General Catalog and Announcements (Bulletin, Volume 83, No. 1), April 1970

The Announcements/General Catalog publications are available in the Georgia Tech Archives in printed volumes from 1888-1889 until 2005-2006. The Archives holds two copies of most volumes, and the years 1888-1889 through 1949-1950 are also on microfilm. Digital copies of the volumes are available in Georgia Tech's digital repository at https://hdl.handle.net/1853/30459. Those dating from 2006-2007 through 2009-2010 are only available online.

The issues of this publication are bound into volumes slightly differently in copy 1 and copy 2. One issue, 1901-1902, is available in copy 2 only. The volumes shown in the container list below are those in copy 1.

The earliest Announcements/General Catalog (1888-1918) provide a great deal of information relevant to the Georgia Tech student of the time period. These publications include a school calendar for the academic year as well as information on admission; departments; fees, expenses, and tuition; building plans; and equipment. Courses of study, details on instruction, and a list of textbooks are listed under each academic department. In addition, lists of students, faculty, and instructors are included, and specimen entrance examinations are provided. Each issue also includes drawings of the exterior and/or interior of campus buildings as illustrations; by the turn of the twentieth century, the illustrations become photographs of buildings, classrooms, and sometimes faculty members. Beginning with the Announcement for 1892-1893, a register of graduates provides the names, home county, graduation year, and occupation of all graduates. These registers continue to appear in the yearly publication until 1918; at the end of the 1918-1919 issue, a note indicates that the Register of Graduates would be published from then on as a separate publication.

As the school's offerings increased, descriptions of new courses of study and information regarding sports and extracurricular activities begin to appear in the Announcements. During the 1910s, individual courses are described under each subject area. Scholarships and prizes begin to be listed, and indexes to each issue or detailed tables of contents are provided. Registers of students, faculty, and instructors continue to be printed in these volumes until about 1945, and lists of graduates and degrees conferred for the year prior to publication also appear until the mid 1940s. In the 1920s, the publications include general regulations for students as well as the content provided in earlier volumes. However, sample entrance examinations stop appearing.

Course offerings in the Division of Graduate Studies begin to be described in the Announcements/General Catalog in the early 1940s. At about the same time, a description and list of research staff for the Engineering Experiment Station, information on the Engineering Extension Division, and a description of the Co-op program are also printed in each issue. Separate publications for the Graduate Division including course listings were released from about 1946 to 1973, but brief information on Graduate studies, the Engineering Experiment Station, and the Engineering Extension Division continues to be included in the Announcements/General Catalog between these two dates. Although faculty and staff continue to be listed in each volume, registers of students are dropped during this time.

Between about 1946 and 1973, the focus of the Announcements/General Catalog is primarily the Tech undergraduate population. After 1973, both graduate and undergraduate studies are covered in the General Catalogs and the content of the publication becomes standardized. The volumes are each divided into six or seven sections: General Information; Info for Undergraduates; Information for Graduate Students; Curricula and Degrees/Courses of Instruction; Student Rules and Regulations; and Administration, Faculty and Staff Listings. This standard format continues from the 1970s through the early 2000s.