The proper name of the
college commonly referred to as
Georgia Tech. There's an amazing lack of
nodespace devoted to talking about Tech. I'm going to attempt to correct that now, since I will probably be attending it for the next
47 years.
A Brief History
Georgia Tech was founded on October 5, 1888 as a mechanical engineering school. The idea was that the school would combine the theoretical elements of engineering with practical experience. Hence, the first two buildings on campus were the class building (
Tech Tower, now an administrative building) and a commercial shop. There was no on-campus housing. The commercial shop burned down within only a few years, but was rebuilt as a non-commercial shop. At this time, only white men were allowed to attend.
Around the end of the nineteenth century, lots began to change around Tech. Later presidents attempted to turn Tech from merely a mechanical engineering trade school into a full-fledged university. They accomplished this by adding more engineering and
scientific degree programs, building dormitories, and other campus additions. Those first dorm buildings now serve as classroom and laboratory buildings for several of the engineering programs.
Large donations allowed Tech to purchase additional land, build Grant Field (the football stadium), and the Carnegie Library. Tech continued its expansion by adding lots of dorms on east campus including the fabulous Brittain Dining Hall. More classroom facilities were built in the middle of campus, and further degree programs were added.
The first women were admitted to Tech under a full-time basis in 1952. Prior to this, women were able to attend evening classes. Even after allowing women into Tech, it would still be several years before all degree programs were open to women. This was completed by 1968.
And finally, the first black students were admitted to Tech on September 27, 1961. This followed several years of problems regarding integration. Tech had functioned without a president for several years, since nobody wanted to come into office with such an issue to deal with. However, the student body was very supportive of integration and the process went fairly smoothly.
There's a lot more to Tech history than I have written here. I invite other Tech students to fill in all the missing pieces with their own little chunks of knowledge. That's the beauty of Everything.
Tech Traditions
Current Degree Programs
Tech started off with only a
mechanical engineering program. Things have changed a bit since 1885, though. Not only does Tech have a variety of
scientific and
engineering programs, there's even
management degrees available. The following is a complete listing of degrees
available from each college. It is taken from my 2001-2003 catalog:
College of Architecture -
building construction,
industrial design
College of Computing -
computer science
DuPree College of Management -
management
College of Engineering -
aerospace engineering,
biomedical engineering,
chemical engineering,
civil engineering,
computer engineering,
electrical engineering,
industrial engineering,
materials science,
mechanical engineering,
nuclear engineering,
polymer and textile chemistry,
textile enterprise management,
textile and fiber engineering
Ivan Allen College -
economics,
history, technology, and science,
international affairs,
international affairs and modern languages,
public policy,
science, technology, and culture
College of Sciences -
applied mathematics,
applied physics,
applied psychology,
biology,
chemistry,
discrete mathematics,
earth and atmospheric sciences,
physics
Other Programs
Tech is not just a school. It also has very active
research programs. I'll attempt to describe a few here. There's the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which does all sorts of engineering, scientific, and computing
projects. It has a variety of facilities throughout the Atlanta area, and students are welcome to apply for employment.
The College of Computing has a variety of research groups - the High Performance Computing Center, the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability lab, and the Broadband Institute. In conjunction with other colleges, they offer programs in bioengineering, cognitive science, and
combinatorics.
The engineering school runs lots of research programs, which I don't know about. I'm hoping that Ted will be able to fill this in for me.
There's city planning courses, a nuclear reactor research facility (which I ride by all the time going to class), microprocessor design facilities, an extensive ham radio shack at the EE building, a music minor program as well as loads of other opportunities to play, lots of sports programs, and so forth. In general, you can find just about anything you're looking for as long as it's not liberal arts at Georgia Tech.
Campus Life Stuffs
Housing
There are two major areas of campus housing which are further divided up into several smaller administrative units. I won't talk about those here. East campus housing sits right along I-75/I-85. It consists of thirteen traditional dorm buildings, one apartment complex (mostly foreign-student housing), and Brittain Dining Hall. In addition, the majority of the
fraternity and
sorority buildings are on east campus, though they spread into the center of campus a bit too.
West campus is way on the other side of the school, along Northside Drive/Tech Parkway. While there are some freshman dorms on west campus, it's mostly apartment buildings that were constructed for the 1996 Olympics. Specifically, it consists of seven apartment complexes, eight dorm buildings, one suite building, and the Woodruff Dining Hall. The apartment buildings cover a whole lot of surface area, but none of them are very tall.
There's also married student housing and graduate student housing across Tenth Street from campus. And there's more foreign student housing in apartments on the south side of North Avenue. Also, there is plenty of off-campus, non-Tech housing if you choose not to deal with Housing (or, if Housing chooses not to deal with you).
Parking
Parking at Tech is a bad idea. We currently have three functional parking decks at a maximum of three levels high. There's a few paved lots and a few gravel lots. In addition, there's the new parking deck that is currently condemned. Finally, you can park on the street. Tech has recently (August 2001) taken to closing down lanes of streets and converting them to parking. In general, the school sells way more permits than spaces that exist. Good luck. Also, Tech is closing
down lots of the interior roads presumably to make the school more pedestrian-friendly.
Geographic Information
Georgia Tech is located smack in
downtown Atlanta, GA. Local residents would probably argue about what area it's really located in, but downtown is close enough. In general, Tech is bounded by the following roads: on the east, by
I-75/I-85; on the south, by
North Avenue; on the north, by Tenth Street; and on the west, by Tech Parkway and Northside Drive. Naturally, there are a few buildings outside these borders, but it's a good enough guide.
Tech is directly across North Avenue from the Coca-Cola world headquarters and directly across the interstate from The Varsity, a world-famous greasy spoon. Abandon hope all ye who enter here. Tech is also within walking distance of the North Avenue MARTA station, from which the intrepid student can reach the airport or the mall. Finally, Tech is within walking/biking distance of all the attractions of downtown Atlanta. Quite conveniently located. And yet, it's quite easy to forget you're in a major city when you are on campus.
Fun Things To Do In And Around Tech
Conclusion
There's much work to be done before this node is finished! If you've got something that needs to be added, you can either add your own writeup describing it, or you can /msg me and explain what I need to add. If you decide to add your own stuff, please attempt to follow my outline style.
This information was gathered from a Tech website outlining the history, from the course catalog, and my own experiences. Everything is in my own words, however.
man, fuck this school. fuck it right in the ass.
-- Jethro Bodine, jaded and pissed off 5th year ME student