Georgia Tech
College review by Lisa Bleich
Georgia Tech has a very pretty, traditional looking, contained campus right in the center of Atlanta. The student body is highly diverse; 40% of the student population is Asian, with a large contingency from Korea. The ratio between male and female is 60:40 and they are trying to make it more equal.
We saw a smattering of bearded men sporting high-waisted jeans with their shirts tucked in, unadorned females, a few “cheerleader” types, and some more alternative looking students. The students looked pretty typical for students who attend technical institutions.
Students work hard. Our tour guide, a chemical engineering major from southern Georgia, spoke fondly of a 6-hour group project marathon in the library. She laughed about how each one in the group had to keep signing out the room so they could finish their work. She was part of a sorority and lived with a group of 5 girls with whom she was very close.
She said that there were a number of initiatives to make women feel comfortable and thrive on campus including a mentorship program with upper classmen and professors. About 1/3 of students participate in Greek life. It appears that the social life revolves around Greek life, Sports (Football), and exploring Atlanta.
The students are very driven and about 40% of them come from out-of-state. Many of the faculty have real world experience, which reflects GT’s focus on experiential learning in their curriculum. Experiential learning occurs through internships, study abroad, and undergraduate research. Most of the coops or internships are paid and students earn between $13 and $30 per hour.
There is also a relatively new program started by an alumnus called Inventure where students develop a business plan to receive money to get their products patented. These strong experiential learning opportunities have strong results, 90% of students are employed after graduation. Another nice perk is that out-of-state students who study abroad pay in-state tuition.
Georgia Tech has 6 colleges including Architecture, Business, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, and Sciences however the acceptance rate is equal among all the colleges. The most popular majors are Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.
Admissions
GT looks at rigor of the curriculum and weighted GPA. They consider the following courses when calculating a student’s GPA: 4 years of English, 4 years of Math, 4 years of Science, 3 years of Social Science, 2 years of foreign language.
They super, super score tests, meaning they will take the best combined scores of the SAT or ACT and will even combine the SAT and ACT scores to yield students their highest scores. The Toefl is not required for international students. Students also self report their grades and do not need a letter of recommendation. This makes the essays and activity listing very important.
The admit rate is 55.4%. GT recalculates students GPAs and add extra weight for AP and IB courses. The average GPA is 3.77-4.08 GPA with 7.32 weighted courses. The SAT range was 1960-2160 and the ACT was 28-32.
Georgia Tech offers about 50 full ride scholarships and consideration for these is automatic.
Summary
Georgia Tech is a great school for students looking for an academically challenging environment with D1 sports and an active Greek live on a pretty, contained campus right in the heart of a major city.
My Daughter’s Take in the middle of the tour, “Can we go now?” It’s a pretty campus, but the students don’t seem as excited about their experience as some of the other schools we’ve seen.
Georgia Institute of Technology
North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30332
404.894.2000
