Is it worth it for me to apply to Georgia Tech as a reach school?

GPA UW: 3.729
GPA W: 4.357
Rank: 17/311
AP’s:

  • AP Bio: 4, AP Lang: 5, APUSH: 5. (junior year)
  • AP Comp Sci A, AP Physics, AP Literature, and AP Italian (haven’t taken ap tests yet)
    Very rigorous schedule: took 3 honor classes freshman year, 6 sophomore year, 2 plus 3 AP’s junior year, and this year I have 4 AP’s. (didn’t take AP Calc but I’m in Calculus)
    Essay: my strongest point
    Letters of Rec: solid
    EC: Club Softball all four years (many hours a week), Varsity Softball all four years, “Girls’ Show” which is like a dance/drill team/theatre performance at our school for 4 years, Job for two summers/fall (35 hour weeks), Volunteer Softball Coach for younger girls for 4 years , Church volunteer for 3 years, Peer Mentor for groups of freshman 2 years (I was a selected applicant), writing and math lab tutor 2 years(selected applicant), Italian Club/ President for 4 years, Class of 2021 Committee for 2 years,
    Honors: National Honor Society 2 years, World Language Honor Society 2 years, PV Honor Society 3 years, PV Student of the Month
    Also I’m a girl who is latina/hispanic (Peruvian to be specific)

Georgia Tech is a reach for everybody. There is no shortage of applicants with perfect and near-perfect stats, and obviously all of them can’t get in. But there are certain markers that would bump up your chances. What is your intended course of study? Georgia Tech is technically “major blind” but it would strongly benefit your application to be focused on a certain area, with lots of demonstrated historical support for that major (such as advanced courses in that path, longer term membership/leadership in relevant clubs, related employment or research, etc). Without that, It just looks like you are trying to get into Georgia Tech at any cost but you don’t have a study or career path in mind, which is not good. There is intense competition for spots in the engineering disciplines and computer science.

You did not mention standardized test scores - were you not able to take the tests because of COVID? I would not be alarmed about that though because Georgia Tech uses a holistic admissions approach and is well known to place heavier emphasis on all aspects of the application. It is no secret that students with perfect standardized scores are routinely rejected if the other components of the application are short in some way. It’s very good that your ECs reflect a variety of interests. I believe your demographic status should also help a lot, not only with GT but with all schools.

Now for the big question: do you live in Georgia? As a state school, GT places heavy emphasis on Georgia residence, and a high percentage of admitted students come from Georgia as a result. It is much, much harder to get into Georgia Tech as an out-of-stater, although instate is getting tough too. That said, the existing grades look good, but I would add as many tough APs as possible, preferably ones to prepare you for your college field of study. Course rigor is extremely important for top colleges.

I haven’t been able to get an SAT yet due to COVID. I’m applying out of state from NJ and I want to be a data scientist in the future, but they don’t have “data science” as a major so I was going to select Computer Science as my first choice and Business Administration (B.S) as my second. I’m looking to narrow down my list so I’m looking to knock off one of my two reaches which are the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech. For the University of Michigan, I’m applying to their College of LSA. Which one should I take off? Or should I keep both as reaches?

I am more familiar with Georgia Tech but I’m comfortable describing both as reach schools.

State of residency? CS is one of the most competitive majors there, and OOS acceptance rates are pretty low. Not having taken AP Calc may also be a point against you for CS.

On the other hand, although your GPA is somewhat low for GTech, especially CS, the fact that you are in the top 5% of your class will help, and being a woman and a URM will also help (women are accepted at about 1.5x the rate of men).

Again, as an in-state applicant, your chances would be better for GTech, while, as an OOS applicant, your chances would be slimmer.

YES!! never sell yourself short, as you never know what will happen! I applied to Georgia Tech Early Action as a reach, and I was not expecting to get in. I ended up getting a full ride from Georgia Tech and am now a Stamps Scholar and I also got into a couple Ivy leagues. Never in A MILLION YEARS would I have expected it, so apply and don’t sell yourself short! We tend to find a lot of faults in ourselves and underestimate ourselves, so don’t let that stop you from applying.

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BTWs, I applied as a CS major, which is a relatively competitive major, so give it a shot!

Did you fall into their average GPA, test scores, and everything else or have much higher stats than me? You made me feel a bit better I already applied and shot my shot!

As I wrote on your other thread, because your GPA puts you in the top 6% of your class, there is a good chance that colleges, including GTech, will consider it comparable to the scores of other students who are in the top 6% of their class, rather than to other students with similar UW GPAs.

In general, being in the top 6% of your class would make you competitive for GTech. Are you a Georgia resident?

No, unfortunately. I’m OOS from NJ.

I’m applying for Comp Sci (first choice) or Electrical Engineering (second choice)
SAT: N/A
GPA UW: 3.729
GPA W: 4.357
Rank: 17/311
AP’s:

  • AP Bio: 4, AP Lang: 5, APUSH: 5. (junior year)
  • AP Comp Sci A, AP Physics, AP Literature, and AP Italian (haven’t taken ap tests yet)
    Very rigorous schedule: took 3 honor classes freshman year, 6 sophomore year, 2 plus 3 AP’s junior year, and this year I have 4 AP’s. (didn’t take AP Calc but I’m in Calculus)
    Essay: my strongest point
    Letters of Rec: solid
    EC: Club Softball all four years (many hours a week), Varsity Softball all four years, “Girls’ Show” which is like a dance/drill team/theatre performance at our school for 4 years, Job for two summers/fall (35 hour weeks), Volunteer Softball Coach for younger girls for 4 years , Church volunteer for 3 years, Peer Mentor for groups of freshman 2 years (I was a selected applicant), writing and math lab tutor 2 years(selected applicant), Italian Club/ President for 4 years, Class of 2021 Committee for 2 years,
    Honors: National Honor Society 2 years, World Language Honor Society 2 years, PV Honor Society 3 years, PV Student of the Month
    Also I’m a girl who is latina/hispanic (Peruvian to be specific)

UM could be a reach but if u do pretty well on ur ACT / SAT , your chances could be increased.