First, it’s important to know what classes I need to take to graduate, and to create a list. When I was earlier in my degree, it was also important to consider which classes were prerequisites to which. The College of Computing has a handy list on their website. First, the core requirements are always good to have a look at; if you can knock out any of those, they’ll count if you switch majors, threads, et cetera. I always like to take at least one core req each semester if I can.

The next step in compiling your list of potentials depends on which path you’re on. If you’re on the “old system” (pre-threads) then go here to see the relevant “course plan.” If you are on threads, a study plan for your combination of threads is available here. For examining threads, I find their description pages to be relatively useful.

Now that you’ve got a list of potential classes (and for those of you on the old system, I recommend glancing at a couple threads – you may be closer to graduation that you realize), write it out simply. For example, I have this in a text file:

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
MATH 3215 – Prob/stat
LCC 3401 – Technical writing
CS 4980 Research Project or CS 4911 Studio Project
—
OLD SYSTEM
CS 2200 – Assembly/C
CS 3510 – Algorithms
CS 3240 – Languages and Computation
—
PEOPLE THREAD
PSYC2015 – Research Methods and Practices
PSYC2210 – Social Psychology
CS3790 – Introduction to Cognitive Science
+ electives?
—
THEORY THREAD
CS3510 – Algorithms
MATH4032 – Combinatorial Analysis
CS3240 Languages and Computation OR CS4510 Automata and Complexity Theory
MATH4640 Numerical Analysis OR MATH4305 Topics in Linear Algebra
+ electives?

You know how many hours you’d like to take in a semester, so now that I’ve compiled this list, you now have to pare it down to what you’d like to take this semester. Obviously, the core requirements are more important, so I’ll add all of those to my priority list. Algorithms is in both the old system and the Theory thread, so it’s probably important as well. To round out my list of potentials, I’ll toss in CS 3240 (Languages and Computation), CS3790 (Intro to Cognitive Science), and PSYC2210 (Social Psychology) as they might fill in my schedule better than some of the core classes may. At this point you should also consult the prerequisite chart as it may limit what you can take. A class higher up the prereq food chain should be taken earlier on to broaden your options later in your degree.

My short list is now the following:

PROPOSED FALL SCHEDULE
MATH 3215 OR MATH/ISYE/CE 3770 – Prob/stat
LCC 3401 – Technical writing
CS 3510 – Algorithms
CS 4980 Research Project or CS 4911 Studio Project
OTHER POSSIBLE CLASSES
CS 3240 – Languages and Computation
CS3790 – Introduction to Cognitive Science
PSYC2210 – Social Psychology

At this point I like to fire up my favorite calendar application; I am most experienced with MS Outlook and Google Calendar, although I am sure others will work just as well. I like to go to OSCAR and look up all of the available times for each of the classes on my list and put them all on a calendar. I find using different colors important; in Google, this means using multiple calendars, and in Outlook this simply means changing the category for the event.

It is also at this time that you may wish to compile a list of available professors and ask around to your friends/mentors/advisors about them. They may not know, or they may have strong opinions on a professor. You should also check SGA Course Critique for class GPAs and feedback. Be especially cautious of classes with low GPAs (obviously) and high drop rates (not as obvious). It’s also helpful to Google the professor to find their website. Also be wary of the course feedback if the number of respondents is significantly less than number of students that took the class. Be concerned if they don’t have one, and be concerned if it’s difficult to read or hasn’t been updated since 1994.

So, I’ll show you how my calendar is doing; by the way, Fall 2009 starts on Monday, August 17, 2009.

It’s pretty crowded, but I can easily see some ways to weed it down. First, the different colors let me pick out which blocks belong to which classes. I really want to take algorithms, so I’ll copy that to my main calendar (Google) or change the color to my “normal” calendar color (Outlook). Next I had a certain statistics professor recommended to me, so I’ll copy his block to my main calendar and hide all the other ones of that class by hiding that Google calendar. Using this process of elimination, I arrive at a fairly good schedule for me:

I don’t actually intend to take all of those classes, though. It is always nice to have a few backups handy in case one of the classes you intend to take fills up before your time ticket begins. Once you’re satisfied with your list, look up each of the CRN numbers so that as soon as your time ticket opens, you can register for all of these classes at once.

Many symbols represent Tech to its students and the world at large, but none as well as our favorite black-and-yellow striped Buzz. Our loveable mascot resembles an anthropomorphized yellow jacket, complete with white gloves and stylish black Converse high tops.

Back in the 1890s, the term “yellow jackets” was used to describe Tech’s fans, who would literally wear yellow jackets to sporting events. On October 29, 1905, Coach John Heisman told the Atlanta Constitution to refer to Tech’s teams as the Yellow Jackets instead of the variety of names they’d gone by before, which included “Blacksmiths,” “Techity Techs” and “Tech Boys.”

Buzz as we know him today is a relatively recent development, though. According to a 2004 letter to the editor in the Alumni Association’s Tech Topics magazine, Judi McNair was the original inventor of Buzz. In 1972, she donned a homemade yellow jacket costume and performed at “a couple of the home football games,” rode on the Ramblin’ Wreck and was in the 1972 Blueprint.

Apparently without knowledge of Judi McNair’s costume or experience, another student performed a similar feat a few years later. In 1979, Richie Bland paid $1,400 to a costume designer at Six Flags to make a yellow jacket costume. The first appearance of this new-and more expensive-Buzz was at a pep rally before the Tennessee game that year. Bland didn’t ask anyone for permission, but he managed to get away from security and ran onto the football field; most people assumed it was just part of the act. By the following spring, Buzz was part of the cheerleading team and the school’s official (human) mascot.

In 1981 Bland passed on his Buzz duties to his friend Jeff Cooper, who invented the process to audition potential Buzzes and recruited a second Buzz because “there was so much to do.”

Other traditions have developed since then. The current Buzz does pushups at football games, one for every point scored by Tech. Buzz is also known for the “Buzz Flip,” a front flip sometimes considered to be his trademark move. Buzz has parachuted onto the field before, and conducts the Tech band for the Budweiser song.

In 1985, Buzz inspired the now-familiar Buzz logo, initially designed by Mike Lester. There have been a few disputes involving the name and logo since then. The most notable of these came when Tech and the Salt Lake Buzz, a minor league baseball team in the Pacific Coast League, were engaged in a trademark dispute from 1996 to 2001. In the end, the courts declared Tech the winner, ordered the Salt Lake Buzz to use a different name and awarded Tech $600,000.

Buzz has also participated in numerous mascot competitions, with some interesting results. After Sports Illustrated (SI) named UGA IV America’s best collegiate mascot in 1997, Access Atlanta (an online arm of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) created a poll to verify SI’s results. A student posted about the poll on Tech’s newsgroups, and several students worked to make sure Buzz won this time. In the end, Buzz reigned supreme with 162,297 of 243,080 votes, while UGA IV was left in the dust with a mere 9,091 votes.

The 1997 Technique joked that “some Bulldogs must have voted for Buzz.” Tech’s winged mascot has also competed in the Capital One Mascot Challenge, earning around 500,000 votes and tying with seven other mascots for fifth place. In 2004 and 2006, Buzz placed second in the Mascot National Competition in Daytona, Florida.

Buzz may not be as old as the Ramblin’ Wreck, but he’s every bit as much of a mascot and one of Tech’s most nationally known traditions. Whether he’s crowd-surfing over the SWARM or riding in his ramblin’ go-cart, everybody loves Buzz.

Background

Shortly after I decided to change majors from Computer Engineering to Computer Science, I wrote this explanation of my intent, and included some problems I felt caused the change. First, though, a quick education in Georgia Tech’s organization: it is composed of six “colleges,” two of which are the College of Engineering and the College of Computing. The college of Engineering has several schools that are loosely integrated; the schools all have relative independence, and act as somewhat independent entities (as far as students are concerned) that happen to be categorized into “Engineering.” My old degree, “Computer Engineering” (abbreviated CmpE) was in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in the College of Engineering. The College of Computing, on the other hand, is tightly integrated; while it also has three “schools,” they are more organizational in nature. For reference, the College of Computing is about the size (in both numbers of faculty and students) of two or three “schools” within the College of Engineering.

Everyone thinks about changing majors at some point in their academic career. You wonder if you’d be happier/smarter/better in this school or that one; find you can’t handle a certain curriculum, or learn something about yourself that causes you to take a different path. For me, that time came this past spring semester. I decided that my current degree path wasn’t what I expected when I attended FASET oh so long ago. There were several reasons, and the decision was an agonizing one. Now, don’t take this editorial as an attack on the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, because there are many good things the school has to offer, especially their impressive Professional Communications Program. Rather, consider it a series of suggestions.

Work experience

I really liked my (now former) school, but the reasons I wanted to switch were complex and, in my opinion, represented deeper difficulties than one or two poorly taught classes could explain. In fact, a quick brainstorm shows about six separate reasons that (to me, at least) justified the change. I’ll start out with the easiest one-being a co-op taught me how to program, and how to design programs. It showed me a skill that I didn’t know existed, and it’s something that I enjoyed then, enjoyed today, and will enjoy doing tomorrow. In my opinion, designing programs and working on more established code bases are fun, as long as you don’t need to touch COM.

Poor teaching

Now, this next reason isn’t a cop-out, but I had a poor teacher along the way. I’m not going to say who, or what subject, but I knew more about that basic ECE subject before I started the class than when I completed it. I don’t know how that happened, but it did. It was ultimately the underlying reason that made me consider a major change. How could it have been fixed, though? In my opinion, the ECE department needs to follow the model they have been using with DSP and turn 50-student classes into large lecture classes. Since all students need to learn the same things, it makes sense to give them the same (high-quality) education, and employ other professors on hand as section TAs. That way, the basic education each student receives is the product of multiple professors.

Attractive culture

Aside from teaching, there’s a culture difference between the School of ECE and the COC. As far as I can tell, the COC is nicer. Difficult subjects are taught more humanely. Not that the COC is perfect, but the vibe the school gives off is a more positive one. The dimly lit halls of the Van Leer building can’t hold a candle to the bright corridors of the buildings associated with the COC, especially the Klaus building. Also consider the scope of each; the College of Computing is a college, and contains several schools devoted to related topics. The School of ECE is a School, and is therefore more limited in the academic freedom available to them. They’re grouped in with all of the other types of engineering, whereas the COC is free to think of inventive programs.

Reorganization?

Organizationally, it would make more sense if the School of ECE was placed under the College of Computing, and the curricula were integrated. It’s a huge change, but consider that a student should be able to pick a point along a spectrum that ranges from computational media to pure software to pure hardware, and take classes accordingly. Consider it an extension of the COC’s interesting “threads” program, for which there is no ECE equivalent. Furthermore, the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering is lacking on the “computer” side of things. Anyone who has spent time majoring in CmpE (or at least studying the recommended curriculum) knows that there is virtually no difference between EE and CmpE at the lower levels. I’ve been told that they differ around the fifth year; however, a good education in computer engineering, in my opinion, should be a synthesis of CS and EE concepts rather than an EE degree with a different name. A merger with the COC would solve those problems and more.

I don’t doubt that such a merger has been proposed before, and I don’t doubt that it won’t happen while I’m a student here. However, it is a needed change. I don’t doubt that having them separate holds some benefit or another, but are these supposed benefits so important that you would put them before my education? I started out as a happy Computer Engineer, and through several paths, learned that I was actually an unhappy Computer Scientist. What, other that intangible organizational boundaries, really separates an engineer from a scientist?

Tech’s mechanical mascot is no mere vehicle. The Ramblin’ Wreck, a 1930 Ford Model A, is a piece of history and an icon for the Yellow Jackets. That said, many Jacket fans don’t know much, if any, of the details or history behind the beloved vehicle, which leads the football team onto the field for every game and serves as a symbol of Tech’s industrial roots.

In 1916, Tech’s Dean of Men Floyd Field purchased his first car, a 1914 Ford Model T. Field drove the car extensively to and from class from 1916 to 1929; he even drove this first car as far as California to attend academic seminars. The vehicle was metallic black, and had a mysterious black box fastened to its rear. Initially dubbed “Floyd’s Flubber,” his car became known as the “Ramblin’ Reck.”

Eventually, Field felt limited by his Model T and discarded it (much to students’ disappointment) in favor of a newer model in 1928. To commemorate his former Model T, Field started an “Old Ford Race” from Atlanta to Athens in 1929 that was nicknamed the “Flying Fliver Race.” However, Tech administration deemed the race unsafe for students in 1932. A more peaceful parade of contraptions was organized by the relatively new Yellow Jacket Club in an event known as the Wreck Parade. Established in 1930, the Yellow Jacket Club would later change its name to the Ramblin’ Reck Club (RRC) in 1945.

In the 1950s, Dean of Student Affairs Jim Dull noticed Tech students’ fascination with classic cars. At that time, fraternities each had house Ramblin’ Wrecks to display their school spirit; in fact, it was a campus rite for a student to own a Wreck of some sort. Consequently, Dull decided the school needed an official Ramblin’ Wreck.

Dull searched across the country for the perfect Wreck, even using newspaper ads and radio commercials to find an appropriate vehicle.

In autumn of 1960, Jim Dull found the car he had been looking for right outside his apartment in Towers Hall. It was a Ford Model A owned by Ted Johnson, Atlanta’s chief Delta Airlines pilot. Johnson had purchased the scrapped car from a junkyard in 1956 and restored it with his son Craig in 1958. On May 26, 1961, the Athletic Association purchased the car for 1,000 dollars; the next day, students from the RRC picked it up.

On Sept. 30, 1961, the Ramblin’ Wreck was driven onto Grant Field for the first time before a game against Rice University, and the RRC president explained the car’s story in front of 43,501 fans. The Wreck saw its first away game on Nov. 18, 1961. In 1987, the Alumni Association gave the car to the Institute for free, and in 1992, Dean Dull retired, leaving the Wreck under the exclusive care of the Ramblin’ Reck Club.

Aside from the recent accident, the Wreck has had a few other incidents as well. In 1962, Tennessee Volunteer fans broke into the Wreck’s storage area in Neyland Stadium and painted it orange. In 1968, the Wreck swerved to avoid a drunken student after a pep rally and hit a telephone pole. That same year, an angry Auburn fan shot the Wreck’s radiator with a rifle after the Jackets won a game against Auburn.

The Wreck has been to 290 consecutive home football games and numerous cities in 12 states and Washington, D.C. Since the Wreck drove onto the field Sept. 30, 1961, Tech football has gone 184-102-4 at home. The car has also had a few facelifts since its acquisition from Ted Johnson. In 1982, Hapeville Ford Plant Manager and Tech alum Pete George completed notable restoration work on the Wreck, which was followed by more work in 2000 by the RRC.

The Wreck’s driver is elected by the RRC every November. There have been 42 Reck Drivers since 1961 out of over 100,000 Tech graduates.

To put Tech’s automotive mascot in perspective, remember that UGA is on its sixth (non-human) mascot. Tech is still on its first, or second if you count Floyd Field’s Model T. It will take far more than a fender bender to unmake the legacy that is our beloved Ramblin’ Wreck.

Anyone at Tech can recognize its fight song, the “Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech.” Its catchy tune, brazen lyrics and rich history make it as much a part of Tech life and tradition as Buzz and stealing the T. But where does the song come from?

Its history starts with the old drinking song “Son of a Gambolier,” a lament to one’s own poverty. The song was popular long before Tech opened; the earliest college to adopt it was Dickson College in the 1850s, which modified it to reference their college bell with the lines

I wish I had a barrel of rum
and sugar three hundred pounds,
The college bell to mix it in,
The clapper to stir it round.”

The Colorado School of Mines adapted it in the late 1870s, naming it “The Mining Engineer” and singing

“Like every honest fellow,
I take my whisky clear,
I’m a rambling wreck from Golden Tech,
a helluva engineer.”

Many other colleges adopted it as well, but no version is as close to the “Ramblin’ Wreck” as “The Mining Engineer.” Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute wrote “Son of Old R.P.I” in 1895, singing

“Like every honest fellow,
I drink my whiskey clear,
I’m a moral wreck from the Polytech
And a hell of an engineer.”

Also in 1895, Charles Ives, the first uniquely American composer, wrote a melody for the song. Ives was the first uniquely American composer, and the tune was as somber as the song itself.

Then came Tech, which opened its doors to students in 1888. According to Howard D. Cutter, a member of the class of 1892, Tech’s version of the song was first sung by a student to cheer on the Engineers to victory against UGA’s baseball team in an 1890 game. The song became the school’s official fight song in 1905 and the lyrics were published in Tech’s first-ever yearbook in 1908.

Michael A. Greenblatt, Tech’s first bandmaster, heard the band playing the fight song to Charles Ives’ tune and wrote the first arrangement and score of the song around 1912. Greenblatt’s successor, Frank Roman, wrote and copyrighted a new adaptation for the song that included trumpet flourishes. Roman’s version, or something close to it, is the song that Tech students know and love.

The new song then enjoyed great popularity and a meteoric rise to fame. In 1920, then-student Arthur Murray organized the world’s first radio dance, which featured the “Ramblin’ Wreck.” In 1925, the Columbia Gramophone Company began selling a recording of Tech songs which included “Ramblin’ Wreck.” The song became “immensely popular” according to sources; it gained incredible fame when Tech’s Glee Club sung it on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1953.

As impressive as that was, it was even more amazing when it was sung by vice president Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev to ease tension at their 1959 meeting in Moscow. Nixon didn’t know any Russian songs, but Khrushchev knew “Ramblin’ Wreck” from the Ed Sullivan Show. The song has also appeared in other places: Tim Holt sang it in His Kind of Woman (1951); John Wayne whistled it in The High and the Mighty (1954); Gregory Peck sang it in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956). It was also the first school fight song to be played in space.

In 1998, a 19-member Diversity Task Force chaired by Stephanie Ray, associate dean of students and director of Diversity Programs, proposed that changes should be made to the fight song because it discriminated against women. Faced with vocal opposition from students and alumni, however, the task force abandoned the effort.

The most recent development has been the student body’s adoption of the cheer “Fight! Win! Drink! Get naked!” at the end of the song. Relatively few Tech students know the storied history behind the fight song. The next time you pump your fist in the air while cheering for Tech sports, you’ll know more about what you’re singing.