“I got out” bad for recruiting

[MountainBuzzMan]

I sincerely hope that this is not true. "Do - overs"?????? At GT??? SMH. This is really sad, and depressing if true. Have any of you used the phrase 'do over" at your place of employment? i didn't think so,

Only for your first 2 semesters. Helps those who needed to learn how to study.

 

[LibertyTurns]

You guys are showing your ignorance to how universities work.

You can retake classes you failed literally anywhere. That’s kind of the point of school. It doesn’t “replace” the failure Grade it just exists alongside it so now your gpa calculates both grades as separate entries but once you pass the class you get a check box saying you fulfilled that requirement.

It’s called Freshman Forgiveness. I have firsthand experience because Jr’s GPA would not have been what is was at graduation because he almost drank himself into the square root club in Semester 2. His inflated ego after making the Dean’s List Semester 1 needed the old GT nutsack kick to bring him back to earth. I told him he experienced what probably 50,000 other GT grads endured and his measure would be how he responded to the adversity. He’s onto job #2 with a couple promotions under his belt & I attribute his success to his God given talent, GT’s skill at educating & GT’s immense capacity to imbed you with academic humility and remind you that there’s no substitute for hard work. Last Christmas I finally told him how I almost failed out. The stories are remarkably similar except I needed two rounds of beating instead of 1 to wise up!

 

[CrackerJacket]

Three sample sets: mine (1971-76), a former intern's (graduated 2010), and the conversations I had during a campus recruiting trip in 2015.
Conclusions: Tech is hard, always has been, but in different ways than before. If anything, it's more stressful now than the 70s because the students are better prepared now and the nature of things is more entrepreneurial than back then. Tech has changed; it had to. In the 70s, Ma Tech produced good engineers and managers for corporate America. Now, Buzz is a research powerhouse who has to produce graduates better prepared to make a go of it on their own.

During a campus visit as a high school senior, I talked to a ChE grad student who said, "School is so demanding now, I don't see how you guys do it. I'm amazed." Forty years later, I said the same things to the kids I interviewed. 'I got out', was a badge of honor then, and it still is. If kids don't get that, they may not belong at Tech. And if the bottomfeeders of the academic netherworld use 'I got out' to negative recruit, it says more about them than it does about us.

 

[LongforDodd]

Those who quite honestly used that term were beat up in engineering degrees. Everyone else, not so much.

Todd needs to find some professional PR people to turn that into a positive with sports. It, is, after all, a badge of honor that a lot of us will never stop using because it is such a part of what we went through to become who were are as adults.

 

[bke1984]

Perhaps the grades are higher because they’re taking smarter kids?

 

[bke1984]

FWIW, I never say “got out.” I graduated Tech with a BS in IE with a 4.0 GPA and an MS in Statistics with a couple B’s in some extremely difficult PhD level classes that made almost zero sense to me.

I’ve never believed there ever was a shaft. Every kid I know that struggled while I was there did so because they chose to dedicate their time to something other than the schoolwork (video games, Greek life, girlfriends/boyfriends, work, club sports, etc.). I’m not insinuating that stuff isn’t important, but those that consistently prioritized that stuff ahead of school work had a hard time, while those that took the coursework seriously and dedicated all necessary time to understand the material thrived.

At Tech you get out what you put in...which is a perfect way to prepare you for life after college.

 

[WhatsTheGoodWord]

Here is the Grade Substitution policy:

First-time freshman students who receive a grade of "D" or "F" in a course within their first two academic terms of enrollment (first three academic terms for those who begin in the Summer Session for Freshmen) are eligible to repeat the course and have the original grade excluded from the calculation of the academic average. Grade substitution may be used only once per course, with a maximum of two courses in total.

The original grades still count towards HOPE/Zell hours and in the HOPE/Zell gpa.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

FWIW, I never say “got out.” I graduated Tech with a BS in IE with a 4.0 GPA and an MS in Statistics with a couple B’s in some extremely difficult PhD level classes that made almost zero sense to me.

I’ve never believed there ever was a shaft. Every kid I know that struggled while I was there did so because they chose to dedicate their time to something other than the schoolwork (video games, Greek life, girlfriends/boyfriends, work, club sports, etc.). I’m not insinuating that stuff isn’t important, but those that consistently prioritized that stuff ahead of school work had a hard time, while those that took the coursework seriously and dedicated all necessary time to understand the material thrived.

At Tech you get out what you put in...which is a perfect way to prepare you for life after college.

I don't know when you were in school, so I can't refute your claim, but in the 60s, there was DEFINITELY a shaft.

 

[GTJeff1975]

Ahh E-mag. You either get it or you dont. Having to take E-mag I, II & III for my EE degree, I was sure I would never get out. But it ended up clicking

To me, here is the bigger story, buried in the interview...where Todd Stansbury says, and I quote "I like to tell people the greatest thing about having a Georgia Tech degree is people think you’re a heck of a lot smarter than you really are."

So I ask rhetorically, which statement is worse for recruiting and our reputation?

Thats pretty insulting.

 

[65Jacket]

I've never used the "I got out" expression. I always said "I graduated". To me my Tech years was a great time in my life. I actually felt lost after I graduated.

 

[GTJeff1975]

There's no hubris here. The facts are simple. I did some research about 20 years ago. I went through the Top 100 Universities listed in the USN&WR and listed out the gpa requirement for Dean's List or equivalent. There was only one school that only required a 3.0 gpa.

There are hundreds of fantastic universities and colleges throughout the US. No one is questioning the quality of education one can get somewhere else. Bottom line is that the most common factor (other than love for Tech sports) on this site is that a large percentage of us matriculated at Tech. These are the experiences we have. I never consciously chose to use the term "I got out," but I do. It wasn't until someone pointed it out later that I realized I did it too. I don't brag about "getting out," but I do say "I got out in 1993" as opposed to saying "I graduated in 1993." I'm not sure why TStan has such an issue with this. It is an honor to graduate from Georgia Tech. It's not easy. That diploma is well deserved when it's awarded, and student-athletes should understand that.

I think 18-year old kids should think deeply about whether they're willing to put in the effort it takes to make it through Tech. It's the same effort it will take to get through some other well respected programs, but also much more than some others. A student -athlete that doesn't take Tech's academics seriously won't be here long.

Well said sir!! My sentiments exactly.

 

[IEEEWreck]

Yes but only about 3%. I had a family member who went for a campus visit last week. He told me that he learned that the first year retention rate at GT was 97%. I said, “No way!” But this backs his statement up: https://www.irp.gatech.edu/retention-and-graduation-rates

GT points out their low acceptance rate is the reason for the high retention rate but it still seems very high to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dead serious: this is why Bud is destroying Georgia Tech. Anyone who looks at college admissions and says it's in the least bit fair, much less better than a lower graduation rate is either a fool or evil.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Got (out) my BEE December ‘85.

I have to say along with hard, hard work & stress like nothing I ever came close to at other schools, there was some luck, at least in 1985, to getting the degree. I saw many I thought had higher IQs & potential not get their degrees.

And, why did they not drop Drownproofing before I gradauted!?!?

Anyway, a degree, even today, is earned, & I think the student athlete must understand this truth, but I have no problem getting rid of the “got out” phrasing.

 

[g0lftime]

I don't know when you were in school, so I can't refute your claim, but in the 60s, there was DEFINITELY a shaft.

His name was Dr. Line and he taught differential equations. It was about a year later when I took a dynamics course that I figured out what I was supposed to learn in his class. I can still remember a few of the questions on my exam that were never covered in class or homework. That was 50 years ago. Most of the guys that finished Tech were the types that even when they missed questions on a test they didn’t understand would figure it out afterward just out of curiosity.

 

[Animal02]

Those who quite honestly used that term were beat up in engineering degrees. Everyone else, not so much.

Todd needs to find some professional PR people to turn that into a positive with sports. It, is, after all, a badge of honor that a lot of us will never stop using because it is such a part of what we went through to become who were are as adults.

Guess you never went never the architecture building.

 

[Animal02]

Dead serious: this is why Bud is destroying Georgia Tech. Anyone who looks at college admissions and says it's in the least bit fair, much less better than a lower graduation rate is either a fool or evil.

It is because of the way all the rags rank schools.....got to have the high retention rate to get ranked higher.

 

[Greenjackets]

I “graduated” in 1993. Fall of 89 when I enrolled there was a 62% chance of graduating with a degree. My daughter is likely going there next fall and we went to a alumni meeting a few months back and Peterson said the retention rate is 95-97%.

So 3-5 out of 100 don’t graduate now. Vastly different from my time. I guess getting out was meant for a different generation. I will do my best to stop using that term.

 

[pbrown520]

I “graduated” in 1993. Fall of 89 when I enrolled there was a 62% chance of graduating with a degree. My daughter is likely going there next fall and we went to a alumni meeting a few months back and Peterson said the retention rate is 95-97%.

So 3-5 out of 100 don’t graduate now. Vastly different from my time. I guess getting out was meant for a different generation. I will do my best to stop using that term.

I won't. It is a point of pride that football players can use if they own it. I personally don't believe it has that much of an impact regardless of TStan. You can't have both - a prestigious education and an easy one.

To be fair, I never use the term, but the point remains.

 

[4shotB]

Guess you never went never the architecture building.

we were afraid too. we thought you guys were crazy. And not getting any sleep was just a small part of it.

makes me curious - has there ever been a human being that played FB or basketball at Tech who got a degree in architecture? I simply can't imagine anyone pulling that off.

 

[lv20gt]

I really don't see why it is hard to understand why the idea of "getting out" hurts recruiting. Think about the things people get out of and ask yourself if you want to be a part of that. People get out of prison, get out of bad relationships, get out of jury duty, etc etc etc. It conveys a sense of it not being a good thing to be in, which is the opposite message most colleges use to recruit. Now I doubt it had a significant impact because I doubt many people who were recruiting or interacting with recruits put it that way.