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Atlanta Public Schools valedictorians and salutatorians will be eligible for automatic acceptance and full-tuition scholarships to Georgia Tech, under a new program university and district officials announced Thursday.
“This is our backyard. This is our neighborhood,” Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson said. “It’s important to us that the school system here is successful.”
Georgia high school valedictorians and salutatorians are already eligible for full-tuition scholarships to Georgia Tech and other state schools through existing state scholarship programs. Under the APS Scholars program announced Thursday, Georgia Tech will guarantee APS valedictorians and salutatorians can still receive full-tuition scholarships for four years even if their grade point averages fall short of state scholarship requirements. APS Scholars will have to maintain GPAs of at least 3.0.
About 38 students a year—the number-one and number-two students at each of Atlanta’s 19 high schools—would be eligible for Georgia Tech’s offer.
This fall, just 13 Atlanta graduates will enroll at Georgia Tech.
The APS Scholars program is a step toward increasing low rates of African-Americans studying science, technology, engineering and math, and toward healing some of the wounds inflicted on APS by the test-cheating scandal, said Georgia Tech researcher Kamau Bobb.
“From Tech’s point of view, we’re working with APS period,” he said. “But it’s not missed on us that this is a predominantly black district.”
And while the program is significant, even more important is ensuring that APS and other students succeed at Georgia Tech once they enroll, he said.
“We can open the doors, but we have to make sure that you can get there and once you get there you can succeed,” he said.
Atlanta currently has a 59 percent graduation rate — and only about a third of APS graduates were college-ready based on the most recent state data. But this particular effort is intended to focus on the district's top students, university officials said.
“Our goal is to recruit the world’s finest students,” Georgia Tech undergraduate admissions director Rick Clark said.
Georgia Tech is not considering expanding this program beyond the Atlanta school district, spokeswoman Laura Diamond said.
Georgia Tech in-state freshman tuition is $9,002. The university puts the total cost of attendance — including fees, books and housing and meal expenses — at about $25,000 a year. Other financial aid programs, including the G. Wayne Clough Georgia Tech Promise Program, are available to cover non-tuition costs for eligible students, Diamond said.
To qualify for the APS Scholars program, students must also complete the university’s prerequisite course work and admission process. Students who qualify under the program can begin classes starting in the summer of 2015.
Booker T. Washington High School junior Jamilah Abdul-Hakim was encouraged by Georgia Tech’s offer.
“I would like to try to pursue it and try to become the top of my class so I can get the opportunity,” she said.
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