Chance @ Tech?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
1

<p>For Computer Science program (Out of state)</p>

<p>ACADEMIA:</p>

<p>Freshman GPA: 3.52
Sophomore GPA: 3.52
Junior GPA: 3.75 W, 3.7 UW
Overall GPA: About 3.6
-No C's on transcript</p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: 610 (Lower mid-50% range)
SAT Math: 680 (Middle mid-50% range)
SAT Writing: 680 (Upper mid-50% range)
Total: 1970</p>

<p>My School does not rank.</p>

<p>AP Courses:
Biology (This year)
Computer Science A (Next Year)
Economics (Next Year)
-I will take regular level Calculus next year</p>

<p>3 letters of recommendation (math teacher, club advisor/chem teacher, guidance counselor)</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS: </p>

<p>President of Support our Soldiers Club
-Interviewed WW2 Veteran, contributed to National Archive</p>

<p>100 hours of Red Cross Volunteer work
-Office management, computer database organization, phone duty, etc.</p>

<p>4 Years of Varsity Swimming</p>

<p>Member of School Atmosphere Committee
-Helped create a video to send to New England Board of Accreditation to display information about our school
-Spread word about school ideals and beliefs in various ways</p>

<p>HOOKS:</p>

<p>I am of Hispanic descent.</p>

<p>I will not be applying for financial aid.</p>

<p>ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:</p>

<p>This is hands down my top choice school, how do I show this to the admissions committee?</p>

<p>Does being from a far away region where almost no one from my school applies improve my chance?</p>

<p>I have visited campus, do they have record of this and does it factor in?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I’d retake SATs, but other than that you’re fine.</p>

3

<p>Thanks. Unfortunately, I can not take the next SAT (October) since I would like to apply before the early action deadline (Oct. 1). I’ll take my chances with my decent scores.</p>

4

<p>October test scores ARE accepted for the October 1st deadline, provided you send the scores directly to Tech when registering for the SAT/ACT. In your case, your current SAT/GPA put you in a very borderline position for admission, so retaking and scoring higher on any section of the SAT could have a significant impact on your application.</p>

<p>Tech does not have an early action program. It is an early notification deadline and there is no advantage to applying early. Tech only admits early those applicants it knows it would admit regardless of when the application was recieved. All other applications are deferred to the Spring (only those with no chance of admission are rejected during the first 2 rounds). </p>

<p>Applying before either the October 1st or November 1st deadlines will give you a decision before Christmas. Given what I can infer from the information you have posted here, your current application would likely be deferred until the Spring, so you have little reason to rush. It is more important that you have a strong essay when you submit your application, and extra time wouldn’t hurt with that.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the thorough response!</p>

6

<p>I’m just asking out of curiosity, if you get deferred during the Fall application season (where you get the decision before Christmas), do you get to update your application with new SAT’s and 1st semester senior year grades for the regular application season?</p>

7

<p>Yes. [Georgia</a> Institute of Technology :: Undergraduate Admission :: Deferred Supplemental Form Instructions](<a href=“Blow the Whistle! (404 error: page not found) | Undergraduate Admission”>Blow the Whistle! (404 error: page not found) | Undergraduate Admission)</p>

8

<p>I’ll bump to ask:
This is hands down my top choice school, how do I show this to the admissions committee?</p>

<p>Does being from a far away region where almost no one from my school applies improve my chance?</p>

<p>I have visited campus, do they have record of this and does it factor in?</p>

9

<p>campus visit is of no relevance. your life circumstances rather than geographic region would help. write a good essay to capture that.</p>

10

<p>You could consider taking the ACT in September, as tech will takes the best portions of scores from both ACT and SAT to come up with a superscore. Check out their methodology here: [Georgia</a> Institute of Technology :: Undergraduate Admission :: Freshman Application Review Process](<a href=“Blow the Whistle! (404 error: page not found) | Undergraduate Admission”>Blow the Whistle! (404 error: page not found) | Undergraduate Admission) </p>

<p>Doing this could help raise your score for tech’s method.</p>

11

<p>If I made a 26 on the ACT, do I have a chance to get accepted if my GPA and extracurriculars are very high?</p>

12

<p>It’s below the mid-50% range. If you did exceptionally well in math, then it’s still a shot. Take it again.</p>

13

<p>what would you say is a range for exceptionally good math score?</p>

14

<p>30+ probably…</p>

<p>I would visit their site, I know they have an immense fact book of admissions data that would probably have that info.</p>

15

<p>How much will being a URM play in?</p>

16

<p>I’d say you have a good chance of getting in. I’ve met people with worse SAT scores than you who were accepted (including myself). The only thing that might hold you back is your GPA, but should be fine if it’s padded with a lot of honors and some APs. You need to make sure to write a very good essay. You need to get your uniqueness across in your essay (GaTech prides itself on it’s diverse community).</p>

<p>By the way, a member of the acceptance committee once told me that letters of recommendation are thrown out. She said that it was easy to find a few teachers to brag about you; she said you need to get those points across in your essay</p>

17

<p>Thanks for the info, Karaoke.</p>

<p>I am still curious though, does Tech receive many URM applicants? Will being a URM give me a significant boost? What about being from the northeast (geographic diversity)?</p>

18

<p>^ Jesus Christ stop trying to use your skin color like it’s an advantage. Just be glad your skin color gets you ANY kind of boost at a public institution at the expense of people not fortunate enough to be born a minority.</p>

19

<p>I’m sorry Dusterbug, but you should probably revise some of that statement, especially that last part. This (college admissions, and maybe some lower end jobs) is really among of the only case in which one is particularly fortunate to be a minority. Other than that, being born a minority is not particularly an advantage for most (in fact, it is more than often a huge disadvantage as it is currently more likely for it to coincide w/immediately lower economic status). If anything, propane is fortunate to be one of those who is in a position where it may indeed be an advantage. Either way, I have already told them that really don’t need too much of a boost. I’m sure someone (even a white person) can be admitted to Tech with a 1280 (though it is certainly getting rarer) and do fine as long as they took challenging classes in HS and work hard once they get to Tech. </p>

<p>I get what you’re saying, as it is kind of annoying, but let’s not go that far. Either way, if a person seriously wanted a real boost, they should definitely not apply to a public engineering school (or a private one for that matter) as (especially publics) don’t believe in holistic admissions as much as normal (not STEM dominated) private schools.</p>

<p>Karaoke: I don’t know why the admissions officers would do that. Usually what they do here (and at some peers) is look at the recommendations and attempt to see if there is any overlap between it and characterizations that can be derived from the essays. If there seems to be a mismatch (b/c you’re right, anyone can get a positively padded essay that is loaded w/BS), they’ll know the rec. letters are fluff, and thus, they won’t be much of a factor in a student’s denial or admission, instead the essay will be on it’s lonesome, and the fact that it didn’t match the recs is not a great start.<br>
If one suggests that Tech admissions officers are too busy for that b/c all of the apps. coming in, then that is crap, as we receive more applications. I think they should be blunt by simply saying that those almighty measurable matter the most, which makes sense at a public school, especially a very tough engineering school. We easily get to be more lax on choosing in that context because we seek “fits”. Maybe like 90% of applicants here can handle the work. Given that Tech is predominantly STEM, the same cannot necessarily be said and thus Tech must prioritize that aspect. We can easily move beyond that, cherrypick some SATs (to maintain a decent rank), and then choose a majority based upon “intangibles”</p>