The Georgia Institute of Technology

If you do decide to go to tech I advise that you have to be sure of two things: You are 100% certain that you are going to be an engineer, and secondly that you are not planning to transfer anytime soon. There are reasons for me saying this. Georgia Tech is a school focused on engineering and nothing else. Tech is a great school academically if you want to be a mechanical or industrial engineer. If you decide that engineering is not for you, all the other majors at tech are very small and weak except for management because everyone that decides not to be an engineer becomes management. Going to Tech as any other major except engineering is just a waste of time. Secondly if you are unsure about picking a college, tech is not a place to go because no other institution outside of Georgia recognizes the difficulty of a Tech GPA. The course material at tech is not more difficult than any other college, however they test harder and make it more difficult to achieve good grades. I honestly believe that tech is hard because it wants to say it is a difficult school. Transfering to another school becomes difficult because a low gpa at tech which can be considered good within the school, is recognized as a poor gpa by other colleges. Suma Cum Laure is around a 3.5 at tech.

If you think Tech is such a good bargain then you are wrong. The average amount of time people spend at tech is not 4 years. 5 years is the norm here for many engineers, especially if you decide to co op. If you factor in the extra amount of money to go to school for that fifth year, that bargain price becomes as expensive as going to any expensive college for four years. For instate kids it can be a bargain if they keep the HOPE scholarship because it means that if they go to tech or any Georgia school and their parents can buy them a new car and cell phone.

Georgia Tech isn't an educational experience it is more of an endurance course. Tech even brags that kids do not graduate they "get out." Many classes have up to 600 kids in them compared to between 200 and 300 for other schools. I see many kids here working day and night studying to do well in exams only to get mediocre grades. I mean last semester people broke down crying in the cafeteria during finals week becuase of the pressure. I know of some kids that buy adirol, which is a drug for kids with attention deficit disorder, to study harder.

Socially the school is very poor. Becuase of the 70% male to 30% female ratio, many of the girls here think they are the best thing on earth. You usually see all the freshmen getting taken up by upperclassmen who know what the social situation is at tech. Fraternities are probably the best thing at tech though. If you go to tech, a fraternity puts you into a support group where you will have a good group of guys.

If you are going to tech regardless I am not trying to scare anyone I am just trying ro tell people what to expect. For some people this is the best school for them. Tech is a difficult school, but I urge everyone who reads this not to buy into all of their propaganda about "Tech engineers will make more coming out of here and such." Look into all they say and ask around. get opinions from others that go to tech and then decide. Here is a website I found made by some student about tech. It gets alot of hits so I will also provide the mirrors:

http://www.geocities.com/gtsux2002/
http://www.geocities.com/gtsux2003/
look at this site.
Thank You and good luck