Georgia Tech

Hi everyone,
So I am a Junior who just visited Georgia Tech. I absolutely loved it, but there is one problem for me: it is a state funded school, meaning they draw most of their students from instate. I wanted to ask you all if my non-Georgian residency would have an affect on my chances. I go to a private college prep school, I have a 4.1 unweighted GPA (at my high school at least), I am ranked 3/200+ students, I have extracurriculars: Varisty sports, state championships, 200 hours of service and so on. I have yet to take standardized tests, but I did get a 1300 on the new PSAT without preparation. I think a couple of kids have been admitted recently and have done well at the school (will this help?) Sorry if this stuff is bothersome, I’m just getting nervous about whether or not I can go to the college I love.
Thanks!

If it’s worth noting, by graduation I will have taken:
AP Calc AB/BC
AP Physics 1,2 and C
AP World History
AP Bio
AP Gov
AP Chinese

I am a White and Asian male

My first choice major would be aerospace/nautics

This year GaTech accepted 60% from in-state, 30% from out of state, and 10% international. So for a state school Tech actually accepts a fair number of non-Georgia students.

@DoyleB You gave the over all make up of current students, not the admission statistics. @PlacidPlatypus see this article - http://getschooled.blog.myajc.com/2016/03/12/who-got-into-georgia-tech-today-and-who-didnt-due-to-rising-selectivity/

Just a quick tip, you can apply to Ivan college of liberal arts (higher admission percentage than other schools) and then change your major to anything once you’re accepted. I was accepted as a Computational Media major, while all my friends (all have higher SAT and GPA scores than me) who applied for CS and engineering got rejected. I payed my deposit (committed to the school) and simply changed my CM major to CS on the admission portal (*note: this has to be done before school starts)… Kinda just smacked all of their faces lol.

GT College of Computing accepted 50% out of state students this year. I do agree with @jubilantlearner that you can declare an unpopular major on your application, if you wish. Some things to think about: Your essays may sound insincere and not line up with what your teachers say about you! (I assume you are good at math! ) Also, if you get into GT with lower test scores because you say you want to study international policy, or business, than the other admitted aeronautical engineering majors at GT, you may struggle and drop out or take six years to graduate. It may be best to be honest about what you want to study and let them evaluate you. Come up with a list of backup schools. I suggest Case Western Reserve University and U of Colorado Boulder for Aerospace, both ranked programs.

@Coloradomama, just wondering, how do you know GT Computing’s acceptance rate? Do they post stats for each schools and the areas the applicants are from?

for @chocolateCoin Sorry for the misunderstanding, its not 50% of applicants got in, its 50% of the accepted students are from OOS! The ratio of OOS/Georgia kids in Computing was in the letter we received, since my son stated his intended major, we got mailings from Computing directly with data in them. The acceptance rate was not in there, just the ratio of Georgia to OOS for Computing this year.

@Coloradomama, Oh wow! That’s amazing considering Tech wants 60/30/10 ratio for the school. Seems like Tech’s CS program is well known nation-wide! I was just confused since I didn’t receive any kind of letter from College of Computing (even though I applied as CS), just a general acceptance letter. Thank you!

@Jubilantlearner - While future students can do what you did I don’t think GT is always going to be fooled. Plus a number of students either start out in CS and go to CM or the other way around. I would think that you probably would have been accepted anyway. It may have been your essays or your EC’s or something they saw on your application.

@MichiganGeorgia My grades and scores weren’t TOO bad and I did intend to choose CM at first, I think its a wonderful program. But I end up changing to CS, because I felt that CM focuses on digital arts. I was just amazed by how easy it is to change majors (even more desired majors) on the buzzport.

If you’re very concerned about getting in, then I recommend applying early. Typically, early has a higher admission rate, and you find out your decision sooner. This year, the early deadline was October 15, and it was NOT binding. (That means that you’re not required to go there if you get accepted) Plus, you have to apply early for some of their scholarships.

I got in this year, and I’m from out of state (TN). Two other people from my school got in, and all three of us are in the top 10 of our graduating class (our school doesn’t give us our exact rank unless we’re top 5). Although one of them applied regular decision, I feel like me and the other guy could have gotten if we applied RD.*

I suggest taking your standardized tests soon. Personally, I like the June dates because it’s during the summer when you have nothing else going on. Plus, you’ll have time to study certain areas if you’re not happy with your score. Also, remember to take challenging courses like AP or IB if they’re available. With sports and extracurriculars, try to get leadership roles. With a 4.1, you seem to know what you’re doing academics wise. Take advantage of any opportunities that come your way, and you’ll do fine. Good luck!

*Side Note: I’ve had a few super smart/qualified friends get rejected or waitlisted from places like Vanderbilt, Duke, and UChicago when they applied regular (as legacies, for a couple of them), while other equally (or even less) smart/qualified friends get in early action (usually binding though) with no problem. Again, early typically has a higher admit rate, but, based on my experiences, this seems to be a bigger deal with private schools. I wouldn’t worry about it with GT, but I would for equally-selective private colleges. Just thought I’d tell you in case any of those are on your list.

@ChocolateCoin OK, I went back and looked. My son got a separate letter from School of Computing with a colorful brochure, More than a Degree GT Computing, and it had admission stats for Fall 2014 in it, here they are for College of Computing : (sorry not 2016 stats, but I bet they are similar? ) It includes the Media majors, apparently.

Georgia Residents: 123
OOS 136
International 44.

I do not know if that is unusual, but thats the data they sent us.

Here is link: (page 3 Quick Facts)

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/documents/coc-undergrad-book-june-2015-web.pdf

@Coloradomama Ohhh, does Tech send the brochure only to committed students? I was just wondering why I haven’t received one yet. I guess I’ll see the updated version this summer! It’s interesting to see Computing has more students from OOS than In state though. Thank you!

@ChocolateCoin. You were right though, I think overall the averages of OOS/Georgia/Foreign students are closer to what you stated in this post. I wonder if the CS admits vary a bit year to year? Since students are changing majors this changes anyway, after freshman year. Since GT does not really admit directly to Computing, I don’t know that it matters much. We got both mailings way before my son committed, a mailing to parents of GT admits in Computing and a mailing to students admitted to Computing. I just happened to look at them again, and realized we got a total of three snail mail mailings, the acceptance letter in yellow jacket colors and two white mailings directly from Computing department. If you did not specify your major maybe thats why you did not get them. GT admits to the entire school as I understand it so its not at all important, you can study anything you want. My son was admitted EA in January. I don’t know if thats why we got those mailings, but it was well before he committed, he just committed in April. Hope you did too!

Is it difficult to get into GT’s College of Sciences compared to others? I can’t seem to find this information. My daughter’s interested in Chemistry and Biology programs at this point. Best to apply to this school or Liberal Arts for best chance of getting in?

Also, if anyone has advice on other things to do to help chances of getting into GT, we’d be appreciative. We’re in town, so could meet with counselors, etc… easily. Any ideas for internships or meeting with professors? Thanks in advance.

The best way to get into GT is to apply non binding early action, which has a very early deadline, of Oct 15. Thats a full two weeks before any other college on the planet! GT can admit, reject or defer an early applicant. Defer means they consider that student again with the regular decision pool of applicants. Non Binding EA also gives her the best chances at merit based scholarships, if you are OOS.

GT has no published admissions criteria per major and allows a student to apply as an undesignated major. My understanding is the largest departments at GT are Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Biomedical engineering and computer science, so if she is not interested in those four, she should be fine. The science college is a nice size. I don’t know if saying she wants to study English, or History or foreign language or public policy is helpful if she does not want to study that, it will be hard to write the essays about a major she really is not interested in.

GT allows students to change majors as well. Its a little difficult to transfer in late, say sophomore year, to Computer science, we have heard but science majors are wide open, is my understanding.

A freshman at GT can pick any major, the student is admitted to the school as a whole, not a particular college, although they do track interests and may reject a few very good students based on intended major, such as computer science, if they have too many applicants in one major on a given year.

You cannot change majors to cs after you apply.

@scubadive That is not true. Freshmen can change their major after drop day during their first semester. http://www.registrar.gatech.edu/students/formlanding/changemajor.php

After the first semester, a student would have to be in good academic standing to change majors to CS, and after a student attains sophomore status (s)he would need to have taken an intro CS course and earned a C or better: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/academics/college-advising/application-change-of-major-form