2017 Offseason Thread

CTJacket

CTJacket

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vamosjackets said:
I'm not sure that's true. Athletes get priority for choosing their classes. I majored in Industrial, and we had guys major in other engineering majors. Sean Bedford majored in AE (along with ChemE, probably the hardest major at Tech). I think it's definitely doable from a logistics standpoint just from the cases named. Now, from a sheer ability standpoint, that's where I think you see a lot of good intentions not materialize into a degree in engineering. And, that is true of the entire student body, not just athletes. Many of my regular GT friends (non-athletes) ended up switching to Management because Engineering is just freaking hard - it's just the way it is (of course this is also what makes it great, and why "helluva engineer" is sung from a place deep within the bowels). When you're trying to pass Calc 3 for the 3rd time and then realize that you also have to pass Diff EQ's after that or when you take EMAG, then REMAG, and then 3MAG, and also have to take CS 2 and Thermodynamics the same semester, changing majors competes well at the top of your list of options. The other option is to just stay at Tech until you pass all of the classes. I had one friend who was there something like seven or eight years just finishing his undergrad engineering degree. But, he finished it and is an engineer today.
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Ibeeballin said:
Priority doesn't circumvent classes only being available at 2-6pm or not available in the summer. Bedford was able to do it 1) he's a beast 2) he was walk on prior to rightfully earning his 'ship. Walk ons are not required to fulfill certain football obligations during the spring that allows them that path.
When I realized that the IE program coincided a lot with the management i wanted in, but quickly showed that it wasn't not feasible due time conflicts
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I think you both have legitimate points. Clearly plenty of guys have done it, even ones that are on schollies from the beginning. However it's definitely not easy, and sometimes it would makes more sense just to focus on getting a great business degree and not stress about the classes.
 
deeeznutz

deeeznutz

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Techster said:
Following up on this, GT getting pushed into the fray here:

https://sports.yahoo.com/josh-rosen-right-college-football-school-dont-mix-174001650.html

There are similar stories everywhere, as athletes try to serve two demanding masters.

Georgia Tech is a world-famous engineering school, a reputation that certainly attracts a segment of studious athletes. But according to the 2017 Georgia Tech football media guide, zero seniors (in terms of football eligibility) are engineering majors. Maybe this year is an anomaly, but it stands out.

Of the 108 players with listed majors in the guide – 78 veterans and 30 incoming freshmen – 75 are business administration majors or intend to major in business administration.

Let it be said: a business administration degree from Georgia Tech is undoubtedly a valuable thing. The point is not to knock the business school. But it’s not the university’s primary claim to fame.

Forty-three percent of Tech’s incoming freshmen football players say they want to major in a science: mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, biology, biochemistry, robotics engineering, pre-med or applied physics. The percentage of players on the roster who have been there at least one year and are majoring in engineering or another science drops to 29.

Less than half of those 29 percent (a total of nine players) are entering their third or fourth year at Tech. And of that nine, most have played sparingly or not at all.

The rare exceptions who major in engineering at Georgia Tech and play a lot: junior starting linebacker Brant Mitchell (mechanical engineering), junior starting wide receiver Brad Stewart (mechanical engineering), junior pass-rush specialist Anree Saint-Amour (industrial engineering).
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To me, that stat is a huge positive. If 29% of the players are in an engineering/science major, that's ~31 of 108. You add in the 75 in business administration (a hugely positive, legitimate degree from a top business program) and you are at ~106 of the 108 on the roster. When 98% of your players are getting high quality degrees, you're doing something right.
 
deeeznutz

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Cam said:
Weird. A GT biomedical engineering professor did something similar a couple years ago. It was a horribly structured course that tried to teach thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and mass flow all in one semester. Obviously that's way too much content (should be 2 courses) and it was sort of a natural weed out class. A lot of people would take it in their last semester and would begin to panic when they started bombing the class because they would need to stay an extra semester. One semester, a professor said you could opt for a C in the class if you stated you didn't care about academics; the idea being that a lot of these students already had jobs, med school, or grad school lined up and failing the class would take that away. Well, he did that without the department's approval (which it looks like this uga professor got) and he was heavily penalized for it. All that being said, I would highly doubt that the uga course is anywhere near as hard as Biotransport. It was pretty heartbreaking for me to study 30 hours for a test where the average grade was a 25.
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I took System Dynamics in my worst every semester at Tech (was already behind in most classes, then got a horrible flu that basically knocked me out for 2 weeks right before finals...needless to say I had a <1.0 GPA that semester). I'll never forget after the first test, the prof (I wish I could remember his name) gets up in front of the class and writes some numbers on the board and has us all copy them down. Then he tells us these are the admissions numbers for ITT Tech and DeVry and we'd better keep them handy because we wouldn't be around much longer. There was definitely something going on with him, though, since looking at his grade distribution that semester was WAY lower than any other semester he'd been teaching the class. He must have had some personal issue or something that made him take it out on us students.
 
Cam

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deeeznutz said:
I took System Dynamics in my worst every semester at Tech (was already behind in most classes, then got a horrible flu that basically knocked me out for 2 weeks right before finals...needless to say I had a <1.0 GPA that semester). I'll never forget after the first test, the prof (I wish I could remember his name) gets up in front of the class and writes some numbers on the board and has us all copy them down. Then he tells us these are the admissions numbers for ITT Tech and DeVry and we'd better keep them handy because we wouldn't be around much longer. There was definitely something going on with him, though, since looking at his grade distribution that semester was WAY lower than any other semester he'd been teaching the class. He must have had some personal issue or something that made him take it out on us students.
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Definitely possible, but the number thing is kind of harsh. I mean, you can always drop the class. The rumor for the professor I talked about was that he was going through a really rough divorce that semester. Losing custody of kids and stuff like that. The only reason he gave out the get-out-of-jail-free cards is because most people were failing miserably, but people with B's still signed them to get out of the horrendous final. He was given some time off afterward, I think. Some semesters are rougher than others when life gets tough on the professor.
 
deeeznutz

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Augusta_Jacket said:
What Tech degrees are our SAs getting that aren't high quality?
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Well they're all high quality and BofS, so you know there is at least a base level of technical knowledge, but (and I'm surely going to offend someone here) I'd say an HTS or LCC degree isn't really all that worthwhile unless you're looking to teach in one of those fields. I honestly don't know if there are any players majoring in these, and maybe they're all in sciences/engineering/management and the math in the article was off by a couple, but yeah anything below management (or Business Administration, now, I guess), but that's kind of where I draw the line from "high quality, useful degree" to "just a college degree".
 

1939hotmagic

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Re a possible Tech - Temple matchup . . .

Well, Temple went from poor to mediocre to very good during the Al Golden years (2006-2010), and the same again under Matt Rhule (2013-2016). They're in the AAC and regularly play Navy, but not every season since they're in different divisions. Could be a decent series. Since leaving Tech a decade ago, Collins has gone on to become a good DC before landing the HC gig at Temple.
 
4shotB

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CTJacket said:
I think you both have legitimate points. Clearly plenty of guys have done it, even ones that are on schollies from the beginning. However it's definitely not easy, and sometimes it would makes more sense just to focus on getting a great business degree and not stress about the classes.
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I am a little late to this party but I think you are very liberal in the use of your term "plenty" here. Think of all the people you have ever met...then think of how very few of them are Tech engineering material. Then think of all the people you have met with the size and athletic ability to play D1 fb. If this were a Venn diagram, the probability of finding a human being in the intersection of these 2 sets is incredibly small. So unlikely that to this day, even though I got out decades ago and have met many talented people in their field, this accomplishment is so rare and unfathomable to me that I cannot wrap my mind around it. Really. I have known many (of course) Tech engineering alums and have met/known several former GT FB players. Only known 1 guy personally who had done both although I know that there are a few (not plenty) others who have done that.
 
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