Posts tagged Georgia Tech
Michele Facchinelli – Georgia Institute of Technology – Post 2
Hey everyone! It is time for me to write a second post. I have been in the US for almost three months already, and the experience is going great. I have met so many nice and interesting people from this country and many others, and can really say that I am very satisfied with my experience.
Classes
Classes at Georgia Tech work a bit differently. First of all, at least for the faculty of Physics, where I take all my courses, lectures have very little students. The most classmates I have are about 20 and the least is the incredibly low number of 3. This makes lectures more one-to-one and leaves more time for interaction with the professor.
Another big difference are the homework problems. For every class we are assigned a set of problems for the following week or for two weeks after. The homework is then graded by the TA’s and it will affect a certain percentage of our final grade. Sometimes the homework deadlines all match which makes things even harder (especially if you are not used to compulsory homework). Luckily, classes only last one hour and each day I have 3 hours of lessons. This leaves a lot of extra time after classes to study and I still end up having free time in the evening.
To be honest, I prefer this teaching method, rather than staying at the University for 8 consecutive hours, as sometimes happens at TU Delft.
Football
Football in the US is a very huge thing, especially in the South. So every week or so, there is a football game between the Georgia Tech team (Yellow Jackets) and some other University. Although I am not a fan of watching sports, I have had a lot of fun cheering and watching the games.
It’s really crazy how many people attend the Football games. The stadium is always packed with fans, both students/alumni and other people not really affiliated with the school, but that just enjoy watching the games.
Social Life
Even though classes have very little students (and it seems it would be easy to get to know one another), most students find their friends outside their Departments. Fraternities and other associations are extremely common in the US and that is where they make friends.
I met most of my friends at the Christian Campus Fellowship (or CCF), and with them I shared most of my experiences. Interestingly enough, that is the same place Julia van der Burgt (another student from TU Delft that went to Georgia Tech in 2013) spent a lot of time (and they actually still remember her).
CCF helped me integrate into the American society very well and right from the beginning. They organize a lot of amazing and fun activities. Just last weekend we went to Panama City Beach in Florida, where we enjoyed one last day at the beach with really nice weather. Also, they plan many events, like camping, parties (like the Halloween and pumpkin carving in the photos), trips to corn mazes and many more every week.
Pieter-Bas Bentinck, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Post #1: Campus and Atlanta
Dear reader,
Since August 11th 2015, I have been calling Atlanta, in the state Georgia in the USA, my home. For the Fall semester, which lasts from mid-August until mid-December, I will be doing my minor at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). In 2013 I started my bachelor of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology and after a long process of applications I got accepted here through Global E3.
Atlanta is a huge city in the south of the United States and the Campus of Georgia Tech is right in the center of it. The downtown area, where the business center and some of the major sports arenas are located, is only a mile away and midtown, where they some nice bars and restaurants, is even closer. Nevertheless, walking isn’t very common, except for when you walk to classes on campus (although even there they have a bus network that runs quite regularly).
Other than that cars are the big thing here, partly because gas is really cheap. But even if you do not have a car, Ubers are sometimes even cheaper than public transport when you want to go around town.
However, even though cars are relatively cheap, it is not really necessary to leave campus a lot. This is because there is so much to do here. For example, when you study at Georgia Tech, you are automatically allowed access to the sports center, where you can do pretty much every type of sports you want. You can join the club teams or you can form a team yourself and join the intramural competition. This is a competition within the university that takes about half a semester, during which you play a game per week. You can choose between 4 sports and once it is done, a new phase with four different sports will start. For the first phase, we signed up for ultimate frisbee with a group of friends.
Another big thing at Georgia Tech is, just like many other US colleges, college football. Georgia Tech has a really good team and there is a lot of things going on whenever they have a game. During home games, which are about every other week, it is quite common to go ‘tailgating’ before the game. Tailgating officially means having a little party around the back of your car. People will bring beers and barbecues (and in extreme cases even complete tents with TV-screens etc.) before they take off to the game. Because you live so close to the stadium at Tech, bringing a car doesn’t make sense, but the rest comes down to the same. Once you get to the game eventually it is the typical American experience with cheerleaders, mascots and marching bands so even if you aren’t really into sports, it is a great experience.
That’s it for now. There is still a lot I haven’t told yet, but that will come in the next posts!
Cheers,
Pieter-Bas
Michele Facchinelli – Georgia Institute of Technology – Post 1
Hi everyone! I am a third year TUD student at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering. For my minor abroad, I decided to go to the United States, more in particular to the Georgia Institute of Technology (or, as everyone calls it here, Georgia Tech, or even GaTech), through Global E3. The university is situated in Midtown Atlanta, one of the biggest cities in the South-East of the US (see picture).
Since I arrived here just a few days ago, I don’t have a really neat overview of how things work here and on how to get around (I literally get lost all the time). Also classes haven’t started yet, so I can’t say for now how they are compared to the TU Delft ones. Thus in this first post, I would like to just write my first impressions and maybe give a few tips for student coming to the US or GaTech in the future.
People
Probably the first thing one notices upon arrival are how other people behave and how they interact with each other. As a first impact I would say that Americans here is Georgia are very friendly. It might be, as many of them themselves say, just because we are in the South (people often talk about ‘Southern hospitality’, which by the way is totally a thing also in Italy), but people, even complete strangers, smile, say ‘hello’ and start a conversation with you like you knew them all your life. I must say I find this very welcoming. It is very nice to have casual conversations on the bus or while walking around campus.
One thing I really don’t understand, though, is their way of saying ‘hi’. Everyone, from a person you know, to a person you’ve never seen, when they walk into you they just say: “Hey, how are you?”. The first times it comes natural to simply answer the question. But this, more often than not, results in a very awkward situation: the person who asked the question just walks away and you find yourself talking to yourself. At one of the introduction program events, about cultural differences, the speaker did mention this as a problem many international students have when first arrived. With ‘hey, how are you?’ they don’t really want to know how you’re feeling, but it’s just their way of saying ‘hello’.
Campus
The campus it’s quite huge. It’s definitely much larger and broader than the TU Delft campus, and with the buildings almost randomly spread around its area (instead of being along a long road, like in Delft). Luckily they thought of this and in the campus there are four bus lines, taking students to wherever they need (all for free). The most convenient one is the Tech Trolley (see picture), the old-fashioned looking bus.
(photo credit: https://pts.gatech.edu/subsite2/Pages/Tech%20Trolley%20and%20Midnight%20Rambler.aspx)
I actually prefer walking, because after all, despite the size of the campus, you can walk side-to-side in about 20 minutes. Furthermore, a very big difference with Delft is that there are basically no bicycles here. GaTech was ranked the most bike-friendly campus in the US, but there is still a gigantic gap between the bike lanes in the TUD campus and the ones here.
The campus itself is very green and quite hilly. There are a lot of parks and it is very likely that while walking you’ll meet hundreds of squirrels (I’ve taken so many pictures of them already, see one of them below). So even though Georgia Tech is in such a big city, they managed to keep the nature present.
Georgia Tech
For international students, the university highly suggests to join the FASET, which is basically a day of introduction. During this day you will listen to some speakers and they will help you register for classes. Since the price for such event is about $110, I would suggest not to attend it, because the only useful thing that happens is class registration, which you can do anywhere, with an Internet connection. Just remember to write an email to the supervisor of the program you would like to attend telling him which courses you want to attend and asking for a registration override (he’ll probably ask for the list of courses you attended at TU Delft, to check if your background is good enough).
Accommodation
As an international student, you will have the opportunity of living on-campus is the I-house, the international students house. Unfortunately, due to the high request, I was not chosen as one of its inhabitants. The university, though, offered me and the other students who didn’t get in, the possibility of living in one of the dorms on-campus (see picture).
Living on-campus has many upsides, like all the buildings are within walking distance, it’s a very safe place (there is a police force just for the campus, see picture), you meet a lot of other students and there is always something to do (from the gym, to the beach volleyball court, etc.). The main downsides are the price (about $4000 a semester) and the rooms, which are pretty small and furnished with rather old furnishing (unless you are lucky to end up in one of the renovated buildings).
Another option for housing is Westmar, a very big student housing complex off-campus. The main advantages are probably that the rent is a bit cheaper and that the apartments are more spacious, but of course, being off-campus, you need to get a bus (available every 30 minutes) to get to the university. The building offers, though, a gym, a supermarket, a swimming pool and other cool amenities.
Free time
Here at Georgia Tech there are more than 400 associations and clubs. There is literally a club for everything: if you want to play Bridge, they have it; a flying club, of course; and so much more. Obviously there are also a lot of sports clubs and the Campus Recreation Center is equipped with any kind of training machine you can think of.
Julia van der Burgt, Georgia Tech, Post #2 End of Semester
Time flies by here in the US: classes are over, passed my final exams and now it’s already nearly Christmas! I’ve had a great time at GaTech and I have experienced many aspects of American life. In my previous post I already wrote a bit about life at GaTech and the classes I’m taking. Because of the education system here with quite a lot mandatory homework assignments, mid-term exams and in-class quizzes most of your grade is already determined before the final exams. It also forces you to keep up with the material covered in class, so all together finals where not a very big deal.
Of course I went abroad to learn more than the Nano-materials program I followed. I’ve taken each opportunity to see other aspects of life in the US, also outside of student life on campus. Most of my experiences and American friends I’ve found at the Christian Campus Fellowship (CCF). This student organization has all kind of activities and is a perfect place to find good friends that feel like your family when you are far away from home. With this organization I’ve done all kinds of volunteering work during which I’ve met many different people. I’ve eaten breakfast with the homeless, I’ve played with children in disadvantaged districts, helped with tornado relieve all the way in Moore, Oklahoma and during the Christmas break I go to Puebla in Mexico to build a well to provide drinking water.
CCF is also the place where I made most of my friends. We’ve been on a fun trip to Panama City Beach: swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, building sand castles, playing games and just having lots of fun.
After the final exams I had to leave my apartment, so now I’m visiting my friends and stay at their place. I just came back from a week in Knoxville where I visited the Smokey Mountains and Americas largest underground lake.
For Christmas I’ve been invited at another friends place, I’m ready for my first real American Christmas!
Julia van der Burgt, Georgia Tech, Post #1 Introduction
This semester I study at Georgia Institute of Technology (GaTech) in Atlanta, US. I wanted to do a minor in Material Science and the Global E3 program gave me the chance to go to GaTech and follow the Nano-material certificate program.
I’ve been studying here for already three months, in which I have seen and learned a lot and had many great experiences. I’m taking courses about nanomaterials, nanoscale devices, quantum mechanics and some general materials science. It’s a good coherent program and although I had expected my courses to be quite challenging, since I’m taking 3rd and 4th year materials science courses as an AE student, it hasn’t been too difficult so far.
The campus of GaTech is very nice. I have classes in many different buildings, which have all good facilities. Because most students live on-campus, whole student life takes place on the campus, and there is always something going on: music, activities, games, which makes it very lively. Sports facilities are great: I’m a swimmer, so the Olympic pool of ’96 is one of the best things I’ve found here and I made a lot of friends in the swim club.
GaTech is not really a place to go if you play music: I started playing in the Symphony Orchestra, but I quitted after a couple of weeks because I didn’t like it. I decided that I rather spend my time outside, because I think the weather in Atlanta in the fall is perfect!
I live off-campus, and I could bike to school in shorts every day till the end of October. Although Atlanta is not a very bike-friendly city, I can bike around a lot. This is great, it gives me a lot of freedom, because the public transport here is very bad. Most Americans (of course) use their car, but biking works very well!
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