Anonymous is a fourth-year African American student studying Marketing at Georgia Tech. She originally applied to Tech as an Industrial Engineer, but decided that she wanted to do Computer Science.
I mean really, really wanted to do Computer Science, but I just wasn’t good at it. I failed my intro CS class. Twice. After that, I tried to change my major, but my advisor insisted that I “stick with it” and reminded me that there are not enough women in STEM fields, especially women of color. She was a woman, obviously.
I didn’t feel very good here. I didn’t fit in academically. I didn’t fit in racially. It’s so easy to feel trapped coming here, and it’s not easy to change your mind and figure out how to be here and who you wanna be. GT didn’t help me find what I wanted to do. I had to do that myself.
GT is a very difficult place to thrive in. I would say there isn’t one GT culture — there’s a lot of divide. There’s a disconnect between the Liberal Arts majors and the rest of Georgia Tech. And Scheller is also so isolated from the rest of Tech. Everyone says Business is the “easy major,” we all know that. But within Scheller, there’re expectations and stereotypes, too. You’re expected to be classy, professional, a good talker, put together, made up, well-dressed with a structured resume. And everyone thinks we’re boujee. It’s like Scheller shapes you into a mold. But I’m glad I switched my major to Business. I didn’t picture myself doing this, but it was available, and I’ve learned to find things within Business that interest me and will be useful long-term.