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This is probably going to be a wildly unpopular opinion. I can't speak to how hard Tech was in the 'good ole days'. But as someone who attended both Tech and uGA (for a blessedly short time). Tech was easier.
At the cesspool, the professors were actively trying to fail kids. This was the early 2000's when President Adams was trying to make it a "public ivy". Which required a certain appearance of academic rigor. There were a lot of ridiculous trick questions on exams, weed classes, curves, etc. Half the class was hungover and only in class because their parents would get mad if they flunked out. (Not me, left the dump with a B+ GPA.) Granted, this was the business school. Not the Phys Ed. the football players take.
In contrast, at Tech; the quality of the students was so high, [most of] the professors had some respect for their students. The exams were content based. Know your sh*t? You'd get a good grade.
Now, you really had to know your stuff. You couldn't fake through it. But every person in the class was one of the top 3 smartest kids from their high school. We studied, we worked hard and we got good grades. I did have a class where the professor said he'd only give two A's. But ~70% of the class ended up with a B anyway.
Any shafting that happened was more due to the ridiculous bureaucracy on the Hill. ("Need a required class to graduate? Oh, that class is only offered every third Summer semester."; "You did pre-apply to apply to graduate 3 semesters before graduation, right?" My graduation application was rejected the spring I applied, because I hadn't re-applied to the School, not the Institute, after my second semester. Had to officially graduate in the Summer.)
I understand in the old days Tech was more about the exhibition of the difficulty. Competitive grades and all that. You could know your stuff and still get shafted. These days, I think Tech more so has very high, but fair, standards.
I think the combination of the Hope/Zell Miller Scholarship program, the popularity of rankings like the USN&WR Best Colleges, and the State dramatically cutting back funding changed the atmosphere academically at Ma Tech. With states cutting education budgets for higher education, the state universities had to start passing more of the cost onto the students. This, in combination with the opportunity to earn a free education in-state through the Hope/Miller scholarships, made it much more attractive to the top-tier student in the State of Georgia. So, a much higher percentage of these top GA students were staying at home as opposed to going somewhere out-of-state. This helped uga as well as Tech. To maintain the revenue stream, a 3.0 gpa (Dean's List at Tech) had to be maintainable by the in-state students. Remember, since Tech is a State school, 60% of incoming freshmen are supposed to be from Georgia. There was pressure from the Hill to make the courses more appropriately difficult. Also, the academic support programs instituted under Clough greatly improved the learning environment. In addition, the secondary schools in Georgia improved for the top students, thus better preparing a larger population of HS students to be able to survive the rigors of Tech.
So, as I see it, there was a great confluence of events that occurred around the turn of the century that drove the freshman retention rate from 35% to the 97% we have now.
Is the material easier today? Hell No.
Are the students "smarter?" I'd say probably not.
Are they better prepared? Most definitely.
Is it harder to get into Tech? Absolutely. (Although, with the common app, the number of applications submitted to Tech has increased tremendously. So, even with accepting more students that when I was there, the percentage accepted has dropped.)
Is it easier to stay in Tech and make it through? Probably (the statistics tend to support this conclusion)
Do you have to work your tail off to make it through? Absolutely.
Is it easier to make an "A" in a class? Not sure.
Is it easier to make a "B" in a class? I'd bet the farm on it.
Has the reputation improved from the 80's to the 10's? I'd say amongst those that deal with the engineering profession, NO; but, within the general population, I think more people outside the Southeast are aware of the academic prowess.
