@zooksman my son was rejected with high math coursework. Not sure that was it. Big congrats to all who were accepted or deferred. Either was a nice accomplishment.
I think geographic locations have something to do with it too. I was looking at the link someone provided a few days ago that list GaTech admission by state. For our state, each year there’s about 10 students attending. The numbers are very consistent. Given the yield rate, probably 20-30 students will get admitted. So if my son is in the top 20-30 within our state’s applicants, he should get admitted (and he did.)
In another word, your student will not be compared globally. He will be compared with his peers from the same state or same school. If there’s a large amount of excellent candidates from your school or state, tough luck.
@amyandscott You will never truly know what got your son rejected. When I was deferred from my first school, I drove myself crazy trying to figure out why. Just take it as it is and despite knowing what should happen be contempt with what did happen.
@amyandscott It’s extremely ignorant and offensive to say that “‘holistic’ = affirmative action” just because your son was denied.
When you get this - what does it mean?
We like you but prove to us that you really want to come here?
Go someplace else for a year and get 30 credits and it better be 3.3 or above and you will walk through our glorious halls?
“However, we are pleased to offer you the Georgia Tech Arts & Sciences Pathway Program for Fall 2019 as a transfer student.”
Does anyone know when deferred applicants get final decision notifications?
Just curious…for those OOS that were deferred, how many indicated they would not be applying for financial aid? I don’t believe that GT is need blind for admissions, but I could be wrong.
D was deferred, and I’ve seen applicants denied with much higher stats (she had 1410 SAT, 4.0 UW GPA, 7 AP, 14 Honors). We checked the “no” box for financial aid since the FAFSA indicated an EFC for us significantly higher than the COA.
@amyandscott I sure hope that you and your S thought he was a perfect fit for GT, otherwise why apply in the first place? Unfortunately it doesn’t matter what the applicants (or their parents) think about the fit, it only matters whether the school thinks the student is a fit. And it is difficult to accept but GT did not consider your son a good fit. Trying to explain it all away as though your son is a “victim” of affirmative action is pretty offensive.
Georgia Tech has become a very tough school to get in OOS as more and more Ivy League level students apply to GT as a match school, but the OOS statistics are dropping to a point that Tech is becoming a reach school to all OOS students. @amyandscott, as the parent of an in state URM who got accepted with lower test scores and a slightly higher UW GPA than your son (also a female student which have higher acceptance rates at GT), I can see how you may feel that the system is rigged against your son, but I believe your talented son will find many schools that welcome what he brings to the table. My own child has learned that with any disappointment or obstacle (never the smartest, never the fastest, not a great test taker) to “put in work”, live life to the fullest and do the things you love. That is how you ChangeTheGame.
@bogeyorpar you win the internet.
You are exactly correct. Students compete by school, by city, and by state for a limited number of offers for that region. The admissions officers for that region try to determine if the candidate is a good fit for the school and basically rank them in that region for the admissions committee. The admissions officer is your representative before the committee… like a lawyer. The committee considers all applicants of a region at the same time. Students in different regions don’t compete against each other. Within the region, they will accept X and defer the next Y applicants the rest get rejected.
Tech might want to offer 30 students from your area. Remember half of the offers will go boys/girls. So is your son/daughter in the top 15 candidates in your city?
Think about this example, there are 276 Texas undergrads at GT. Given a 4 to 5 year grad rate, that’s roughly 60 new TX freshmen per year. To get those 60 they need to offer around 150. 30 for Houston, 30 for San Antonio, 40 for Dallas, 30 for Austin, 20 for the rest of Texas. In Austin there are over 40 high schools, at least 6 excellent STEM high schools… for 30 offers. So for Austin EA they will accept 20 and defer 10. They will include the defered 10 when the committee considers RD… then in RD they will offer the best 10 waitlist 5 and reject the rest.
So someone in NJ with a 35 getting rejected has nothing to do with a 30 student in rural Arkansas getting accepted.
“I don’t believe that GT is need blind for admissions”
It doesn’t (or shouldn’t!) matter to applicants. Need blind/aware can affect only your chance of admission, not how much you like the school. Meeting full need is what’s important (and can keep you from applying if they don’t!).
Also, they may be more carefully considering “yield” this year. Some of the kids with the highest statistics are also considering Ivys and may be admitted to those Ivys. Georgia Tech can admit them, but IF they have found that in the past that when these kids are admitted, chose an Ivy instead, it affects the “yield,” a key indicator in the college rankings. I think they call it the “Tufts” affect. Tufts was rejecting a lot of top scorers because they realized that when they were admitted, were not attending, they committed to Harvard instead. Our daughter is a perfect case of this. She was admitted to Georgia Tech, but chose to attend Yale. My son, ( admitted OOS for CS, and we are thrilled) loves Georgia Tech and all it has to offer. He was admitted with a 1500 SAT and 4.6 GPA, 800 Physics SAT and 800 Math 2 SAT (daughter had a 2400 and 4.75) and is very excited to participate in their jazz band, marching band and ensemble bands. As a musician, and plays many instruments and composes, too. I think that his artistic abilities also played into the reason he was admitted. GT also has a fantastic Music Technology program, which intersects beautifully with his interests in CS and music. YEILD AND FIT. I personally think ,that overall, there is little difference in aptitude among kids who score within 100 points of each other on the SAT.
Reading and listening to the GT admissions folks, I don’t think this is so much about yield as it is about fit. They only accepted 19% from OOS this year EA, and the overall yield rate last year was almost 37%, which isn’t bad, especially in this day of students applying to so many colleges. For Tech, the standardized test scores and grades are more likely a threshold baseline. They know if they want strong OOS students, they can attract them with the Stamps and other scholarships. Its a wonderful deal for the in state kids.
Things have changed a lot for Tech and its admission rates in the past 10-12 years. Back when DS#1 applied, it was his safe school, and he chose to go elsewhere. Once Tech joined the CA, the application #s skyrocketed.
Tech has been clear that they want movers and shakers: kids who work well with others, who think ahead, create, develop, problem-solve, are innovators etc. That’s probably what made a composer interested in their new music tech program interesting to them.
Enrollment management programs using data analytics are getting better at not only predicting the likelihood that someone will attend, but at calculating how much they need to offer a student to attract them and encourage them to enroll.
And Ga Tech has shifted how they read applications a bit this year https://pwp.gatech.edu/admission-blog/2017/10/05/freshman-application-review-the-nuts-and-bolts-part-1-of-2/
Did anyone get notified for scholarships?
"Tech has been clear that they want movers and shakers: kids who work well with others, who think ahead, create, develop, problem-solve, are innovators etc. "
Precisely! Selective schools want students that show intellectual curiosity and love of learning, and essays that tell who they are on a personal level. These are the things stellar scores and GPAs can’t measure.
@traveler98 I do not mean to be offensive. There is no rhyme or reason for his complete rejection. In addition, none of the five IB students from our high school were accepted or deferred. I do not mean to have a bad attitude but we are so disappointed and thought he was a good fit. I have looked on the entire thread and students (OOS) were accepted with 29, 30 and 32s on their ACT with less accolades and accomplishments than what my son has. He is also so humble about it. I am ALL for affirmative action, but when he has worked so hard and achieved so much, it is just hard to take. I understand that colleges and universities try to make their student bodies diverse which is great. My son attends a large, inner city high school where he is a minority. And we LOVE it! We are just feeling awful right now about this decision from Ga Tech.
PS I do not think that affirmative action is offensive. It helps level the playing field for all hard-working students.
@ChangeTheGame I appreciate your kind thoughts. Thanks.
To be honest, 3.75 UW gpa is quite a bit low for GA Tech admission average. Also, I see way more 33+ ACT students denied/deferred than “29, 30 and 32s” ones.
@wally1688 -Yes you are correct. He is in the IB program and pre-engineering program at his high school and is graduating in the top 5 percent. the four classmates who applied as well all have gpas higher than his except for one. One of the girls will be their salutatorian. They were ALL rejected. He may have had a better chance of getting in Ga Tech had he stuck with AP classes exclusively.