UGA and Tech are hard to get in for different reasons. With UGA, its the HOPE scholarship-having-georgia-high-school-seniors that you have to compete with (90% of them want to go to UGA) that make it tough (far easier to get in as an out-of-state student, I bet). With Tech (at least in the past), they have kept the admissions standards high to help combat freshman attrition and because they like the reputation/standing as a tough school.

As for the week before finals... it is called 'dead week'... but the amount of work you will have to do and the amount of finals you will have will completely depends on what classes you take and which professors teach them. If you are going into an engineering or science disclipline, then ALL your classes will have finals. The no-test-during-dead-week thing isn't a rule at all. I've had tests during dead week before, but thankfully, most professors don't do this (for varying reasons).

I have to agree with GTScoob. My mom once told me that college wasn't hard as long as you did the work and put in the time (she's a nurse). That's not completely accurate. Again, it depends on what you're studying... I can only speak for engineering... you WILL get challenged and you WILL have classes that are hard. Sometimes its the subject matter, sometimes its the professor, and sometimes its just the way that your grade is only 2 tests and a final.

The best skill you can have before getting to tech (besides a good basic knowledge of calculus... learning it there sucks ass), is the ability to effectively teach yourself things from notes, books and homework. The professors aren't mean, but they expect you to solve your own problems if you fall behind (they will help some, but they have other things they have to do).

Thankfully, Tech has free tutoring available for most of the core freshman classes. A guy named Jorge Cham (now teaching at Stanford) got me through Calculus 1. If you're an athlete, then there are even more tutors and resources available to you.

As for getting in - The essay portion of the application was added after I was already there. They don't have 'minimum requirements' per se... Tech bases their cut-offs on that year's average standardized testing scores and the statistics of their pool of applicants.

As for telling you more about the school... thats a really general question... what aspects? Academics? Life on campus? Life off campus? Housing? Extracurriculars? Stress level? What to do on the weekend? Inter-collegiate parties? The only universal at Tech is how difficult it is to get with the ladies. Even a very average girl has all sorts of guys giving them more-attention-than-normal. Walk around with a cute girl there for a day and count how many guys talk to her.... its very educational.