Chance me for Virginia Tech Engineering?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Virginia Tech
1

<p>White Male from NoVA</p>

<p>UW GPA: 4.0
School does not offer AP's, but I have taken 3 on my own:<br>
English Lit & Composition: 5
Am Government: 4
Calc AB: 3
SAT Scores: 800 CR, 750 M, 750W 2300 superscore</p>

<p>Extracurriculurs: </p>

<p>Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) Program: one of 180 students who completed year-long coursework, earned 4 General Engineering college credits as well as a week at NASA Langley working with engineers</p>

<p>SEAP Internship - Paid engineering internship with Department of Navy in Carderock, MD</p>

<p>VEX Robotics Club - 3 year member, team captain, Virginia State Champions 2014, competed at 2014 World Championship in Anaheim</p>

<p>Soccer - 4 year varsity player, named All-Conference as a junior</p>

<p>Selected to attend American Legion Boys' State of Virginia 2014</p>

<p>Awards:
SEAP internship (stipend)
School awards in algebra II, chemistry, pre-calc, calc, am gov, and world history
Inducted into school's NHS
National Merit Scholarship Finalist</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Red Cross Certified Lifeguard
Youth Soccer Referee
SEAP Internship</p>

<p>Volunteer Work
Virginia Gubernatorial campaign volunteer 2013
Played piano at a local nursing home monthly for 2 years
Tutoring with NHS
12-day mission trip to Honduras (Raised $2,000 to fund the trip)
Misc. volunteer work with local food pantry and shelter</p>

2

<p>You’re in.</p>

3

<p>I agree with FCCDAD, you’re in. What school do you go to? I live in NoVA too,</p>

4

<p>Ah haha it’s tiny and private…it’s called Seton School, in Manassas. Hbu? Thanks for chancing me btw. VTech is my first choice right now and I’m just nervous</p>

5

Don’t be nervous. VT will NOT deny admission to IS, 4.0 UW, 2300.

(I almost wrote, “… unless you’re a [particularly horrible kind of criminal],” but I realized that would be in very bad taste. Just relax. You’re in.)

Where else have you applied?

6

Your are in good shape, your GPA and SAT scores are highly competitive for VT and many other great engineering schools. Your extra-curricular activities are right on the mark for engineering studies. By the way, there are several recent high school VEX alumni attending VT, and I think there was an attempt to form a VEX U team last year, though I am not sure it is a good use of the kids’ time. There are much more interesting and rewarding ongoing robotics activities/projects at VT. Look into them if you are interested in robotics.

7

Why are you bothering with VT with stats like that? UVA should be your safety, with UPenn, JHU, Brown, ect. as your main targets.

8

^ Students may prefer UVA over VT 2:1 or 3:1, but there are still plenty who prefer VT, particularly for engineering. Plus, the CoA is about $5k/yr less at VT. He’s bothering because that’s where he wants to go, and that’s perfectly reasonable.

9

Compared with UVA, VT seems to have a stronger engineering program: more program/department options, more faculty, more courses, wider cross-disciplinary interaction, bigger researcher expenditure, higher national ranking for most of the departments, …

Based on the overall strength of the engineering programs, I see very little that suggests UVA is a better option than VT. Of course there are other factors in play that may tilt the balance toward UVA, but strength of the program is not one of them.

10

I see you all immediately jumped on the UVA cameo in my post.

If he wants to make Tech his safety rather than UVA that’s fine, but he should not make it his focus, since he has a shot at schools much better than anything in VA. And considering how little merit aid Tech gives and how likely he is to get it at more financially-liberal schools, the money argument shouldn’t hold TOO much water here either. If Tech is really where he wants to be, then more power to him. But it wouldn’t be if I had stats like that! (no disrespect to Tech intended)

11

I agree, high school students need to seriously consider all viable options before making a decision. I find it refreshing that such a competitive applicant considers VT as his top choice. Hopefully he has arrived at that decision wisely.

Obviously there are multiple factors to consider when making such decisions. With respect to (engineering) program strength, I think it would be interesting and useful to have a multi-dimensional assessment instrument for comparing major state universities such as UC Berkeley, U. of Michigan, Purdue, U of Illinois, VT, G.Tech, UT Austin,… with highly regarded private schools.

For undergraduate engineering education, I doubt such a comparison would favor the private schools.

12

Haha well thank you all for arguing about where I should go. To answer all of your questions:

I applied to 4 schools: Purdue (already admitted), UVA, VTech, and Carnegie Mellon. I visited all of them, and none jumped out at me. I have alternated between VT and Mellon as my first choice, but right now money is an issue for me and VTech is about $35k/year cheaper. If CMU offers me a lot of financial aid I may end up going there though.

I don’t anticipate going to UVA, simply because I visited UVA and didn’t care for it. I liked Tech quite a bit, although I wasn’t crazy about it. To be honest, I had a very tough time choosing where to apply. I considered Cornell, Hopkins, and several other name-brand schools but ended up not applying because of either price tag and/or campus atmosphere. Maybe I am being picky, but I personally am pretty laid-back, and didn’t really care for the preppy, somewhat liberal vibe I got from a lot of places. Not trying to offend anyone, its just my personal preference, and I really want to be comfortable (but still challenged!!) at college.

Anyway, I did struggle a lot with where to apply, and in retrospect I wish I had thrown my hat in the ring for one or two Ivies, and maybe JHU or CalTech or something, just to see if I could get in, maybe give me some more options. Right now my main concern is, if I get into both Mellon and VTech, how significant is the difference between leaving VTech with a BS in some kind of engineering vs. a Mellon BS in engineering. Or for that matter, a Purdue degree. Will future employers regard a Mellon degree significantly higher than Tech or Purdue? etc. If anyone has insight on that, it would be a huge help to my decision!

13

My sons went to UVa and VT in engineering. Since you consider yourself “laid back” and not crazy about a preppy vibe ,VT sounds like a better fit. My husband went to CMU in engineering. He felt our instate publics were fine for our kids. Virginia Tech is very well regarded in engineering and has many, many companies that recruit there. Unless your family is wealthy, I would doubt that CMU would be worth the premium in price. When my VT kid had a summer internship with kids from other places like Cornell and Yale, he was offered a full time position just like them. He was not disadvantaged by going to a public school. Employers in engineering will be more concerned with your skills, ability to work with others, etc. In addition, a school like CMU has a much different social vibe than either UVa or VT (no big time sports, etc). Some kids care about that kind of thing, others don’t. Only you know what your preference would be in terms of the social issues related to college. Good luck!

14

@sevmom thank you for the advice. Having visited all 3 schools, I definitely know what you’re talking about in terms of differing social atmospheres.

Everything I have heard and experienced is that VT is of the same caliber as a lot of the big private schools like CMU, Cornell etc. I mostly want to make sure that future employers will feel the same way - that the name of my alma mater won’t carry more weight than my abilities coming out of college. It sounds like that is not the case though.

15

The key is to do well wherever you end up going. My kids were both at the top SAT wise at their respective schools as you would be at either UVa or VT (my UVa kid also briefly considered applying to a couple of top privates but he really liked UVa and anything else would have been much more expensive) . If a place like CMU feels like a better fit to you and you can afford it, then that is great. But, I would not worry about going to a private , higher ranked school simply because of prestige or thinking you need to go somewhere other than your state schools simply because of your stats (as BassGuitar may be implying) . Focus on fit, cost, recruiting, etc. That may lead you to a private or to your state schools. Good luck with the decision.

16

My nephew went to JHU and his undergraduate experience especially in the lower level courses was exactly the same as the much cheaper big State U options. While he did have a very interesting research internship overseas my two sons have had similar research options available at VT. In the end the JHU grad wound up working side by side with graduates from VT and UVA. Purdue is a big university which should offer a similar experience and options as Virginia Tech. I doubt that Purdue’s net price will be as low at VT. CMU will be quite different in vibe from VT, UVA or Purdue. While they may offer aid they have many applicants with similar stats so the net price may be significantly higher than VT. Perhaps if you planned to major in CS there might be some difference in the quality of education at CMU. If instead you plan to major in one of the engineering disciplines I don’t think you can do better than the VA state schools. Perhaps if you have your heart set on a Phd in Engineering CMU might have better contacts (I don’t know).

Good luck with your decision. IMO - go with one of the two state schools whichever feels more right. Then make the most of your experience. No one holds your hand in a big state U. Your college experience can be fantastic if you take advantage of the opportunities offered.

17

@sevmom and @ChrisTKD thank you for the advice. The consensus seems to be not to avoid the state schools. Obviously I have a lot more thinking to do on this subject, but it’s good to have all the facts before I make a decision.

18

Pianoman see this rating by recruiters that appeared in WSJ… full of surprises

19

@CSR1963 are you referring to this http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703376504575491704156387646 ranking? It is the only one I could find on the WSJ website, but it is from 2010. I was surprised to see Purdue and VTech in the top 5. I couldn’t find anything in the article about the criteria used to rank, which would have been interesting as the ranking was very different from most.

20

The WSJ asked recruiters which universities they most liked to go to for hiring new graduates. The question favors large universities because a recruiter can interview many potentially qualified applicants in a single visit, e.g., see 50 in one visit or see 5 at a small school. The WSJ offers a different perspective than the opinions of deans, research dollars, number of citations, graduate contributions, etc