Deferred w/ a 2300 SAT and top 10% of HS

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
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<p>I was rather upset yesterday with being deferred from GT, partially because I was completely blindsided. I thought, as did my parents (both PhDs from Tech) that I had acceptance on lock. By the way, I live instate and go to a suburban Atlanta public school</p>

<p>2300 SAT (770 Math)
10% of HS class w/ 4.3 WGPA (5.0 for APs and 4.5 for honors)
National AP Scholar (5's in Calc AB and Physics C Mech... in fact 5's in almost everything)
760 Math Level 2 Subject SAT
710 Lit Subject SAT
Highly rigorous schedule, about 14 or 16 AP courses taken (dont feel like counting exactly. i have never taken an onlevel class except for a freshmen year elective, and that was computer science)
Varsity and club soccer
Interact Club all 4 years and VP of Humane Society
National Spanish Honors Society
oh... and if it matters at all for GT, im 100% hispanic, born in Venezuela, but a naturalized US Citizen.</p>

<p>and to top it all off, I had an internship at my father's engineering firm one summer which allowed me to do research work, and attain a coauthorship in a scientific paper published in the 2011 National Aerospace Conference.</p>

<p>to be honest, i am still very disgruntled with not getting accepted. I have been told that due to being a hispanic, I am in the running for an Ivy League (my wgpa is low, the val/salut of my school have like 4.7s, but im still top 10%). I even applied early action to Princeton and find out tuesday (I wouldnt be too upset with not getting in- after all, it's princeton), but I never expected to not get into Tech, I was even expecting Honors College if not a scholarship. (i did get into UGA honors, my only option right now)</p>

<p>Is there any chance at all that you guys think this was a mistake? Should I call the admission office? I'm sure they got alot of that from angry kids like me, so I dont know how effective that would be. Any suggestions would be appreciated...</p>

<p>PS- i dont know if it was my essays. Several people read them and thought they were at least good, if not very good.</p>

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<p>You were deferred. So for heaven’s sake, don’t call them up and give them a hard time. Or you will be dumped immediately to the rejected list. Hard to say what caused the deferral… it could be that they somehow got the impression that they were your safety, as it appears that your standarized test scores are all above their 50% level. </p>

<p>Regarding the essays… if those “people” that read them were other students (not adults), that could be a problem area. You don’t say, but just suggesting it as another possibility. Also, what is your unweighted GPA? That could be a factor (one you can’t fix at all).</p>

<p>Other possibilities – do they know it is your father’s firm you worked for? Honestly, that can be a drawback… colleges really like to see students show their own initiative in finding lab or internship opportunities. So if that comes out in the app, it may cause them to discount that experience somewhat.</p>

<p>Finally… there is no telling what was in your recommendations. If there was something really damning in there (even in a backhand way), they probably would have just rejected you. So I am guessing it was not that. But maybe they are not truly glowing (or have a lot of typos or something) – I always think the recommendation thing is a bit of a crap shoot in that regard, one it is hard to control. You may be a great student, but not all teachers can really communicate that too well. And sometimes schools will call your guidance counselor to discuss your application. Usually the school is either trying to “read between the lines” on something in the app and want more info, and/or they want to know where they stand in your order of preference. This also is sort of a crapshoot… I worry that the GC could make a mistake in this kind of discussion; it is sort of a game of telephone where they might not have all of your information/priorities completely understood.</p>

<p>Maybe just an accumulation of things (test score wise they look like a safety, your unweighted GPA may not match up too well, they feel like you might have gotten a leg up on your work experience from who your parents are). So they deferred you.</p>

<p>I can only say that if you still want to get in, show them more love. Do NOT call and question their decision. If you have any new accomplishments between now and say, late February, send that information along with a note (email to your admissions rep is okay) saying that you are really interested in GT, and wanted to make sure they knew this new, great thing you have done, and that you are hoping very much for acceptance in the regular pool. Also tell your school guidance counselor that you really want to go there, and are still hoping for the ED acceptance. IF it is your first choice and you truly will go if accepted, then say that to the school and your GC. But don’t say it if it isn’t true (although honestly I think they are listening for that information…)</p>

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<p>If anything they were your essays or your GPA, since you mention it was sorta low</p>

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<p>GT does not have teacher recs. I would have suspected those if GT had them. I suppose my unweighted GPA (3.6) is what got me deferred, but students from my school with very similar class rank as me and lower SATs got in.</p>

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<p>That’s crazy. You’ll get in the next round for sure… defintely weird though. Even with a meh gpa you still should’ve gotten in…I’d be pretty mad too.</p>

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<p>I think there are probably a lot of kids in your situation right now. GT can’t admit everyone who is qualified. Most like it came down to the GPA or the essay’s. Maybe they were good essays but didn’t make them believe that you really wanted to go to GT.</p>

<p>Do not call them. You will probably get in RD. In the meantime you still have time to apply to some other schools if you don’t get in to Princeton and don’t want to go to UGA.
Also BTW getting auto-admitted to UGA honors is a good thing. I think they only let in about 220 or so kids that way and there are some kids over on the UGA forum that are disappointed that they didn’t get auto-admitted and now have to apply to honors.</p>

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<p>This seems like a either a clerical error or some missing piece of information caused your application to be incomplete. </p>

<p>I would have your guidance counselor call them up and try to get some answers. If that’s not possible, call them up and be calm and polite. Get someone who will actually check in the computer if you were missing anything in your application.</p>

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<p>My son is in the exact same boat - deferred after truly expecting admission. He has a 3.7 uw gpa and a 4.1 weighted, 34 ACT and will finish with 9 AP classes. He is AP Scholar with Distinction, has good ECs and leadership and was also invited to UGA Honors. Today he is devastated because Tech was by far his number one choice of schools.</p>

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<p>My son too is in the exact same boat - only he’s a white male. Heartbreaking - fortunately he’s sooooo busy with schoolwork due this week, he doesn’t have time to feel bad - that will come later. RD but not sure he has the heart anymore.</p>

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<p>Did you check your application status earlier this year? It listed all the test scores ACT,SAT,SAT II and AP scores that you submitted. If you didn’t check then maybe something was missing.</p>

<p>Threeofthree - I’m sorry your son was deferred:( I hope he makes it in RD.</p>

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<p>Thank you MichiganGeorgia - I hope so too and congrats on your sons admittance.</p>

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<p>I find that quite surprising. It could possibly be from your essays. They may have been very well written and displayed you in a positive light, but if you didn’t focus on why you wanted to attend GT and why GT was a good fit for you, they might have assumed they were your safety.</p>

<p>Colleges try to keep yield up, so if they do not believe you will attend they will deffer/wait list to save their statistics. I’d recommend emailing or calling the school with updates to show interest. Also, since you live near by, a scheduled campus visit can help. Some colleges keep track of visits as a indication of interest.</p>

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<p>For GT, 3.7 GPA is relatively low, especially early. Do you know how many kids applied with straight A’s? A bunch. Also, do you realize how much GT’s applicant numbers and quality have gone up lately? Apps up 44% in 4 years! It’s remarkable. Also, how many kids paid deposits this year, more than GT expected? Quite a few. So, things have to tighten up this year. </p>

<p>GT doesn’t care if they are your safety school or not. They want the best kids they can get, regardless of where they rate on your list at this point. </p>

<p>Yes, you are well, well above average at UGA and deserve to get in early there. GT is a standard deviation above UGA in terms of student quality across the board. UGA is still a very good school, but the <em>average</em> kid at GT is significantly more qualified than the <em>average</em> kid at UGA.</p>

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<p>^^ I think you’re overestimating GT’s prestige a little.</p>

<p>It is a very good school, and OP’s GPA would be on the lower end, but everything else is stellar. High test scores, high academic accomplishments, good ECs, shows initiative in pursuing STEM interests. Not to mention with his heavy AP courseload that’s a very impressive GPA to maintain. Skimming through the admitted students stats page they were several kids with 3.6s and 3.7s with much lower test scores who were admitted.</p>

<p>tginart is far above the average GT student and above the average admitted applicant.</p>

<p>All colleges care about yield, because they care about their perceived prestige and rankings, which yield is factored into. Also nobody outside the admissions office has any idea what number of students applied with straight As. Probably not quite as many as you think.</p>

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<p>have done some research on the matter. released statistics for GT’s early action admissions profile reveals the following:</p>

<p>average gpa (weighted by Tech’s criteria) 3.9
average SAT: 2105</p>

<p>I looked up the Tech criteria online, and, they are sort of odd, but I believe mine would have been very close to a 3.84</p>

<p>I realize that GT is an academically top school, but at least 40% of the applicants were admitted with a lower GPA than mine, and I would wonder how many had the test scores, in both SAT and AP, which I did. Also, I may be mistaken, but in the past years, UGA Honors has had higher admissions standards than GT. Remember, only about the top 10-15% of the admitted UGA class is offered honorscollege status.</p>

<p>I guess it doesn’t make too much sense to continue to complain about all of this however. Nowadays everyone seems to be comparing college admissions to a lottery or crapshoot, and I think my experiences can support that. I really do not think my essays demonstrated a lack of interest. If i didn’t value GT very highly, I wouldnt have made this thread. I hope I get in regular, my grades this semester are looking strong going into finals week.</p>

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<p>Where did you get the stats? The one I saw posted on the website was this:</p>

<p>This year’s early admission student profile includes a 4.0 average GPA, 1460/2155 SAT score, with a predicted GPA of 3.3 after freshman year at Tech. Some 55 percent of applicants were accepted, 21 percent deferred and 21 percent denied; the rest did not complete their application files.</p>

<p>So I think it may have been your GPA.</p>

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<p>

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<p>Nobody “deserves” to get in anywhere, actually, which may be a part of the problem with the essays. </p>

<p>OP, did your essays indicate that you felt you were a “shoo in” for GT, or that you were doing them a favor? Sometimes this can show through. Is GT your first choice? </p>

<p>Maybe since you applied scea to Princeton? </p>

<p>Good luck to you. Do you have an actual safety school?</p>

<p>You are one of those students who, due to your stats, has reaches and then matches that are at such a selectivity level you can’t even consider it a match, and then safeties. You are just in a difficult range.</p>

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<p>[To</a> get into Tech, stakes, scores and grades are higher | Get Schooled](<a href=“http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/03/16/to-get-into-tech-stakes-scores-and-grades-are-higher/]To”>http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/03/16/to-get-into-tech-stakes-scores-and-grades-are-higher/)</p>

<p>my source ^^^</p>

<p>i have a safety in the honors @ uga, but my counselor has told me, along with many other classmates and people, that with a URM i have enough of a chance, even if slim, to make it reasonable to apply to highly selective universities. I dont think this notion was mistaken, but if any of you think so, I welcome any advice. I may rethink the calibur of schools I am planning to apply to RD now that I’ve been defered from Tech</p>

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<p>Ok, Your source is talking about last years admits. My post came from the GT for this years EA admits.</p>

<p>[GT</a> | Newsroom - Early Action Admission Decisions Drop Saturday](<a href=“http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=177401]GT”>http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=177401)</p>

<p>Anyway I’m pretty sure you will get in RD however I would go ahead and apply to some selective schools. Remember also you may get into Princeton. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Don’t change your plans! UGA honors is great.</p>

<p>You may well get into princeton as a URM. </p>

<p>Good luck to you.</p>