Gnonkonde gone

Day f'ing ONE, our staff knew he had a language barrier---which screams of standardized test risk----Hello!?

If he has good grades, which he apparently does, and if his teachers confirm his work ethic, which let's hope and ASSume our coaches confirmed early on, then he should be admitted as an exception. The fact that the coaches have known the kid for a year plus, yet are choosing to not fight the Hill for an exception is troubling.

Our AA & the Hill combine to produce the most self penalizing/handicapping system in all of CFB----evidence you say?----see 1-10.
 
HelluvaChemE said:
Looking at the college board site, SAT results are available online for the student three weeks after taking the test, and the results are mailed to requested schools five weeks after. This was most likely a long time coming. The coach is an idiot. It doesn't matter if he went ahead and just signed him up for the SAT again. The scores won't come in time for NSD. Dec 3 was their last opportunity. It sucks, but he's an ass for dragging our name through the mud for him playing with fire and thinking we wouldn't revoke the schollie.
Click to expand...

Dec 3 + 5 weeks = Jan 7

Jan 21 it is made public that Gnonkonde had his offer revoked.

Two weeks difference, yet the HS coach says:
"Georgia Tech’s admissions people had his transcript and test score for awhile. Why didn’t they let us know long before this? We’re finding out just now? This kid has been committed to Georgia Tech for 11 months, we didn’t talk to other schools because he was committed there, and now this happens 10 days before National Signing Day?"

It sounds like the coach for whatever reason misunderstood that the test scores were a big issue. As has been said already, we don't know who is to blame for communication failure.

Tech is clearly not wrong to deny admission to someone whose test scores are as low as has been reported. If someone scores that low on the standardized tests, regardless of the reasons they scored that low, they are going to have trouble at Tech.
 
GoldZ said:
Day f'ing ONE, our staff knew he had a language barrier---which screams of standardized test risk----Hello!?

If he has good grades, which he apparently does, and if his teachers confirm his work ethic, which let's hope and ASSume our coaches confirmed early on, then he should be admitted as an exception. The fact that the coaches have known the kid for a year plus, yet are choosing to not fight the Hill for an exception is troubling.
Click to expand...

Language can be a factor in lower test scores, but the standardized tests measure aptitude very well. If you do very poorly on standardized tests you will almost certainly do poorly in college. A language barrier will hurt you at Tech just as much as it will on the standardized test, for instance.

Grades are problematic for admissions because they vary so much between schools. How are we to know that his grades weren't inflated to help his chances of getting into a good college? How do we know that it isn't super easy to get a 3.4 at Lanier County? The aptitude tests are an objective way to check that the GPA is meaningful.

The tests do not measure intelligence. He might be a very smart guy, and he may do well in the future. But right now he is not cut out for Tech, and it would academically be a disservice to him and our school to admit him.
 
gtzulu said:
Language can be a factor in lower test scores, but the standardized tests measure aptitude very well. If you do very poorly on standardized tests you will almost certainly do poorly in college. A language barrier will hurt you at Tech just as much as it will on the standardized test, for instance.

Grades are problematic for admissions because they vary so much between schools. How are we to know that his grades weren't inflated to help his chances of getting into a good college? How do we know that it isn't super easy to get a 3.4 at Lanier County? The aptitude tests are an objective way to check that the GPA is meaningful.

The tests do not measure intelligence. He might be a very smart guy, and he may do well in the future. But right now he is not cut out for Tech, and it would academically be a disservice to him and our school to admit him.
Click to expand...

How do we know? It's our damned job to know. We have known this kid for a year plus, ok? Coaches routinely interview teachers, especially in a language issue like this. If his math scores are up to snuff, and they very well should be or why else were we recruiting him, then the language deal is real. If not, then it was a disservice to recruit him and accept our offer a year ago. In addition to this disservice, the costs (both financial and reputation wise) are an indication of poor due diligence at a minimum.
 
All of this is just bad karma.

All individual departments - ME, AE, MSE, CE, ChE are handled by competent people. Even athletics is probably handled very professionally.

Its only the people on Cherry Street that are good at bungling up everything - admissions, registration, graduation deadlines, commencement regalia you name it.
 
gtzulu said:
Language can be a factor in lower test scores, but the standardized tests measure aptitude very well. If you do very poorly on standardized tests you will almost certainly do poorly in college. A language barrier will hurt you at Tech just as much as it will on the standardized test, for instance.

Grades are problematic for admissions because they vary so much between schools. How are we to know that his grades weren't inflated to help his chances of getting into a good college? How do we know that it isn't super easy to get a 3.4 at Lanier County? The aptitude tests are an objective way to check that the GPA is meaningful.

The tests do not measure intelligence. He might be a very smart guy, and he may do well in the future. But right now he is not cut out for Tech, and it would academically be a disservice to him and our school to admit him.
Click to expand...

No one is arguing using SAT/ACT as a factor to determine whether the kid should be admitted is wrong. Plus, Tech's SAT standards vs. NCAA's SAT standards is only part of the story here.

The biggest beef to be had should focus on the overall handling of the situation by everyone involved at Tech, which starts with CPJ all the way up to the Hill. Everyone involved failed miserably.

I swear being a Tech fan is stupid hard. :frown:
 
gtzulu continues his contribution as the worst poster on Stingtalk.

Congratulations.
 
ElCidBUZZingFAN said:
No one is arguing using SAT/ACT as a factor to determine whether the kid should be admitted is wrong. Plus, Tech's SAT standards vs. NCAA's SAT standards is only part of the story here.

The biggest beef to be had should focus on the overall handling of the situation by everyone involved at Tech, which starts with CPJ all the way up to the Hill. Everyone involved failed miserably.

I swear being a Tech fan is stupid hard. :frown:
Click to expand...

ain't that the truth ...
 
goodbyte said:
Its only the people on Cherry Street that are good at bungling up everything - admissions, registration, graduation deadlines, commencement regalia you name it.
Click to expand...

Way back when I was a student, the administrative process associated with GT was a nightmare.Even my admission paperwork was lost so I had to start in Athens and transfer over.registration was a nightmare every quarter. I never understood why a school that offers top-notch education in management, CS, IE, etc. was so poorly run - seemed a bit of an oxymoron then and it still does.

On a positive note, I was pleasantly surprised last year when I needed a transcript at the last minute. I was able to request it online and it was mailed/received on time!!! Sadly I was expecting the worst.
 
Do we have a uga grad leading up admissions?

(that was my thought prior to hiveredtech's post about SAT scores)

But why does it take 11 months for him to take the SATs and for us to review them? I'm okay with withdrawing an offer due to academics but this is ööööty timing for the kid. Especially considering CPJ's spiel about how wrong it is to pull a scholarship once it's offered.
 
alpha said:
Do we have a uga grad leading up admissions?

(that was my thought prior to hiveredtech's post about SAT scores)

But why does it take 11 months for him to take the SATs and for us to review them? I'm okay with withdrawing an offer due to academics but this is ööööty timing for the kid. Especially considering CPJ's spiel about how wrong it is to pull a scholarship once it's offered.
Click to expand...

This is true but, if hiveredtech's story is true, they were pretty much told a decent bit ago (i think was still less than a month though) that there was an issue with the test scores and he'd have to re-take. The quote by the coach only mentions the school asking for a retake but hiveredtech said that when they were asked they were told the first wasn't good enough, which makes it seem a bit less like pushed off a cliff.

Edit: And just to add overall, for those who compare this to the Bama thing, there is one big important difference. Bama essentially decided they didn't want the player where as we wanted the player but couldn't have him. The similarity is that both schools were ---- about delivering the news time wise.
 
ElCidBUZZingFAN said:
No one is arguing using SAT/ACT as a factor to determine whether the kid should be admitted is wrong. Plus, Tech's SAT standards vs. NCAA's SAT standards is only part of the story here.

The biggest beef to be had should focus on the overall handling of the situation by everyone involved at Tech, which starts with CPJ all the way up to the Hill. Everyone involved failed miserably.

I swear being a Tech fan is stupid hard. :frown:
Click to expand...
You and I don't know the story behind this. So how do you know it was handled miserably?
 
ncjacket said:
You and I don't know the story behind this. So how do you know it was handled miserably?
Click to expand...

Have you had a chance to read the quotes from Gnonkonde's coach/guardian?

http://blogs.ajc.com/recruiting/201...rship-offer-revoked/?cxntfid=blogs_recruiting

Here's the coach's quotes from the article:

We got a call from Paul Johnson saying they were withdrawing the scholarship offer because his test scores were too low,” said Lanier County athletics director John White, who is also Gnonkonde’s legal guardian.
Click to expand...

“Georgia Tech’s admissions people had his transcript and test score for awhile. Why didn’t they let us know long before this? We’re finding out just now? This kid has been committed to Georgia Tech for 11 months, we didn’t talk to other schools because he was committed there, and now this happens 10 days before National Signing Day?
Click to expand...

“I’m confused, upset and very disappointed,” White said. “I feel like I let the kid down. Maybe I led him in the wrong direction by allowing him to commit so early to Georgia Tech and then shutting it down … Coach Johnson told us that his scholarship was ‘guaranteed’ unless Junior pursued other schools, committed a felony or didn’t make it academically. We cuts ties with all the other schools when he committed 11 months ago – Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky and the others that liked him and wanted to know more. We went to five college football games this year. All five were Georgia Tech home games. That was the only place we went. We didn’t do like other kids, and shop around for a free trip to Florida State, or take visits to Florida and Georgia. We went to Georgia Tech and that was it. And that was my fault.”
Click to expand...

I’ve always given all of Junior’s academic information to Georgia Tech’s people as soon as I got it,” White said. “For the last four months, they said, ‘Coach, I think we’re going to be OK, I think we’re going to be OK.’ And then Georgia Tech’s admission office came back a couple of weeks ago and said let’s take the test one more time. So we went ahead and signed up for the SAT couple of weeks ago. The next thing I know, Georgia Tech is withdrawing the offer. I’m trying to figure it out because this kid has never made a C in high school. I’ve got the NCAA Clearinghouse’s sliding scale right front of me, and Junior has met the requirements to play Div. I football. Now are Georgia Tech’s standards a little higher? I don’t know. I just know he’s qualified to play Div. I football.
Click to expand...

Failure #1 - Accepting the kid's commitment prior to clearing the Hill.

Failure #2 - Telling the kid to shut down his own recruiting process after the commitment, especially considering Failure #1.

Failure #3 - Stringing the player along for months/lying to him about "being OK."

Failure #4 - Sucking at communicating. The coach was confused or failed to understand where Gnonkonde actually stood with Tech. It's CPJ's job to make sure there can be no confusion.

Failure #5 - Yanking his 'ship this late in the process. Sorry. That's pathetic and rubs me raw the most.

Tech FUBAR'd this thing like no other.
 
Does anyone have any idea how far off he was from what was required. I don't know how the exception process works but I imagine there is still some minumums even for an exception. For example (numbers are abitrary) if one needs 1000 and 3.2 to get in normally maybe an exception is 900 and 3.0. I doubt exception allows a 600 and 3.0. If he fell well short then what were they supposed to do?
 
ElCidBUZZingFAN said:
Have you had a chance to read the quotes from Gnonkonde's coach/guardian?

http://blogs.ajc.com/recruiting/201...rship-offer-revoked/?cxntfid=blogs_recruiting

Here's the coach's quotes from the article:









Failure #1 - Accepting the kid's commitment prior to clearing the Hill.

Failure #2 - Telling the kid to shut down his own recruiting process after the commitment, especially considering Failure #1.

Failure #3 - Stringing the player along for months/lying to him about "being OK."

Failure #4 - Sucking at communicating. The coach was confused or failed to understand where Gnonkonde actually stood with Tech. It's CPJ's job to make sure there can be no confusion.

Failure #5 - Yanking his 'ship this late in the process. Sorry. That's pathetic and rubs me raw the most.

Tech FUBAR'd this thing like no other.
Click to expand...


How do you know any of these failures are true?

Offer was most certainly contingent on clearing the hill. He probably took SAT several times trying to improve. We probably told him all along that there was a risk.

Seriously, what do we have, other than from the coach?
 
coit said:
How do you know any of these failures are true?

Offer was most certainly contingent on clearing the hill. He probably took SAT several times trying to improve. We probably told him all along that there was a risk.

Seriously, what do we have, other than from the coach?
Click to expand...

Well, what about his account do you doubt? I don't find anything in there that screams, "He (the coach) is just trying to save his ass."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top