Happy Advocare Independence Bowl!

In honor of today's Independence Bowl game, I'd like to now present this picture for your viewing pleasure.

Just kidding. Win or lose, always remember, play classy! Go Aggies and Dawgs!

Hope you all are having a fun and relaxing break!

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone a "helluva" holiday: the spirit of Georgia Tech is never too far away.

Things to do before I graduate

I know it's been a while since I updated. This past semester has been overwhelming, especially since I'm graduating this May! I was busy interviewing for jobs, studying, and trying to make the most of my time with my friends before I venture off into the professional world. Not only did I get one job offer, but two offers! I accepted one this past week and will let you all know more about the company when I find out where I will be located.

Since I'm graduating soon, I've started to reflect upon my time here at Tech and realized there are still a few things I haven't done. So I've created a list, in no particular order, of what I would like to do around campus before May inspired by the Technique's "99 things to do before you graduate". Surprisingly, I'm proud to say I've completed about 90% of that list.

Here's my list:

1. Bowl at Tech Rec.

2. Attend a club meeting for something that would not initially peak my interest.

3. Listen to WREK radio for more than an hour.

4. Figure out if the binary code on the bridge of the Klaus building really reads "The Christopher W. Klaus Advanced Computing Building" by using my awesome skills from my computer science classes.

5. Stay for an entire game of trivia at Rocky Mountain Pizza, a restaurant right off of campus.

6. Ride the water slide at the Campus Recreation Center until I get sick.

7. Steal a few "T's" off of signs on campus.

8. Eat breakfast at Junior's Grill. I've only had lunch/dinner, but never breakfast.

9. Attend an entire GT baseball game.

10. Participate in more than 5 events during Greek Week.

11. Have a chili dog at the Varsity on North Avenue.

12. Paint pottery at the Craft Center.

13. Go to this year's Sting Break concert, which is still unannounced.

14. Have a picnic on campus when the weather gets nicer.

15. Get a picture with Buzz!


If there's anything else you can suggest I do, let me know.



And I want to hear what you think! What would YOU like me to blog about next?

- Olivia K.

The Twelve Reasons I love Georgia Tech

It's kind of like the twelve days of Christmas, only not, because it's the twelve reasons why I love Georgia Tech (chronicles of Coleen's first semester). You can sing along with the same tune though. Just incase you don't know the song here is a link (CLICK ME!!!).

On the first day I came here my heart almost skipped a beat...

for our amazing football team.

On the second glance I realized what I'd seen...

people from all over, the smartest, brightest, and friendly.

At the third club meeting I went to something struck me...

there's something here for everyone, over 400 organizations, and a world of opportunity.

For my fourth day of class nothing could have prepared me...

for drawing without looking at my paper, trying to decide which pencil to use, staying awake during calculus recitation, and drinking two cups of coffee.

The fifth person I talked to...

Well, I can't actually remember their name, making tons of friends, staying up late, eating food at brittain, and joining a sorority.

The sixth time I said this it really hit me...

TO HELL WITH GEORGIA, that's the good word, everyone hates the bull"dawgs", they should learn to spell, I bleed white and gold, and Georgia Tech is in for a victory.

By the seventh week of school my alarm clock failed me...

I would jump out of bed, take a two minute shower, brush my teeth, brush my hair, put on my shoes, grab my keys, and run up the hill to class.

It was then I realized that 8ams...

did not work everyday of the week, next semester is different, that won't happen, I've learned my lesson, 10am Monday/Wednesday/Friday, hopefully that will work, more sleep!, I hope I wake up, and I will be setting 15 alarms to wake me.

On the ninth day I heard someone calling to me...

free pizza here, free pizza there, come to our meeting, here take our flyer, look at our chalking, walk by fast, sorry I've got class, wait you've got t-shirts, and oh my goodness skiles walkway.

Late one night at 10pm I was in the library...

What was I doing there?, called the stingerette, they picked me up, took me to my dorm, midweek motivational munchies, I love brownies, talking to my hallmates, not doing homework, and the best part is they are all free.

On the 11th day of brittain's dessert bar I decided something...

I need to go to the CRC, I ran on the treadmill, climbed up the stair-master, biked on the bikes, lifted weights, until I got an injury, I went next door, got an x-ray, the doctor said your fine, and I'm just glad it wasn't the flu.

You've heard my twelve reasons why Tech is so great...

so you should apply, it's not too late, the deadline is January 15th, you will fit right in, please take note, of my song, then you should sing along, have a great break, don't procrastinate, remember to apply, and as always leave your questions and comments.

Early Notification decisions released today!

Brandon Phillips, Tiffany McLean and Nancy Estes in the phone room!

Today was the long awaited day. The day every GT applicant who applied by November 1st has been waiting for. Today was Early Notification for Round 2.

This year, all of our application process- from reading to notification- as gone online.

Consequently, I don't have any cool pictures of files to show you, but I do have something better! This afternoon, when they were done making admissions decisions, once they had double and triple checked, they came to answer the admissions office phones. It was a special treat for the applicants who called to have their questions answered right away. It was also great fun for the counselors to get a chance to hear directly from the applicants who were admitted how excited they were.

By Nov 1st, we had about 6,900 applications and for all of the students who applied to GT by November 1st, (That's EN round 1 and EN round 2) we accepted a little fewer than 59% of the applicants. Less than 5% were denied and the remainder were deferred until March. If you were deferred, that does not mean that you won't be accepted in March. However, if DOES mean that we are going to be taking a closer look at your 1st semester grades, as well as the entire committee will be discussing your application again.

Remember, being deferred is NOT the same as being denied! Breathe deeply, and keep doing your best in school. Besides, if you are accepted to Georgia Tech, NO ONE is going to care whether you were admitted in December or March. Don't worry, Don't Stress! It will all work out for the best!

Get in my belly [/it's about time for another post]

SCHOOOOLLL'S out for winter (break)...

and I have been really slack about updating you (the blogosphere/facebook) about the happenings around campus and my life as a tech student (that sort of has a nice reality tv show ring to it, doesn't it?). I apologize for the delay, spending pretty much all of dead week (and the week before) preparing for my exercise 3 review kind of took the majority of my time away, but have no fear, this bloggette, is dare I say, PACKED FULL OF WONDERFUL-ness. 

First of all, you may be wondering about the strange title. Needless to say, it does have a point. It happened to be my first thought when I saw this beautiful specimen of gingerbread man sitting on the counter at Brittain's holiday dinner.

You should believe me when I say that going to Brittain that night was one of the best choices of my college career thus far. Not only did they have huge, delicious gingerbread men, they also had chocolate covered strawberries, apple crepes, cinnamon belgium waffles on a stick, apple cider, and a full hot line of the best food you will ever lay your hands on in college, and it only happens one night a year. I'm not the only one who took advantage of this either, the dining hall was full! 

Earlier that night, actually around 12 am, I took in a deep breath and let out my first midnight scream on the balcony of the architecture building. This is a long-standing tech tradition that allows students to relieve stress in a fun way and get back to studying/ work. I heard screams from all across campus! Two hours later I was finally finished with my four day long stretch of working non-stop to make sure that everything for final review was exactly how it was supposed to be. It was the proudest I had ever been of my work in studio.

 My fun doesn't even stop there! Friday night, my PL (Peer Leader) took some of us on my hallway (those of us that weren't in review sessions or studying) and some friends of our hallway to go ice skating at Centennial Olympic park, which is only a 10 to 15 minute walk away. 

This concludes your daily dose of blogging excitement! Enjoy your break and GO JACKETS!

Girl Power(ed)!

Today my office was full of the hustle and bustle that comes with the week before finals. Tour guides coming and going, recently aquired tour guides signing up for their time slots for next semester, returning guides making sure that they had no conflicts with their tour times, and finals next week. ...and of course, Women's Recruitment Team members coming in every hour on the hour to help send out FUTURES invitations.

The Women's Recruitment Team is a group of current student volunteers who help GT show prospective girls how AWESOME Georgia Tech is, especially for girls. (I need not bore you with all the wonderful reasons GT is great, but surprisingly, some people, especially girls, don't realize just how awesome a place Georgia Tech can be.)

So, while the ladies were helping stuff envelopes full of invitations for 10th and 11th grade women to visit campus- I took pictures. Enjoy!

*For more information of the FUTURES program and Girl's Night Out, please click the links!

Connect With Tech!

Tonight, after work, I went out to dinner with some pretty cool GT kids. We went to Ray's Pizza, a restaurant in Tech Square that sells- you guessed it- PIZZA!

The students were all Connect With Tech hosts. Connect with Tech is an overnight program designed to allow high school juniors and seniors to experience what it is like to be a GT student for a day. Visiting students stay with a GT student in their residence hall or fraternity or sorority house, eat on campus, attend a class, take a tour of a GT lab, and talk to GT staff and academic advisors while they are on campus. The program is very successful not only because Georgia Tech is a great place to learn, but also because our students are some of the best students in the world.

Tonight, we took a moment to say"Thanks", by springing for a few slices of pizza and a few glasses of soda. We know it isn't much, but we wanted to express our sincere and deep appreciation for all that our Connect With Tech hosts do for Georgia Tech.

The students looked like they had a GREAT time, and they stayed long after I departed. If you are interested in visiting Georgia Tech, or qualify to attend Connect with Tech, why not come and see for yourself how many wonderful opportunities Georgia Tech could offer you.

This year, I'm giving the final!

Pencils down everyone. Tests up!

Just kidding.

This semester, I've been co-teaching with my friend Priya one of the freshman seminar classes - GT1000, and tonight, we're writing the class final. If any of you have the great fortune of taking this class (which you should!), it's basically a 1-credit hour class that teaches you necessary skills and facts about Tech, college life, involvement, and the world beyond. It's not always like a real class. Rather, ours is pretty fun.

Here are some pictures from last week when we went over pre

sentation skills. We decided to jazz it up a little and make the presentation topics about campus resources, extracurricular activities, Tech trivia, and other fun stuff and decided to range the presentation styles from skits to songs to pictures.

The Powerpoint group going over campus activities.

The skit group going over campus resources.

Anyways, finals time! Peace out!

'Tis the Season for family

Happy December! I hope everyone had a very restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving Break. I know that our whole staff was ready for a few days off. After a fall full of travel for recruitment, and then the early notification decisions being made and sent out (although not exactly the way we had intended:)), we definitely enjoyed watching football (some games more than others), eating a lot and heading home or welcoming family to our houses.
It's always interesting at this time of year to hear various stories about family dynamics. It seems that no matter how old you get sibling rivalries and squabbles easily revert back to childhood. My sister and I had a disagreement (moderately stated) about who was going to sleep in which bed. Even in the middle of the argument, I had the thought that the entire circumstance was ridiculous. With a friend, coworker, etc. I would have simply conceded, laughed it off, and moved on. However, with my sister this was war-- I could not show weakness and therefore acted like a total jerk. (Plus, I was right!) You'll be glad to know, I am sure, that we made up and laughed about it the next day.
Returning from the mountains where my parents live to Atlanta, I had a conversation on the phone with a friend of mine who told me a similar experience he had with his parents on Thanksgiving Day. "I can't believe they are trying to control this situation like I am 16 again-- I have kids of my own!"he exclaimed in bemusement. But he quickly followed that by acknowledging it's only because they love him that they care and want to "help."

Perhaps it's because I love my job that this quickly made me start thinking about College Admissions. Each year I probably do 5-6 parents programs geared toward giving tips to students and parents about "navigating the admission process." The questions always revolve around how parents can help without controlling the process- and how students can involve their parents without letting them dominate.
Although the vast majority of our blog readers and Facebook fans are students, we do have some parents also on this forum. I hope you'll find some wisdom in these tips:

Parents--
#8- Commit to supporting your student through this process. You can relieve a lot of the stress of the college search by focusing on the student. The prize is your kid- not the school they get admitted to. Ask where they are going to be most successful; are going to grow the most; and are going to truly be happy. Differentiate your wants/desires from theirs.

#7- Make a promise to your student to discuss his/her college applications and acceptances with him/her, the school counselor and admission officers. Help the student understand this will not be discussed with friends at work or at cocktail parties in the Holiday Season.

#6- Let the student do all of the work. That includes completing the applications, meeting deadlines, making appointments at colleges, setting up interviews…whatever needs to be done.
We receive the majority of calls from parents- not students. The most compelling calls or emails though, by far, are those that come from students who want to advocate for themeselves, or inquire about a campus visit, etc.

#5- Have a cards-on-the-table conversation with your student about any limits to the college search, i.e. financial or geographic limits--or irrational rivalry issues. "No son of mine is going to xxU."

#4- Celebrate the joys that come during this process. Take your student out to dinner when an acceptance letter arrives. Buy a sweatshirt when the college choice is made.

#3- Insist that the student applies to at least 4 schools. (There is more than one good fit and no perfect school.)

#2- If possible, go on a separate college tour from the student. This allows you to ask your questions, plus it provides good food for conversation on the ride home.

#1- Watch your pronouns. If you find yourself saying things like "We just took the SAT” or “Our application will be there in the next two days,” then perhaps you should take a walk to regain balance and perspective.

And, as always, remind your kids you love them. That's why you care enough to be involved and support them through the college search and decision.

When we got home on Saturday, I took my 19 month old son, A.J., for a walk. He's really pushing to run now- and it's both terrifying and thrilling. He will pick up speed, esp. on a hill, and then simply tumble over; he wants to climb up the slide; he is trying to hurl himself out of his crib like a gymnast. I have realized that he's better off stumbling sometimes-- not doing it perfectly-- and figuring his way through this chapter. Just being there to support and guide is tough as a parent. But, in the end, they always land on their feet. I take solace in this in my job, because year in and year out,I see kids come to Tech or choose other schools-- and they always find their way.

I hope you and your families have a great Holiday Season together.

Rick