<p>Our son is applying to Virginia Tech, intending to major in Industrial Engineering.</p>
<p>Background on him - 4 year Varsity Tracking (Discus and Shot Put), 2 year Varsity Football (TE, OT/OG, LS). 2 year National Honor Society member.</p>
<p>GPA - 3.71 unweighted, 3.82 weighted (AP courses weighted 1.06, Honors 1.03)
SAT - math 640, critical reading 630, writing 550
ACT - 27</p>
<p>White Male from Central Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Also applying to NC State, Penn State, and has been accepted to West Virginia.</p>
<p>I expect he would be accepted to NC State and Penn State with VT a good possibility. The Math SAT might be the only thing causing some concern at VT. I think the average math SAT at Tech is higher so they may review his transcript for the math courses he’s taken. Has he visited Virgina Tech?</p>
<p>Yes, we visited VT in April 2012–regular campus tour, as well as the College of Engineering visit. </p>
<p>Hopefully it doesn’t come down to reviewing his individual math grades. Two out of the four math classes he has taken in high school he has suffered through class with a teacher whose average grade is several points lower than the other teachers for the same subject.</p>
<p>9th grade - Algebra 2A - C (unfortunately his 8th grade Algebra class did not prepare him for the teacher mentioned in previous post)
10th grade - Geometry A - A
11th grade - PreCalc - B (with the same teacher from 9th grade. His class averaged almost a grade lower than the other teacher’s class)
12th grade - Calculus - A (in the first quarter. 2nd quarter grades aren’t in yet).</p>
<p>VT is primarily a stats based admissions school. Last year the minimum math SAT was a 650 for the e’school. VT is the only school I know of that will mix and match your SAT and ACT to create a super score between the two, taking the highest from either format. If your son had an ACT math score that was statistically higher then a SAT 640 VT would convert it and use that. They look at GPA within the context of your grading scale and weighting. They’ll also look at course rigor, did he take advantage of what was available to him. Obviously a 3.8 with more rigorous courses is going to look better then a 3.8 with fewer core classes and several electives each year.</p>
<p>We can only give guidelines here based on what we know from VT admissions in the past, however none of us know where the math SAT cut off will be this year, etc., so take the advise for what it’s worth…well meaning but by no means written in stone. Best of luck to your son!</p>
<p>Does VT list on their website the minimum requirements that got admitted to the College of Engineering for last year? I’ve been doing some searches, but haven’t found anything.</p>
<p>You can find stats for all recent class years for SAT, GPA, by major, gender, etc.
Last year math SAT 25/75% was 650/720. I would not call 650 a minimum since 25%
had less than that.</p>
<p>When I’m looking at the 2012 data for the Engineering school what I am finding is the following:</p>
<p>(note: Sorry for the formatting, It looks awesome on preview and no matter how I adjust it, it keeps bunching up when I post. If you can’t decipher this just follow the link above to COE/2012.)</p>
<p>SAT Scores and High School GPA of Fall 2012 First-time Freshmen </p>
<p>SAT Scores/GPA Mean Std Dev 75th Pctl 50th Pctl 25th Pctl </p>
<p>SAT Reading 600 85.40 660 610 560
SAT Math 685 55.94 720 680 650
SAT Writing 596 77.22 650 600 550
HS GPA 4.08 0.33 4.28 4.08 3.88 </p>
<p>AND</p>
<p>SAT Scores and High School GPA of Fall 2012 First-time Freshmen by Gender </p>
<p>Gender SAT Scores/GPA Mean Std Dev 75th Pctl 50th Pctl 25th Pctl </p>
<p>Female SAT Reading 599 80.84 660 600 550
SAT Math 665 56.46 700 670 620
SAT Writing 609 72.17 660 610 560
HS GPA 4.14 0.31 4.33 4.17 3.95 </p>
<p>Male SAT Reading 601 86.61 660 610 560
SAT Math 690 54.57 730 690 650
SAT Writing 593 78.19 640 600 550
HS GPA 4.06 0.33 4.26 4.06 3.86 </p>
<p>There are further breakdowns by ethnicity.</p>
<p>So yes, the 650 that was quoted several times BY ADMISSIONS (we didn’t pull this number out of thin air) appears to be the 25 percentile overall. Broken down we can see that the 25th percentile for females is 620, while the 25 percentile for males remains at 650. It would be a fair assumption that unless you have a hook (legacy, female in engineering, URM) that 650 is going to be an accurate number and that’s why admissions quotes that.</p>
<p>I have to agree with newma on this one. 650 cannot possibly be the minimum math SAT score to get into the College of Engineering AND be the 25th percentile too. Obviously if you are above 650 it would help your chances, but by definition of percentile ranking–25% of the current freshman class scored UNDER 650.</p>
<p>No, 650 is not the minimum to be accepted. However, if your Math SAT is in the 25% percentile you need to recognize that the applicants in that pool may have had some preference in order to be accepted. Those accepted may be skewed in-state over OOS; scholarship athlete; legacy applicant; minority with high gpa etc. I think your son has a shot but it’s not guaranteed. You’ll just have to wait to find out. Good luck.</p>