Advice for Incoming Georgia Tech Freshmen and Transfers

First and foremost, congratulations on becoming RATS (Recently Acquired Tech Students). Although the acceptance rate to a university of Georgia Tech's caliber is an uncommonly high percentage, there is nothing easy about this school. Stress level is consistently high and morale is consistently low. The primary motivation for most students who are at Tech is that they want to be at there. The trials and challenges faced during the next four (or five or six or more) years will be rewarded greatly when you enter into the "real world". So if you haven't already decided on where you want to go for college, reconsider your other options carefully and ask yourself if you really want to be at Georgia Tech. Now that you are confident in your decision, here is some advice for incoming students:

Advice for Freshmen:

http://www.college-freshman.com/ is a very good website for general tips concerning incoming college freshmen. I enjoy it because it is an easy read and covers serious issues such as what to bring to more light-hearted issues such as party attire. For the most part, almost everything that is discussed at that website holds true for incoming freshmen. However, Georgia Tech isn't your typical college.

If you are a male, the most critical component of having a successful social life (whatever you can salvage at least) is to talk to as many girls as you can during the first two weeks of school in addition to your FASET week. The Ratio is often lamented by the male populace at Tech and for good reason. It doesn't matter if you may have an interest in a girl or not, just talk to them-especially if they are not in the same classes. After the first two weeks, girls typically go into shut out mode when it comes to socializing with guys outside of their classes. Due to the immense 7:3 guy to girl ratio on campus, many females have been diagnosed with TBS (Tech Bitch Syndrome). The odds are against you and you may never get a chance to be in a relationship with someone at Tech while you're at there, but you can still have a decent social life with a good balance of female and male friends.

Now for the females-you may have already heard of the phrase, "the odds are good, but the goods are odd." That is also definitely quite true. However, not all the goods are odd here at Tech. Chances are you will crush many spirits of once confident young lads at this school-most of the time unintentionally. It is human for many guys to at least glance over at you when you walk past them, so accept it as a compliment and move on rather than take offense to it and lash out. Make friends with guys-they typically have a lot less drama surrounding them-just don't take them for granted while you're at Tech.

Enjoy your freshman year. Make as many friends as you can from anywhere you can-dorm, classrooms, and clubs. Don't bottle yourself up the first few weeks of college. If you don't know anyone and are in the dining hall, just walk up to someone else who might be sitting alone and ask to see if you can sit down. Then, just start a conversation. Join clubs that interest you and check them out for a couple of meetings. It would be better to commit to a few clubs rather than a lot so that you won't burn yourself out with these extracurricular activities. It's amazing how many interesting people are out there. Your freshman year will arguably be your most important one of college.

Advice for Transfers:

If you a transfer student from a community college and have not yet experienced the dorm life that most freshmen do, please feel free to also read the advice for freshmen section. However, with far less time to adjust to a new environment, your focus should be on figuring out as quickly as possibly how soon you can graduate. Always have extra copies of course syllabi from all of your classes at your previous college. Keep in constant communication with the registrar who is responsible for transfer credit evaluations until definitive answers have been set regarding your credits.

Know where all the places are to buy groceries that are around campus as well as all the places to eat. Also have a general idea as to how late these places open until. Typically, transfer students don't need to get the meal plan and although the dining halls claim that they are award winning, nobody really knows what awards they won. If you are planning on living on campus, West Campus housing will be better if you prefer to have more space, less noise, and the better of the two main dining halls. East Campus is where all the noise and excitement is at, so if that is what you would prefer, feel free to apply for housing there. The apartments on campus that are offered are also very good choices and they have them available on both sides of campus.