Chance Me: In-state student aiming for Georgia Tech

Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: Georgia
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Public
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Female, South Asian, rising Highschool Senior
  • Other special factors : None

Intended Major(s): Primarily Aerospace Engineering, but also Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.8
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.07
  • College GPA (for transfers): N/A
  • Class Rank: Unknown
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1440 on SAT, will be taking ACT soon

Coursework

  • AP World History (Score: 4)
  • AP US History(Score: 4)
  • AP Physics 1 (Score: 5)
  • AP Lang/Comp
  • AP Biology
  • AP Calculus
  • AP Computer Science A
  • AP Psychology
  • AP Gov
  • Spanish III
  • Fundamentals of Aerospace
  • Mechatronics I

Awards
FBLA

  • 2nd Place in State Level Local Chapter Business Report Competition, qualified for NLC
  • 4th Place in State Level Community Service Report Competition, qualified for NLC
  • 4th Place in Regional Level Entrepreneurship Competition
  • 6th Place in State Level Mobile Application Development

SKILLSUSA

  • Gold Medalist in Career Profile Portfolio Project Competition

OTHER

  • School Poetry Out Loud Winner
  • 3rd Place in County-Level World Language Expo (Spanish)
  • 2019 National Runner Up for a Language Competition
  • Advanced Low certification in Speaking Test for Language
  • 8th Place in State Level Competition for Robotics

Extracurriculars
FBLA

  • Active Member since 2018
  • Assistant Vice President of Public Relations (August 2020- March 2021)

SKILLSUSA

  • Active Member

COUNTY’S YOUNG DEMOCRATS BRANCH

  • Treasurer

YOUTH CLIMATE ACTION TEAM, AMERICAN BRANCH

  • Student Network Member
  • Operations Committee Member
  • Global Affairs Committee Member
  • Press Team Member

NATIONAL HONORS SOCIETY

  • Active member

A STEM CAMP

  • Student Leader & Activity Coordinator

FIRST ROBOTICS

  • Active Member from 2018-2019

OTHER

  • Active & Accomplished member of a Language/Cultural/Religious Group/School
  • Heavily involved in religious and cultural activities
  • Have been playing the Veena (a stringed Indian instrument) for 9+ years
  • Have been learning Carnatic singing for 9+ years
  • Very, very likely candidate for a STEM-based Internship (will be decided in a few days)

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Not sure yet, might be strong

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • Not needed here

Schools

  • Safety: GSU, UNG
  • Likely: Georgia Tech
  • Match: UGA
  • Reach: Might also be Georgia Tech; as previously indicated, I am unsure of my chances of getting into Tech

Also forgot to mention that I interned as a Content Contributor for an online publication.

Georgia Tech will probably be a reach even in state. The admission rate for females is much higher than males so that will be a plus. Some of that will depend on where you go to high school and how many people from your school apply to GT (and where you fall academically in comparison to them). I am confused what “likely” is? GT will be harder to get in than UGA. I agree UGA is probably a match, although I would calculate your UGA GPA to see where you fall. GT would be above that.

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One of my peers who got into Tech says there’s like a 99% chance that I will get a conditional. Is that true? Also, how much of a reach do you think it will be?

Also, not sure what Likely is either, it just came with the Chance Me post form. You can ignore that.

I will also be taking AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Statistics, and AP Lit/AP CSP, and Flight Ops I and II my senior year.

Also can someone pin this? I forgot to add it to my post.

There is no way to really tell. I will say females have roughly a 10 percent higher acceptance rate than males at Georgia Tech so that is an advantage. A conditional pathway is always an option even for top students. I would count it as a reach and be sure you have plenty of safeties that you want to go to.

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At least a conditional acceptance seems likely if you applied to one of the colleges of Liberal Arts, Sciences, or Design at GaTech (it seems like 85% of the Tech student body are in majors in Engineering or Business and probably an even greater percentage of applicants apply to those 2 colleges so you could say Tech has an imbalance between supply and demand that they’d like to address).

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Ah so if I join for Computer Science, there’s a greater chance for acceptance? And then I could switch after I joined, right?

Also, are my stats and stuff that weak?

CS is in the college of engineering at GaTech. It’s actually probably the toughest major to get in to (most popular major).

Computational Media is in Liberal Arts and would include the CS core + half of CS electives.

As of now, GaTech allows freshmen entries 1 free major switch.

Being in-state and female gives you an edge but GaTech is tough to get in to for CS and engineering for nearly everyone.

GaTech says the major you apply to doesn’t matter, but considering that they only have the conditional pathway for arts&science (and design) majors, that seems unlikely. The other conditional pathways are for those who attend Atlanta public schools, first gen applicants, those who receive Pell Grants, and those with a family connection to GaTech (legacy or sibling there), so if you fall in to one of those categories, you may well get a conditional offer regardless of what major you apply to.

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Georgia Tech Early Action is restricted to in-state residents, so your chances of acceptance will improve if you apply Early Action.

Have you looked into the HOPE Scholarship?

Are you restricting your choices to in state schools for financial reasons?

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That is not true. EA is available for both in state and OOS. This year is the first year they divided the two into EA1 and EA2.

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Okay, I should have been more specific. Early Action I is restricted to Georgia residents. Georgia Tech through their own outlet online says this means that Georgia residents will be given priority consideration.

My point to the OP is that she can enhance her chances for admission to GT by taking advantage of the EA opportunity. It’s especially important that she stay on top of this because it has a very early filing deadline of October 15.

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I haven’t researched HOPE much, but I think I will now. Also, yes, financial reasons are part of it but also their aerospace course is ranked #2 in the world, so that’s mostly why I’m focusing on Tech. The fact that it’s close to home is an added bonus. Getting into Tech seems like the perfect combination of excellent academic opportunities and convenience.

Thank you very much! I will definitely be focusing on taking advantage of the EA opportunity.

Certainly research HOPE and ZELL scholarships available for Georgia-residents so you are familiar with the eligibility requirements and know what to expect. To the best of my knowledge, you do not need to apply for them. I think they are automatically awarded to in state students who meet the requirements. If you qualify for ZELL that covers full tuition; HOPE is a bit less.

Absolutely apply by the EA deadline. It takes so much stress off if you get an early acceptance in December. Then you can sit back and relax and enjoy the rest of your senior year. Best wishes.

You do need to send test scores somewhere and evidently you can see the GPA needed to qualify for the scholarships online.
All the required info can be found online.

I’m surprised a GA HS student doesn’t know about the HOPE/Zell Miller scholarships. A GA HS would not mention them to its students? I find that shocking.

Absolutely. That is what I meant by eligibility requirements.

In my D’s case, both UGA and Tech awarded her the HOPE with the initial financial package based on her transcript sent with the application. They stated that the ZELL would not be awarded until later, but I don’t remember the exact wording. I do know the ZELL showed up in late March or early April before she withdrew her applications.

I won’t guess about the OP’s knowledge of HOPE/ZELL. At the end of junior year, my D’s high school gave each student a current transcript, ranking by decile and GPA for Hope/Zell eligibility. However, I did have to look up the details of Hope/Zell myself as my knowledge of it was “lottery paid tuition”, but I did not know the differences between Hope and Zell or that type of detail before looking it up.

There is a lot of confusion about Hope and Zell and what it takes to qualify for them initially and what it takes to maintain the scholarships. I would presume all high schools in Georgia would take care of sending the transcripts in and the test scores in qualification. You do still have to fill out either the FASFA or the Georgia futures online application. If you fill out the Georgia futures online application you only have to do it once. FASFA must be filled out every year to qualify for Hope or Zell. This along with maintaining a particular GPA depending on which one you qualify for. They also only pay for a certain number of credits, which includes attempted credits. At Georgia Tech, many of the majors exceed the number of qualified credits so even if you never withdraw from a class you will still have to pay tuition at the end of your degree.

All of the information is available on the Georgia Futures website but there are details that are misunderstood.

I’m not sure the HS sends test scores. The OP should read up on that.

Ours does.