My S is considering this school and I’m trying to find out the average GPA of the freshman engineering class and how many freshman stay with engineering (into their sophomore year). Does anyone know where I could find this information?
Thanks!
No idea. But why would the information you are looking for be relevant to your son’s decision?
No idea about a GPA, but I do know that more people are trying to transfer into the engineering school after the first year than there are students looking to transfer out.
@ChrisTKD We are trying to compare 2 schools and I just wondered how many kids from each of the schools drop out of engineering. Also, wondered about the GPA they earn freshman year as an indicator of how difficult the programs might be.
@Dean J Thanks. That’s good to know!
@Dean J is this a problem? I’m sure many students apply undecided–are they allowed to transfer into SEAS if they decide they want to be an engineer?
@ACollegeFan - both Virginia Tech and UVA have accredited engineering programs and I think your S can do well at either if he’s really interested in engineering. If your son is accepted the university believes your son is capable of success in the engineering program. However, many students think they are interested in engineering until they take the classes or they discover other more compelling opportunities at the university.
UVa’s retention rate from 1st year to 2nd year is among the highest in the US for all students. I don’t know about engineering.
The answer is both yes and no, depending on what you mean by “allowed to transfer”. Students who are undecided can NOT just declare Eng and get in. That is different than the other undecided kids from, say, A&S, who are allowed to simply declare English or Psych, or any of the other majors in A&S.
Having said that, though, they can apply to transfer in. As Dean J said, however, the number of people trying to transfer in is much higher than the number of slots opening up from people leaving Eng. Because of that it is very hard to get in if you were not originally accepted as an Eng student.
@ChrisTDK I think he will probably stick with the engineering major. I also think he will be successful at either school. I was just trying to determine if one school might be more supportive of their students than the other. I’ve heard about large engineering schools that try to “weed” out students and we want to avoid that.
I haven’t ever heard a student refer to any class in our engineering school as a weed out course, if that helps. I think the philosophy here is that the first year is a foundation year meant to give students a broad base before they move into their specialties.
Everyone who is accepted to the UVa engineering school has the ability to do the work, so there is no need for a weed out process. In comparison, some other universities have more lax admission to their engineering programs, and they do a weed out process during the freshman year to sort out who is able to make it.
I think I may have been misunderstood. I don’t think of UVA as a big engineering school - or one that may try to weed out students. I was actually referring to some other large engineering schools that I have heard rumors about. I actually think UVA may be more supportive of their engineering students than some other schools.
This is at least part of what you asked for:
http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studat/dd/acad_gpa.htm
I didn’t find retention rates by school but here is by race:
http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/studat/dd/acad_grad.htm
Data digest main page if you want to hunt more:
http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/instreports/reportmain.shtm
@hazelorb Good information. Thank you!