You were not rejected.
If you wish you be accepted you will fill out the update form. You will use the update form to convince the person reading it that you are a good fit serious about attending. You will not beg or brag but demonstrate how Tech would be good for you, and you for Tech. What is Tech’s mission?
You were denied b/c you’re an OSS white male. Look at the numbers on the CDS for applicants. GT is flooded w/white male applicants It’s much tougher for an OSS white male. They need females. Also, you picked very typical majors for GT.
Correction: You were “deferred” for the reasons stated above. I was told that it’s much tougher for OSS males choosing the most popular majors.
I agree out of state males in popular majors have a very difficult time getting into Georgia Tech even with perfect stats. Also, there are many many more out-of-state applications then there are in state applications. I don’t perceive any issue with yield protection at Georgia Tech however. Unlike Michigan, which defers almost everyone early action and rejects almost no one, there were a very large number of people rejected from Georgia Tech this first round. If you were deferred you are still in the running.
OP, you were deferred because you didn’t have enough of the things GT is looking for, at least in the EA round. You can take comfort in the fact that these things that GT was looking for are completely out of your control. You are white, GT wants URM. You are OOS, GT wants instate. You have XY chromosomes, GT wants XX. Your parents went to college, GT wants first generation. In short, you took care of everything that was in your control (test scores, GPA, rigor, etc …), and you can’t do more than that, so don’t be too hard on yourself.
@TheBigChef I may be reading more into your comment than you intended, but Tech admits quite a few OOS white males who are not first generation students. In fact, that may well be the largest demographic of OOS students admitted to Tech. It is true that Tech would like its student body to include more women and minority students, but the “I’m a white male, woe is me” narrative is also overly simplistic.
Like most public schools, in-state status is a major factor for Tech, but essays, involvement, and recommendations are all likely to be weighted more heavily than race, gender, or first-generation status. If they weren’t, Tech could certainly close the gender gap and increase minority and first-generation enrollment overnight. Instead these figures change rather slowly via recruitment efforts to increase applications from members of those demographics and, once admitted, events and outreach efforts to get those admitted students to matriculate. The items you mention are indeed uncontrollable intangibles that can and do help an applicant, but the holistic admissions process is not as myopic as your post implies.
The OP is a fantastic student who should be proud of his accomplishments, which the deferral is a testament to. But let’s not assume, based on our incomplete view of his application, that we know others only got in over him because of their gender, race, or parents… That’s not the whole story.
There are countless kids in the same boat this season at GT including in state students such as my kid with superb records. Basically all the applicants are qualified and how they choose we dont know. However the school is just about 50/50 in terms of ratio as they have sought to increase female enrollment.
My eldest just graduated from there so I can say it has its good and bad. However it is my child’s first choice school.
Agreed, even though it’s “OOS”, not “OSS” (“Office of Strategic Services”, for history nerds), and the “white” is almost surely incidental. Being an out-of-state male of any race or ethnicity makes it very hard to get into GT these days.
what do you mean when you say that you had no demonstrated interest
I don’t think it very helpful to start speculating about the whys. The question is whether or not GT is actually your top choice. If it is, then I would let them know that in a email that reiterates your interest and mentions anything new that is worthy of letting them know about. And, if you are absolutely certain you’d go if given an offer, I’d talk with the guidance counselor to see if she/he is willing to “make the call” or send an email attesting to your strength as an applicant but more importantly, standing behind your contention that you’d go if given an offer.
On the other hand, if you are MIT bound, I’d not have the guidance counselor intervene.
Good luck!
We visited Tech and the admission people did stress the ISS preference. Seems to be penalizing the students because their parents just happened to have jobs elsewhere. I guess charging almost $50k for OSS is apparently not enough.
No charge if you aren’t admitted. Seriously, the apocryphal “Jared Kushner” price for securing admission to Harvard was $2.5 million so, yeah, $50k is probably nowhere close to enough to buy your way into Tech.
@parentofsix It’s a university supported by taxpayers of Georgia. All state schools have to show a preference for their own. Otherwise, the rich would just buy their way into GT, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, UT-Austin, UVA, etc leaving no room for Georgia students. The system for State schools may not be perfect, but it’s relatively fair.
Of course ISS get in at a higher rate than OOS students. Georgia Tech is a top 5 engineering school - tied for 4th actually in the latest rankings. It is also a public institution funded by the taxpayers of the state of Georgia. If you want parity between in-state and out-of-state, private schools are the way to go. Public institutions just don’t work that way. As a parent of a child who wants to be an engineer, we are very lucky to live in Georgia and thrilled he got in. It was tough for in state applicants as well.
when do you find out if you moved from deferred to admitted?
@markfnc I think you will find out when RD decisions are released.