How does Georgia Tech calculate their Rigor "Score"?

Colleges & Universities Georgia Institute of Technology
1

On the Georgia Tech admissions snapshot page (Admission Snapshot | Undergraduate Admission), there is a table that says the average rigor “score” for first year admissions is 11.0.
Does anybody know how that is calculated?
Thanks.

2

Is it the number of AP classes?

3

Or do they give scores to several levels of courses?
If so, how are the courses weighted?

4

It’s likely the number of AP, IB, and/or DE courses. Maybe some other advanced classes offered by certain high schools. UGA does something similar, see here: https://www.admissions.uga.edu/blog/2024-freshman-admits/

Tech does not recalculate GPAs.

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5

I find this table very useful as it is specific to every individual Georgia high school. While it is common at some large public high schools to have 15+ APs and even more DE, this is not true for all schools in Georgia. Our small private high school has strict requirements about who can take APs and when they can be taken. 11 is on the very high end and only a few students accomplish this.

Georgia Tech also apparently considers the type of APs in their admission decisions giving stronger weight to more rigorous classes - so it is not all about the number. We were told BC calculus is strongly preferred over AB calculus where both are offered as options. This is perhaps because the stronger students tend to take BC? As mentioned Georgia Tech’s approach is different than UGA who recalculates the GPA. Georgia Tech does not. UGA also gives the same weight for less rigorous APs as they do for the more rigorous ones.

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6

This is why I don’t think it is simply the sum of AP/DE courses. That would mean that the average Georgia Tech admittee across all disciplines took 11 AP/DE courses in high school. Seems a bit high.

7

Thanks for posting replies in both places. I appreciate it.

8

Do they take GPA at face value as reported by the high school? If so, that could give advantage to students in high schools with heavier weighting (like in South Carolina).

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9

Many take 15-18 plus APs. My sophomore who took 11 or 12 APs is very much at the low end of his friends.

I am pretty confident that is the definition. That table includes admitted and enrolled students only. The average number of APs/IB/DE for UGA admitted students is 10+ according to last year’s admitted students stats blog post with the 25-75 range being 8-13. So the top 25 percent in that stat took more than 13. GT’s number of 11 is in line with that.

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10

Thanks for this insight and for the UGA link.

11

Yes. Because applicants are evaluated in the context of their HS, not across HSs. So there is not an advantage to applicants from schools that use a heavier weighting system as compared to schools that don’t weight any courses, just to take an example.

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12

I wanted to circle back to this. There are plenty of schools where the AP/DE/IB course counts can get quite high. For example, into the 30+ for full IB diploma schools. Same for high schools where DE is emphasized/encouraged, where some/many students graduate with a HS diploma and an associate’s degree.

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13

Interesting!

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14

I thought the IB diploma was just a two year program. So wouldn’t that be a max of like 16 classes for those two years? Of course you could also be taking a ton of APs in 9th and 10th grade if the school offered them.

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15

My son is currently at GT, was admitted in Fall’22 as an OOS. He graduated high school with 19 AP’s and 6 DE’s.

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