On Saturday, Jan. 13, Early Action admissions decisions went out to over 18,000 undergraduate students who applied to Tech. Of those who applied early, over 4,600 were granted acceptance.
The acceptance rate for the early action was around 26 percent overall with an out of state acceptance rate of 19 percent, and an in-state acceptance rate of
46 percent.
Numbers are up this year all around. In comparison to last year, 15,715 applied for early action admission with 4,380 of them being accepted. The increase in applications from last year to this year resulted in a 3 percent drop in acceptance rate for in state students and a 2 percent drop in acceptance rate for out of state students.
For the first time, 47 percent of students admitted during early action decisions are not engineering majors.
Of those admitted through early action for this year’s class, there are students from 58 countries, 46 states plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands and 306 Georgia high schools from 95 of the 159 counties.
“The defining characteristic of the early admitted group is that they are all people who are having a big impact in their community,” said Rick Clark, director of undergraduate admission. “For some that is on a team, or at work; for others it is in their school community or doing research; and for others it’s in their family and neighborhood.”
Some of these students from Georgia high schools even received their acceptance letters in person from Tech’s
admissions team.
Regular decisions are expected to be released on March 10. Over 35,600 individuals have applied to attend Tech in the fall of 2018, a record high and a 13 percent increase from last year.
Applications were received from all 50 states, 137 countries and 121 Georgia counties. If trends continue, the expected overall acceptance rate for those students may drop to 20 percent.
“We are anticipating a first year class of 2,900,” Clark said. “In our early admitted group, our female percentage was close to 44 percent, and it’s our hope that will be true of the class when they arrive on campus as well.”
Since switching to the Common Application in 2013, Tech has seen a steady rise in applicants and will double its total applicants within the next few years.
With the increased number of applicants, the acceptance rate has decreased at a higher rate, with this year most likely being the year it will dip below half of the 41 percent acceptance rate
from 2013.
Clark is encouraging current students to help welcome those who have been accepted. Additionally, he noted the creation of new summer initiatives under the “newly branded concept” of iGniTe, which includes three living learning communities.
Other interesting trends Tech admissions have posted in their freshman profile every year include freshman-to-sophomore retention rate and freshman-year cumulative GPA. Both of these numbers have increased since 2010, with retention rate going up by almost two percent and GPA increasing over .25 grade points.
While not all students who were granted admission are expected to attend, there will still be students that Tech cannot enroll who apply to attend after their freshman year.
Of those students, over 1,000 of them enroll at Tech annually through one of the five transfer pathways.