance, and high tech jobs is very strong. its part of our sons education, we feel, to learn to navigate a major city, and have urban cultural, sports, and job opportunities.
I have been pleasantly surprised how much outdoor activity is just north of Altanta, with hiking, kayaking, rock climbing being very accessible. Look at GT Outdoor club for more details. My son and his friends took an Uber ride to a hiking trail during the fall break.
During a three day visit, last August, I would say that the number of homeless near campus, the visible poverty and the grafitti is way less near Georgia Tech, than other urban college campuses in Chicago (IIT specifically) Baltimore (Johns Hopkins) , Philadelphia (Drexel and Penn) , or Los Angeles (USC) . I also felt comfortable with the campus police at GT, during FASET, they spoke to parents about how quickly they can get to any student on campus.
My older child attends Case Western in Cleveland which is safe near his campus but looks much more poor
just a few blocks outside his campus and has a much more urban feel with busy streets, public buses, and hospitals in and around campus,than Georgia Tech’s campus. Crime is a little lower in Cleveland than Atlanta due to its much smaller size, but I am comfortable with both locations.
Most of being safe in a city involves learning where to walk and where one does not walk at night, and students learn that very quickly from each other. Also, how to lock up a car with devices that hook the steering wheel to the pedal,
we used this in Cambridge, MA as there is a lot of car theft there. Computers must be hidden or stowed away.
I visited GT a few times this year and each time I spent considerable amount of time on campus walking around at different times. At no time I felt unsafe, contrary to the impression I had before my first visit.
DS#2 lived in a GT frat house one summer while taking a class there and doing an internship on the north side of town. He attended college in NOLA, and had to be equally mindful of safety issues there. Parts of the area around tech are really gentrifying and the West end area of town has fun places. But there are some areas right off campus that one should be reasonable careful when walking there at night. I have a colleague who lives (owns a house) just north of campus, between campus and Atlantic station. She hasn’t reported any issues.
DS had some stuff stolen from his porch in New Orleans, and when he parked in the deck at Ga Tech, they did attempt to break into his car (left the lock hanging out of the door which cost a fair amount to repair, but they didn’t get in).
There are several schools that aren’t in the best part of town (Clark, U Chicago, Hopkins, USC, etc) so just be careful of your surroundings. I’ve been on the Tech campus often, both in the daytime and at night. and have not felt unsafe.
I have toured the GT police headquarters with the chief of police. Most colleges have blue light alarms around campus, pull one and a security guard will arrive quickly. GTPD has hundreds of sworn officers, a huge fleet of vehicles (plus horses and K9), and a well staffed command center with dozens of big screens monitoring cameras all over campus. They have a team of detectives to solve and even prevent crimes, utilizing the genius minds on campus (student and faculty) for investigations and safety studies. They have jurisdiction over the campus and surrounding area. I have never felt safer in the middle of a city.
Students generally stick to midtown. GT is in midtown not downtown. My child frequently walks to piedmont park and the beltline. When off campus during the evening without a car they generally uber home after dark. Campus police do an excellent job. There are areas Around GT that are bad and you avoid them. Is it suburbia? No. However my child does not feel unsafe and is always walking around.
Atlanta does have it’s fair share of crime, especially compared to other metro areas; however, as a current student, I want to share what I have felt and some advice that might make you feel better about our campus.
- GTPD is the best in the business with a huge amount of resources. You will hear this from many students and professors, but I will reiterate it here as well: I have never felt anything but safe on Tech's campus. We get GTENS alerts to our phones and are broadcasted throughout campus in the case there's anything dangerous going on. At on point during fall 2016, there was a police chase going on that spilled into the campus, but I was alerted almost instantly. If you're ever in an unsafe situation or neighborhood, you can call up GTPD and ask them to take you back to your dorm. Their biggest interest is keeping the students safe. You can check out some Reddit AMAs from GTPD on reddit and their crime logs. During orientation, they introduce you to many safety measures and applications that they use, and they often hold events. They are very transparent about what they do, and take everything seriously.
- Emergency pylons, as I like to call them, are literally everywhere on campus, indicated by a blue light with a security camera, along with a dialer and emergency button to contact GTPD. You'll find these on most urban campuses. The idea is that if you do 360, you can find one and call GTPD if you feel like you're in danger. I have never needed to use this.
- In most cities, crime is isolated into certain portions of the city. Very rarely do these crimes occur near Georgia Tech. Common sense goes a long way. If you happen to be out in the middle of the night, alone, don't flaunt your phone, don't show off your wallet, walk with a purpose. If you're worried about break-ins (off-campus), don't leave valuables in your car.
- When you go to a city school (MIT, UChicago, USC, UPenn, Drexel, CMU, etc), you have to accept some inherent risks. One of those risks is unfortunately the idea of crime, which might be difficult when coming from a rural or suburban area; however, only a very tiny fraction of a percent of Tech students deal with crime. 99% of students go on about their daily lives without fear of crime. The other percent of students tend to live in the more dangerous neighborhoods off-campus, which GTPD cannot legally patrol.
Going to a city school, especially in Atlanta, means opportunities like no other. Home to the 3rd highest number of Fortune 500 companies in the US (only behind NYC and Houston), common recruiters are literally on your doorstep (Coca-Cola Headquarters is literally across the street from campus), not to mention the world’s busiest airport makes companies more willing to send recruiters. For me and many other Tech students, this was a much bigger pro compared to the idea of crime.
Tl;dr crime exists, but tends to be a non-issue for most students, especially if you use common sense. There is a nonzero risk you have to take coming to Tech, but the most common form of crime is preventable crime.