We consider all of the early applicants
to Georgia Tech for the President's Scholarship
Program.
That, last year was about 12,000 students.
We pare that down to around 600 semifinalists,
and then eventually 100 finalists
are selected, and about 50 scholars overall.
I think a lot of people think that we are sort of just
looking at an SAT score; we're at a technical institution,
people think numbers.
The reality is, is we look really heavily the essays
and at those activities that they're involved in,
because everybody who applies here
has great grades, and great course schedules,
and wonderful test scores.
So we're really trying to see what differentiates a student.
When we talk about our pillar of scholarship,
we are going far beyond grades and test scores.
And we choose the word scholarship on purpose.
For us that means intellectual curiosity;
it also means critical thinking.
Are you the kind of student that is
going to spend time in the library or the lab,
not just the classroom?
Are you the kind of student who's
going to go to a museum of art, to a foreign film,
or stay up late talking about, not just the latest
movie but the crisis going on in the Middle East.
For leadership as a pillar, it's really varied
in terms of what we're looking for.
Sometimes it's going to be the classic student body
president or the team captain, but in other cases,
it's a student who may be exceptional in their field.
I often think of Albert Einstein.
He probably wasn't president of the physics
club in his high school; everybody
knows he's a leader in the world a nuclear physics.
What we're looking for are people
who are trying to make a difference from point A
to point B. We see a very big difference
between passing time, and spending time wisely.
Those students who get involved in something,
and attempt to take it from one level to a higher level,
are really aiming at progress.
Service in some respects, in our program,
is the same as it might be in other programs.
There are people who are going to go out
and they're going to volunteer at a soup kitchen.
There are others who are going to participate in a project
where they're attempting to raise money for a children's
hospital.
For us, we see that as part of a larger concept of service,
where people are ultimately choosing to do whatever they
are good at that is going to improve society.
When we talk about the pillars, and what we look for in them,
sometimes we have students who might
be pretty good in all four of them.
But in other cases, we might have
a student who's really good in one
and less so in the other three.
We look for both types of students
equally because we expect that some of the students who
are going to make an impact on society
are going to be pretty well-rounded across them.
But others are going to be uniquely gifted.
From the beginning of the process,
even when we're recruiting students,
before they've ever been offered a scholarship,
we try to emphasize for them that this scholarship is
an investment in their future, in the future of the world.
It is never a reward for their high school accomplishments.
When we look back after four years
and we ask the students, what was it that really made
the difference for you, a lot of times
they'll talk about community.
That it was being around 49 other classmates
or over four years, 200 other classmates.
That really helps them to be able to maximize
their own abilities, to learn to rely on each other,
and to support each other.
A lot of them will tell you that it
may have been one of their outdoor leadership expeditions
they do before they even start their time at Georgia Tech.
Others may tell you that it was the support they
got an advising from a faculty member we connected them to.
The answer is different for each one of them.
But I believe ultimately, what they
would say is, that each of the opportunities that they've
been given have contributed to them making a difference,
not just on their own lives but in the lives of others.
One of the things that we do throughout our process,
is not just to focus on the great things
the President's Scholarship Program offers
but what Georgia Tech offers.
This is an incredible place to go to school.
I think this is a place that really contributes to people
growing and improving the world.
There are so many opportunities here.
I think of the President's Scholarship
as sort of the icing on the cake,
but the cake is still at Georgia Tech.
And that's why you would come here because regardless of
whether or not you're one of less than 2%
of the students and student body who were chosen as President's
Scholars, 98% of the others are pretty happy.
I'm often asked about, what are some
of the signs of success of our students?
In the last two years we've had two Rhodes Scholars
and one Marshall Scholar.
We have students working for NASA,
and other Fortune 50 companies.
They are researchers at major universities.
They are working in Teach For America,
in the nonprofit sector.
They are earning tremendous grants
to try to improve the world.
Our signs of success are as varied
as the type of students we have here
and the type of people who live in human society.
But as you explore our programming
you learn more about our students,
you'll find that they all have their own success story,
and that they see this program as a part of helping
enable those successes for them.