How to survive GT AE

Congrats!! You're on track to be a helluva aerospace engineer. Regardless of how long you’ve been here (or plan to stay), hopefully these tips will help you out.

This advice was collected from recent GT Aerospace graduates who worked at the AMS:

“Find a study group. Honestly one of the best support systems I had in classes was having a friend or group of friends to work with. It challenges you to think harder, but also allows you to ask others for help, as well as allows you to pool your resources together.”

“Go to lectures lol. There’s always something you can pick up from lecture, even if you go and casually listen”

“Don’t be scared to try something new or join a group even if it seems unrelated to your major! You may even end up meeting incredible people and even finding career opportunities that you didn’t know were available!”

“It’s better to take a class late with a good professor or with friends than take a class early alone. Having friends to do homework with or a good professor to explain hard topics makes even the toughest classes feel more manageable”

“Go to office hours and get to know your professors. If you apply to grad school, chances are you will need 3 letters of recommendation and those connections with professors will be so helpful. Plus, they give great advice in general”

“Join a club related to engineering and a club or activity for fun. The technical club will look great on the resume and teach you lots, and the fun club will keep you sane. The AMS counts for both categories :)”

Some other miscellaneous advice:

• Use course critique for choosing professors

• Take Jet Pro (AE 4451) right after Thermodynamics (AE 2010)

• Join AIAA

• If you’re allowed a crib sheet, write out example problems and how to solve them

• Be confident, not arrogant

• Network early and often!

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions

  • Someone else in the room will always be wondering the same thing

Special thank you to the following alumni for their contributions:

Raghu Bharadwaj, BSAE ‘24, Javier Pratdesaba BS-ChBE ‘24, Paula Delfin BSAE ‘24, Ashish Cavale BSAE ‘24

Advice from current AMS mentors:

Especially in the first couple years, most classes will have a GroupMe (if not, make one). Having a place to chat with your classmates, whether it’s “we all failed that exam, right?”, “can anyone help explain this concept from the lecture?”, or just for good memes (see exhibit A) is huge.

Here are some of our favorite GroupMe memes from the first couple years of undergrad:

Be a goldfish!

The idea is that goldfish have an extremely short memory (shoutout Ted Lasso, go watch the show). Letting go of mistakes and setbacks quickly and focusing on the task at hand will go a long way. In the context of challenging projects, tough exams, or failed experiments, it’s essential to have a short memory for failures. Instead of dwelling on errors, learn from them, adjust your approach, and move forward with a positive attitude. Don’t let one exam ruin others, failing is a crucial part of learning. Doing poorly in one class won’t destroy you, but a bad attitude can ruin your trajectory.

Lastly…

The people in GTAE are genuinely some of the most intelligent, hardworking, kind people I’ve ever met. Take advantage of the time you have with them. Learn from them, get to know them, and have fun!!!