I got rejected from Georgia Tech which was a slap in the face not too long ago. Obviously it is a very hard school to get into, but I applied to much more competitive schools which concerns me a lot. Someone brought up the fact that I could have been overqualified for the school (which sounds crazy considering it is still below 20% admitted out of state), but I personally feel it is just one of those “out of state admissions being wack” cases.
A brief synopsis of me:
-Asian male (specifically Indian), both parents have gone to college, middle-class income, US-born
-36 ACT (1530 SAT but didn’t report)
-800 Math II and 750 Physics
-4.46 Weighted, 3.96 unweighted
-Completed 7 AP’s, currently taking 3 (Taken: APCSA, APCSP, APUSH, AP Statistics, AP Physics 1, AP Calc AB, APES. All 5’s except Stats is 3, APUSH and Physics 4). Currently in BC, Physics C and AP Lit.
-Team captain of an FRC Robotics Team, got Dean’s List Finalist. Done several community outreach activities and national level advocacy through my team.
-Internship in VCU Research Lab over the summer as a research assistant
-Several other miscellaneous clubs, honor societies and advanced classes but they are pretty small in comparison to these things
I don’t many people can be “overqualified” for Georgia Tech, but I wanted to see if that was a reality or not based on what you guys think.
Also just wanted to say not trying to sound too pompous by saying I should have definitely gotten in! I was just expecting deferral and am concerned for the three more competitive colleges I’m trying out for (Yale, Columbia, Stanford). Also important to note I want to major in Mechanical Engineering.
GT is a reach for most OOS engineering applicants. It’s difficult to say why you weren’t accepted to GT as we can’t know all the components of your app, but I doubt it’s because you were overqualified/yield management reasons. GT OOS is competitive with many engineering candidates with top stats…it is a numbers game subject to the details of how GT shapes their class, but also dependent on how well applicants demonstrate that they fit what the school is looking for.
It may or may not bode well for your other reach schools…each of these application processes is independent of each other. But yet, if essays or LoRs were lacking, or a fit not properly demonstrated, outcomes can be the same. Again, we don’t have all the details.
Have you been accepted/deferred/denied anywhere else yet?
Good luck through the rest of the process. I know the waiting and uncertainty is stressful, but remember you are highly talented and will succeed wherever you end up.
No one is overqualified for GT. Your stats are great. Even with your great stats, you have a very small chance at being admitted to any one of the four schools you mentioned, as does every other immensely qualified applicant (tens of thousands of them) at those schools.
As others have said, No you are not overqualified for GT from OOS. While your scores are impressive, GT’s most important attributes they evaluate are class rigor, gpa, and ECs. Your gpa is excellent and while you rigor appears to be pretty good you will find applicants that have better. Of your AP classes listed, 4 of them are considered “easy” ones and no AP Bio or AP Chem. You will also find a percentage of those accepted to GT have gone beyond Calc BC in HS. For your ECs, I don’t see anything non-academic (music, sports, theater, arts) that you showed dedication to or community service (which GT considers important). GT also considers the essays as important as test scores, so if you treated GT as a safety it may have come out in your essays.
Your initial post comes off as your being entitled to admission at GA Tech. That attitude may have come across in your application and essays. That is never a good thing.
No, you are not “overqualified.” Given that you were rejected and not deferred, it was almost certainly your essays. The quantitative parts of your application are strong, but not unlike thousands of other strong OOS applicants, which is why the qualitative parts of the application matter so much.
While there is no way to really know, I’m starting to believe this more and more when it comes to GT and OOS applicants. I’ve seen OOS applicants with even stronger stats get rejected or differed. In the case of our S, he admitted that he did not put much effort in his GT application especially the “Why GT” prompt.
My DS got deferred with almost similar stats (with more course rigor) - while deferral is different from rejection - I agree with everyone here that its certainly not a case of being over-qualified.
One aspect that no one mentioned is - how many other students from your school/region appleid and their relative strength. Officially colleges say that they don’t have quotas but time and again seeing that there are soft quotas. i.e. if GT normally accepts 4-5 students from your school and there are 10 strong students this year - I don’t think they will offer seats to all 10 of them. This is just based on anecdotal experiences so take it ‘for whatever it’s worth’.
All universities with acceptance rates below 20% should be considered reaches regardless of qualifications.
Have you been admitted to affordable universities you like?
No, you are not overqualified. Your AP courses are on the easy side. With scores of 3 and 4, an in-state student may even be rejected. Just curious, what state are you from? In Georgia, the competitive students have 15 APs - 9th (1), 10 (2), 11 (6), 12 (6). Some crazy ones have 20. We also dual enroll in 4 GT college math courses available to high school students.
@ishaanthakur02 I am a parent of Indian descent, who has lived in the US since childhood. I am always surprised at the ORM students with educated parents in my community who just don’t get how competitive these admissions are.
As others have already pointed out, the AP’s lack rigor, and you got 4’s in some of the harder ones. GA Tech gets applicants with 5’s in rigorous AP’s across the board, exemplary community service etc. etc. So - no - you’re not overqualified.
Hopefully, you have some in state safeties you’ve applied to. I am in NJ and your stats would be somewhat common for ORM’s at Rutgers School of Engineering.
You are very qualified for lots of colleges. Just not the ones you listed.
This is such a lesson this applicant didn’t learn. You have to research the schools before applying. Just having decent stats means very little if you don’t have the other things that the colleges are looking for. Look at the link I put up thread.
This is coming from someone who’s son was wait listed…3 years ago… . We considered that a win…
You might consider that GT over-weighted demographics of other applicants: "Within the overall applicant pool is an increase in several target areas — a 14% increase in female applicants, 22% in first-generation students, and 14% in underrepresented minority students.
“Diversity in all forms is an Institute priority. We’re pleased to see our recruitment efforts playing out and that these students are interested in attending Georgia Tech,” said Rick Clark, director of Undergraduate Admission.