Science and art. Since the time of da Vinci and Michelangelo, the idea of balancing the two and becoming the renaissance man has stood as the ultimate goal in the pursuit of knowledge. However, it seems that many here at Tech have lost sight of that idea.
The problem does not stem from the fact that Tech lacks its fair share of artistic outlets on campus; in fact it is far from it. Creative organizations are available to join at every corner. Many of these organizations fostered creativity and helped to establish a Tech that was synonymous with producing creative engineers. They have served as outlets for students throughout the years to express themselves in way other than equations and measurements.
For a growing majority, life at Tech has become something far from what it used to be. We have become an institution devoted to our majors with the mentality of surviving; the prevalent idea is that you have got to keep your head down, concentrate only on schoolwork and avoid anything out of the ordinary. We measure ourselves not in great ideas, but in GPAs. The fear of academic penalty has repressed our creative ambitions. The rigid class formulae that abide by do not help. Many of the engineering class here follow stringent syllabi that leave no room to be creative.
This prevailing school of thought is detrimental and hurting Tech students. Science relies on creativity for innovation, and it is the driving force behind ground-breaking ideas. We must embrace and promote our creative sides if we are to be innovators in our future fields of work.
We did not come to Tech solely for MATLAB. We came to Tech to expand knowledge in our lives in every way possible. Tech has provided multiple ways for every student to do just that, there is only so much you can learn in SynthLab, the rest is up to you.