Ga Tech's press release on EA- Some interesting things

<p>This press release/article was posted by Tech yesterday. GT</a> | News Center :: 5,000 Students Offered Early Action Admission to Tech</p>

<p>A couple of things of interest:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>First time ever students from every state were admitted</p></li>
<li><p>Most women and AA ever admitted.</p></li>
<li><p>With the rate of acceptance going from 55% to 40% but the rate of admission for Georgia residents remaining the same; I think it means you have a much more competitive pool for OOS. </p></li>
<li><p>Acceptance packets are going out soon but some students will be receiving a surprise by having their packet personally delivered to them at their high school by Tech staff.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>They probably only want the tippy top best of the OOS pool because they don’t expect as many to yield. So if they are going to get some, it makes sense to make sure that they’re actually really good and might help increase the stats. of the incoming class as opposed to it being the same (as in, if they aren’t aggressive they’ll end up only yielding the lower among those admitted OOS and these will of course be your more average applicants). But yes, admissions at Tech is getting tough. I just wonder what the enrolled class will look like. It may depend on the selectivity of the peer institutions this year. As long as they are more selective (especially private engineering schools that may offer better fin. aid to OOS students) than the previous year, Tech will end up with a decent share of very top students. Also, “college level courses” is so vague. Could even be including SL IB which usually does not even receive credit anywhere. I would have just reported the SAT score. “4.0” is also vague. That makes it sound as if they didn’t accept anybody with A minuses. I really doubt that’s the case. It’s probably weighted or “re-weighted”. I sometimes wonder if these reports from selective colleges just function to deter imperfect (as in people who aren’t perfect but who could actually get in) applicants considering later rounds.</p>

<p>^
Actually at Ga Tech some IBSL tests are accepted for credit (if you get a 6 or 7). You get credit for SL Biology, Economics, English A, History, Language B, Mathematics (Math SL not Math Studies SL), and Physics.
Of course the 4.0 is a weighted GPA. I was accepted with a 3.84 unweighted GPA. It’s mathematically impossible to have an average of 4.0 (unweighted) if one (or more) students has a less than 4.
If they wanted to “deter imperfect applicants” I doubt they would have released the numbers 4 days before the regular application deadline.</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter, because you have to keep in mind most RD applicants are applying to many other places. It is not unusual for people withdraw their apps. at the last minute (and many are finishing them at the last minute. It may seem illogical to us that someone throws in the towel when they are almost done with the app., but it does happen). It certainly sends a signal of how tough the admissions will be (for example, most places with Early Decision plans aren’t going to release data outside of the number of applicants because often ED is lower than what they’ll choose for RD. One has to pray for the poor souls who were deferred). I think EA is often more representative of the intended admission thresholds (that will also take place during RD) than ED (ED is primarily trying to get a lot of full pay students with the highest scores they can pick who are committed. RD is trying to get the best students), so if I were a school, I would release EA numbers as they were compiled even if shortly before RD. </p>

<p>As for IB: I don’t think most selective schools accept those (I think they maybe should, but they don’t). And if they accept any IBSL tests, that would explain the 9. Given that many students come from IB schools and do joint-enrollment, that would increase the number of “college courses” to some degree. Regardless, I think somewhere between 6-10 is normal for selective schools (and the amount of those used for credit is often between like 4-7).</p>

<p>I think they send data for unweighted GPAs and SATs to USG although it’ll come out next year. The data for the hs class of 2013 is supposed to come out soon.</p>