So last year when I went to a college fair the VT rep was saying that students who want to apply to the engineering program must be taking the highest level available for both math and science. I’ve always been in honors courses for both subjects and I plan on doing AP Physics C next year as a senior. However, the highest level of math offered at my school is BC calculus and I’ll only be finishing with AB calculus. I have several friends who are already in BC calculus now while I’m in Honors Precalc this year, and then there are others who are in AB calculus now and are doing BC next year. Today I heard the VT rep say the same thing about math. Would it be pointless for me to apply? Would I be wasting my time?
You’re fine with AB Calc. Yes, VTech is competitive but AB and BC isn’t the dividing line. Assuming your GPA and scores match – it’ll be fine.
That will be fine. He meant to say challenge yourself in math and science to be prepared for VT.
Well that’s good to hear. It’s just that she also mentioned comparing the student with only others from the same school, which doesn’t make me feel very well since I transferred sophomore year to a pretty prestigious school where I’m no longer even close to top of class.
Look at the Common Data Set, section C. http://www.ir.vt.edu/work_we_do/commonDataSet/14-15/2014CommonDataSet.html Class rigor is rated very important with GPA and scores. Yes, that’s important but they will look at your overall record. Section C9 shows the SAT score levels for admitted students. That can pull you up.
My D’s GC said the same thing about our state flagship. Since my D is on the same math track as you I asked her if that meant AP Calc BC and she said not necessarily, if you are on a track where you take Pre-Calc in 11th you must take at least take AP Calc AB in 12th, just not AP Stat. It seems to more about building on past classes and challenging yourself more than how many math classes you can collect.
YMMV
I completely agree. And I find a LOT of students ignore that. And I actually will be doing AP Stat in addition to AB Calc next year.
VT is a good school but it isn’t that good a school that they’ll never take a Calc AB kid. The VT rep is overselling it. No idea whether you’ll ultimately be accepted or not but being in AB won’t disqualify you by itself.
I’m sorry to say that last year from our high school, it was definitely true that if you didn’t take the highest math course offered, you didn’t have a chance at the Eng school. Your best prediction would be historical data for VT at your high school. Nonetheless, I think you should still apply – but maybe not for Engineering.
Wow… well that’s a conflicting answer with the others… How annoying. Well I don’t make it and no other college I get accepted to is better than VT, then I may continue to enter there with general admission and work my way up… Who knows.
I would a imagine a student with the absolute highest level of math would be the most competitive. However, “most competitive” doesn’t mean “the only one that can be offered admission.”