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GA Tech....has your hs student been accepted without ALL of the tests??


dkholland
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My ds is looking at applying to GA Tech and I see that they want a student who is not in an accredited program to have lots of AP/SAT II/IB/. We do not have all of these and can show college level work for some of the core subjects but we are missing a foreign lang test. My son struggled through Spanish for two years and we stopped at that. It fulfilled the requirement for his #1 choice (UVA).

He has some strikes against him:

1. He is out of state and not many are accepted from other states

2. He did not follow an accredited program

3. He only has three SAT II's

 

What he has going for him:

1. He is a legacy student

2. He is a 1/4 Hispanic

3. He has done college level work in 4-5 classes at our local cc

 

How would you assess his chances of getting into what my husband calls the BEST engineering school on the east coast. That does not include MIT which he concedes is the best.;)

 

Who has had their out of state homeschooled student get into Tech?? Should I be intimidated by their requirements for homeschooled students? (I am:D)

Thanks so much!

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I would not see "out of state" as a strike against him. Right now about a third of Georgia Tech's students come from out of state. As is the case at many public institutions these candidates are considered attractive because they pay twice as much tuition.

 

Georgia publics in general are complicated for homeschoolers probably in large measure due to the HOPE scholarship. Often when states adopt these scholarships the expectations for documentation or accreditation goes up. Their homeschool form http://www.admission.gatech.edu/apply/freshman-application/home-school basically reads like a way to document that unaccredited students have what they need for HOPE - which is of course not a concern for your student.

 

The experiences I've had with students bringing questions to Georgia Tech admissions have been positive. My suggestion would be to have your student contact admissions express strong interest in Georgia Tech, their legacy status, identify as from a state where homeschoolers typically aren't accredited. Give the highlights of the stats SAT, list SAT IIs and community college courses and grades but express that they do not see a way they can get test documentation in foreign language is it still worth applying.

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If you feel that your son would be a strong candidate, I'd encourage him to apply REGARDLESS of what the admissions people say in response to the "any exceptions?" question.

 

Our similar story -- my dd1 did not want to take a science class her senior year, and we called her colleges of interest to see what they had to say. The 4-year college down the street, a "Public Ivy," told us that dd would not be admitted without 4 years of science classes with at least one of them taken at the local CC. Dd didn't care and didn't do the fourth year of science. The result of our ignoring the admissions people's advice? She was not only accepted but accepted as a "--- Scholar," the school's special honor for the top 2-3% of entering freshmen.

 

So why did they change their minds about requiring the fourth year of science at the CC? I think that seeing the entire student record, with great test scores and EC's, etc., etc., made them see that the fourth year of science was in her case totally superfluous.

 

The same may happen with your son -- you can't convey in a three minute phone call the caliber of student he is.

 

If he wants to go to GA Tech, he should apply. Make them think about who your son is! If he doesn't and later on he hears of another student with a similar background who got in, he will feel really badly!

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Yes, I agree if he's really interested he should apply. For sure people should not write off schools based on minor difficulties with requirements. Often, as is the case here, the rules are written for more global concerns like a state scholarship and they may not apply. Also, many schools don't entirely understand the range of options with homeschoolers so they may write a policy that sounds strict but has some play once they see a student with a lot of different kind of outside documentation.

 

I would encourage him to ask by email now though. I suggest this for two reasons. 1. I think there is a very good chance they will say something reassuring which will lower his stress level about this. and 2. because it establishes a paper trail indicating that he was interested.

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Thanks for your advice. We have been in contact with an admissions rep at ga tech and she said they do look at all the documents and supporting materials we homeschoolers send in. I see their homeschool form for unaccredited programs is only two pages. I am thinking we will have quite a few add-on pages to our transcript to explain our high school approach.

 

I agree if he wants to apply, he should. I always feel, though, like the weak link in this college application process. Thankfully my dh is an alumni and has all the confidence for both of us!

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My ds is looking at applying to GA Tech and I see that they want a student who is not in an accredited program to have lots of AP/SAT II/IB/. We do not have all of these and can show college level work for some of the core subjects but we are missing a foreign lang test. My son struggled through Spanish for two years and we stopped at that. It fulfilled the requirement for his #1 choice (UVA).

He has some strikes against him:

1. He is out of state and not many are accepted from other states

2. He did not follow an accredited program

3. He only has three SAT II's

 

What he has going for him:

1. He is a legacy student

2. He is a 1/4 Hispanic

3. He has done college level work in 4-5 classes at our local cc

 

How would you assess his chances of getting into what my husband calls the BEST engineering school on the east coast. That does not include MIT which he concedes is the best.;)

 

Who has had their out of state homeschooled student get into Tech?? Should I be intimidated by their requirements for homeschooled students?

Hi Karen - I'm coming in late on this, but my ds got into GA Tech as an out-of-state student. He was not in an accredited program and he did not have a foreign language AP or SATII. My ds had three SAT IIs and some APs. I think that your ds's community college coursework would be just as impressive as APs. We got the impression that SAT and ACT scores were key at GA Tech. So if your ds has strong scores, I'll bet the school will be interested in him.

 

I would encourage you not to be intimidated--and have your ds apply.

 

Good luck!

Edited by Brigid in NC
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  • 2 weeks later...

Glad to hear some positive feedback from GA Tech. My son emailed asking about the SAT Language test requirement as he also doesn't have that - and heard nothing. I think he emailed twice. He did visit the school last year and nothing about it excited him, so he is now starting to think of other schools to apply to instead (this was his safe school and pretty much bottom of his list).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Also late on this thread, but would anyone be willing to share what their successfully admitted child's SAT or ACT was. I know scores are key at GA Tech and can view the average on college confidential but I'm wondering if homeschoolers need to be on the high end of the average range or if middle range is okay. This school is at the top of my dd's list to apply to next year. We're trying to decide whether or not to have her re-take the ACT one more time. Thanks!

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