Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Top Questions

Sports are very big on campus, but if your not into sports, then there are still plenty of other clubs/activities to get involved in. Band, chess club, you name it, Tech has it; or you can start it. I met most of my friends from my extracurricular activities and hall mates. But after going through my first year, i realize it is a good idea to make friends within your classes also, so that you have study buddies (very helpful!). Frats/and Sororities are the best party places on campus on the weekend. You don't have to be a Greek member to go to these parties, but there will be alcohol there. Parties usually start Thursday night. Actually the weekend starts Thursday night and ends Sunday morning. People are usually busy Sunday getting a lot of work done that they should have finished earlier that weekend; so Sunday is an honorary Monday.

I think going Greek is a must if a student is looking for social life. Greeks are the most involved people on campus. There are a lot of on campus parties thrown at Greek houses. I met my closest friends in my fraternity. People are worried about the cost of joining because its "expensive." If you can afford it, you will get more out of it in the long run than the money it cost. Football games.....some people are all about football, others haven't been to a game in 4 years at Tech. A lot of the people at Tech are here strictly for the education and don't enjoy what Tech has to offer socially. For those that do, Tech provides competitive sports teams and a lot of fun. Dating....fellas, grab em fast. There's not too many girls. I heard people complain that there are no good looking girls at Tech. I understand that there's more guys than girls by far, but I don't think anyone who's out and looking for someone to date will come up empty handed. Saturday night and no drinking?....watch your friends drink?

The most popular organizations are fraternities/sororities, hands down. I was involved in GTMotorsports, which is basically a team that designs and builds a racecar from the ground up. There are 2 types of traditional dorms on campus, freshmen experience, and everything else. People in FE dorms usually leave their doors open unless theyre studying or something. Everywhere else I've lived actually had a closed door policy, I guess cause they were afraid people would be in their bedroom all the time and get their shit stolen if they left the main appartment door open or even unlocked. True to form, my current 3 flatmates always have their bedroom doors closed and hardly ever go into the kitchen/livingroom area. Umm...for guys the dating scene is dismal at best, and its probably not exactly a great place for girls either, but hell, at least they have a few more options (its something like 3:1, male:female). I met my closest friends in my freshmen dorm and through motorsports. People don't really party that often. Fraternities don't even really party that much, maybe like once a month or so. I spend most of my weekends off campus playing paintball or working at our paintball field, but when I'm not doing that, honestly there isnt much to do, and even less that doesn't involve drinking. There used to be an ultimate frisbee league, but I'm not sure if they're still around.

Football games are AWESOME. Pretty much the main social life is within fraternities/sororities. Most of these kids drink as much as my highschool/college drop-out friends. It's weird. Guys outnumber girls by A LOT. But like they say, when the odds are good the goods are odd. GOOD LUCK FINDING A SUITOR. Off campus, you can shop, go to the drive-in, eat AMAZING food at all the wonderful restaurants, go to many different parks, go to six flags, and on and on.

Social life at Tech is practically a joke. There is absolutely none if you're not in a frat. Have fun meeting girls because it will be next to impossible with the ratio. Living in the dorms freshman year, most ppl would usually leave their doors closed so trying to meet new ppl besides your roommates is actually a chore. Most everyone goes home on the weekends and your tough out of luck if you're an out-of-stater. Weekends are nothing but absolute boredom. Be prepared to stay in your room the whole time and weather it out. Sometimes its so boring you actually pull out a book and study. Tech is just terribly depressing place to be. Yea, you must be thinking Georgia Tech D1 sports but too bad they all suck. The football program is just horrible despite raising the athletic fee each year. If the games weren't free I bet 0 ppl would go. Basketball is not much better either. Womens tennis is decent though. Better watch out off campus too. You might get jacked at gun point. Seriously, there is nothing here but hell.

The most popular organization are of course the sororities and fraternities. However, there are other ways to have fun. I am involved in a community service sorority called Omega Phi Alpha. Students always make friends with people on their dorm floors or in their classes, but if they put themselves out there, they can meet new people. People party every weekend, but academics is very important at Tech and is usually the first priority for everyone. There are many opportunities to have fun off campus as well, since Atlanta offers many attractions. However, all in all, many students at Tech are socially challenged, and it can be difficult to make friends unless you put yourself out there.

The most popular or what some may call "bitchy-est" sorority is ZTA, while the most "popular" frats are probably SAE, PKE, and TKE. I'm not in a sorority, but i'm on the track and cross country teams and involved with Christian Campus Fellowship. Being on an athletic team has a lot of perks including priority registration for classes, free tutors, a really nice dining hall, and tons of free gear, but is obviously really time consuming. I got involved with CCF almost immediately after coming to campus. They had set up a humongous waterslide in the burger bowl (giant field on west campus), and they were letting everyone slide down and giving out free food and gatorade. They made an effort to make it feel like you were instantly accepted and i instantly felt like i had 5 new best friends in the freshman interns. They invited me to come over to the house that night, and i had so much fun playing ping pong and chatting, and the rest is history. For a girl the dating scene is pretty good lol, and i'd say it is for guys too, they just don't try very hard. My closest friends, I met in my dorm because everybody leaves their doors open and pretty much everyone is really really good friends. It also is a lot of fun living in a co-ed dorm b/c i got to hang out with guys and girls daily. If I'm awake at 2 am on a Tuesday night, it's probably because i'm either studying, watching a movie, playing guitar hero, baking, watching random youtube videos with friends, eating wingnuts..who knows... A big tradition every year is homecoming week. The sororities and frats participate in all kinds of competitions like squirt ( a giant water gun fight), the mini 500 (tricycle race around peters parking deck), and the freshman cake race - you don't have to be greek to run in it and if you win you get a cake and you get to go on the football field at halftime and get a kiss from mr or ms. georgia tech ( I won it my freshman year :) ). Another big tradition is One Night Stand, which is the weekend before finals start at the end of fall term. It's held at the CRC and is basically a night full of games and free food. Sting Break is also really cool, which is a huge carnival in the spring and a there's a free concert one night. There are frat parties pretty much every weekend, but there are tons of other things to do if you don't drink. Atlantic Station is about a mile away, which has shopping and a movie theatre. All my friends went salsa dancing one weekend at a club about 20 minutes away, which was really fun. In the winter they set up a huge ice skating rink in centennial olympic park, which is less than 2 miles away, so you can always find something to do, or just chill and watch movies with friends.

There are tons of student organizations available. If you can of it, it exists.

Tech has 33 fraternities and 16 sororities on campus and they provide a good deal of the social scene at Tech, but frat parties are by no means the only thing to do on campus. It's really easy to hang out with your friends pretty much anywhere, and Midtown Atlanta always has something to offer, with lots of cool restaurants right off campus. Football and basketball games are always a big deal, and I highly recommend joining the SWARM, which is the student cheering section. If I'm up at 2am on a Tuesday I'm either hanging out far too late with my friends, or pulling an all-nighter studying (all-nighters aren't uncommon unfortunately). I feel that having a good base of friends at Tech is very important. It's good to have people who will also be up at 2 on a Tuesday morning, or who'll go out to frats or dinner or a movie with you. They'll also help support you in your classes and as you get used to college life. Tech makes it easy to from that support group through the Freshman Experience Program. The FE program is basically the policy of putting the freshmen in dorms together and making sure that there is tutoring and a sense of community with everyone in your building. This encourages you to make friends and make them your family at Tech.

Theres the Greek organizations, which are really big here. But if that's not for you, the dorms are basically like huge social communities where everyone leaves their door open. When you are not in the doors, there is always the student center recreational center, where you can bowl or play video games with your friend. If that's not enough, there is always the CRC, which hold the Olympic size swimming pools, basketball courts, and workout areas.