Continuing the discussion from Georgia Tech Early Action for Fall 2024 Admission:
Does anyone know how the Conditional Transfer Pathway works
we are pleased to offer you the option of the Conditional Transfer Pathway Program for Summer 2025 as a transfer student.
Tagging @VirginiaBelle
Congratulations on receiving the pathway option. It is a great option for kids who have Georgia Tech as their dream school. They give several different types of pathways, and they all vary a little. Some start in the summer, and others start in the fall after your freshman year.
Basically, the way they work is you are granted a pathway to enter Georgia Tech at a designated term, if you satisfy their conditions. All of the pathways require 30 hours taken after high school graduation - AP/IB/DE credit does not count towards this 30 hours. You have to get a GPA of a 3.3 or higher overall, and a 3.3 in math/science. You also have to take a number of courses, designated by Georgia Tech on their website, for the major you applied for. I think most require you complete two English classes, two calculus classes, a couple of lab sciences, etc. You will want to be sure that wherever you take these classes, they transfer to Georgia Tech as the needed class. There is a transfer equivalency table for determining this. They are very particular about all of the requirements for the transfer pathway. However, if you do decide to do it and complete all the requirements, you will receive a secure offer. They don’t use the word guaranteed, but it essentially is.
Whether to take the offer or not is a personal decision. A lot of kids think they will, and then end up loving where they are and don’t end up transferring. They typically give around 8000 transfer pathway offers, but the vast majority do not use them. One of my kids received a conditional transfer pathway off the waitlist. He scheduled his classes to satisfy the requirements the first semester but one month in he knew he wasn’t going to transfer because he loved where he ended up.
As far as cons go, it can be difficult to integrate into the school community as a transfer. This is not something that is unique to pathway students, but it can be an issue. It is certainly something to consider before transferring.
We looked at it as a back up option if he wasn’t happy where he landed, and even if you don’t end up taking it, it is a very nice thing to have in your back pocket.
Good luck throughout the rest of the process!
May I ask a question?
My husband got a Phd degree from Georgia Tech. In theory, my son should be offered the Conditional Transfer pathway program if he will be rejected by Georgia Tech. (He is apply in regular decision.)
However, he is apply to the College of Computing. Georgia Tech restricts the CS major for conditional transfer pathway program.
My question is: Are you offered the option of the Conditional Transfer Pathway Program by the college, or by the University?
I want to make it clear if my son would be offered the program to be transferred to other majors than computer science which is not available.
Thanks,
My nephew decided to stay where he is, something about not finding out if credits will transfer until June of 2024 (he’s a college freshman). So he wouldn’t be able to figure out housing at his current university until then if he decided not to transfer. With his ADHD and executive functioning issues I think it’s a blessing.
This is the first year they have restricted CS majors from pathways so not really sure. You are offered the pathway for the major you applied for and if there is no pathway for CS it seems like he may not be offered one, but who knows as this is the first year of restrictions on CS.
Pathway is offered by the admissions office.
I’m a GT alum and also a parent whose son was offered the conditional pathway. I’m not an “authority” but I’ve done some research on this. From what I understand, the conditional transfer pathway offer (which is offered by GT admissions, not any specific college within GT) can be used to enroll in any major EXCEPT computer science. Computer Science, from what I gather, is a heavily over-enrolled degree program and so they’re starting to place restrictions on it, to ensure those who are accepted as 1st year students are able to get all the courses they need each semester. For example, starting with the applicants for Fall 2024, the conditional pathway can no longer be used to enroll in CS. Additionally, they’ve placed restrictions on transferring into CS in your 2nd or 3rd year (so if you try to enroll in a different major and then transfer into CS, it’s not so easy - maybe not allowed at all). Of course, I learned all this because my son applied as a CS major. In his case, he is enrolling at Kennesaw State for Fall 2024 and will have the option to use his conditional transfer pathway to enroll in GT in Summer 2025 for any major other than CS. He can still try to transfer as a “competitive” transfer to CS, but that’s much more difficult as he would be evaluated against every other competitive transfer vs the conditional transfer which is essentially “guaranteed” (although they’ll never use that language specifically) as long as he meets the requirements. I basically told my son, take the classes at Kennesaw that you need to transfer in as a CS major OR potentially another major (like Computer Engineering maybe) and then you have to make a decision - which is more important, getting a CS degree from Kennesaw or getting a non-CS degree from GT (or take your chances on a competitive transfer in CS to GT)? If he makes a 4.0 at Kennesaw and is involved in some extra curriculars to make the application look better, he can perhaps competitive transfer to CS be accepted - but again, not guaranteed. As for other majors, it doesn’t matter what you applied as for 1st year admission, the competitive transfer offer can be used for any major (again, except CS), and is essentially guaranteed if you meet the requirements. So if you applied for Mechanical Engineering as a 1st year, were denied and offered the conditional transfer, and then wanted to use your conditional transfer to apply under another major (e.g. Electrical Engineering, or Business Administration or really anything else except CS), you can. You simply need to meet the course requirements for that major (which GT has published) and the other requirements (30 credit hours, maintain 3.3 overall and 3.3 STEM GPA). Also, know that if another college accepts AP courses, even if they don’t meet GT’s AP credit requirements, once that other college puts the equivalent courses on your transcript, GT may accept them as long as they meet GT’s transfer equivalency. In other words, those AP courses are no longer considered AP course by GT at that point- they’re simply equivalent courses at the college that accepted them. This is a way around getting credit for some AP’s that GT won’t take but another school (e.g. Kennesaw or Georgia State) does. Like GT may require a 4 or 5 for AP credit, but Kennesaw might accept a 3. Once the credit is on your Kennesaw (or other school transcript), GT doesn’t care that it was originated from an AP class, they just look to see if the equivalent course on the transcript maps to an existing GT course via their transfer equivalency table. The thing to remember about AP credits, is any course credit originating from an AP credit does NOT count toward the 30 credit hours requirement for the conditional transfer. Wherever you go, you must complete 30 credit hours of in-classroom courses at that college to meet the conditional transfer requirement (no AP credits, no online-only classes), as I understand it. Basically, you can’t use the AP credit courses to lighten your workload in those first two semesters. There’s also a Reddit page that has a lot of good info, titled “A Definitive Guide For Prospective Transfer Students On Pathways Looking Into Tech” - you can search for it (can’t put the link in here).
Just want to clarify for others - there are multiple transfer pathways granted by the admission office to denied first year applicants. One of these is called the conditional transfer pathway and is given to those with a relationship to GT (child of alumni, sibling, child of employee typically). I think it is interesting that CS applicants are still granted this pathway but CS is excluded based on the new guidelines . . in the past you could transfer into your applied major but looks like based on what you say this is no longer true for CS.
While most of the transfer pathways (Atlanta Public Schools, First Generation, etc) are not school specific (although I guess they now also exclude CS), the Arts and Sciences one is (apply to Ivan Allen, College of Design or College of Science and can transfer into these schools only using this pathway).
These pathways are good options for those for whom GT is their dream school, but transferring is not always easy from a social standpoint so that is something to be considered as well.
thank you so much for this!
Closing old thread bumped by a spam poster.