Welcome to Tech. The next few days, weeks and maybe even months, will be hectic, stressful, confusing and hopefully thrilling. While running from your dorm to the student center you will be attacked on Skiles. In your introductory classes you will be bombarded by knowledge and accosted by your advisors. In your dorm your PL and CA will post activities and at some point you will do homework. It will be your job to prioritize, to pick and chose whether or not to attend class, get a job, go Greek or if you should ask out that cute guy or girl in your 8 a.m. class.
Tech is full of resources to help you choose wisely, and we have listed many of them here in our issue, from student health services to tutoring options all the way down to social clubs for those of you brave enough to go out and meet new people. Email your advisor, you TA, your PL or a student leader and ask them to help you decide the best way for you to navigate Tech.
Remember though, that all of these things are your choices. Just like you chose to come here rather than go to any other university, you will choose how well you will do here academically, socially and ultimately mentally. If you take charge of the next four years of your life, Tech will give you back four years of intense education matched with unending out-of-the-lab opportunities.
Many of you have always been the top of your class, and the experience of struggling will be new. Let me go ahead and tell you, everyone will struggle in a class. Ask for help. It will save you hours of strife and frustration and will most likely save your GPA as well. Feel free to refer to our article on academic success for more pointers. Many of you will never have been in SGA, climbed a mountain, written for the paper or gone to a Holi festival. This year and the next three or four more, are your chance to do so. Try these new things with a friend, go to them with your roommate or go to them alone.
All of the opportunities that Tech offers, be it studying abroad, doing research or participating in the co-op program, going Greek, joining SGA or even just working through a long and difficult class, move you one step closer to the real world, that world that you are one step closer to living in now that you are here.
This school is an amazing opportunity, and I congratulate you on being smart enough to get in and wise enough to come here. We hope that this issue helps you navigate your first few weeks here at Tech, and maybe even the years to come. We try to include all of the information you might have forgotten since FASET, plus some that they might not have told you. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about surviving as a freshman, the Technique or Tech in general.