<p>Hey guys this is my first time using this site. Anyways, I just visited Virginia Tech on wednesday and decided that I wanted to go there for sure. I currently live in Minnesota and go to a very good high school. I have a 3.76 GPA (UW), and our school does not weight, however I have taken AP Calc AB and BC, AP comparative politics, AP government, AP US history, and will be taking 3 more AP classes. I also have a 29 on the ACT with a 33 in math and 26 in english. First question, am I a competitive applicant for engineering? Second question, will Early Decision hinder my chances of receiving scholarships? Any help would be helpful as I cant decide between ED and RD</p>
<p>I have heard that if you are planning on getting any form of financial aid besides loans, it is best to not apply early decision. Applying and getting accepted ED means that you are committing to Tech, and that you’ll be expected to attend regardless of financial aid.</p>
<p>You sound competitive. Hard to tell without a weighted GPA but the AP classes should bring it up.</p>
<p>I applied ED and got a good number of scholarships. I had a lot of need though. I don’t get the feeling that VT bases your aid on whether you’re ED or not, although if you NEED a lot of aid to attend ED might be a bad decision since you’re locked in and what if you don’t get it.</p>
<p>You can break ED in an emergency if you can’t make tuition but you’d be behind the game on applying to other places if you have to break it.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information, I have a weighted gpa(I just calculated it) of about 4.3 on a 4.5 scale. My parents are convinced that doing ED will eliminate all merit scholarships that maybe used to entice me to come if I do RD. Our family doesn’t qualify for financial need so should I just wait until RD, even though I am sure Vtech is where I want to go?</p>
<p>Others can weigh in but I don’t think VT does much ‘enticing.’ You get what you get. I got merit aid as an ED. Of course nobody can say for sure since you can’t compare your results both ways.</p>
<p>Rhoerle,</p>
<p>The way our family viewed applying ED was we needed to be sure going in that should our child receive acceptance, we could afford to pay the costs W/O hoping for or receiving merit/FA afterward. Although you have worked very hard and have wonderful credentials, no one is assured of merit aid and at a state public school I think it is even harder to get. If you do not qualify for much need-based aid, the chances are even more slim; many of the merit scholarships have the need factor attached.</p>
<p>If your parents are willing to/can afford to pay full OOS costs and you know that VT is where you want to go, then applying ED wouldn’t be a bad decision, especially since you want to go into engineering. But, I would be very wary of making any application decision dependent upon receiving money. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>My DS applied ED to Engineering and was accepted (his stats similar to yours). We are out of state and he needed financial aid. All the need was met by loans, alas. On the very bright side, he loves VT and his experience in Engineering has been outstanding. So, it has been worth it for us.</p>
<p>Yeah I don’t have financial need. I could go to Iowa state for 20000 but I like Virginia tech a lot more. Thank you for the information and I hope that the engineering program makes up for the slightly higher cost.</p>
<p>How much is the cost difference over four years?</p>
<p>One of our criteria in deciding ED was that Tech takes such a HIGH number of out of state applicants ED vs RD. At our time of application I believe they accepted 70 percent of out of state apps that came in ED. If we waited till RD, they only accept 35 percent of those who are out of state. So if money isn’t a problem and it’s really, really where you want to go, you should absolutely do ED because of your out of state status. Feel free to check with admissions on that, but we learned that fact in an info session. Personally I believe they must not use as much merit with the ED because they obviously know they have you. I was disappointed for my DS as he was clearly eligible based upon great academic results and service/athletic participation. But when you see how happy they are and how successful once there, somehow it doesn’t matter as much.</p>
<p>VT gives out very little merit aid that does not have a need component. The Dean/Davenport for engineering which neither favors ED or RD applicants has no need component. It is highly competitive. It’s very common for Va residents with top 20/Ivy admits to receive no ‘enticements’ from VT. It’s just not their model.</p>