Chance of getting the President's Scholarship at GT?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
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<p>Hey, I want to attend Georgia Tech in Fall 2012. I am planning on applying for the GT President's scholarship, hopefully getting close to a full ride financially. Here is some of my information:
GPA: 4.3 approximately
ACT Composite: 34
ACT English: 35
ACT Math: 35
ACT Reading: 32
ACT Science: 32
SAT: 1850 (Obviously, I'm gonna use my ACT score.)
Class Ranking: #1 or #2</p>

<p>AP Classes: Chemistry, US History, English III, English IV, Calculus. These are the only ones offered at my school. I've been in every accelerated or honors class at my school also. I took the AP Chemistry Exam, but will not get back scores until July. Next spring, I plan to take the AP Calculus Exam also.</p>

<p>Community Service: approximately 366 hours. I've participated in Upward Basketball (10 hours), Vacation Bible School (180 hours collective), a local festival (8 hours), helped out with our after-school art program (10 hours), Republican campaign (4 hours), participated in the Christmas cantata with choir (6 hours), a food drive (2 hours), tutored a range of different people, classes, and grades (30+ hours), and served as the organist at church for about 5 months (20 hours), and designed a fairly significant part of the middle school yearbook in 8th grade (100 hours). I don't know if the latter counts, because it was not done in high school.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: National Honor Society, National Society of High School Scholars, National Art Honor Society, Teenage Republicans, FCA, Spanish Club, school newspaper, piano, Bible Drills, Math/Science Team, RYLA Rotary Club Conference, and an EF Educational tour. </p>

<p>Leadership positions: I was the layout/design editor for the school newspaper and the vice president of the National Art Honor Society. I was supposed to have a position in Teenage Republicans, but the club was basically inactive after about 12 weeks due to the end of the House of Representatives election in Mississippi. We have not met since then.</p>

<p>Notable Awards: Best-of-show at the school art show, 2nd place in Congressional Art Competition (my artwork was displayed at the US Capitol for a year), and 1st place Chemistry award at a competition at the local community college. I have gotten a few more awards, but these are, I guess, the most significant.</p>

<p>I think this pretty much covers everything I can think of. What are my chances of getting a full ride or close to it with this record? Also, are there other scholarships that I can apply for at GT with this information? Thank you! :)</p>

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<p>You have a very high probability of being selected in October for the semi-finalist round, a decision that is based on your application to the institute alone. The essay plays a very important role in this decision so take your time to write a good one that really lets your personality and drive shine through. If selected, you will provide the selection committee with a resume and schedule an interview with a local alumni. They will perform a second round of cuts, which are extremely competitive, especially for OOS. They aren’t looking for one thing in particular but rather diversity among the PSP participants as a whole. I take it you are very passionate about art; let that shine through in your essay, the activities and awards you list on your application and resume, and your interview. Creative engineers are a precious asset. Like I said though, this application process is extremely competitive and they eliminate many many applicants in that last round that are extremely qualified.</p>

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<p>First of all, you don’t have to specially ‘apply’ for the PS - simply apply to GT before a certain date (I think it’s usually Nov 1, but please verify this yourself!). </p>

<p>I think you have a good chance of being selected as ‘semi-finalist’, provided your essays are convincing/passionate/… enough. Your grades (except the SAT and maybe your Science ACT) are high enough to get you into the ‘candidate-pool’. </p>

<p>Once you’re a semi-finalist (usually decided by mid/end Dec), it depends to the largest extent on your interviews … As RmblinReck mentioned, these interviews are highly competitive, and I know of people with higher grades than yours who didn’t make it to the ‘finalist’-level! The interviews usually take place end of Dec/early Jan. - the decision on who makes it into the finalists is usually published around end of Jan.</p>

<p>Once you’re a finalist, you’ll get invited to “PS”-weekend (early March) - with more interviews spread over 2 days. All finalists get a scholarship - the detailed amount depends largely on the results of the interviews (usually 3 levels: full-ride, 20-25,000, 10-15,000). </p>

<p>My impression is that grades actually have quite a small influence - ALL PS-candidates are ‘pretty brilliant’, so, how do you differentiate between e.g. a SAT of 2350 and a 2390/2400? As RmblinReck said, you need to show your passion in your essays and interviews, try to show them how ‘you could make a difference’ … </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>ga tech does not consider science score; just math, English, and combined English and writing scores. you should be ok act-wise.</p>

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<p>My son was a semi finalist, put on the waiting list and then was selected off the waiting list. He has 8 APs [all 5s on those from Junior year], an Unweighted 4.0, 1530 on SATs [800 math] and 800s on math SAT IIs, Valedictorian of a US News Silver high school of 1400, Not from the Southeast, two-time President of two clubs, involved in 2 others all four years, 2 handicap golfer with state championship team, involved in church group leadership, mission trips every summer including to South Central Los Angeles and Portland OR to work with at risk youth, etc., etc. </p>

<p>He was fortunate to be selected off the waiting list as [according to the PS folks] applications were sent in timely whereby the pool of students to be considered for PS was 75% higher than a year ago. It sounds like you will be a semi-finalist and then a lot of what was written above is correct. If you get on the waiting list, take the offer as there are a lot of Ivy League-ish accepted students who apply for PS as well.</p>

<p>Best of luck as from what our family has experienced thus far, it seems to be a wonderful organization.</p>