How is Georgia Tech a great school with a 60% admit rate?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
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<p>I don't understand how Georgia Tech is such a great engineering school, but it has an admit rate of 60%. How do they maintain such a high caliber of students with such a high admit rate?</p>

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<p>Great research facilities, stellar faculty, excellent track record of producing engineers, fabulous learning environment, internationally respected in all things engineering. So what if the admit rate is 60%?</p>

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<p>It is called “self selection”. </p>

<p>1) Ga Tech only has very limited of majors (35 I believe), so only determined students want to come here. So even supposedly easy major at Tech (like management) required one year of calculus and one year of hard core Science. </p>

<p>2) Hope scholarship. GA tech SAT score increase over 100 points since implementing of Hope scholarship in GA.</p>

<p>3) Expansion of student population. GA tech increased its undergraduate from 9000 to almost 12000 in the 10 to 15 years period. Had it keeps its student to 9000, its acceptance rate would be much lower.</p>

<p>4) Poor male-female ratio (70 to 30). Had Ga Tech increase its female population like MIT did (45%), it probably attract even more applicants.</p>

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<p>UIUC is an equally top-notch school with a 71% admission rate.</p>

<p>There are a few reasons for this. First, ask the average person on the street who has a better engineering program: Georgia Tech or Harvard. I bet 90% would tell you Harvard. Now, ask engineers. I bet 99% of them would tell you Georgia Tech. Because GT (and UIUC and several other public engineering schools) are very well known in the engineering world, but aren’t at the top of the US News national undergraduate rankings (for various reasons that don’t need to be discussed, other than the fact that public schools don’t seem to perform well), the students that apply heavily self-select. So a prospective engineering student that knows nothing about engineering probably won’t apply to Georgia Tech, whereas a student that has done his or her research will.</p>

<p>Second, as a public school, GT (and others) are under government pressure to admit students that otherwise aren’t as qualified; for example, in Georgia there’s pressure to admit students from rural southern GA and transfer students from the two year technical colleges. These students often aren’t as qualified. As a result, even through they’re admitted, they often fail to graduate as engineers (at GT, that usually means a management major or a transfer out of Tech).</p>

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<p>I’ve always thought it would be in Tech’s best interest (beyond increasing applications and decreasing the admissions rate) to introduce a female-heavy (or at least a large balanced) college. A medical college would fit in perfectly at Tech. </p>

<p>I know nothing about it, but were there any discussions about linking Grady and Tech? It seems like you could have the College of Management study the operation of the facility, start up a medical college at GT to supply doctors, could use government funding from BME to run experimental studies, etc. It seems like a good fit (to someone who knows nothing about the situation)</p>

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<p>Thanks. This was quite helpful</p>

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<p>Georgia Tech also tends to admit, then weed out freshman year.</p>

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<p>Quality is not measured by admission rate!!! During most part of the '90’s and early '00 the Admission rate of University of Chicago was very high… now nobody in their right mind will question the quality of U of C at that time or at any time. I find these post by the OP to be particularly stupid.
Sorry</p>

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<p>I am not sure that’s true anymore. Ga Tech has freshman retention of 93%.<br>
Its five year graduation rate is 71% and climbing.</p>

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<p>Have to disagree with CountingDown: Retention rates have improved greatly. <a href=“http://www.irp.gatech.edu/Retention%20Study/FTF.pdf[/url]”>http://www.irp.gatech.edu/Retention%20Study/FTF.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>8% is hardly weeding out (since many of those leaving are not flunking out, just choosing a different path). 30-40% would be weeding out.</p>

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<p>Do you think that I could consider it a low match?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/722896-chances-great-engineering-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/722896-chances-great-engineering-schools.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>As stated in the thread you linked, your GPA (4.00 UW) is above Tech’s 75th percentile (3.97 UW). Your act score (34) is above Tech’s 75th percentile (32). You’re taking Calc III in high school.</p>

<p>You’re clearly in at Tech, and have a very good shot at MIT and Stanford (I wouldn’t call either a “reach”). With your EC’s and scores, you are a strong competitor for the PSP <a href=“http://www.psp.gatech.edu/”>http://www.psp.gatech.edu/&lt;/a&gt; at Tech</p>

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<p>Thank you! I was planning to apply for the PSP</p>

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<p>Could I have a chance applying to GA Tech as a BME major?</p>

<p>1250/1600 1850/2400 (will take it once more)
i am taking the ACT
10 AP’s,(all passed)
math and english sat subject tests
3.7 unweighted 4.4 weighted(probably 3.8 and 4.7 by application time)
Job for 2 years
250 person MArching Band for 4 years and section leader position
All County Band
Jazz BAnd
Superior at Solo and Ensemble State Festival
Academic Team (11,12)
lacrosse for 2 years( one year varsity)
over 100 community service hours
KEY CLUB-GREEN GROUP-RED CROSS CLUB and FRENCH HONOR SOCIETY(vice president)
out of state
visited Ga TEch</p>

<p>Junior Classes:
AP English
AP American
AP Chemistry
Anatomy and Physiology Honors
Pre Calc Honors
French 3 HOnors
Band 3</p>

<p>Senior Classes:
Ap Calc AB
AP English
AP Stats
AP GOVT/Econ
AP Physics
Band 4
Jazz Band</p>

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<p>Your SAT is a little bit low, but your 3.8 should carry you over and you’ll get in.</p>

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<p>Thanks! I was also wondering…Is it harder to be accepted if you say you want to be in the school of engineering?</p>

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<p>No, they don’t look at what program you are applying to for the most part from what I can tell. Also, how can you have a 4.7 weighted GPA when the max is 4.5 on the GT scale?</p>

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<p>how do you calculate gt gpa considering senoir grades?</p>

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<p>With ~13,500 apps this year, GT is likely to be under 50% admit rate. That’s more like it. :-)</p>

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<p>I’m curious how it will work out. If I had to guess, I would assume that the increase in applications are from out-of-state students with very good stats (the kind that would normally just apply to their in-state schools + MIT and Stanford). Even if admitted, those students have a low probability of accepting their admission offer (unless the private schools cut back on aid, which is entirely possible). </p>

<p>I’m curious how Tech will handle this. Maybe accept more than usual, maybe just have a huge wait list.</p>