@HopefulyHokieDad Have him go to the guidance office Monday and ask them for his school’s stats on past 2 years acceptance results for VT. How his HS average info compares to his personal stats will be your best clue. Or if he has Naviance, he may be able to look that up himself. Might be a small sample size though for Colorado HS’s.
Class rank has no impact. Many high schools don’t track or keep such results, and VT states within their CDS that they don’t consider it. Did he take the exams for the AP courses? Score high enough to get credit? If so, that and SAT might overshadow a lower GPA. As others have mentioned, VT (and pretty much every other unversity) has their own method for standardizing GPA in the big picture. Locally, they are going to consider whether his HS has a reputation for grade inflation, if the school district has same, and how his school’s performance compares to other schools within district.
@jacksonmmurphy0 As @jgwolf mentions, VT doesn’t accept the coalition essay - you have 4 essay prompts that are specific to VT. They also do not accept letters of recommendation.
Okay, so let me get this straight.
Virginia Tech as a whole has a high acceptance rate, (70.9%).
But the engineering/computer science department is significantly more challenging to be accepted into?
Does anyone know the average statistics of those majoring in computer science at Virginia Tech?
I’m assuming there are only three reasons it would be challenging to get accepted.
Majoring in Computer Science
Being OOS
No Coalition Essay
Is this correct?
If so, what are examples of some students that have been accepted OOS and through the Computer Science department?
@jacksonmmurphy0 Did you apply for admission in Fall 2020 or are you asking about prospects beyond that? I ask because some of your questions/comments don’t seem to match VT’s admission requirements (e.g. 1 essay, letters of rec, etc.). If this is a current application, have you checked to confirm you completed it in full?
You can drill down by a variety of parameters. They do not post specifics re: IS or OOS applications.
From 2017-19 the mean SAT for Engineering was 1342-1367. Mean GPA was 4.08-4.11.
Acceptance rate is one of the most misused and misunderstood stats. Google “how colleges keep acceptance rates low”. If you checked the right boxes when you entered your SAT/ACT data prior to testing then you probably received a bunch of mail from privates or Ivies, right? With offers of waiving app fees too I bet - and without having seen your scores or grades. That’s how a school who is preoccupied with the acceptance rate stat keeps the rate low - boost as many applications as possible, knowing that a large number may very well be unqualified. Then reject. Viola… low acceptance rate.
Yes, Tech accepts over 70% of engineering applicants - but most of those applicants are already very high achievers so the applicant pool kind of self-restricts so you don’t have as wide a range stats-wise as you might see with less competitive majors. Therefore more of the applicants are right on or close to target for acceptance.
@jacksonmmurphy0 Have you applied to VT? If you have you should know about the 4 essays and that they dont look at the coalition essay. This is not so unusual. Many schools have their own essays and dont even look at the ones on common or coalition.
I hear they do look at their own essay but again i think its mostly rigor of schedule, GPA, EC’s and SAT
Acceptance levels this year are probably going to be closer to 2018 (they legitimately over accepted in 2019 so bad data to look at going forward)
For 2018 into Engineering 10333 applied, 6976 were accepted
Average SAT 706 math / 656 writing and avg. weighted high school gpa 4.18
To me it looks like Engineering really wants to see that 700 level math SAT and GPA over 4.0 weighted. Just me predicting I could see 2020 class having 710 math / 660 writing and average gpa 4.21 levels.
You should apply to JMU like the above There date is Jan 15th so you only have a few days. Very popular school from NJ. Delaware may be a stretch. Honestly, being in state would help and I have a strong feeling that your numbers are kind of low. Avg SAT is mid 1200’s and may be more this year and GPA is higher as well. Some majors are easier than others Good Luck
@cbl1 I have a LOT of IB classes under my belt. If they take that into consideration, my VTech GPA will likely be above a 4.1 (I calculated it on my own with the default college GPA calculator). Hopefully this factors into their decision.
Hi I applied EA to Virginia Tech as a biology major here’s my info
Basic Info:
female, mixed-race (half white half asian), parents went to college, in-state from Fairfax County
Stats:
SAT: 1400
ACT: 30 (Didn’t submit, took it only once to see if I liked it better than the SAT)
GPA: 4.17 weighted, 3.7 unweighted
AP Classes:
AP World (5)
AP Language and Composition (3)
AP Biology (4)
AP Environmental Science (Haven’t taken it yet)
AP Calculus AB (Haven’t taken it yet)
AP U.S. Government (Haven’t taken it yet)
AP Psychology (Haven’t taken it yet)
Extracurriculars:
Colorguard (Rifle/Sabre/Flag) all four years, captain for one season, team is going to nationals
Choir all four years, section leader for two years
National Honors Society
Science National Honors Society
Johns Hopkins CTY (2016 and 2017)
Volunteered to teach English at rural Taiwanese elementary schools over the summer (90+ hours)
Volunteered at local senior center (30+ hours)
Paid work at doctor’s office (filing and stuff)
Honors:
High Honors for Johns Hopkins Centered for Talented Youth
Scholarly Artist Award
@jacksonmmurphy0 Your IB and AP coursework would certainly be taken into consideration re: course rigor. Your original post referenced “weighted”, but you showed your stats as using a 4.0 scale. What add’l weight does your HS apply to AP or IB courses?
Hokiedad - not knowing how that gpa compares to the rest of his school it is impossible to tell. 3.5 weighted most of the time is too low but I don’t know the rigor of his school. Guidance as mentioned above at school should be able to tell you the average gpa graduating in the top 15% of the school. If he is in that range then I think he could make it.
