Redditor's Take on Why Georgia Tech Struggles in Recruiting

[ibeattetris]

His only arguments against our academics were calculus not actually being hard and exceptions.

I don't see how the difficulty of the class matters to RECRUITS. You have to convince them to take the class, and I don't see how the argument of "Oh well we will have tutors for you" is sufficient to convince everyone. My high school senior class of 600 had less than 30 people take calculus. It was hard to convince NORMAL kids to take calculus. Calculus requirement is definitely a hindrance when trying to convince athletes to commit to a school.

His second argument about exceptions makes no sense. We have access to exceptions sure, but the hill refuses to allow more than X (I don't think anyone knows the actual number?) exceptions to even be applied for. How is this not negative? He even contradicts himself by saying we only get six when the other school in Georgia gets 15 a year.

 

[GT Chillin' It]

His only arguments against our academics were calculus not actually being hard and exceptions.

I don't see how the difficulty of the class matters to RECRUITS. You have to convince them to take the class, and I don't see how the argument of "Oh well we will have tutors for you" is sufficient to convince everyone. My high school senior class of 600 had less than 30 people take calculus. It was hard to convince NORMAL kids to take calculus. Calculus requirement is definitely a hindrance when trying to convince athletes to commit to a school.

His second argument about exceptions makes no sense. We have access to exceptions sure, but the hill refuses to allow more than X (I don't think anyone knows the actual number?) exceptions to even be applied for. How is this not negative? He even contradicts himself by saying we only get six when the other school in Georgia gets 15 a year.

I think a lot of people that went through high school in the greater Atlanta area take calculus for granted. A large chunk of Techs undergrad population comes from right around Atlanta, and in most cases those kids were expected to take calculus while in high school. As a result, the Calc I offering at tech is largely a refresher for those people. I think what they fail to understand is that once you get outside of the metro area that there is a very real possibility that calculus may not even be an option at a particular high school. We had a group of 15 kids that took calculus at my high school and it was only an option because a few of us students petitioned the school board for the class to be created. We then had to find at least 12 kids to participate and convince a qualified teacher to give up their free period in order for the class to be put together. I don't say this to complain, but people need to realize that only about 49% of Georgia High Schools even offer calculus. When convincing a kid to come to Tech and telling them they have to take calc, there is a pretty good chance that you are asking them to take on the hardest math they will ever see in there entire lives.

If you have a moment, check out the following stats put out by the US Department of Ed. It gives a pretty interesting snapshot at the state of high school education in the country. Then take a second to think about how rigorous Tech is and the picture becomes clear why we have issues recruiting. Most students coming out of high school are not prepared for somewhere like Tech, let alone SA's who have to dedicate time and effort to their sport in addition to school. Its asking a lot.

 

[alagold]

We may have exceptions but the COACH is still basically responsible for guys GETTING THROUGH SCHOOL AND STAYING ELIGIBLE under the NCAAs yearly advancement schedule where a guy has got finish a certain number of hrs each yr.If they fall out ,we lose schollys supposedly.--as I understand it..

 

[smathis30]

im the person that made the reddit post.

The tl;dr is that tech's focus academic culture leaks into everything else that could help with recruiting, and also there are issues with the offense we run and our branding in general. Its hard to get top recruits in state if you aren't the perceived top school brand in the state, have a "tacky" offense. ect. I tried to make the points with my tech glasses off as much as possible.


There's a lot of off-hand jokes just to make it readable (the 80th ranked recruiting class is more of a jab at what CPJ said about us after we beat uga, but i guess that reference went over everyone's head. The kaylee thing is an inside joke between me and a few friends who also browse reddit, so just ignore it. On the topic of uga, i grew up in-state and out of state, so i never really had "Tech Goggles" on due to being exposed to in-state tuition options in illinois. Had i chosen to go food science instead of engineering, i would have gone to Illinois or UGA instead of my pick being down to Tech or Illinois for engineering. I get it, Tech is a top-5 academic public school. But UGA is a top 25 one, which is still really good, but not as great as tech.

1. UGA's psychology program ranks 12 higher than us. UGA has a top 5 Communication school (GT unkranked from what i can tell) , 4th best public policy school, (GT top 30) Depending on the source, uga or GT has the better business school (Bloomber has us higher, US news has uga). Give tech 5 years and i bet most of them will have us higher. Don't get me wrong, GT is undoubtedly the better overall school, but for non-STEM majors, its hard to take off the tech-goggles and acknowledge that georgia actually has a half decent liberal arts program. If you don't want to do liberal arts, than there really isnt a reason to not to choose tech. We're better than them in those fields, its just that those fields are very atypically chosen by athletes.

Changing admissions standards won't change the recruits we get. Won't change how easy or hard classes are. That's the thing holding us back, it isn't that the admissions requirements are too difficult, (we can get around those we have in the past) it's tech's culture that pushes those self imposed limits. The root of the admissions issue isn't we can't let people in, we choose not to due to the academic culture at tech. If the culture changes (we take a harvard appraoch, hard to get in, easy once you're there) those roadblocks would likely ease up.

The general argument is that Tech's academic rigor "leaks" into everything else. If that changes (which let's be honest, most students and alumni wouldn't want it to. We're proud of Tech's academics) then the limits on permits (the issue isn't that uga has more, its that we do them. period. Private schools don't have that luxury. Don't make the minimums can't go. No exceptions. I'm trying to point out that it is a self imposed restriction, not a systematic one, and its again, caused by tech's academic culture).

The main points about social life were more to point out that like most schools in cities, Tech isn't a stereotypical "college town" that some people look for. I know people at my high school turned down Northwestern to go to Illinois for this reason. If you struggle academically in school, social life can be a fall back. Tech doesn't have as strong as a social scene as other schools for this reason. I love buckhead, VA highlands, Edgewood, and all that. Wouldn't trade my friday nights there for anything. But they aren't on campus bars like other schools have.

Triple option hurts too, but we haven't really seen rankings be better outside of 2007 class (which was pointed out that we beat) and due to the relative short time before CPJ that those rankings really existed, we can't really put it up to a barometer test. But based off interviews with players and the like, we can tell that is plays a role.

I also had "struggle" as i don't think tech has really struggled. Due to generally low attrition, our classes are undervalue by ranking sites that take into account more people than tech gets on their roster. We do good with what we got. Wouldn't change anything for it.

If there's other questions. i would love to answer them. Go jackets.

 

[augustabuzz]

US News has Scheller at 34 and Terry at 55. Also, since all Tech undergraduate degrees are Bachelor of Science, then all are STEM programs.

 

[iceeater1969]

First, GA Tech has fewer Majors than other Power Five Programs in the Country, and that's because the Georgia Board of Regents refuses to allow GA Tech to expand its offerings while allowing UGA to add Engineering and Computer Science Majors to THEIRS (areas where GA Tech excelled Nationally).

Second, GA Tech DOESN'T take Exceptions into our Program like other Power Fives do.

Third, when players arrive at GA Tech, they have to take the exact same classes every other student who steps on campus does (there are no "cryp" classes at GA Tech) like other Power Five Programs do.

GA Tech has some of the most stringent Admission Requirements for Football Players of ANY Power Five Program in America (compare with Stanford, Notre Dame, Virginia, Southern Cal, etc.), coupled with the FEWEST number of available Majors to choose from for potential recruits, which means OUR pool of "scholar athletes" who are interested in joining the program that we can effectively recruit is the smallest in the Country.

im the person that made the reddit post.

The tl;dr is that tech's focus academic culture leaks into everything else that could help with recruiting, and also there are issues with the offense we run and our branding in general. Its hard to get top recruits in state if you aren't the perceived top school brand in the state, have a "tacky" offense. ect. I tried to make the points with my tech glasses off as much as possible.


There's a lot of off-hand jokes just to make it readable (the 80th ranked recruiting class is more of a jab at what CPJ said about us after we beat uga, but i guess that reference went over everyone's head. The kaylee thing is an inside joke between me and a few friends who also browse reddit, so just ignore it. On the topic of uga, i grew up in-state and out of state, so i never really had "Tech Goggles" on due to being exposed to in-state tuition options in illinois. Had i chosen to go food science instead of engineering, i would have gone to Illinois or UGA instead of my pick being down to Tech or Illinois for engineering. I get it, Tech is a top-5 academic public school. But UGA is a top 25 one, which is still really good, but not as great as tech.

1. UGA's psychology program ranks 12 higher than us. UGA has a top 5 Communication school (GT unkranked from what i can tell) , 4th best public policy school, (GT top 30) Depending on the source, uga or GT has the better business school (Bloomber has us higher, US news has uga). Give tech 5 years and i bet most of them will have us higher. Don't get me wrong, GT is undoubtedly the better overall school, but for non-STEM majors, its hard to take off the tech-goggles and acknowledge that georgia actually has a half decent liberal arts program. If you don't want to do liberal arts, than there really isnt a reason to not to choose tech. We're better than them in those fields, its just that those fields are very atypically chosen by athletes.

Changing admissions standards won't change the recruits we get. Won't change how easy or hard classes are. That's the thing holding us back, it isn't that the admissions requirements are too difficult, (we can get around those we have in the past) it's tech's culture that pushes those self imposed limits. The root of the admissions issue isn't we can't let people in, we choose not to due to the academic culture at tech. If the culture changes (we take a harvard appraoch, hard to get in, easy once you're there) those roadblocks would likely ease up.

The general argument is that Tech's academic rigor "leaks" into everything else. If that changes (which let's be honest, most students and alumni wouldn't want it to. We're proud of Tech's academics) then the limits on permits (the issue isn't that uga has more, its that we do them. period. Private schools don't have that luxury. Don't make the minimums can't go. No exceptions. I'm trying to point out that it is a self imposed restriction, not a systematic one, and its again, caused by tech's academic culture).

The main points about social life were more to point out that like most schools in cities, Tech isn't a stereotypical "college town" that some people look for. I know people at my high school turned down Northwestern to go to Illinois for this reason. If you struggle academically in school, social life can be a fall back. Tech doesn't have as strong as a social scene as other schools for this reason. I love buckhead, VA highlands, Edgewood, and all that. Wouldn't trade my friday nights there for anything. But they aren't on campus bars like other schools have.

Triple option hurts too, but we haven't really seen rankings be better outside of 2007 class (which was pointed out that we beat) and due to the relative short time before CPJ that those rankings really existed, we can't really put it up to a barometer test. But based off interviews with players and the like, we can tell that is plays a role.

I also had "struggle" as i don't think tech has really struggled. Due to generally low attrition, our classes are undervalue by ranking sites that take into account more people than tech gets on their roster. We do good with what we got. Wouldn't change anything for it.

If there's other questions. i would love to answer them. Go jackets.

If the BOR , added a high quality (rigorous ) sports management degree at ga tech would that impact athletics? Please note the award for best football player, ast coach, coach, and athletic director are given in honor of Tech men

. BOR could turn gt into a research and general ed that is tops in both areas.

 

[Skeptic]

im the person that made the reddit post.

The tl;dr is that tech's focus academic culture leaks into everything else that could help with recruiting, and also there are issues with the offense we run and our branding in general. Its hard to get top recruits in state if you aren't the perceived top school brand in the state, have a "tacky" offense. ect. I tried to make the points with my tech glasses off as much as possible.


There's a lot of off-hand jokes just to make it readable (the 80th ranked recruiting class is more of a jab at what CPJ said about us after we beat uga, but i guess that reference went over everyone's head. The kaylee thing is an inside joke between me and a few friends who also browse reddit, so just ignore it. On the topic of uga, i grew up in-state and out of state, so i never really had "Tech Goggles" on due to being exposed to in-state tuition options in illinois. Had i chosen to go food science instead of engineering, i would have gone to Illinois or UGA instead of my pick being down to Tech or Illinois for engineering. I get it, Tech is a top-5 academic public school. But UGA is a top 25 one, which is still really good, but not as great as tech.

1. UGA's psychology program ranks 12 higher than us. UGA has a top 5 Communication school (GT unkranked from what i can tell) , 4th best public policy school, (GT top 30) Depending on the source, uga or GT has the better business school (Bloomber has us higher, US news has uga). Give tech 5 years and i bet most of them will have us higher. Don't get me wrong, GT is undoubtedly the better overall school, but for non-STEM majors, its hard to take off the tech-goggles and acknowledge that georgia actually has a half decent liberal arts program. If you don't want to do liberal arts, than there really isnt a reason to not to choose tech. We're better than them in those fields, its just that those fields are very atypically chosen by athletes.

Changing admissions standards won't change the recruits we get. Won't change how easy or hard classes are. That's the thing holding us back, it isn't that the admissions requirements are too difficult, (we can get around those we have in the past) it's tech's culture that pushes those self imposed limits. The root of the admissions issue isn't we can't let people in, we choose not to due to the academic culture at tech. If the culture changes (we take a harvard appraoch, hard to get in, easy once you're there) those roadblocks would likely ease up.

The general argument is that Tech's academic rigor "leaks" into everything else. If that changes (which let's be honest, most students and alumni wouldn't want it to. We're proud of Tech's academics) then the limits on permits (the issue isn't that uga has more, its that we do them. period. Private schools don't have that luxury. Don't make the minimums can't go. No exceptions. I'm trying to point out that it is a self imposed restriction, not a systematic one, and its again, caused by tech's academic culture).

The main points about social life were more to point out that like most schools in cities, Tech isn't a stereotypical "college town" that some people look for. I know people at my high school turned down Northwestern to go to Illinois for this reason. If you struggle academically in school, social life can be a fall back. Tech doesn't have as strong as a social scene as other schools for this reason. I love buckhead, VA highlands, Edgewood, and all that. Wouldn't trade my friday nights there for anything. But they aren't on campus bars like other schools have.

Triple option hurts too, but we haven't really seen rankings be better outside of 2007 class (which was pointed out that we beat) and due to the relative short time before CPJ that those rankings really existed, we can't really put it up to a barometer test. But based off interviews with players and the like, we can tell that is plays a role.

I also had "struggle" as i don't think tech has really struggled. Due to generally low attrition, our classes are undervalue by ranking sites that take into account more people than tech gets on their roster. We do good with what we got. Wouldn't change anything for it.

If there's other questions. i would love to answer them. Go jackets.

I don't argue that core curriculum is the biggest obstacle to recruiting; it has always seemed obvious. But if a tree falls and nobody hears it etc., well, I gave that up. Those who hold the view, one I consider elitist, that it is "academic requirements" will not let go, despite all evidence to the contrary. However, and I believe it is referred to liberals arts circles as a cognitive dissonance, it seems to me you have a problem advancing the argument that the triple option -- and leave it go that it is the spread, and if you were looking closely you saw the run and shoot segment in the fourth quarter against Georgia, but that is a whole other, lengthy argument -- is "holding us back" while simultaneously arguing that the athletes to run other offenses will not come to GT anyway. In math terms I suppose you are trying to square the circle. In liberal arts terms you are trying to have it both ways.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

US News has Scheller at 34 and Terry at 55. Also, since all Tech undergraduate degrees are Bachelor of Science, then all are STEM programs.

Oh bless you're heart.

 

[4shotB]

. I think what they fail to understand is that once you get outside of the metro area that there is a very real possibility that calculus may not even be an option at a particular high school.

I teach in a rural school where calculus is not offered. Only 12- 18 or so will bother to take pre-calculus each year. This year even our valedictorian would not be Tech material and I have seen that before. Many on here lack perspective and I have to say I did as well prior to becoming a math teacher just a few years back.

I see this lack of perspective most often when a recruit will say "academics is a top priority" and then choose to sign with Clemson or ole Miss or Auburn etc. This athlete will be accused of lying or being disingenuous.I have seen my students get truly excited about getting accepted to schools equivalent to West Georgia, Valdosta State, Ft. Valley State, etc. or even a two year community college. More often than not, they will be the first in their family to attend college in any form. Every once in awhile, I will have a student to be the first in his/her family to graduate from high school.

In a rural community (and perhaps in some urban school systems although I am speculating here), ANY form of post secondary education is prestigious. There is an overall lack of awareness to be able to discern the differences between say GT and Texas A & M. In fact, i believe that many in this community have never heard of MIT or Cal Tech or even Emory due to lack of a FB or BB team. So, a kid who is interested in "academics as my top priority" may not be lying when he chooses West Virginia over Michigan on signing day. He may simply come from a background that doesn't allow him to discern the difference. That is difficult for the typical GT grad to comprehend but I see it daily.

 

[smathis30]

US news has us at 32 and uga at 27. Bloomber has us at 24 and uga at 42. It depends on w/e metrics you use, ones that push starting salary will have us higher. MBA programs are different.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandr...-name=georgia&school-type=business&_mode=list


As much as having a sports science/any major related to sports goes. there are several problems.

I'm taking two classes on sports now, one of the professors is the athletics chair, and the other one was just hired by GT to do concussion research. One of my classes exists because athletes wanted more difficult classes on sports, so its a class on the design of sporting materials. If GT Athletes want something feasible, it happens. If GT students want something feasible, it happens. See: existence of culc, existence of sports minor, modifications of starbucks hours, modifications of gameday parking, removal of dead week ect. If its doable, admin will do their best to make it happen

With regards to adding a sports major (or really any major in general), there are 3 things needed.

1. Faculty. This will be new, some might overlap, but it the scheme of things its a non issue

2. Accreditation, Also a non-issue. We have added MSE and Music Technology programs in the last 10 years, should be easy to add more

3. Space. This is the biggest one. Tech is adding a new CS building, and that is coming at a hefty price tag. Its in Tech square From alumni, as our CS program now is almost averaging a 6 figure starting salary. We already are cramped for room. We either have to add it to existing buildings (hasn't worked well for the film minor) or add it to new buildings which we have to buy land for, and then add the building. Its not that we don't have the money, its trying to get the space that is the issue. Tech added its golf facility 4-7 blocks away from campus as it was the only available land that was open. There's a will, there's a way. But the issue isn't on tech's half, its on the Atlanta property owners.

 

[GTRX7]

Oh bless you're heart.

No, bless you are heart ; )

 

[Northeast Stinger]

We may have exceptions but the COACH is still basically responsible for guys GETTING THROUGH SCHOOL AND STAYING ELIGIBLE under the NCAAs yearly advancement schedule where a guy has got finish a certain number of hrs each yr.If they fall out ,we lose schollys supposedly.--as I understand it..

In my opinion CPJ does a fantastic job keeping players eligible. Sometimes I don't know how he does when you look at the trouble some less academic minded schools have.

 

[4shotB]

In my opinion CPJ does a fantastic job keeping players eligible. Sometimes I don't know how he does when you look at the trouble some less academic minded schools have.

I think the school itself is a filter that makes CPJ's easier in this sense (while making it more difficult in other ways). A kid who can get into Tech is more apt to be focused in their future and therefore be more focused on academics. WTBS, there were a few people like me that manged to "get out" despite doing some stupid juvenile things at that age.

 

[Techster]

im the person that made the reddit post.

The tl;dr is that tech's focus academic culture leaks into everything else that could help with recruiting, and also there are issues with the offense we run and our branding in general. Its hard to get top recruits in state if you aren't the perceived top school brand in the state, have a "tacky" offense. ect. I tried to make the points with my tech glasses off as much as possible.


There's a lot of off-hand jokes just to make it readable (the 80th ranked recruiting class is more of a jab at what CPJ said about us after we beat uga, but i guess that reference went over everyone's head. The kaylee thing is an inside joke between me and a few friends who also browse reddit, so just ignore it. On the topic of uga, i grew up in-state and out of state, so i never really had "Tech Goggles" on due to being exposed to in-state tuition options in illinois. Had i chosen to go food science instead of engineering, i would have gone to Illinois or UGA instead of my pick being down to Tech or Illinois for engineering. I get it, Tech is a top-5 academic public school. But UGA is a top 25 one, which is still really good, but not as great as tech.

1. UGA's psychology program ranks 12 higher than us. UGA has a top 5 Communication school (GT unkranked from what i can tell) , 4th best public policy school, (GT top 30) Depending on the source, uga or GT has the better business school (Bloomber has us higher, US news has uga). Give tech 5 years and i bet most of them will have us higher. Don't get me wrong, GT is undoubtedly the better overall school, but for non-STEM majors, its hard to take off the tech-goggles and acknowledge that georgia actually has a half decent liberal arts program. If you don't want to do liberal arts, than there really isnt a reason to not to choose tech. We're better than them in those fields, its just that those fields are very atypically chosen by athletes.

Changing admissions standards won't change the recruits we get. Won't change how easy or hard classes are. That's the thing holding us back, it isn't that the admissions requirements are too difficult, (we can get around those we have in the past) it's tech's culture that pushes those self imposed limits. The root of the admissions issue isn't we can't let people in, we choose not to due to the academic culture at tech. If the culture changes (we take a harvard appraoch, hard to get in, easy once you're there) those roadblocks would likely ease up.

The general argument is that Tech's academic rigor "leaks" into everything else. If that changes (which let's be honest, most students and alumni wouldn't want it to. We're proud of Tech's academics) then the limits on permits (the issue isn't that uga has more, its that we do them. period. Private schools don't have that luxury. Don't make the minimums can't go. No exceptions. I'm trying to point out that it is a self imposed restriction, not a systematic one, and its again, caused by tech's academic culture).

The main points about social life were more to point out that like most schools in cities, Tech isn't a stereotypical "college town" that some people look for. I know people at my high school turned down Northwestern to go to Illinois for this reason. If you struggle academically in school, social life can be a fall back. Tech doesn't have as strong as a social scene as other schools for this reason. I love buckhead, VA highlands, Edgewood, and all that. Wouldn't trade my friday nights there for anything. But they aren't on campus bars like other schools have.

Triple option hurts too, but we haven't really seen rankings be better outside of 2007 class (which was pointed out that we beat) and due to the relative short time before CPJ that those rankings really existed, we can't really put it up to a barometer test. But based off interviews with players and the like, we can tell that is plays a role.

I also had "struggle" as i don't think tech has really struggled. Due to generally low attrition, our classes are undervalue by ranking sites that take into account more people than tech gets on their roster. We do good with what we got. Wouldn't change anything for it.

If there's other questions. i would love to answer them. Go jackets.

All of that's well and nice, but the real burning question is: Who's Kaley?!

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I teach in a rural school where calculus is not offered. Only 12- 18 or so will bother to take pre-calculus each year. This year even our valedictorian would not be Tech material and I have seen that before. Many on here lack perspective and I have to say I did as well prior to becoming a math teacher just a few years back.

I see this lack of perspective most often when a recruit will say "academics is a top priority" and then choose to sign with Clemson or ole Miss or Auburn etc. This athlete will be accused of lying or being disingenuous.I have seen my students get truly excited about getting accepted to schools equivalent to West Georgia, Valdosta State, Ft. Valley State, etc. or even a two year community college. More often than not, they will be the first in their family to attend college in any form. Every once in awhile, I will have a student to be the first in his/her family to graduate from high school.

In a rural community (and perhaps in some urban school systems although I am speculating here), ANY form of post secondary education is prestigious. There is an overall lack of awareness to be able to discern the differences between say GT and Texas A & M. In fact, i believe that many in this community have never heard of MIT or Cal Tech or even Emory due to lack of a FB or BB team. So, a kid who is interested in "academics as my top priority" may not be lying when he chooses West Virginia over Michigan on signing day. He may simply come from a background that doesn't allow him to discern the difference. That is difficult for the typical GT grad to comprehend but I see it daily.

I think your insight is valuable to this conversation.

It has been a couple of years maybe since I have waded into the Governor's Report Card on K12 public schools. My previous experience, after a lot of digging, was that approximately 80% of Georgia high school graduates are not college ready. As you point out, even a student with a good GPA may be missing in some area, whether language, writing skills or math, when it comes to being ready for college.

I have a theory which might be hard to test but it goes like this. Tech under CPJ has virtually all the pieces in place to compete at a high level year after year. The one thing that consistently holds the team back is a good DT or NG. It turns out that when it comes to getting the really good players at this position Tech is in the cross hairs of several mitigating circumstances. (1) Good defensive linemen are a rare commodity nation wide. (2) For some reason they often come from failing or under performing schools. (3) Those who might qualify to get into Tech have their pick of 40 or 50 schools. In which case they may want to be close to home or take the school that is least demanding on their time. (4) Schools like Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, and so forth, usually have a more attractive overall profile, at least from the perspective of a 17 year old.

At any rate, I am amazed that some Tech fans on this site don't take more seriously the academic challenges of a school like Tech to most public school students in the South.

 

[herb]

And Northeast Stinger you forgot 5) $$$$$

 

[GTHomer]

I teach in a rural school where calculus is not offered.

Thanks for your service! I can also imagine that you are a role model to many of the students you serve.

 

[Coloradojacket]

Eddie Lee. Drew hill , jimmy robinson just to name a few says hello.

Yes, they went to the NFL, but like many Tech players never really did much. Drew Hill played a long time but not at the level of Calvin and Bey Bey. Robert Lavette went to the NFL, never started.

 

[4shotB]

Thanks for your service! I can also imagine that you are a role model to many of the students you serve.

I appreciate the kind words. The kids do like the fact that I have had a "real job" (their words not mine). The ability to reason,do math and think logically opened some doors for me. Hopefully it will do the same for the youngsters I teach. One of the many issues facing a student in a rural school is the fact that 99% of the people that they know and interact with have never lived anywhere else. It's a very closed system. This includes all of their teachers, who attended college within an hour or two from their home and then return home immediately after graduation to teach. Don't get me wrong, most of my colleagues are professional and do their best for the kids. But their idea of "college ready" after attending teacher's school at nearby eastern State U isn't the same as mine after going through GT's engineering school.

 

[4shotB]

At any rate, I am amazed that some Tech fans on this site don't take more seriously the academic challenges of a school like Tech to most public school students in the South.

I think Gt alums have a very insulated mindset. Their school buddies from GT are successful, their professional colleagues are successful...therefore everyone must either be successful or just too lazy to get in and out of Tech. I have had a career in manufacturing in several Southern states prior to teaching and, by choice, have always chosen to live in rural areas (fits my lifestyle better). Based on my professional experiences and the people I have dealt with over the years (many of whom were good, honest and productive people) in the rural South, less than 1% of them would be capable of getting into (much less out of) Tech's engineering programs. (I can't speak for the old IM or newer Business degree path as I don't know the rigor relative to the engineering departments.Maybe the number changes to 3%? 5% but this is purely speculative)

Maybe some of you alums in different career paths and/or living in the suburbs or up in the Northeast would dispute this number. (I may in fact be wrong as it is just an opinion...but if it is wrong, it's not very far off the actual number). As I said, my high school has produced maybe 5 kids in the years I have taught that could have made it into Tech. Out of 500+ graduates.