The Georgia Institute of Technology

After a semester at Tech, my best advice to give is to FIND A SOCIAL NETWORK of some sort. Its very easy, as I have observed, to hole yourself up in your dorm, play video games(which are of course fun, I play them.. but not on friday nights like some), watch porn, and not get out much. Many people in my dorm are like this. However, if you go out looking for social opportunities, you can find them. I personally joined a fraternity, which I had no intentions of doing from the outset, and it has been the best part of my experience so far - there are enough fraternities to cater to any type of individual taste. There are plenty of groups though to join, one just needs to get out of the dorm room and explore.

As for the academics, I can't comment too much as I've only completed a semester. However, while academics must be your highest priority, do not let them consume you, it will hurt in the long run, and I have the advice of many a 5th year backing this statement. Learn to balance your time, to study effectively (quality, not quantity), and to relax and have some fun. Get out, see Atlanta - its not as hard as some would tell you. Its an excellent city, and if you get the right connections, the girl problem at georgia tech will become less of one for you personally.PS yes it does suck, the ratio, but there are some true gems of females, and the fact that about half the freshman males are perpetual dorm dwellers helps even things out. But get into meetings girls while you are a Freshman, as it will grow your connection base for other potential dates later down the road.

1st Year Female -- Class 2011

Surrounding City: A, Useful Schoolwork: C-

GT is good preparation for how to prepare for disappointment but actually be rewarded for hard work. I'm not really smart, so I worked extremely hard, sacrificing many weekends when I started there, but that eventually got better. I graduated with honors, so it's possible to achieve goals there, even if your grades are not always what you were hoping for every time. If you truly like your major, you can excel and your interests/enthusiasm will be apparent to potential employers. I'm going to start a master's part time while working (GSU real estate), and I think GT's rigors will have prepared me for this challenge. Honestly, the effort in the professional world at this point is much less for the reward (pay increase, grad school admission) and a lot of it has to do with the work ethic instilled from putting in the time and energy to reach the goal.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Tech is a great place to go if you want to land a lucrative engineering job after graduation--and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you want to challenge yourself and learn to think more clearly, you'll find that Tech's academic environment obstructs intellectual growth.

It doesn't matter if you learn at Tech or not; your degree reflects your ability to put up with crap and cut through red tape. Bad teaching is used deliberately--it's supposed to help students learn how to teach themselves. Tests are used not as a tool to gauge your academic progress, but as a gauntlet to weed out the weak. Students treat their schoolwork and their professors like enemies to be conquered, not resources for personal growth. There are small pockets of intellectually curious students, but too much interest in your schoolwork will get you weird looks from most of the student body. Seriously... it's like high school all over again. Maybe that's not unique to Tech; maybe college in general is less intellectual than I thought. I dunno.

Anyway, a bit about non-academic life at Tech: campus is prettier than people give it credit for, and Atlanta is okay, I guess. You should probably visit and see for yourself. People complain about the lack of a party scene, but I'm not sure what more you could ask for: you can find booze, you can find hookah, you can find pot, you can find hard drugs. Or you can forgo all of those entirely; a lot of people do.

The student body is mostly white, suburban, middle-class. Most students are Christians and most are conservative. I've heard some pretty hateful things directed at women, racial minorities, and LGBT people. There's a fairly large international population, but after being stuck with unaccommodating, xenophobic roommates freshman year, they tend to stick to themselves. But despite their closed-mindedness, the majority of the students are genuinely friendly and good-natured.Ultimately, the biggest problem with Tech is that you're paying for name recognition alone. With a few exceptions, the professors are inept at teaching. Even in my upper-level math classes, I prefer to learn from the textbook. Why am I paying money for that? I've had some good times at Tech, but I've stagnated intellectually. My time here hasn't made me any smarter than I would have been on my own.

3rd Year Male -- Class 2012

Campus Maintenance: A, Useful Schoolwork: F