How to Use the Georgia Tech Common Data Set

Georgia Tech is among the best public universities in the country, especially for students studying STEM.

The Georgia Tech Common Data Set reveals key insights into the Georgia Institute of Technology’s admissions process.

Let’s get into it.

How Georgia Tech Evaluates Applicants — based on CDS data

In the “Basis for Selection” grid below, you can see how important each main application component is to Georgia Tech admissions officers.

We can extract a couple of key insights.

First, Georgia Tech doesn’t care at all about your class rank. They won’t even look at it, so don’t worry if your school doesn’t assign class rank or if you’re not in the top 10%.

We can also see that standardized test scores are important in the admissions process. Since Georgia Tech isn’t test-optional, you’ll want to make sure your scores are up to snuff.

Continuing on down the list, you can see that letters of recommendation are only “considered” at GT. At most other schools, recommendations rank in the “important” or even “very important” category, so it’s a bit unusual to see them only as “considered.” This should be good news to you if you don’t know your recommenders very well.

Because Georgia Tech is a state school, your geographical residence and state residency will matter for admissions. As I’ll explain below, you can apply earlier if you are a Georgia resident.

The last thing to draw out from this data is volunteer and work experience. Typically, colleges rank these as “considered” or occasionally as “important.” Very rarely are they listed in the “very important” column. If you have strong experience as a volunteer or employee, make sure to highlight it in your GT application.

Does Georgia Tech track demonstrated interest?

Nope, Georgia Tech does not consider demonstrated interest. Since schools log demonstrated interest by tracking your engagement with things like emails and campus visits, you don’t need to worry about opening every single Georgia Tech email. But you should still engage in virtual or on-campus visits to learn more about the school.

Does Georgia Tech care about standardized test scores?

Yep—Georgia Tech ranks standardized test scores as “important” in the admissions process. They’re still secondary to things like your course rigor and GPA, but they do factor into your evaluation. For reference, of all the enrolled first-year students, 53% sent in an SAT score, and 36% submitted an ACT score.

Does Georgia Tech care about essays?

Yes! Georgia Tech really cares about your essays. They’re one part of your application that carries the most weight. Strong personal statements and supplemental essays are paramount. Why? Because they’re the foundation of your cohesive application narrative—something all good college applications have.

What GPA do I need to get into Georgia Tech?

There isn’t a hard-and-fast rule for the GPA you need to get into the Georgia Institute of Technology. But it’s safe to say that you’re going to need a pretty high one.

Of the most recent entering first-year class, a full 100% of students were in the top half of their graduating high school class. Even more, 91% were in the top tenth.

And if you take a look at the following table, you can see that 85% of enrolled first-year students had at least a 4.0 GPA. And 95% had above a 3.75.

If you want to join the next class of enrolled students, then, you’ll probably have much better chances if you have at least a 3.75 GPA. (Although remember that other factors, like course rigor, are really important, too.)

Georgia Tech Acceptance Rate

Georgia Tech received a whopping 45,388 applications and admitted only 8,308 of them. For those of you keeping track, that’s an acceptance rate of 18.3%.

At that rate, Georgia Tech ranks alongside schools like Boston University and the University of Michigan in terms of admissions difficulty.

Georgia Tech Early Decision Acceptance Rate

Georgia Tech does not have an Early Decision application plan. You can either apply Early Action or Regular Decision.

What’s the right application option for you?

Georgia Tech has an Early Action I plan for students from Georgia. The due date for EA I is very early—mid-October.

Applicants outside of Georgia who want to apply early can do so under the Early Action II plan, which is due November 1.

And finally, Regular Decision applications are due at the beginning of January.

So how do you decide which plan to do?

Well, as you can guess, your options will be limited by your state residency. If you live in Georgia and can swing that mid-October Early Action I due date, then that’s probably your best bet.

If you’re from outside of Georgia, you should choose an application plan based on your ability to submit the best application possible given the timeline and the other schools on your list.

Most popular majors at Georgia Tech

So the Common Data Set doesn’t tell us about the most popular majors per se, but we can get to that information by looking at the percentage of degrees awarded to students across a number of academic disciplines.

Take a look at the chart below.

That’s right. Over half of degrees awarded at Georgia Tech went to students in engineering. That’s huge! And nearly 20% went to those in computer science. Third in popularity is health professions, which accounted for 10% of degrees. The numbers drop off pretty steeply from there.

Compared to the Common Data Sets of other schools, Georgia Tech’s degree distribution is very heavily skewed toward engineering and computer science.

And if you know anything about Georgia Tech, then this shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s a highly sought-after STEM school, so engineering and computer science students tend to flock there.

Does that mean that you can’t go to Georgia Tech if you want to study something like architecture or communications? Of course not!

It just means that the engineering and computer science programs are particularly good—and more competitive to get into. If you’re applying to Georgia Tech to study either of those disciplines, you’re in for some steep competition.

What should you do with all this information?

Whew—that was a lot of information about Georgia Tech!

What’s one to do with all of it?

Well, the first thing you should do is take a breath. The point of this data isn’t to overwhelm you. It’s to make you a better, more informed applicant.

Go back through the “Basis of Selection” table and assess where your strengths align with the most important factors. As you put your GT application together, be sure to draw out those strengths. You can also use the data about GPA, acceptance rate, and major popularity to assess your chances of being admitted into a particular major. For example, if you’re applying for engineering with a 3.3 GPA from outside of Georgia, you probably shouldn’t count on Georgia Tech admitting you.

Good applicant strategy is all about finding the right narrative given the school you’re applying to. You’ve got this!

Want to see more Common Data Sets? Check out the Data Room!