Georgia Institute of Technology Insignia

The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, Tech, or GT) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. It is a part of the University System of Georgia and has satellite campuses in Savannah, Georgia; Metz, France; Athlone, Ireland; Shanghai, China; and Singapore.

The educational institution was founded in 1885 as the Georgia School of Technology as part of Reconstruction plans to build an industrial economy in the post-Civil War Southern United States. Initially, it offered only a degree in mechanical engineering. By 1901, its curriculum had expanded to include electrical, civil, and chemical engineering. In 1948, the school changed its name to reflect its evolution from a trade school to a larger and more capable technical institute and research university.

Today, Georgia Tech is organized into six colleges and contains about 31 departments/units, with emphasis on science and technology. It is well recognized for its degree programs in engineering, computing, business administration, the sciences, architecture, and liberal arts.

In 1996, the campus was the site of the athletes' village and a venue for a number of athletic events for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The construction of the Olympic village, along with subsequent gentrification of the surrounding areas, enhanced the campus.

Sports: Student athletics, both organized and intramural, are a part of student and alumni life. The school's intercollegiate competitive sports teams and the four-time football national champion Yellow Jackets have helped keep Georgia Tech in the national spotlight. Georgia Tech is a member of the Coastal Division in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Georgia Tech's main campus occupies part of Midtown Atlanta, bordered by 10th Street to the north and by North Avenue to the south, placing it well in sight of the Atlanta skyline. In 1996, the campus was the site of the athletes' village and a venue for a number of athletic events for the 1996 Summer Olympics. Although a number of skyscrapers—most visibly the headquarters of AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company, and Bank of America—are visible from all points on campus, the campus itself has few buildings over four stories and has a great deal of greenery. This gives it a distinctly suburban atmosphere quite different from other Atlanta campuses such as that of Georgia State University.

Central Campus is home to the majority of the academic, research, and administrative buildings. The Central Campus includes, among others: the Howey Physics Building; the Boggs Chemistry Building; the College of Computing Building; the Klaus Advanced Computing Building; the College of Architecture Building; the Skiles Classroom Building, which houses the School of Mathematics and the School of Literature, Media and Culture; the D. M. Smith Building, which houses the School of Public Policy; and the Ford Environmental Science & Technology Building. In 2005, the School of Modern Languages returned to the Swann Building, a 100-year-old former dormitory that now houses some of the most technology-equipped classrooms on campus. Intermingled with these are a variety of research facilities, such as the Centennial Research Building, the Microelectronics Research Center, the Neely Nuclear Research Center, the Nanotechnology Research Center, and the Petit Biotechnology Building.

The Historic District of the Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as the Old Campus of Georgia Tech or the Hill District, is significant in the areas of architecture, education, engineering and science, as well as landscape architecture. The area is a Registered Historic Place and part of the central campus of Georgia Tech. Located in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States, it is roughly bounded by North Avenue on the South, Bobby Dodd Stadium, a 55,000 seat football stadium on the East, Bobby Dodd Way on the North and Cherry Street on the West.

Demographics: The student body consists of more than 20,000 graduate and undergraduate students (Fall 2010) and almost 1,000 full-time academic faculty (Fall 2009). The student body at Georgia Tech is 68% male and 32% female. Female enrollment at Georgia Tech is low. However, this is slowly changing due to the university's growing liberal arts programs and outreach programs to encourage more female high school students to consider careers in science and engineering as well as changes in the admissions process. These include the "Women In Engineering" program and sponsorship of a chapter of The Society of Women Engineers. For the fall of 2010, close to 36% of incoming freshmen were female students.

Rankings: Georgia Tech is consistently ranked among the best universities in the United States and the world. For over a decade, Georgia Tech has remained in the top ten public universities in the United States. In 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked Tech as the No. 5 engineering school. In 2012, The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked Georgia Tech 19th in the United States, 25th in the world. Its engineering program is well known, the US News magazine ranked Georgia Tech 5th in Engineering & IT nationally in 2013, and in 2012 the Times Higher Education ranked the engineering program 9th in the world.

In 2012, SmartMoney named Georgia Institute of Technology as 1st best salary returns on tuition, topping leading flagship universities such as University of Washington, University of Illinois, University of Georgia, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan and University of Virginia. Georgia Tech ranks #11 among "Best Engineering Colleges By Salary Potential" in the United States.

Source and more information:
Wikipedia article Georgia Institute of Technology

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