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- I hear that GT is unnecessarily difficult to the point where the workload is ridiculously high. Reviews say that people rarely have enough time to have fun and hang out and half the professors cant speak English and care only about research so you have to teach yourself.</p>
<p>This is patently false. Georgia Tech has a rigorous curriculum and engineering is certainly no walk in the park, but good time management will allow most students to spend plenty of time pursuing extracurricular activities AND hang out with friends without negatively impacting their grades. Unlike many schools, Georgia Tech is predominantly composed of engineering and science majors, and this tends to artificially inflate the reputation of our workload. If Pitt was almost entirely engineering and science majors, I suspect you would see a similar reputation about “ridiculous” rigor develop. Engineering is going to be challenging at any ranked engineering school, and Pitt is certainly no exception to this. To date, I have never had a professor I could not easily understand, but we do have a handful of professors who have very strong accents (I imagine Pitt does as well). To some extent, these professors can be avoided by getting advice from upperclassmen before registration. Likewise, I have never had a professor that was not willing to help students during office hours and recommend ways to get help if you are struggling in a class. Professors are busy, and they do not always have time to tutor students one on one, but you should have no problem getting advice and assistance from most professors during their scheduled office hours. As always, there are some rotten professors who have less than spectacular dispositions, but they are a small minority and I have been lucky enough to never encounter one. There are also many resources to get help in class. All introductory math, science, and computer science classes have tutors available in the dorms, at OMED, in Skiles or at the CS help desk, and for one-on-one assistance. Additionally, intro math, science, and CS classes have recitations to help you master the material. There is no reason students admitted to Tech should not succeed. Resources and support are readily available and many students work together to help each other on difficult assignments and problem sets.</p>
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2. I looked up the guy - girl ratio and saw that it is one of the worst in the nation (3:1). Now, I know that this is a superficial thing to worry about but when I’m possibly going to spend the next 5 years of my life in a place and pay buttloads of money to go there, I want that place to be nice the way I want it.</p>
<p>3:1? Where did you get that ratio from? Tech currently has about a 2:1 male to female ratio and it is improving yearly. I would not be surprised to see it approach 60:40 over the next five years. I expect your incoming class will be at least 35% female. We also have Emory, Agnes Scott, SCAD, and Georgia State nearby, all of which have majority female populations. Even with the ratio, there are certainly quite a few single women on campus.</p>
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3.Social Life. This is related to number 1. Most students seem to complain that due to the excessive unneeded workload, they don’t have time to hang out and have fun, and even if they do, they rarely do.</p>
<p>Not true. By and large, I do not find the workload excessive or unnecessary. I take 15-17 hour semesters, was in band, am involved with two campus organizations, and have a volunteer internship on campus for 15 hours a week. I still spend Wednesday evenings and large portions of Friday-Sunday with my friends while maintaining a high GPA. If you manage your time, you will have plenty of time to spend as you like. However, if you hole yourself up in your room with video games and the internet and then have to rush to do your actual work at the last minute (and not sleep) you could find yourself not spending much time with friends and miserable… But this is true no matter where you go.</p>
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Can someone give me input in this? I really am in a deadlock. Should I go with high ranking to earn a little more in the future or should I go a little lower (still pretty high in my opinion) and have a more complete college experience.</p>
<p>As I have tried to convey, you can have both at Tech or at Pitt. Don’t let the worst of Tech (a small minority) discourage you from coming here, and don’t let the partying of Pitt’s liberal arts majors make you think that Pitt engineers don’t have it just as tough as Tech engineers. For the undergraduate level the difference in ranking between Tech and Pitt is pretty much irrelevant. That should not be your deciding factor.