<p>Either post it here (not necessarily this thread, just in the VT board somewhere) or send me a private message. For some reason I can't respond to "visitor messages" or whatever it is that CC calls it.</p>
<p>Also I've (probably unwisely) enabled the AIM thing on here so you can IM me. I always leave my away message up so if you have a question you'd rather not ask in the forums you can reach me there too.</p>
<p>Chuy, you are such a nice guy. I remember you being available when my older S was interested in VT, and I asked lots of questions then. He's been so happy at VT, it was far and away the best decision he's ever made. He's a soph now in engineering, double majoring in CS/Physics. Hopefully younger S will end up at VT as well, only another month of waiting.</p>
<p>Thanks for your support and friendly, quick responses to all sorts of questions :)</p>
<p>A question about the Honors Program at VT.</p>
<p>I was invited to apply, and will, even though I recall you saying that the Engineering program makes it hard to keep the required min. 3.5 GPA. I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess.</p>
<p>My question is what financial benefits come with the Honors Program. I cannot find anything definitive on the VT website as it focuses more on the camaraderie, small class sizes, special housing. Do they offer tuition? Anything more?</p>
<p>My state school Honors program offers full tuition, fees and books plus they give $2000 towards room and board. If you have need, you can even get it all paid for.</p>
<p>Do you know what VT offers financially?</p>
<p>My son did Honors his freshman year (Engineering also), and there didn't seem to be any specific financial benefits at all. We didn't qualify for financial aid, and are OOS, but he did receive a $5000 merit award. You are encouraged to apply for scholarships every spring, but S doesn't know of anyone getting as much aid as you mention from your state school. Then again, people don't really talk about that sort of thing at school, apparently.</p>
<p>CHUY CHUY CHUY CHUY CHUY CHUY CHUY</p>
<p>Can you tell I need your advice?</p>
<p>SOn was accepted as mentioned above.
Will enroll) if attending, as an Undergraduate Studies. Needs prerequisites before applying to the General Engineering school. </p>
<p>The courses are: Linear math, Calc 1, Freshman English, chem (2 semsesters) and Engineering Exploration.</p>
<p>Son should have taken Chem this year at school. Our oversight. </p>
<p>I can't imagine that many freshmen engineering majors having taken all these courses, especially Engineering Exploration (AP) in high school. The letter states that it is a hard class to get and they may get closed out until Fall Sophomore year. </p>
<p>How far behind will this make the student if he can't start the engineering program until sophomore year?</p>
<p>The letter also states they can take the engineering exploration course at a community college fall term (near Blacksburg???). I am hoping son can take a similar course this summer at our nearby excellent state university if something matches.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts/experiences.</p>
<p>Thanks once again.</p>
<p>I've got a pretty general question for you. Idk if you are an engineering major or not, but I would just like to get a round about estimate to the amount of work that is recquired for engineering. My cousin said that engineers don't get very much free time and are really stressed out all the time. I am very interested in engineering, but I would also like to enjoy the college experience (espically because I'm a huge sports fan).</p>
<p>Zimmer, thanks, I like helping people.</p>
<p>icon, basically what zimmer said. I didn't do honors and the only benefits I know of are getting to choose classes earlier. </p>
<p>crazed, the reason he needs those things is that he wasn't accepted directly into the engineering major. He's in general studies so there are requirements that people who are directly accepted into it aren't required to have already done (though they have to take all of those classes anyway.) </p>
<p>Engineering Exploration is very hard to get in to if you're not an engineering major as it's required for all freshman engineers. The community college course is at New River CC, I believe, which is about 15 minutes from campus in a mall in Christiansburg. If you don't have a car it's going to be difficult to catch the bus out there in time for class unless you get very lucky with scheduling. </p>
<p>As far as how far behind he'll be, it depends on what engineering major he's going in to and whether he's open to overloading semesters or doing summer classes. If he's going into a larger major classes will be offered more often so it's more likely that he could work his schedule around to graduate, possibly even on time, with a couple summer sessions. As long as he keeps his course load up freshman year I doubt it'd push him back more than a semester. I THINK that exploration is taught during a summer session also, but I'm not sure.</p>
<p>salt, I'm a junior in engineering and yes, it's hard. Theres no consistent estimate from major to major, year to year or even week to week as to work load, but it's more than you'll find in most majors. I still find time to date, go out on weekends and hang out with friends many evenings. You just have to be very good at time management.</p>
<p>Chuy-
Thanks again for your endless help.</p>
<p>Any idea why S was not automatically accepted into engineering? Not having Chem in HS? Taking Intro to Calc instead of Calc or AP Calc? Just curious. They liked him enough to invite him into honors.</p>
<p>Chuy-
Just curious, can you list what you think is the hardest engineering major to the least difficult? (Sure they are all hard so no one over analyze this question.)</p>
<p>No clue, did he apply for engineering? I doubt it was the chem in highschool and I know it wasn't the Calc. You may be able to call someone in admissions and ask but he may have just not had the stats to get in directly (although if he got the honors invitation I'm not sure how that would be the case.) If you're really curious I'd call, or have my son call since they probably can't discuss it with anyone but him.</p>
<p>Theres really no way to rank the majors. ESM has a bit of a reputation as being one of the hardest, and Civil as being one of the easiest. But really it's just a measure of what you're good at and interested in; if you're bad at math ESM will be terribly hard and if you're bad with chemistry ChemE or MSE would be really hard, for example.</p>
<p>Just a thought, but if your S didn't have a stacked course load of maths and sciences in HS, they may not have felt that he was strong enough in those areas for the engineering major. Also, perhaps his math sat score wasn't in the 700s? Hard to tell, but the course selection you listed is pretty generic. You can place out of the Chem and go straight into the Physics if you had the AP score. I remember S saying the Engineering Exploration was not really hard - it was almost like an intro to every Enge major. Valuable course to help you decide which to actually choose as a major, so taking it soph year should still be okay. And as a soph, you'll be signing up for courses before incoming freshmen so it should be a guaranteed class for your S then.</p>
<p>Workload in engineering really depends on the individual. One semester out of 3, my S said was brutal, but then he was taking 19 credits. I noticed that he still managed to find plenty of free time (party time/even travel to visit family) and maintain a B average.</p>
<p>Chuy, what do you think of the tablet computers required by the Engineering School? Is it a good option to get them through the VT bookstore?</p>
<p>hey i was just wondering what my chances of getting into VT is..</p>
<p>My gpa is 3.1/ 4.0 weighted.
3 ap
13 honors
about 1800-1950 sat
Im class presdient and will be for all 4 years of hs
Im from md</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>The tablet requirement is absolutely absurd but that's a different topic than you asked.</p>
<p>I'd get it through the VT Bookstore because when it breaks (and it WILL break) they'll fix it near-campus (generally) and get it back to you quicker than you could otherwise. Get the longer warranty, it'll pay for itself when the motherboard/harddrive dies like it has on the majority of the pieces of junk.</p>
<p>If I had it to do over again I'd probably just get a laptop and a Wacom tablet, but maybe they're better than they were back when I had to buy one. It's still ridiculous that they make engineers buy them though; they survey us every year and every year we say the things are useless. I lost the pen late freshman year and never bought another one, so I haven't even had the capability to use the tablet abilities of it and haven't missed them for a second.</p>
<p>That's kind of what I figured, chuy. Thanks for your input. We will probably go through the bookstore for the reasons you point out.</p>
<p>Yeah, just a couple weeks ago the motherboard in mine died. I took it down to the bookstore and about 4 business days later they had it back and fixed. Pretty good service on that front, and if it's going to be out for a while they'll give you a 'loaner' laptop.</p>
<p>Can anyone tell me what textbooks are used for Physics, Organic Chem, and stat? Im probably going to get a head start on one of those over the summer before I transfer and will probably base my decision on which one if Tech uses the same books as TCC.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know if transfer can be admitted under honors? Tech says transfers can be invited to honors with a 3.5 gpa, and I easily meet that requirement but I haven't heard anything about applying nor did my acceptance mention anything about it. I'm guessing I may have read it wrong and they meant I can apply once I reach a 3.5 at Tech. Thanks.</p>
<p>Go to Virginia</a> Tech University Bookstore and click on "textbooks", then "Click Here To Find..." and you can look up what textbooks are required, but you have to know the course number. Physics is Young and Freeman I think, but I'm not sure about the others.</p>
<p>CHUY and ZIMMER-</p>
<p>Just an FYI and update re: my son invited for honors but not directly admitted to engineering (and it will take at least a year or more since he may not get the exploration engineering until sophomore year. Until all reqs are met he can't take any engineering courses. Some of the courses just seem like he'd take them as a freshman anyway:
Linear Algebra/Calc
Chem- 2 semesters
Freshman English
Engin Exploration</p>
<p>STATS mentioned at some point on the VT threads:
OOS- NY
3.82 GPA
7 AP's (4 this year) (4.0 in AP Physics with 5 on AP test, took AP BIO- forgot AP score but he did get 710 on the SAT2)
ACT- 31 with 32 in math and science
Math- customary sequence with Intro to Calculus this year.</p>
<p>Nothing seems like it would keep him out of direct admit to Engineering which he did apply for.
As he is OOS with likely little merit aid (and no fin. aid coming our way) the extra year spent at VT along with the 75% 5 year grad rate means that he is looking at likely 6 years to graduate.</p>