Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.296 out of 5 (5=all Ap courses or dual enrollment)
Class Rank: 91/598
ACT/SAT Scores: 790 Math 650 English super score (retaking August SAT to increase english)
Coursework (AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
Taking AP Spanish Senior year (most people stop at Spanish 3 in sophomore year), finished computer science path at my school (AP CSP and AP CSA included and an intro coding class), dual enrolling at Georgia Tech CS1330 this semester and CS 1331 next semester. Ap Physics C, Ap Calc BC this year, Ap gov and dual english 1102 at UNG. Previous APs: Human Geo, Psych, Bio, Lang, Calc AB, Physics 1, Stat.
Extracurriculars (Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Internship at an electrical engineering company as a web developer, also created excel sheet scripts to track inventory. Junior year.
Current Intern at an Education Tech company as UI/UX programmer/advertising Intern.
****Researching Data Vizualisation/Machine Learning under a Georgia Tech professor to create a dashboard with prediction models.
Worked retail as a cashier at target for about 6 months sophomore year.
Entrepreneurship- Provided and ran my own pressure washing business employing digital marketing via social media, working on sales skills, and levaraged my skills to run a business. Been doing this for 4 years now in the summers.
Tae Kwon Do 2nd Degree Black belt, after 7 years of training. Won some awards, participated in charity events/fundraisers like breakathons. Competitions won some also.
Currently volunteering as an assistant teacher, teaching little kids how to read and write, and culture of my native language. From this summer and this senior year. Also using these hours for NHS (I’ve been in it Junior year and now senior year)
Awards
1.Member of Future Business Leaders of America since freshman year- won a compeition for Parliamentary Procedures, placing 4th in the state of Georgia and advancing to National competition.
2. Got 2nd place in the state of Georgia in a Spanish skills testing event under Beta club (I also have more volunteering hours under this about 50h)
3. Ap Scholar
4. Once again some Tae Kwon Do awards
I would appreciate your thoughts on my decisions and the strength of my application. I am working on Essays right now also, will write the why tech about my CS research and my common app personal statement about a passion of mine that shows character/personal growth. Also lmk if you guys think I will get into UGA.
If you haven’t done so, check out the Common Data Sets for schools that you are considering. Section C7 tells you how different academic and non-academic admissions factors are weighted by a school; Sections C9-C11 give objective information for recently matriculated students, which may in turn give you a crude estimate of how you compare with them for admissions purposes. Georgia Tech gives more emphasis to grades and academic rigor of your high school (“very important” criteria) than it does to standardized test scores (“considered”), as reflected in Section C7.
You might want to have a conversation with your high school guidance counselor, who may be able to tell you about the track record for your high school of getting kids into Georgia Tech, and what your chances might be given that history.
Georgia Tech is very much into volunteerism and how you are using your skill sets to help your community. I did see that you do volunteer, so that is a help, but may not be strong enough with your SAT scores and wanting CS major. I would say you likely would get deferred for EA. The other choice you have if you really want GT is the pathways program, where you start elsewhere (such as KSU) and then transfer.
Given you are in-state at a competitive HS I’d imagine your guidance counselor would be the best one to assess your chances of admission to GT and UGA. If your HS has a tool like Naviance that would be useful as well.
My gut feeling is GT is definitely worth an application – and give that application your all. But as I tell everyone, it is important to have an application list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that you would be excited to attend.
We are in Georgia as well. I have one kid who was deferred early action then waitlisted at Georgia Tech, the other was accepted early action. They both looked pretty similar on paper in terms of test scores. GPA and class rigor. If I had to guess what the deciding factor was (other than different years), it would be the essays. Tech cares a lot about the “why your major at Georgia Tech” essay. Since you are already doing research with a professor, absolutely include that in the essay. Try to tie it into their motto which is “progress and service”. Really illustrate what you want to be involved with on campus - extracurriculars, research, classes you want to take. Explain how you hope to take advantage of the opportunities available to you at Georgia Tech and use them to advance technology and make the world a better place.
As others have said, talk to your school college counselor and take a look at your school’s Naviance or Scoir if available. Naviance/Scoir will be pretty accurate in predicting your chances for UGA. For our school you can see a clear line of demarcation. Georgia Tech is much more unpredictable. My kid who was accepted had a close friend with a nearly identical GPA, same course rigor, eagle scout, summer research at tech, 35 ACT - deferred then waitlisted. It happens every year, kids everyone thought would get in don’t and there are some acceptances that seem equally as surprising.
The other thing I will add is that the kids we know who have done Georgia Tech distance math have all been accepted. I don’t know if the same thing is true with the DE comp sci, but my guess is that if you are doing well in your DE class it will give you a significant boost. Certainly Tech still should be considered a reach for you, but an attainable one.
My dd (beginning her second year) was accepted EA with lower test scores but higher GPA from a small competitive HS in a rural area. She had great extracurriculars and a lot of genuine leadership. I believe that GT is looking for geographic diversity and trying to achieve a 50/50 male vs. female student body (currently about 60/40 male vs female). That being said, I would say it is a reach.
Georgia Tech cares more about course rigor than they do about rank per se. A kid like the OP who has taken all the toughest APs - Calc BC, physics C, post AP comp sci etc. and done well is a stronger applicant than someone who took “easier” AP classes to pad their GPA. Rick Clark has a great blog where he goes into detail about how they evaluate a high school transcript. Two kids from the same school with identical GPAs can have vastly different coursework.
Edited to add that according to Georgia Tech’s website the distance math and DE comp sci programs are competitive admission and successful applicants generally fall within the top 25% of Georgia Techs freshman class. I really think that bodes well for OPs chances of admission although certainly not a guarantee.
Yes probably a lot of students taking the toughest classes rank in the top ten percent. There are also a lot of high schools that don’t rank. At least according to our school guidance counselor, they really want to see BC calc on the transcript if the highschool offers it. I still think GT is a reach and of course the OP needs to apply to some safety schools. As I said above, Tech admissions can be unpredictable and it is a very holistic process.
I know a class of 2023 kid who was a National Merit Scholar, 1580 SAT, nearly 4.0 unweighted GPA, tons of APs (all As and 5s) taking university math a year beyond multivariable calc and linear algebra, tons of ECs, accomplishments, etc. Got into multiple Ivys… waitlisted at GT. He’ll do fine at Harvard, I think GT is one of those schools you can’t really chance. If you’re great, you have a shot but no one should be confident that if they have X they probably will get in.
Was that student in state or out of state? In state would be pretty shocking especially if the advanced math was through Georgia Tech but I’m sure it happens occasionally. Out of state that would be a much more common occurrence.
Most likely, GT’s enrollment prediction algorithm flagged him as someone highly likely to be admitted to an Ivy(+) and very likely to enroll at the other school over GT. And looks like the prediction was correct.