I’m not angry at GeorgiaTech and I respect their decision, but looking at the accepted students I am a bit confused as to why I wasn’t accepted…
Here are my stats:
Out of state (Illinois) applicant from a highly competitive large high school
ACT: 36-36-36-36
SAT: 1570 - 800 Math 770 English
W GPA: 4.81/4.0
UW GPA: 4.0/4.0
SAT Subjects:
Physics-800
Math II-800
Chemistry-770
No class ranking
Extracurriculars:
President of habitat for humanity
3 years FTC Robotics club
Varsity Cross Country
Guitar
Student council committee head
LEO Volunteering secretary
National merit semi finalist
14 APs, all 5s, difficult APs as well, always pushed myself course-wise
No demonstrated interest
Essays didn’t make me stand out too much but they were well written and played to my strengths
White Male
Good rec letters
No disciplinary issues
Work as a paid tutor
Family Income $180K-$200K
Applied for Mechnical Engineering as first choice and Industrial Engineering second.
You weren’t accepted because you weren’t accepted. No one can really say for sure why. The Sal at my school (In-State) with a 35 ACT (36 Math and 34 Science) and two 800s (Math 2 and Physics) got rejected with Industrial Engineering major. I got deferred (17th class rank) with a 34 (36 Science and 32 Math) and no subject tests with a Physics major. A girl I’m good friends with got accepted for Physics (27th rank) with a 33 (31 Math and 35 science) and no subject tests. Just goes to show that the admissions is really holistic, or, as my friends like to call it, dartboard (yes, we’re salty). If it makes you feel any better, the male:female ratio is horrendous, the facilities are pretty subpar, and it has a high suicide rate because the culture is pretty toxic. It’s not a “competitive culture”, it’s a sabotage culture where students are not friendly and won’t help you. I have a friend there who transferred to UGA because he couldn’t take it.
No one can say why you weren’t accepted. However, 4 people with perfect stats and EC’s similar to yours in my school were also rejected, so it was harder this year. I was accepted with the Stamps Scholarship Semifinalist, but I know for sure the only reason I got the stamps is because I won some grand awards at Intel ISEF. without Intel I doubt I would have even been accepted, let alone get stamps. Anyways, your resume is really good and I know you will get in somewhere great for rd! Good luck!
@Jleto18
Enough with all those “their loss” and “they are bad” rants. Honestly, you weren’t accepted because they didn’t think that you’ll thrive there even though you’re a good fit academically. You attack the school because you think that their rejection is a personal attack on you, but it’s NOT. It is for your good.
Also, I know many people who are happy at GT and some who are not, just like every other school.
I was rejected by Cornell ED, and I wasn’t angry because they had their reasons. At least pay some respect.
If you’re interested, you can look at my new post and read it thoroughly.
It’s like asking why some girl didn’t dig you even though you had everything. The particular adcom just didn’t feel the chemistry. Others will. There are other colleges out there, just like there are lots of nice girls out there. You just need to find one who digs you.
My son was deferred. Your quals are higher than my son’s with the exception of demonstrated interest. My son has 12 years in FIRST robotics with CEO and Dean’s List finalist last year. The only other acceptance he has so far (other than our local safety school) is WPI.
A lot of students are deferred with stats like yours because you will have many options, and better options. The two numbers colleges care most about are how many students apply and how many students enroll. The kids who they know will do great at Georgia tech and have great stats will get deferred so it won’t hurt GTs enrollment yield when they get into/decide to go to MIT (for example) instead.
you weren’t accepted because they don’t think you are going to go there, my daughter was deferred two years ago EA, show GT some love and you will be accepted, your scores and grades a great and there is no reason you won’t get accepted in March. With your stats GT think you are headed to MIT and won’t waste their time on you.
All kidding aside, we can’t know why you weren’t accepted. Yes you have incredible stats, but with the admission rates in the single digits in elite schools, there is no guarantee you will (a) get into a school like MIT or (2) choose it over GT. Who knows if there was something in a teacher recc, counselor report or simply that they only took 14% from OOS, and 54% of the admits were non engineers, and something didn’t sing to them.
If you are still interested in attending GT, write to them indicating your continued interest. You can also update your application with your new set of grades.
@doctorunusual Although top schools like Georgia Tech do look at institutional fit, there is no evidence to support your cynical belief that Tech admissions is practicing “yield protection”. Georgia Tech is trying to choose the best class possible and there are a number of students every year that turn down MIT (and other top schools) in order to attend Georgia Tech, which is itself a top school. The Stamps Scholarship Program is full of such students. Unless an applicant writes about really only wanting to attend a certain prestigious school(s) not named Georgia Tech, I have a hard time believing admissions would defer or reject a student on the thought that they’ll just go somewhere else. And if admissions is doing this (they’re not), it certainly hasn’t changed Tech’s yield much over the years…
“Yield protection” is much more likely to be a syndrome that reflects college applicants rather than universities. Some applicants to top schools may not take their applications to perceived “safety schools” as seriously and may respond to their essay questions in mundane ways. If those applicants then get rejected from the perceived safety schools and into schools that they perceive as being better and whose applications they put more effort into, that shouldn’t be a surprise. It certainly doesn’t indicate that admissions for the perceived safety schools were practicing “yield protection.”
US News also no longer considers yield in their rankings, so I’m not really sure where this alleged incentive to protect yield would be coming from anyway.
@naturespirit
I’m not trying to say it’s a bad school, that’s just objectively false, I was just pointing out some flaws to make OP maybe feel better about potentially not getting in. Some people have this perfect image of a college in their mind, and it crushes them when they don’t get accepted. I was just offering some flaws to maybe communicate to him that it’s not the end of the world and that all colleges, even dream ones, are not perfect. I agree with your statements, though, and, looking back at my post, I should’ve been more reserved and tasteful with my comment because I think I didn’t translate my thoughts well to text.
