2020 Census Responses Still Needed from Tech Students
The 2020 census is currently underway, and Georgia Tech students may have been undercounted. In March, the U.S. Census Bureau released a statement saying that students should be counted at their university address, even if they had to move out early due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- If you lived on campus during spring semester: You were automatically counted at that address by Georgia Tech Housing.
- If you lived off campus: You were not automatically counted and should fill out the census using that address if you would have lived there on April 1, 2020.
- If you lived in Greek housing: One representative from your house should have filled out the census, counting everyone who lived there. Check with your chapter’s leadership if you need confirmation that you’ve been counted.
- If you are an international student: You still count in the 2020 census if you do or would have lived in the U.S. on April 1, 2020 and should therefore fill out the census if you lived off campus.
Some students may have been counted twice if they lived on campus but were also counted at their location after classes moved online. Households can resubmit the census to resolve this issue, and the guidelines to do so can be found here.
Georgia Tech and its surrounding census tracts are currently among the lowest in the city of Atlanta for self-response numbers, according to ATLCounts Census 2020, which was launched by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to ensure that all Atlanta residents are counted in the census. The number of people who fill out the census affects the area’s resources for the next 10 years, including Tech’s Pell Grant funding. More information about the types of resources affected by the census can be found here.
Students can respond to the census by phone, mail, or online. Visit 2020census.gov for more information.
