Chance a worried senior for Georgia Tech?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
1

Hi all, as an in-state Georgia student, I’ve been trying and dreaming of going to tech ever since middle school. Especially as a student interested in CS, it’s really great that one of the best CS schools in the nation is in my state, so it would be great if y’all could help me and tell me if my chances are high of getting into tech.

Demographics: Asian (Indian) male in Georgia. I attend a competitive, decently sized public school. My family income is around 200k a year.

Intended Majors: Right now, I am mainly interested in computer science.

ACT: 36

SAT Subject Tests: Math II (800) and BioM (800)

GPA and Rank: Unweighted GPA: 4.00 and Weighted GPA: 4.62. Rank: 4/590

Coursework: A ton of AP courses and some dual enrollment (over the summer).

These are the courses I have taken so far: AP Human (4), AP Stat (5), AP Euro, AP Bio (5), AP CSP (5), AP Psych (5), AP USH(5), AP Physics I(5), AP Seminar(4), AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC(5), AP CSA(4), AP Lang(4), DE Humanities, DE Literature, DE Government (DE at GSU).

Awards:

  • Gold Level Presidential Volunteering Service Award
  • AP Scholar Awards
  • 1st Place wins at the regional level for HOSA and FBLA. 1st - 3rd Place at the state level for HOSA and FBLA (maybe I can place at the national's conference?).
  • Winner of state stock market game
  • Robotics wins at the regional and state level. My team also went to VEX Worlds and we placed.
  • UGA Certificate of Merit
  • Triple crown award (3 varsity letters)

Extracurriculars:

  • Varsity Track and Field and a Team Captain
  • Varsity Cross Country and a Team Captain
  • Treasurer for school's VIBHA club - helped organize volunteer events; personally raised almost 1k.
  • VP of Membership for FBLA chapter
  • Vice President of Mu Alpha Theta
  • Founder of Cubing Club at school
  • Summer Activity - I volunteered at rural villages in India for 7 weeks over the summer (taught basic English), and then back home, I raised 700 dollars for the schools at these villages.
  • Robotics - I was one of the programmers for my robotics team, and as I said, we won awards at the regional, state, and international level.
  • Internship - I teach students basic programming fundamentals and languages to kids with an education company. I also have another internship with a company wear I do IT stuff.
  • I develop my own apps (through flutter) and have developed some notable apps so far.
  • Member of Academic Bowl and Coding Club
  • Member of NHS, SNHS, Mu Alpha Theta
  • I have a ton of volunteering hours and have volunteered at many organizations.

I know my ECs are very weak. However, I am hoping that my strong stats will “make up” for them.
One other thing is that I will be taking GT Math this year, and I have heard that this improves your chances of getting into Tech (if you do well in the class). I believe I can do well in the class (a low-mid A) as I have always been kind of a math student. Actually, the GT math teachers said that the admit rate for students who did GT distance math in HS is close to 90% (but I do know students who did GT math and got rejected, so I’m still unsure).

Essays/LORs/Other:

I think my LORs will be decent but not too great. However, I think I can grind out a pretty good essay, hopefully 7-8/10.

Also, I will be applying to GT through Early Action 1 - this is new this year and only restricted to Georgia Students (which I think would mean that in state students are more prioritized than ever this year).

2

I think you have a very good shot!

3

You are good. Don’t slack off on the essays.

4

“I know my ECs are very weak”

wat

5

You look like a good fit to me. What classes will you take this year? Still need a fourth year Science. What is the GT Math? Is it Calc 3 level?

6

So this year I will be taking AP Micro/Macro, AP Research, AP Physics C: Mechanics and Georgia Tech Math, and this class is basically Linear Algebra and Mutivariable Calculus (so yes Calc 3 level). With the rest of my periods, I was thinking I would pursue an internship. Honestly, I thought colleges wouldn’t really care about senior courses and grades (especially with EA) so that’s why I’m only taking 4 classes.

7

My bad, I honestly thought my ECs are weak/decent because I see all these people doing research at prestigious universities and/or winning national and international awards in Olympiad and academic competitions. And especially with how hard it is to get into these top tier universities, I’m not sure if my ECs can stack up against other people.

8

In-state acceptance rate for GTech is about 40%, and your GPA and ACT scores put you in the top 25% of their accepted students. At very least it is a match.

Although GTech does have holistic admissions, like most popular public schools, academics have a heavier weight in admissions than ECs. Your ECs demonstrate that your tech abilities and skills aren’t limited to the classroom.

Most of the discussions on CC revolve around admissions to private colleges with low admission rates. These colleges mostly answer to their board of trustees and to the alumni. Public school mostly answer to the people of their state and to the state legislatures.

Private colleges with low acceptance rates are looking to have a “balanced” class, meaning that they need to fill their “buckets”, while public universities with low acceptance rates do not really have those buckets, except for the bucket of “high academically achieving in-state students”. At universities like Georgia Tech or UNC CH, that bucket is usually the large majority of the incoming class.

So if Yale rejects a 4.0/1600 applicant from Connecticut in favor of a 3.6/1320 applicant from Wisconsin who has done something which made headlines across the nation, Yale alumni and donors will not make a fuss. But if UVA rejects of 4.0/1600 Virginia resident in favor of a 3.8/1480 California resident who made headlines, the people of Virginia will start asking what UVA was doing with their taxes.

Another thing to remember is that applicants to private colleges are competing for every place with people from across the country. So somebody with a state level award from Kansas is competing with a person that has a state-level award from Missouri on the same level. However, at public colleges which have a strong preference for in-state applicants like GTech, a state-level award from their state provides a much larger boost than a state-level award from any other state.

So, as a resident of Georgia, you have to be in the top 40% or so of the applicants from Georgia, and it is unlikely that more than 10% of these will have international or national level awards.

9

Thank you a lot for this! This was really helpful!

10

You are in excellent shape AS LONG AS you don’t have something that dings you - teacher/counselor rec, throw together essays at the last minute, etc. I know top tier Georgia students who have gotten rejected at GT because of a sup par recommendation, etc. The admissions officers can read between the lines. . .

11

Students who do well in the GT math generally get in.