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Just a quick run-down of the different aspects of campus-life:
Housing is fairly normal with respect to any large school. There has
been a lot of construction and renovation the past few years that will
payoff in the years to come, but has displaced a lot of students and
caused some problems. That is the one big issue - there isn't enough
room to house all the students, so freshmen get top choice, and I
believe the older you get, the less of a chance you have. The system
seems to change frequently, but I haven't known a lot of people to have
major living issues or complain too much.
The dining at Tech leaves something to be desired. It's not horrible
food by any means, but there's a definite lack of variety within the
two main dining halls. They are basically equivalent to a large high
school cafeteria-type system. The student center offers a wide array
of restaurants (Pizza Hut, Chick-fil-A, etc.) to choose from. The
campus is in the middle of mid-town Atlanta, which is a huge city with
a lot of dining options available. Not too far off campus, students
have access to just about any type of food imaginable (local and chain
style restaurants). The food in Atlanta is great. In fact, the Papa
John's store just off campus has supposedly been the busiest pizza
delivery location in the world for at least the past 6 years.
Being in the middle of a major metropolitan setting does bring about
issues with crime. Tech has its own full-time police station, that
works in conjunction with the Atlanta Police Department. Either they
do a pretty good job, or there just isn't a huge issue with crime,
because stories and reports are very infrequent (no more than any other
college I've heard from). The only noticable crime area seems to be
stolen bicycles, but this always happens to the kids who don't lock
them up properly or leave their bikes sitting outside for days on end.
The only real complaint in this department is the presence of homeless
people. This may come as a shock to visitors and new students, but you
soon get used to regularly passing by a handful of homeless people
collecting cans and trash on your way to/from class. They aren't that
much of a problem, and mostly hang around the Greek area on the east
side of campus, collecting beer cans and such.
The campus facilities have really improved over the past few years.
They are in the middle of completing what is supposed to be the best
and latest campus recreation facility in the country (that's what they
say). It's got all your normal stuff, weight rooms, in door
basketball, racquetball, table tennis, tennis courts, olympic swimming
and diving (actually built for the 1996 summer games), huge outdoor
astro-turf fields for football, softball, soccer, etc., and they're
apparently building a huge lazy river and small water park type
facility. Should be completed next year. If you're into any kind of
athletics, there are tons of places to hang out and pick up games on
campus, and more than enough opportunities to lift weights or just
workout. The student center has the normal activities too: movie
theater, arcade, pool hall, bowling alley, chess-club stuff, etc.
One cool thing about Tech, which a lot of the more "prestigious"
private engineering schools couldn't offer is a nationally-ranked
division 1 athletic program - football, basketball and baseball. It's
nice to have a sense of pride and be able to go to games to support
your school. And there's nothing like watching a college football game
in a newly rennovated stadium in the middle of downtown in one of the
largest cities in America.
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