I got deferred from my safety: Georgia Tech. I was wondering if people could provide some insight as to why since my GPA and SAT are way above the average acceptance at my school. I also attend one of the top high schools in the nation (magnet school that requires an application to get in). I indicated my major as physics.
Weighted GPA: 4.4000 (out of 4)
Unweighted GPA: Around 3.9ish
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank
Super Score SAT: 2300
SAT 2 Physics: 800
SAT 2 Math 2: 800
AP Psych: 5
AP Comp Sci: 5
BC Calculus: 5
AP Chinese: 5
AP US History: 4
AP Macroeconomics: Will take this year
AP Microeconomics: Will take this year
AP Statistics: Will take this year
AP Government and Politics: Will take this year
AP Language and Composition: Will take this year
Extracurriculars: Chess expert, multiple national and state chess titles, chess club president, have taught chess for four years during the school year, have taught chess for three years over the summer, unpaid internship at a financial company, and played club volleyball for two years.
Strengths: GPA, SAT, SAT 2s, ECs
Weaknesses: Am not taking AP Physics, didn’t take AP Chem or AP Bio, not the strongest recommendations or essays, not volunteer work/community service.
Are you from Georgia? Did you visit Georgia Tech? Have you met with or spoken with your recruiter? Sometimes the level of interest shown influences admission decision. Not sure if that is the case with Georgia Tech.
one of the problems you might face is that some people might not appreciate the time involved in achieving expert rating in chess. Kudos to you for having done so!
I wouldn’t worry yet, your stats are excellent. Some schools defer very highly qualified candidates because they recognize it is probably an applicant’s safety, and an outright acceptance won’t contribute to their yield. So stay on their list, keep in touch, and if it looks like you’ll be needing it, call your admissions rep and let them know of your sincere desire to attend.
You should really have an AP hard science for the upper echelon schools, especially if you plan on majoring in physics. Does your school have AP physics? Regardless, the fact that you didn’t take it could be a problem.
But the real point is, when I looked up Georgia Tech, Google says that it has an acceptance rate of 33 percent. IMO, any school with an acceptance rate of less than 40-45 percent, regardless of your stats, is not a safety for anybody. I think you can get in regular decision, but I hope you applied to some safer schools as well.
Hi, Are you a guy? Tech gets lots of applications from guys -so it may just be that they had filled their quota of high achieving males. They want a diverse class.
I disagree that they necessarily want a well rounded applicant, they want a well rounded class, which is slightly different. However, I would have to agree with the points about taking challenging science courses, demonstrated interest, and not treating it as a safety with a low admissions rate
With respect to the comments that say it has a low acceptance rate. I do agree that it does, but for my school, the acceptance rate is a little over 60% with the average GPA and SAT being below mine by a decent amount.
Here’s a parent’s view…I live in Georgia, and have seen the acceptance rate at GT decrease greatly in the last few years. It’s due to GT joining in the Common App, and the tremendous increase in numbers of applications.
What used to get you into GT may not cut it anymore. Plus, I would imagine GT Admissions may still be tweaking their overloaded systems, and it may be a few more admissions cycles before the admissions folks really have a “new normal” for who they are wanting to admit and what stats they are looking for.
For anyone reading this thread… THERE ARE NO SAFETIES at GT anymore!
If your heart is set on GT, I would suggest working diligently on any paperwork or communication with GT in the upcoming weeks. And it wouldn’t hurt to have someone else proof before you send it in. Be sure of your “why GT” and try your best to communicate that to GT.
Georgia Tech isn’t a safety for anyone, not with their acceptance rate and the fact that since it’s public it’s geared towards Georgia residents and has a disproportionate number of male applicants (unless you’re a chick). So perhaps look at schools with higher admissions rates and later deadlines, just in case
Many years ago, but my boyfriend in college was rejected by his safety and got into all his reaches (univ of Toledo versus Stanford, Yale, Duke. He went to Stanford).
I also agree you don’t seem to understand what the concept of a safety is. Deferred is not rejected anyway, so you have a likely chance. I am also surprised that you don’t have any advanced science (core) classes, yet you are taking AP electives in other areas. I don’t see that as strong.
Are colleges allowed to make their decision based on the indicated major? Also, a thank you to everyone for the feedback, it’s all been very helpful! I know I haven’t taken the rigorous science courses offered at my school, but I did take astronomy last year and am in my school’s Astronomy Research Lab this year. I indicated physics as my major because I find that physics and astronomy are intertwined, but I’d rather go more into the particle physics direction rather than just astronomy (String Theory!!!).
While this type of thing is often due to applicants choosing “safeties” that use “level of applicant’s interest” to reject or waitlist students using them as safeties, Georgia Tech does not consider “level of applicant’s interest”, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1478 . However, the stats shown there, and the consideration of other subjective criteria, indicate that it should not be considered a safety by anyone.
Many colleges do admit by major. If this is the case with Georgia Tech (you may want to ask on the Georgia Tech section of the forums), and you indicated a major that is very popular compared to Georgia Tech’s capacity in that major, then you will be facing a higher level of selectivity than many other applicants to Georgia Tech.