Ga Tech has plenty of diversity. Lets not make this another veiled racism thread.
Also, the key to Chance Me threads is not the persons opinion, it is the rationale. That is where you can learn things.
But whose rationale? Some hs kid? That poster in Canada who racked up thousands of predictions? A parent who says, no, you don’t need X because Y years ago, my kid got into (Great U) and didn’t have that?
@lookingforward “But whose rationale? Some hs kid? That poster in Canada who racked up thousands of predictions? A parent who says, no, you don’t need X because Y years ago, my kid got into (Great U) and didn’t have that?”
There is no substitute for thinking. If you read thoughtfully, you can tell who is more knowledgeable. Some points are valid, some are worthless. You have to sort it out. Just like every other conversation in life.
The other thing I feel like I need to do a lot on this forum is put the disclaimer in “in my opinion” because I don’t want my experiences to be taken as gospel or fact, and I see some kids (and parents) doing that with other posters, and I shudder at the possible consequences.
About the tech acceptances-DD17’s friend just got accepted, and that kid is solid both academically and with her EC’s and is just an all around terrific kid-I think Tech is now desirable enough that they can now say no to the kids who pull perfect scores but can’t ever work in a collaborative environment or brush their teeth.
M2L, it’s just so imperfect. The only thing anyone can really guess, especially from a the limited info on a chance me, is if the kid can probably make it past first cut.
@lookingforward “M2L, it’s just so imperfect.”
If they were perfect, they would be called “admissions threads.”
@lookingforward “The only thing anyone can really guess, especially from a the limited info on a chance me, is if the kid can probably make it past first cut.”
I know that Adcoms like to imagine themselves as having some magical insights into applicants that no one else can discern, that makes their “holistic” decisions totally unpredictable. I mean, without it they can be replaced by a computer.
However, the level of unpredictability varies widely, depending on the school. In the case of GA Tech, at our high school at least, they are highly predictable. Looking at the Naviance scattergram, all of the accepted students are in a neat little cluster in the upper right, and there are no rejections in that gpa/test score area. Along the border of that area, there are some deferrals. Highly predictable. The high test scores that are rejected have relatively low gpas.
Certainly, there are exceptions, but having a better guess than their 33% admission rate should be a no-brainer.
However, the rejected high-test-score applicants may have had low GPA/rank and/or less rigorous course selection, while the rejected applicants who took the toughest courses may have had low GPA/rank and/or test scores.
Based on GT’s CDS info, they put more importance on GPA, Class Rigor (last year’s early admits average 9.4 AP/IB/DE courses by HS graduation) and Extracurricular activities than test scores.
I think the most useful threads are the ones with admissions decisions. You can really see how high the stats are for kids who are rejected and waitlisted at the top schools. They also usually post their awards and ECs.
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.
@TooOld4School , which Engg. rankings are you referring to? GTECH has always been high up in the rankings - for both undergrad and grad. There has been very little change since 2 years back when my D2 selected GTECH (over UCB and UMich) but for different reasons!
@Much2learn. Your comment:
"I know that Adcoms like to imagine themselves as having some magical insights into applicants that no one else can discern, that makes their “holistic” decisions totally unpredictable. I mean, without it they can be replaced by a computer.’
Very well said! Bravo!
They are only replaced by a computer if/when schools use a formulaic approach. Some do, but most schools don’t take that approach.
The legacy applicant pool is probably stronger, since they all come from families with college-educated parents. However, http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1478 indicates that alumni relation (i.e. legacy) is considered.
Some would question the use of legacy status in the admission process of a public university, since that effectively favors those who already have more favorable conditions (a college educated parent) leading up to the point of applying to colleges.
Wouldn’t “most” schools be open admission community colleges whose admission process is done by computer (fill in some basic information in the web page and it admits you)? Also, wouldn’t many moderately selective colleges use purely stats-based admission criteria that can be done by a computer program, or have automatic admission criteria for a large percentage of their classes?
This is cc. We arent talking about open admission community colleges!