Georgia Colleges Getting More Selective (Atlanta, Clayton: credit, loan, top schools)

[testa50]

Originally Posted by jsimms3

I think they should repoll everyone at senior graduation to determine a) whether or not the student started freshman year at the school, and b) what their SAT scores were in HS.

I'll bet the average is increased heavily for most of the schools, and I'll bet GT's goes from 1374 to 1474. As an out of stater who started and finished at GT and earned a 1420 on my SAT, I learned real quick that half the class you start out with is no longer at the school after sophomore year because they failed miserably, even if they were at the "top" of their high school class. It is easier to get into GT than to get into UGA, but it's still much more difficult to last there. UGA is becoming quite an excellent school, though, and had I wanted to go to a "large public state school," I would have looked at UGA and Penn State pretty equally. I thought GSU was becoming quite a good school, and I still do, but it's expanding in student body size so rapidly that they can't help but admit a bunch of dolts.

srsly?

I'm a dawg and I love UGA and all but I think GT is wayyyy more competitive.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by testa50

srsly?

I'm a dawg and I love UGA and all but I think GT is wayyyy more competitive.

What he really means is this--


The stats to get into GT do require more than one would need to get into UGA.

However, a lot of the college application process is about self-selection or self-elimination--meaning that many students choose to not even bother with applying to GT in the first place. In other words, way more students apply to UGA, so their acceptance rate is lower than GT's.

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by aries4118

What he really means is this--


The stats to get into GT do require more than one would need to get into UGA.

However, a lot of the college application process is about self-selection or self-elimination--meaning that many students choose to not even bother with applying to GT in the first place. In other words, way more students apply to UGA, so their acceptance rate is lower than GT's.

As it should be. GT is an elite engineering and sciences school. UGA is an excellent all around school. Each holds its own on a national scale these days. while a die hard Dawg, I am so very proud to see GT even mentioned in the same conversation with Stanford, MIT, etc. It is really quite an accomplishment and compliment to our state and city. Go Jackets!

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by aries4118

What he really means is this--


The stats to get into GT do require more than one would need to get into UGA.

However, a lot of the college application process is about self-selection or self-elimination--meaning that many students choose to not even bother with applying to GT in the first place. In other words, way more students apply to UGA, so their acceptance rate is lower than GT's.

I think self-selection is only sensible and it boggles me that one of the knocks against GT in the magazine rankings is that, for an elite school, they have a relatively high admission rate. Apparently, to get the best rating, schools need to recruit lots of under-qualified people to apply, so the school can hire more staff to process these heaps of extra applications, and end up with a tiny acceptance rate, like the Ivy League schools. The notion that this exercise would make the school more desirable blows my mind.

How can you tell I'm the parent of a high school senior! My senior is also an excellent student, although realistically, not quite exceptional enough to get into Harvard, Yale, etc. But those very schools keep sending her tons of mail inviting her to apply - doubtless part of the above-mentioned effort to recruit plenty of applications from people they don't intend to admit.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

I think self-selection is only sensible and it boggles me that one of the knocks against GT in the magazine rankings is that, for an elite school, they have a relatively high admission rate. Apparently, to get the best rating, schools need to recruit lots of under-qualified people to apply, so the school can hire more staff to process these heaps of extra applications, and end up with a tiny acceptance rate, like the Ivy League schools. The notion that this exercise would make the school more desirable blows my mind.

Some of that self-selection also has to do with GT's narrow curriculum. I thought it funny how some people complained to me that they wanted to go to GT but couldn't find a major that interested them. They just wanted the prestige of being a GT grad. GT has broadened its offerings to retain students who later decided that engineering was not for them. Retention is also something schools worry about. GT didn't worry about it in the past but now it is measured. For the US News rankings, rejecting a lot of applicants is a positive, retaining enrolled students is positive, and getting them out with a diploma in 6 years or less is a positive. And don't forget that each of those extra applications schools receive have an attached application fee. I think schools make money off of each one.

How can you tell I'm the parent of a high school senior! My senior is also an excellent student, although realistically, not quite exceptional enough to get into Harvard, Yale, etc. But those very schools keep sending her tons of mail inviting her to apply - doubtless part of the above-mentioned effort to recruit plenty of applications from people they don't intend to admit.

That's surprising because schools like Harvard and Yale probably don't care about their rankings. They have nothing to prove. GT, UGA, and even Emory however toot their own horns to excess with each release of the US News rankings. But there is no denying that prospective students look at them.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by jsimms3

I think they should repoll everyone at senior graduation to determine a) whether or not the student started freshman year at the school, and b) what their SAT scores were in HS.

I'll bet the average is increased heavily for most of the schools, and I'll bet GT's goes from 1374 to 1474. As an out of stater who started and finished at GT and earned a 1420 on my SAT, I learned real quick that half the class you start out with is no longer at the school after sophomore year because they failed miserably, even if they were at the "top" of their high school class. It is easier to get into GT than to get into UGA, but it's still much more difficult to last there. UGA is becoming quite an excellent school, though, and had I wanted to go to a "large public state school," I would have looked at UGA and Penn State pretty equally. I thought GSU was becoming quite a good school, and I still do, but it's expanding in student body size so rapidly that they can't help but admit a bunch of dolts.

It would be interesting to see the SAT average of each graduating class too. But it might be disappointing for GT. While not that many people leave, a lot of new students transfer in from UGA, GSU, KSU, SPSU, etc. even Georgia Perimeter. It might have something to do with the extra time needed to graduate from Tech but the number of students increases for each year of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. And the increase is substantial. So there are probably a lot of people in each of GT's graduating classes that started at another school with a much lower SAT score.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

As it should be. GT is an elite engineering and sciences school. UGA is an excellent all around school. Each holds its own on a national scale these days. while a die hard Dawg, I am so very proud to see GT even mentioned in the same conversation with Stanford, MIT, etc. It is really quite an accomplishment and compliment to our state and city. Go Jackets!

Um...ok...is this some sort of sign of the coming apocalypse? Next thing you know it'll be Auburn and Alabama fans praising the others' school.

[RoslynHolcomb]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Um...ok...is this some sort of sign of the coming apocalypse? Next thing you know it'll be Auburn and Alabama fans praising the others' school.

Hey, I went to 'Bama (at least for grad school) and I praise Auburn all the time. I'd much rather our children go there than to 'Bama, at least for undergrad. Of course, in the interest of full disclosure I must acknowledge that I married an Auburn grad. Interestingly, for an interracial couple we get far more flack for having a collegiately mixed marriage than for a racial one.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

That's surprising because schools like Harvard and Yale probably don't care about their rankings. They have nothing to prove. GT, UGA, and even Emory however toot their own horns to excess with each release of the US News rankings. But there is no denying that prospective students look at them.

Far be it for me to speculate whether Harvard and Yale care about their rankings. However, they've been spending their money on sending repeated mailings to our house. I'm not making this up.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

Far be it for me to speculate whether Harvard and Yale care about their rankings. However, they've been spending their money on sending repeated mailings to our house. I'm not making this up.

What Harvard and Yale are looking for are students who will likely achieve great things after school. People give George Bush a hard time about how dumb he is...but he graduated from Yale and Harvard, became governor of Texas and President. Guess Yale knew what they were doing when they admitted him as an undergrad.

I knew someone who made a 1600 on his SAT, interviewed at Harvard and MIT but did not get into either. Probably the interview sunk him.

Obviously I can't know why they want your child to apply. US News normalizes its data relative to HYP, i.e. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. They will always be somewhere in the top three so they don't have to play the numbers game to boost their ranking.