Georgia Institute of Technology

Student Life

The downside to being considered one of the most elite and toughest engineering schools in the world plays itself out on the students' social life. Because of the heavy workload at Georgia Tech, most students are overly stressed, worried about tomorrow's test, and driven by the desire for the degree. Students have only minimal time for social functions. Compounding this problem greatly are the fact that a majority of the students are from in state and spend weekends and free time at home, and the heavily skewed population by sex (approximately 70% male).

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This has led to strong reputation within the school of it being more of a test of spirit than an enjoyable life experience, as well as a number of disturbing statistics. For five years in a row, the Princeton Review, a private review of colleges on many levels across the US (one of the institutions by which Ga Tech openly lays claim to its reputations for excellence in engineering) ranked Ga Tech amongst the top 10 most hated schools by its own students, and in the top 3 worst party schools, by a poll of students. US News and world report, in a nationwide review of college binge drinking and alchoholism, ranked Ga Tech 17th for alchoholism nationwide-the only school on the danger list that wasn't also in the top 50 party schools that year. In 2003, the School of Psychology found that nearly 30% of students polled on campus showed signs of antisocial alchoholism, or knew another student who expressed similar signs.

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The school has made great strides to correct these issues, to limited success. Most notably have been the FASET (Familiarization and Adaptation to the Surroundings and Environs of Tech) and Freshmen Experience (a freshman only dorm life program to encourage friendships and a feeling of social involvement) programs, encouraging freshman and new transfer students to become involved in social activities and extracurricualr activities on campus. Part of the importance of the Freshmen Experience program comes from the schools high rate of underclassmen dropouts who are discouraged by lack of a social scene in their first year of college and daunted by the average time taken by most students to finish their undergraduate degrees(only 24% of freshmen make it to graduation in 4 years). The most notable improvement that the school has actively undertaken is to increase female student recruitment, with the incoming freshman class in 2004 having the highest incoming female percentage in recent history-almost 35%.

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There are plenty of organizations at Ga Tech that also aid in improving the life of these students. One yearly event that was created to give the students a fun break away from their studies is known as Georgia Tech Night at Six Flags. Ga Tech rents out Six Flags Over Georgia for a night for its faculty, staff, alumni and families. Other attempts to ease the stress at Ga Tech include events held around exam time such as free concerts and food.

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