Dream school: Georgia tech

I am a sophomore in high school. My unweighted GPA is a 3.75 and my weighted GPA is a 4.1. I am A white Male which I know lowers my acceptance chances. In addition to this I have a 30 on the ACT. Can anyone with similar background offer advice, or insight into how or if they were accepted into Georgia Tech?

You have lots of time to raise your stats. Also find something you love, whether it be robotics, or Science Quiz bowl, or music and pursue it with gusto. I do not feel GaTech discriminates greatly against white males, so far. Its the school white males can still get into, in fact. There are other good techy schools to get onto your list now too. Look at UF Gainesville, U of Maryland , and Purdue in Indiana. If you are OOS , Purdue could end up being a little less expensive compared to GaTech as well. If you are a Georgia student, keep other in state options on your list.

Purdue and GaTech are very similar schools, for rank in engineering and focus on engineering studies.

Your ACT score will most likely increase by the end of junior year. I would brush up on getting those leadership positions, extracurriculars, and awards. I personally think that your current GPA might be a little low, so try to get that up.

@Coloradomama said that Purdue is the same level as Georgia Tech. Although I also think that looking at other schools is important, I do not agree with the fact that Purdue is similar to Georgia Tech. Purdue is known for its aerospace engineering (more similar to Ohio State University). Georgia Tech is known for its biomedical engineering and industrial engineering (more similar to University of Michigan). Looking at 2018 US news ranking for undergraduate engineering (which you should not look into as much), Georgia Tech is tied for fourth and Purdue is tied for eighth.

I recommend looking at schools all over the country: UC schools, UMich, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, University of Illinois, IVY, Wisconsin, etc.

@hokuhoku2018. Georgia Tech is also ranked 8 in the country for CS, Purdue is about 20. But aerospace at GaTech is ranked very highly along with Purdue at 4 and 6 respectively. See US News. GaTech is consistently one of
the top aerospace programs in the world!!

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/aerospace-rankings

. Purdue is very similar to GaTech overall, a very well ranked engineering focused public school,and about the same level of academics. Similar problems with changing majors, and registration, and similar size engineering college.
Purdue does have a much larger overall student body with agriculture, arts and sciences etc.

I think UIUC is also very similar, higher ranked in EECS , and a bit bigger, but most students
with top scores and grades can get into all three. This not the case with most of your other choices there, except Wisconsin, that one will accept some students with lower test scores.

U of Michigan costs significantly more than either GaTech or Purdue OOS, and its significantly harder to get into, with most kids getting deferred and rejected who will easily get into Purdue or even GaTech. Michigan is
extremely tough for out of state admissions and very popular with students from the northeast.

MIT is ridiculous for admissions today, about 7%, or less get in, and even Math Olympiads get rejected this year. MIT does a much better job at gender balance, if you are a girl, that demographic has a higher chance at admissions for now. MIT accepts about 16 % first generation college students, if you fall into that demographic, MIT could be a much better bet than their average admissions numbers suggest.

By contrast, GaTech is hovering about 18% OOS admissions, with 25% overall, numbers for now.
Purdue, is about 40-60% admit rate, depending on if you live in Indiana. UIUC, about the same as Purdue.

Purdue and UIUC will weed out more weak students, with freshman math, than GaTech or MIT needs to.

According to Prepscholar, the average unweighted GPA is 3.9 and the average ACT score is 32. This is to be on target for their average admissions rate of 33%. I plugged your stats into the website and it comes back with a 7.91% chance of getting in. Chances of getting into that school are lousy even with a 4.0.

Thankyou guys so much

@stressedout1234 Look at applying to GaTech by Oct 15 for the best chance. If you are Out of state, the
acceptance rate seems to be plummeting down to less than 18% for OOS Regular Decision. In state, much
easier to get in, but still not that easy. Applying by Oct 15 helps. You have plenty of time to take the ACT again
and I would do that. Also take SAT II subject exams in math and one science, as GaTech will look at those scores.
GaTech also gives credit for chemistry, literature, and history SAT subject exams if you are strong in any of those subjects.