Which LLC should I apply to/would be the best fit for me?

Hey CCers! I recently got an email from Tech telling me to apply to LLCs. After looking through all of them, I’m thinking of applying to SHaRP, GC and Honors, but I’ve been on and off the fence about the others, since you have the opportunity to apply to all of them. I would appreciate any feedback from students who did an LLC their freshman year (or know someone who did). Overall, what were some benefits and drawbacks, and do you think it was worth $400 and time spent?

I a parent, not a student. SHaRP is focused on health sciences, although any student could apply. Honors has some odd humanities requirements that some students find very annoying. and you can get into Honors later, if you want to live at Cresine Apartments on the west side of campus for year 2.3 and 4. There is plenty of apartments on campus though so Cresine while nice is not the only option.
Grand Challenges requires a project, but its not necessarily all that technical. Look at Vertically Integrated Projects as they are more technical I believe and you can join those without living anywhere special. Most of all, don’t worry, all the dorms are very similar. If you live in a plain jane dorm, you will be fine. All dorms have air conditioning, laundry, access to a cafeteria, and the same bathrooms by and large. Its a nine month experience, and you will meet good students in every single GaTech dorm, it really does not matter much.

Here is a real technical team experience, arguably better than Grand Challenges, but you may need to wait until sophomore year–
http://www.vip.gatech.edu/vip-vertically-integrated-projects-program

If you feel like writing more essays go a special living experience in freshman year. If you are tired of writing essays by now, just take any dorm they assign you. Think about if you prefer to be by the swimming pool on the west side of campus or Tech square and the football stadium on the east side of campus.

Here is an example of a Grand Challenges project on the subject of bees.
http://grandchallenges.gatech.edu/content/lets-bee-honest
You have to ask yourself, do you want to create a proposal and do the work in freshman year
or would you rather just have some free time around your busy class schedule to explore other types of research projects that are not with other freshman? As a freshman you can work with graduate students too on research projects, you do not need to be in Grand Challenges, and in fact Grand Challenges will take up some amount of time to work on the freshman project. It may be quite under whelming, or it may be a good experience. But once you are in, you are kind of stuck working on that, you cannot just drop out. So if you are on a team and not interested in the project, it would be tedious perhaps, but maybe not. Its a social experience, but it takes a lot of time to work up a project in Grand Challenges.

Here is a Grand Challenges project on improving foster child literacy:
http://grandchallenges.gatech.edu/content/flip
And one on human trafficking elimination –
http://grandchallenges.gatech.edu/content/intercept

Others are on clean water, energy and other topics. Students pick the project but you must
do the project with other freshman. It may be better to work at GaTech with upper classmen on a project
and that is possible no matter what dorm you live in, by signing up for research credits.

Waiting until sophomore year is fine too. Why rush all of this and stay so busy busy busy? How about
just taking classes and finding friends as a goal for freshman year?

Its artificial business, Grand Challenges, but some students need to keep busy. Decide if its for you.

@Coloradomama This was super helpful. Considering that I’m pre-health and a neuro major, I think SHaRP would be the best fit/top choice for me, but GC is my second choice, so thank you for all the info on that program. I think that either way, I can’t really go wrong, but in terms of time commitments, GC would be much more rigorous. Ideally, I want to get involved in research and SGOs during my freshman year, with ample free time to spare for studying for my classes and such. Like you said, I really just want to get accustomed to life on campus and stay focused on academics before diving headfirst into solving all of humanity’s crises (though you gotta admit, it sounds pretty cool). All the advice and info is much appreciated!

Glad that helped @violetvalley. Also, good news, Grand Challenges is accepting 200 freshman this year, and housing them in two dorms, that is great news for you and other students. I see value in working a project with other freshman and the program will have mentoring that other freshman may miss. But if you do not get in, do not fret, just find another research project, on your own, maybe second semester freshman year. Many GaTech professors will accept undergrads and some will accept freshman. The tasks you do may be pretty basic as a freshman but you will meet grad students, and learn a lot. You will start to hone your interests the sooner you get in a lab for neuro sciences. Also check out all the joint programs with Emory University Medical school. There is even a medical robotics club at GaTech and I bet neuroscientists can join this too.

Here is the Medical robotics club, cool !!!
http://www.bmerobotics.gtorg.gatech.edu

GaTech has the most amazing clubs. Lots of learning happens in clubs and those are all open to freshman.

Here are the joint degrees with Emory. There may be joint research projects at Emory Medical school, check
that out, when you have time.

http://www.emory.edu/home/university/georgia-tech.html

Some Grand Challenges projects are medically focused I noticed in the past as well, so that may
be a good fit for you, look over the older projects again to be sure.