The article also states that GT admitted legacies at a 50%+ rate. That alone might account for the rejection of the high stat kids. At my son’s school (OOS) , we know of 2 kids who applied, both with high ACT’s, GPAs and good EC’s. The higher stat (36) kid was accepted, the just slightly lower was deferred. GT moved up in the engineering rankings this year, Atlanta continues to be a great town with a good business climate (excellent for internships) , and I’m sure that also had something to do with the greater number of applications.