Georgia Tech Campus Visits: Share Your Tips & Recommendations

Colleges & Universities Georgia Institute of Technology
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Did you recently visit Georgia Tech? Share your experience with the community! Post your review in the comments below.

Some ideas for what to share:

  • When did you visit?
  • Where did you stay? Would you recommend it?
  • Where did you eat? Did you try any local specialties?
  • How did you get there? What’s the best transportation mean to get to-from the campus?
  • What was the campus vibe?
  • What did you think of the dorms?
  • What are some must-see things in or around campus?
  • How were the school facilities?
  • Did you like it more or less than you thought you would? Why?
  • Did anything surprise you?

We’d love to hear any tips or recommendations you can share for people planning their visit!

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My son and I visited GT in April 2021. He had already been admitted, and GT was one of his final three choices. We live in New Jersey, and flew down and back for our visit in a single day.

6am flight out of Philly, arrived in Atlanta around 9am. We then took the Marta(subway) from the airport to the closest stop to GT. Coming up out of the underground, we popped right in the middle of the city. It was about a 15 minute walk to Tech Square, which is adjacent to campus, but still part of the city. This is where the GT Hotel is, which is a great choice if you need to stay in a hotel. There’s also the Barnes & Nobel GT Bookstore here, and lots of choices of restaurants.

From Tech Square, we walked over the 5th Street Bridge onto campus. This is a bridge over the freeway, and it’s like walking through a portal into a different world. One side of the bridge is the city, and as you walk across, you are transported onto a traditional college campus.

Since we were there during Covid, our tour was self-led, but I had arranged to meet with two current students, which I found through the parent’s page. We walked around by ourselves for a while, and then met with these students - one after the other. They took us into buildings - including the Culc library, Van Leer(EE building, and the Hive (EE maker space). These two students were fabulous. They talked about their experiences with classes, campus life, internships, and study abroad. I will be forever thankful to them for taking the time to talk with us and show us around. They were friendly, confident, involved, and honest about their time at GT. Amazing kids.

We spent the rest of our day just walking around more. We walked the entire campus - it was exhausting, but sooo worth it. It’s so unexpected to see the Atlanta skyline framing the campus. The section of campus with the fraternity and sorority houses really makes it feel like a traditional college - couches on the porches, sand volleyball courts in their yards. The Bobby Dodd football stadium is also really great. From the inside of the admissions office, there is a big room with a great view over the stadium - apparently where the president watches the games from - but if you wander around the admissions office you can find the room and check out the view - so cool!

We ended the day with a meal in Tech Square, took the Marta back to the airport, and were back home in NJ by 11pm. It was a magical day that I will never forget.

The following weekend, we went to visit Cornell, and while there he made his decision and committed to GT. Such an exciting time!

If anyone is going down to visit GT, I would recommend trying to get into the Student Competition Center for a tour, which is a bit off of campus, but just such an amazing space - where all of the competition teams (Robojackets, Hy Tech Racing, etc.) have spaces where they work on their projects. There are SO MANY makerspaces across the GT campus - this is one of the main things that sold my son on the school. He has spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in these spaces over the past three years working on various projects - I’m pretty sure he’s learned more from this than from his classes!

My son is a 3rd year EE major & CS minor. He also spent a semester abroad at GT Europe, which is in Metz, France. It’s been an amazing experience for him so far. I’m happy to answer any questions!

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How was GT Europe?

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According to him - best experience of his life. The travel, sights, food, night clubs, experiences, friends… just something that can’t be replicated in the US. He was there for four months. They travelled every single weekend. There are no classes on Fridays, and he also had no classes on Mondays. He visited 10 countries, and put over 10,000 kilometers on his Eurail pass. Spent Spring Break in Italy, and travelled as far as Madeira and Malta. The whole process is not easy - you have to apply, write essays, get a visa (major PIA), organize travel, and he spent a lot of money while he was over there. He came home exhausted. But worth every penny!

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Also, from a parent’s perspective, I was very happy that he was there at a GT owned and run campus - not like the usual programs that work through local universities around Europe. I felt like GT’s management, safety, and communication were all excellent. Even though he was overseas, I could email someone at GT and get instant answers about my concerns. Very reassuring!

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Summer or academic semester?

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Spring semester. From what I’ve seen, although Summer seems like a more convenient time to go, it’s tough b/c there are so many kids that go then that they’re split up amongst different dorms and rooming houses - some not within walking distance of the campus, and there’s a big disparity in amenities/conveniences. In the Spring semester, all the kids were in one conveniently located dorm. Also even though the weather isn’t the best when they get there, it gets nicer over the semester, and tourist attractions aren’t nearly as crowded, which makes a better travelling experience. Also the dorms and lots of hotels don’t have A/C and it’s getting hotter in Europe, so that can be really miserable over the summer. He managed to take 12 credits of core EE classes, so going over Spring didn’t really put him behind academically.

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My freshman GT son is headed to Metz for the summer. Oldest’s time there was canceled for Covid so I am so excited this is happening for him!!

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Summer is very popular especially for freshmen as it doesn’t generally interfere with summer internships (most challenging to get an internship after freshmen year).

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How has his time at GT been other than academics?

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He has loved it. Absolutely the right choice for him. He has gotten involved in the campus and has found his people. Plenty of time for social life and time to exercise several days a week even keeping up with academics. He actually is on his way back from a ski trip to North Carolina with friends for the weekend as we speak.

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DD will be going to GT this fall!! We have signed up for FASET visit in July. Can someone please advise if it’s worth?
Do they give any discount coupon for Barnes & Noble after the orientation? Any other good store to purchase the college merch?
Any other tips/suggestions? (we will be visiting Atlanta for the first time).

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Definitely worth it as this is where they sign up for classes. They will have someone assisting them with that process, which is very helpful They will also be able to meet a few people, which is nice. One of the kids my oldest met at FASET ended up being across the hall and a good friend.

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Thank you very much!!

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Did a recent visit from out of town and stayed at the Renaissance across the road and would recommend it. Nice hotel with lots of cool restaurants around and a lot of off campus student housing there. I liked walking across the bridge to campus as well. It’s a little bit of a walk though so you can Uber if you want or better yet jump on the campus bus that goes by there.

The campus was larger than I expected and most of all I was surprised how much it felt like you weren’t in Atlanta in most of it. Much of the time walking around campus you would think you were at UGA in terms of the setting and noise level, that was a pleasant surprise.

Lots of cool labs and buildings to see. I’d definitely encourage going into them if you can get someone to give you access. The Student Rec Center area was also really impressive.

Lastly I walked up to talk to someone in Financial Aid and had an incredibly friendly and helpful experience. So many other schools it is very generic or they seem almost annoyed to talk to you but not GT. I didn’t expect that considering how selective the school is. They made me and my son feel very welcome and gave some really great insights beyond what you find on the website about scholarships and aid and admissions. Just friendly as well. I know so many schools where dealing with Admissions or Fin Aid you get the energetic recent grad who is working off a script but is clueless or you get the kind of half burned out person that seems annoyed they have to tell you the same thing they tell the walk ins. GT wasn’t like that at all and really scored points with me.

Don’t know if it will be the right place for my son or not (I like his chances even though OOS is tough) but cost and other options are hard to say. I will say that I walked away very impressed with GT and not in the ways I expected (I knew they were an elite Engineering school and big public but I didn’t expect the above).

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Do you know that merch can be purchased at other places too? There are ton of online stores plus metro Atlanta has a lot of GT spirited things.
I purchased many GT things for my kid not in campus store.

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