About how many freshman and upper classmen attend Wreck Camp in August? Is there a separate program for International students, or its one big program over the same three days in August? How about transfer students, are they in a separate program or mixed with the freshman? What sort of activities are available at Wreck camp? Do any professors attend it or is it more social type of program?
Based on the recommendation of @MichiganGeorgia, DD did Wreck Camp two years ago and loved it. She recommended it to current first years who not only did it, but have gone on to become Wreck Camp Counselors. It is completely social and there are no professors there. About 200 students including internationals (but don’t know about transfers) go out in the wilderness for fun and to learn more about GT traditions. They are divided into teams with upperclassman as leaders and the teams are given funny names. All sorts of activities are planned and it gives first years a chance to get to know other students and start making friends. My DD’s group did things together that the leaders organzied for them during their first year so the fun continued. I highly recommend it since it allows student to gradually get use to college and provide a fun way of doing it.
My DD did the second to last FASET so we flew to Atlanta, I dropped her off for Wreck Camp and went around town picking up her things from BBB and Container Store etc. I then picked her up and we got to move her into her dorm early at no extra charge for FASET 5 (I think that is the number). She knew students in her group because they had been in Wreck Camp together. She then had a short break (while her roommate was doing the last FASET) so we went to the beach and then got back at GT in time for Rush and Freshman Welcome Week. It worked out really well for helping her not feel overwhelmed and getting to know a lot of students.
The last two FASETs are for students who live more than 800 miles away from Atlanta. My DD had no problem getting her classes, but she was in the first group to register because she was in GC and GC students get to register first during their FASET.
Hope this info helps.
Thank you, @itsv it does. I will look up the other post by MichiganGeorgia. Rush, do you mean sorority and fraternity rush? Do they rush the first week of school, and some kids move right into frats, or thats later? My son is not in any of the special housing programs that allow earlier registration, so not sure if that means he will have trouble registering.
Rush is for the Greek system. Both sororities and fraternities do it the first week of school (bid day is the second day of school) and the fraternities do it again second semester. First years do not live in the houses and you don’t necessarily have to live in the house if you are in the Greek system. I wasn’t Greek, but both my children have been which has been nice since we live far from their colleges and the greek system is like a second family.
Have your son join the facebook group for Class of 2020, people their usually post good tips about how to register and how to get the best classes. I am not in those groups since I am a parent, but my DD has said she gets good advice there. There is some software (Coursera???) that the student use. Registration placement is also dependent on how many AP or other units a student comes into GT with. Students at GT are very helpful at helping each other. You can get tips on the Reddit forum too.