As hard as it is to get into the University of Georgia, it’s even harder to win a spot at Georgia Tech. As I did last week with UGA, I asked Tech to separate fact from fiction regarding admissions in view of the Oct. 15 early-action deadline for applications.
Rick Clark, director of undergraduate admissions at Tech, and Mary Tipton Woolley, senior associate director, address common misperceptions about winning admission to Georgia’s highest-ranked public campus.
It is easier to get into Tech if you live in rural Georgia and harder if you attend a metro powerhouse school.
We review all applicants based on the context of the high school they attend and the opportunities available to them both in and out of classes. Our goal is to enroll a geographically diverse freshman class from across Georgia. This year’s freshman class includes students from 89 Georgia counties. Currently, 62 percent of Georgia Tech’s in-state freshmen are from four metro Atlanta counties — Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett.
It is easier to get into Tech if you apply for an under-subscribed major.
Georgia Tech does not admit students to a specific major as freshmen. However, we do consider students through the lens of the major they intend to pursue. We discuss whether or not a student’s high school courses, academic performance, activities and essays align with their intended major.
In the past, Tech looked only at the math and English scores of the ACT. What matters now in the ACT?
We consider all four main sections of the ACT – English, math, science and reading. The writing section is optional but recommended.
Everyone knows someone with strong scores and grades who did not get into Tech. Why?
With an applicant SAT average of 1350 and a GPA average of 3.99 on a 4.0 scale, the truth is most applicants could succeed on campus. Beyond academics, many students denied admission are clearly amazing people who have had an important impact on their family, school and community. But, based on supply and demand, we simply cannot admit them all.
Tech says it superscores SAT and ACT — considers a student’s highest section scores across all test dates — but don’t admissions really look at all the scores?
Within the SAT or ACT, we look at the highest section score from any test date. This means the highest section scores we consider may come from multiple test dates.
Tech cares a lot about how a student performs on admissions tests.
Testing is only one part of the evaluation. The applicant ACT composite average last year was 31, while the admitted ACT composite average was 32. The difference between students who are admitted or denied is negligible, and this shows the necessity of looking at a wide variety of factors in our admission review.
Class rank doesn’t matter.
The biggest issue is that class rank is not uniform. Some take rigor into account, but many don’t. The ones that do put rigor into ranking may not value the same thing we do at Georgia Tech.They also will often rank many students at the same point. For example, we’ve seen 14 students “sharing the rank” of No. 2 or No. 10 in the class.
Tech is admitting more foreign and out-of-state students as they pay full freight, and that helps compensate for the deep cuts to higher ed by the Georgia Legislature.
The admit rate for Georgia applicants this year was 39 percent. It was 26 percent for domestic non-residents and 11 percent for international students. We are committed to serving and educating students from our state as reflected by the fact that while students from Georgia generally comprise less than 20 percent of our freshman applicant pool, they make up 60 percent of our undergraduate population.We are in the business of preparing students to become global leaders, entrepreneurs and problem solvers in a complex, diverse world. Creating a dynamic ethos on campus is part of that preparation. Students from abroad — while only 10 percent of our undergraduate population — provide an invaluable perspective, enrich discussions inside and outside the classroom, and enable our residents to gain a global vision and a network that will benefit them not only during their Tech career but long into the future.
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