Yesterday evening the following message was sent to all first time freshman applicants that asked to remain on our waiting list for Fall 2019.
Virginia Tech received over 31,000 applications for Fall 2019 freshman admission and many capable students like you were invited to be on our wait list. As a result of a very strong response to our offers of admission to date, we will not be making any additional offers.
Should you have a continuing interest in attending Virginia Tech, you may wish to consider applying as a transfer student after you have successfully completed one or more years at a community college or other accredited college or university. About 20% of Tech graduates first entered the university as transfer students. We want to help you as much as possible if you choose that route, and the transfer admissions page (https://vt.edu/admissions/transfer.html) is a great starting point.
I know you may be disappointed. As I look back at my own college search process, I remember receiving a very similar letter. Although I am sure I was disappointed, I struggle to remember my exact reaction to that letter. Like many times in life, another door opened that led to great opportunities and experiences which quickly made that initial reaction a forgotten memory. I am confident that as you review your other options you will have a similar experience.
Thank you for your interest in Virginia Tech. I’m sorry that we could not offer admission to you and students like yourself. We are honored that you applied to Virginia Tech and wish you success in your college search process.
Juan P. Espinoza
Associate Vice Provost
Director of Undergraduate Admissions
If you see this, please fix your very flawed application.
You offer no space for an essay, or additional information boxes to explain extenuating circumstances and such.
All you offer is four, 120 word prompts. Some of the prompts are longer than the word count you allot.
This is not a viable way to judge us, nor is it holistic. We are more than just numbers, treat us like such. Or at least give us the option to include addition information, extenuating circumstances, and our main college essays we’ve worked so hard on. Whether or not you read them, we’ll never know, but at least we’ll believe that you truly care about us as people.
Looks like VT had a higher yield on acceptances again. Email today says large class expected and freshman are exempt from having to live on campus freshman year.
I’m hearing that the yield is within the historical range (even slightly lower than the high yield of 2017), so they clearly gave out too many offers. 8,000+ kids have accepted their offer. Unless 1,000 of them decide not to show up in August there are going to be a lot of problems for housing, dining, infrastructure, etc. Yikes.
There’s an anonymous “housing staff person” who’s tossing around a number on reddit. Believe at your own peril.
VT’s yield from 2009-2018 has ranged between 30.3 (2018) and 39.9 (2013). 2017 yield was 35.6. But you don’t necessarily need a big uptick in offers to see a jump in incoming class size. All it takes is an unusual bump in the # who accept. If you use 2018 numbers, it would be a 38.6 yield to generate 8,000 enrolled (if my math is correct). That is within their historical range and is below 2010, 2013, and 2015.
I’m hopeful for the incoming class that the rumors posted elsewhere are unfounded. But clearly they are expecting a large incoming class. It would be interesting to know if the waiver for on campus housing was ever offered before in those high yield years.
So about 700 students more than the prior record of 2017 (they had crunch then but 460 beds came online a few months later in New Cadet Hall). They also added 335 beds past year with reopening of Oshag. So that puts them this year pretty much in same bed situation as they were coming into start of classes 2017.
A lot of students to place but not some crazy 1600 kids number being thrown out. Sounds like there will be some upper classman buyouts of rooms again this year.
Unfortunately the next dorm - creativity and Innovative district won’t open until 2021 - 600 students.
It willl be a little crowded this year but who will have it tough will be applicants next year (like my daughter) when they have to again reign back a bit.
Probably 100 of those 700 cadets and they will handle those. That leaves 600 extra. I heard they are going to make one dorm triples - so that probably takes another 250 then like 80 or so upper classmates take buyout - leaving still 250 or so to squeeze in.
I imagine they could get 30-40 freshman volunteers to go off campus (especially if they have older friends or siblings already off)
Good year to have had your housing contract in early.
The numbers I stated above come from the Virginia Tech faculty senate, not a random person on Reddit. A little over 8,000 have accepted the offer of admission from VT. VT is hoping that ~500 of them don’t show up in August (a number that will still have campus busting at the seams). I believe that yield is the number that accept the offer, not the eventual enrollment in August. The yield percent being reported is around 36%, which is slightly down from the high mark of 2017 (37% yield). The point is, none of this should have been a surprise for the enrollment folks at VT. And they’re stating publicly in the Roanoke times that they are happy with the outside firm they used to model enrollment numbers. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless the goal was a humongous class all along. The issue isn’t just housing, it’s dining, classes, mental and physical health resources, off-campus infrastructure (bus system, apartment capacity/rent), etc.
I’m sure they’ll figure it out, but this is not a minor thing.
7500 is a projection for fall enrollment based on the assumption that some of the 8,000 that accepted offers don’t end up enrolling in August. Pay attention to the language they are using, 7500 is a projected number, not the number that have accepted the admission offer on May 1. My understanding is that about 5% usually ‘melt’ from the May number so that the August number is a little lower. So yeah, they are hoping 500+ don’t show up in August to get their projection.
There’s a graph in this Roanoke times article from yesterday that shows what a jump even the projected 7500 will be:
To get even more specific, and to illustrate why this is not an ordinary situation, in 2017 (the previous high mark for the freshman class) 7,069 accepted the offer of admission on May 1. This year, 8,026 had accepted the offer on May 1. Even with the expected reduction from May to August, this is huge.