<p>Yesterday, I took my daughter to Penn State for registration/orientation (yes, she made the decision to go to PSU instead of VT for architecture :( ) and one of the parents at the Architecture meeting was from VA. Several parents asked him why his son chose PSU instead of VT for architecture and he stated that VT's incoming freshman architecture class was 70% OOS this year. He said that his son was accepted at UVA, but was denied admission into the arch program at VT.</p>
<p>Does this sound possible? I can't believe that a state school would be so strongly skewed towards OOS students for one of their most competitive and prominent programs.</p>
<p>Cynical side of me thinks the school needs OOS tuition. I don’t really know. Granddaughter is entering her senior year in Architecture. She’s instate. Fantastic GPA in such a rigorous field of study. Has an excellent opportunity to intern this summer with a firm whose owner graduated from VT.</p>
<p>I’m kind of with momray re: the tuition situation but I also think they can get some of the very best kids-stats wise- coming into VT from OOS who are declared arch majors. With their stats (I think the avg GPA is over 4.0 and the SATs in the 1300s in arch) those kids could probably be going anywhere if they were in any other major, but bc of VT’s great reputation in that field it is their first choice. We were advised to have son go early decision (he is in state) if he liked Tech well enough because of his high school’s history with this exact scenario. He was very, very relieved to have been admitted into CAUS a couple of years back. </p>
<p>QuietType, I hope your girl does great at PSU! We have heard super things about that program, too! Happy Valley- Blacksburg…both great environments to be an undergrad :)</p>
<p>The consensus of the (cynical) parents at the PSU arch meeting seemed to be that VT is looking for the OOS tuition as well. I just was shocked at hearing such a dichotomy in admissions between in-state and OOS. I suspect that 70% OOS might be a somewhat exaggerated number, but still… If I was paying taxes in VA and my IS kid was trying for admission to architecture, I’d be very vociferous about that.</p>
<p>Thanks KandKsmom! I hope that she does well at PSU also. I am going to miss visiting VT and Blacksburg - I really like that campus and the town. Being a Pitt grad it hurts to send a kid off to the “Dark Side.”</p>
<p>momray is exactly right. I work for VT’s student newspaper, and we ran an article toward the end of the spring semester this year about how, school-wide, department’s would be relying on OOS students to make up for the budget cuts the state has bene handing down. of course, tuition has gone up acros the board, but OOS students will help make up that gap quicker than in state…it’s very simple and extremely unfortunate.</p>