Happy New Year!

I found this image online... Pensacola FL is ready to bring in the New Year with their "Pelican" drop. My hometown celebrates with a "Beach Ball" drop. New York culminates their festivities with the famous Ball Drop. People everywhere are anticipating the turning of a new decade.

This is just one of the reasons I'm excited about returning to Georgia Tech. I'll get to hear friends tell stories of their New Year's Eve, and learn how everyone celebrated differently. It's amazing how so many different people from all across the country and all across the world can come together cohesively and creat the community that is Georgia Tech. It is an incredible feeling to know I belong to such a community.

But for now...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

May your new year be filled with wonderful times... You High School Seniors are going to be celebrating something new this year. (:

Cheers!
-KMJ

Wow- Time flies!

Christmas break is almost over! There's only one week left until we return to our books, our rooms, and all our Tech friends.

In a way, it's odd to be home. It feels perfectly natural, but Georgia Tech seems like a dream. Did I really just finish my first semester of college? No way! My life at home is nothing like my life at Tech... the lives are completely separate, almost individual.

I've spent my weeks just chilling and relaxing...rejuvenating. Finals came rushing upon me my last days at Tech and I spent them buried in my books, frantically studying, hoping and praying that my work paid off. (It did! I am extremely satisfied with my grades.) Thus, when the time arrived for me to return home for break, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

How did I relax? Well...

-I have read eleven books since I've been home. (Yes, you read that right. Eleven (11). I happen to enjoy reading.)

-I slept way more than I ever had in my life. (No alarm clock... just gentle sunlight and the incessant nose of my puppy, searching for my neck, face, and other vulnerable spots, urging me to wake up and pay attention.)

-I have spent quality time with my family. (Homemade dinners? Yum! Especially on Christmas!)

-I've watched my favorite Christmas movies and seen a couple new ones at the theater. (Have you seen Tangled yet? It's awesome!)

-I caught up with all my friends and hung out with them several times. (We had our annual Christmas party... so much fun!)

I know some of my friends are absolutely eager to return to their respective colleges, chaffing at the restrictions of home...returning to the nest, under the watchful eye of the parents. It's an adjustment, that's for sure, but I'm definitely content to spend a few nights under their roof. It's so nice to be home. However, that does not stop me from feeling the stirrings of anticipation for returning to Tech...for my SECOND semester of college. (I just cannot get over that.)

I don't want to make this entry too long, so I'll save my exciting news about books for next semester for another post. (:

Enjoy your break!! And if you're going into your last semester of high school... take this time to inhale a deep breath-- you're entering a very climatic time of your life. Have fun! (:

--Kyle Marie Jacobsen

PS... Sorry for the lack of pictures. I have to facts: 1) My computer died and I lost a lot of information, including pictures... and 2) Santa gave me a new camera for Christmas! (So I'll try to make up for it later.)

Happy Holidays

Hello! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is enjoying their winter break. This year, Georgia had a white Christmas!

I have been spending the winter break catching up tv shows, sleeping, reading, and spending money (on a camera). :)

White Christmas!

Happy holidays and merry Christmas Georgia Tech. To all of you out of staters, Georgia gets snow and it actually isn't that rare. Take a look, this picture was taken the morning of the 25th!



The winter holidays are a great time to splurge. I broke my bank these past few days.

Why your senior year counts...

As the holidays approach and exams come to a close, it's always a good time to reflect on the last year and look forward to the new one. I am sure many of you have already started thinking about new year's resolutions and have visions about what 2011 will bring.

In our office, we have been furiously reviewing freshman applications in order to make decisions on the first and second rounds. On December 17, any freshman applicant who applied in the month of October will have an admission decision via Buzzport.

If you were admitted in Early Action or you receive an acceptance online Dec. 17, Congratulations!
We have again set a record for the number of apps this year. And the quality and diversity of talented and interesting students continues to amaze me. You should be extremely proud of being offered admission to Tech and I sincerely hope you will choose to enroll. Instead of going shopping, why not Deposit Today?!
I am writing this post to tell you to keep your foot on the proverbial gas. Not only do we expect you to maintain the work level you have set to this point (and unlike Santa we check grades once your final hs transcript comes out), but you will be far better prepared when you arrive on campus. I would highly recommend not dropping down a level in a course or choosing not to complete a sequence. In other words, if you think you might make a B in AP Bio or BC Calc this Spring-- stick with it and work hard.

If you are deferred admission until March:
Due to the number of applications we have received, and expect to receive prior to January 15, we always defer some very talented students who are ultimately admitted in March. It is critical that you have done well this fall, as we look closely at the deferred supplement form that we'll send out on Feb. 1 via email and Buzzport. Again, I want to urge you to stick with the tough classes and work hard until the end of the year. Georgia Tech and other schools will be checking progress as we look to round out our incoming freshman classes.

If you are senior who has not yet applied:
Get off Facebook or Blog sites and click here. If you have any questions about why you should apply to Tech, call 404.894-4154 and one of our amazing students will give you a few good reasons.

If you are a junior or hs underclassmen: Read each scenario from above and learn from your elders. Junior year is by far the most important in your high school record. We look at the rigor of your coursework and your grade trends. The courses you select within your school are critical to being competitive for admission at Georgia Tech.

If you are still reading and want to see a cool video, check out this one. What's amazing about Georgia Tech's majors and focus is that in all facets of this year in review, we are leading the way-- technology enhancements, development of international policy, commitment to improving the overall human condition, biomedical and nanotechnology advancements, humanitarian outreach, and global economic partnerships.
At Georgia Tech, we are excited about all that 2011 holds and how we can work to improve our world in the year ahead.

Happy Holidays. I hope you have a restful break and great time with your family and friends.

Go Jackets!
Rick

Surviving finals

Despite the years of experience and the many times I've said "next time I'll prepare earlier", there's something about finals that always feels completely awful. This is my third to last round of finals ever in my undergraduate career, and it's still as dreadful as the first time in freshman year.

My finals don't start until Thursday, but it's been a non-stop study session for the last week, with days and nights spent in my little secret study spot on campus (it's nice and quiet and coffee is plentiful).

The amount of trees I've killed still makes me unhappy, but alas, it's a sacrifice I have to make!

Here are some tips that have helped me get through the finals rush, and hopefully will help you too.

1. Find a study spot on campus

The Library, the Student Center, academic buildings. There's a plethora of places to study on and off campus. Make sure you get there early though, because good study spots are hard to come by. Study in a place that you will be most effective. For example, I can not study anywhere near my apartment, or I fall asleep. Thus, I study in the Management building, far far away from where I will feel drowsy.

1. Start early and talk to all your resources

This is a hard one, but START EARLY. It will help you SO MUCH and reduce that amounts of all-nighters you have to pull. Not to mention, if you understand all of the information early enough, this gives you time to review issues you have with professors and TAs! You will thank yourself later for this.

1. Find different ways to motivate yourself and keep your spirits up

Who says finals can't be fun? I like to study with a group of friends (who I know I can concentrate and not be distracted with) and we come up with fun activities to do every few hours to keep ourselves motivated. Sometimes we bring fruit to snack and chat while working (we call it "Clementine Time"... or rather I call it that). Personally, I like to spice up my study playlist every so often by mixing it up with a song like "All I Do is Win" by DJ Khaled or "Evacuate the Dance Floor" by Cascada. That way, I can keep myself awake. Besides, I like to remind myself that all I do is win, win, win no matter what.

It's Finals Week!

You guessed it. It's that time of the semester again!

It's a slightly weird feeling being nearly done--the past 4 semesters (especially this one!) have flown by so quickly. It just seems like yesterday that I moved in to my current apartment in West campus!

Luckily, this semester I only have three finals--my one class, Creative Design, ended in mid-November, and another class focusing on alternative energy technologies had a large final project that was due last Friday in lieu of a test. The bad thing is that all three exams are in difficult classes: Differential Equations, Numerical Methods, and Dynamics. It's study time!

-Joshua

Sometimes it just doesn't make sense...

I pride myself for being a logical creature; I hate thinking about things that make me upset or bring me down. I know that a second wasted on irrational emotions or anything unproductive is a second that could have been used to enjoy life or to become better.

This past Sunday, I auditioned for the dance crew that I dedicated myself to this past semester and on the following Monday, I received an email letting me know that I was not needed or wanted back on the team (I know you all are thinking that my audition just went poorly, but please trust me when I say that I put in quite of bit of effort for the audition and if that isn't enough, my ex teammate made it back on the team with no audition and no questions asked). It hurt. Having choreographed 2 of the pieces and co-choreographed some of the others, I felt that my skills were needed. In fact, I felt wanted and welcome. I never expected this traditionally Indian dance team to make me feel a part of a family. Qurbani, which means sacrifice in Arabic, thought me that the struggle was beautiful. It made me believe that through art and dance, race and skin color dissolved as we moved to one sound and one steady beat. And logically, it made no sense. I brought a fresh style to the team and the crowd and judges loved it.


Emotionally, I felt betrayed. I feel like I instantly lost a dozen family members. Forget my practical contributions to the team. I spent almost 8 hours a week practicing and preparing for competitions. These men became who I spent the most time with, and through our collective sacrifice we won 2 major competitions, both with audiences shooting over the 1000 mark. I felt proud of all of us. The rush we all collectively felt on stage was incredible and the moments we all shared together can never be reproduced.

No practical advice or words of wisdom. This post was for me, and I guess, at least for now, I will dance for only me.

Happy Belated December!

I love December. It's one of my favorite months of the year because it is so festive. Everyone, everything, everywhere is decked out in holiday cheer. Or bedecked with awesome scarves, hats, gloves, and jackets as this unusually chilly December requires. On the bright side, though on Monday the high is a mere 29 degrees Fahrenheit, there is a chance of snow flurries!! Here at Tech, we're excited. Wouldn't that be an awesome way to being finals' week? Here's to hope!

As I said, December is filled with festiveness. The dining hall has been decorated since we returned from Thanksgiving break, all fancy with red ribbons and greenery. For the past week I've meant to take a picture, but I always forgot... until tonight. Tonight was the most merry night of all. Why? Holiday dinner! Check out these pict

ures of the epic-ness:

Is it not awesome?! It was so crowded in the dining hall. The food was yummy... turkey, beef, dressing, sweet potatoes, vegetables, rolls...and desert, lots and lots of desert. So many people made it hard to wiggle around and take pictures, but I attempted. The gingerbread house was my favorite.

It's not just the dining hall that's "Tech"ing the halls, though...

Several girls in my dorm have decorated their room for the season too! Check out mine:

The lights in the window can be seen from outside! My roommate as well as the two girls in a room next to us all have lights in the window, so it looks pretty nifty when we walk back to the dorm late at night.

So some friends down the hall bought fake snow to decorate, another girl has a sticker menorah in her window. She was able to skype her parents on the first night of Hannukah when they were lighting their menorah back home. It was really sweet. Holidays are being celebrated all around campus. (:

Cheers!

--Kyle Marie Jacobsen

Merry early holidays!

Yes, I know it's early, but there's nothing wrong with a little holiday cheer!

Other than the semester coming to the end and finals quickly approaching, there's still much to be done around Tech and in the city of Atlanta. The weekend isn't even over yet, and I still feel like it's been jam packed with activity.

Friday (after a long two months straight of tests and papers every week, though luckily they were all spread out), I had not one, but two parties to attend! This isn't your average frat party of course. Omicron Delta Kappa, which is the senior leadership organization on campus, hosted its first holiday party/social. There was great food (hooray for potlucks), delicious egg nog, and plenty of holiday greeting cards to make for kids at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Not to mention, it's always great to get to know some of your other organization members better.

Afterwards, I headed over to a local restaurant/bar named RiRa's for a two friends' birthday parties. It's a great environment, especially when you are of age, with great food, drinks and dancing. Of course the night had to end early for me as the next morning...

I GOT TO BE A REINDEER!

One of Santa's best, I might add! This was my second time volunteering for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Christmas parade, arguably one of the biggest parades in Atlanta every year. I think I was Donner or Comet? In any case, the kids had fun guessing. Tech kids are incredibly involved in this parade every year, from carrying the giant balloons (GT For the Kids hosted the Cat in the Hat balloon this year) to dancing around in costumes. A group of 8 of my friends and I (who all happened to work together at some point or another in GT1000 or in our office), volunteered to be the reindeer again.

We had to wear those heavy hats and scarves for about two hours, pumping up the crowd and giving high fives to kids. They loved it. When we all walked back, we got stopped about 5 different times for pictures. If you get a Christmas card this year with a bunch of reindeer on it, chances are one of them is me. In any case, it was a whole lot of fun and a great way to give back to the community on a Saturday morning.

Back to the wonderful world of books for me! Happy holidays thus far!

-Vivian

Getting a Co-op

When I was looking at different colleges in high school, something really attracted me to Georgia Tech: Their co-op program. As someone who will be applying for a job in my field (Mechanical Engineering) in a few years, there is one thing that standard college classes cannot give me: real world experience in my field. After 4 years of classes, I'm certain I will know countless tools and formulas to get the job done. However, there's a vast difference between having those tools and actually knowing when and where to use each one to get the job done efficiently.

That's the need that the co-op program fills--while working with real companies on real projects, the goal is to gain a framework for understanding everything I'm learning at Tech. I decided, along with many of my friends I made during my freshman year, to start my search for a co-op this semester, with the goal of beginning next semester--spring 2011.

The job search started back in September with Georgia Tech's career fair, then continued through October with interviews. After all the job applications and interviews, all that's left is to wait for the call.

Waiting is the hard part--especially when other people started getting offers and filling out paperwork! October went by, then November came. Still--no offer.

Then, I got an email for an on-site interview in South Carolina. Shortly after, an offer from another company. Then, a week later, a last minute call right before Thanksgiving from a third company! Both offers were stellar, and it was incredibly difficult to decide between them, but I'll be moving to Kentucky in January to start my first term! After 4 straight semesters of classes, the change of scenery will be very welcomed--stay tuned for updates coming in January!