@STEM2017 (great avatar) Thanks and good advice. I called a bit ago. Not much sympathy. The main person to speak with was out for the day so I’ll try again tomorrow. I’d like to speak directly to the Dean of Engineering if we reject the offer. They need to know they missed out on a good one.
@goingtoMDnow I wonder what their criteria was for awarding merit money - its very strange. With your son’s double legacy status, they may have felt that he would definitely attend so they need not give him money. Also, if you have a very high EFC, they may have figured you don’t need it, so why give it. It’s really hard to understand why some of these decisions are made. Definitely follow up. One way or another, it will help with your final decision.
Hello everyone! Please help me by telling me what my chances look like?
SAT- 1380/1600 (700M,680E)
SAT2-760M,710 Chem&Bio
EC’s- Team captain-Soccer&Volleyball, Ran track, Student Council(Sports Secretary), President of the literature club, member of eco club. Decent volunteer time at a hospital and my local Youth Company
Pretty good essay’s and rec letter as well!
I applied for regular decision as an international student! But I did apply really close to the deadline. How detrimental is that to my chances?
I don’t think VT gives out a lot of merit money…we are in-state and that always was my impression. There are specific scholarships to apply for but other than that may be just small amounts here and there…
@bkbuckeye You can tell your friend that he can apply to outside scholarships. Your friend is lucky to have such a caring friend!
@mickey2017 that’s what I’m hearing too. In fact I was told by both Tech Finaid and Engineering Depts today that the max pure merit scholarship they give out is only $7K annual. That’s pathetic. I know for a fact that WVU goes up to at least $25K. So the EER’s have more scholarship money to play with than Tech?! Sad that we got treated better by rival schools than the one we paid money to and supported over the past 25 years. Either you recruit talent or you don’t. Check the SAT percentile ranges (25%-75%): VT = 1180-1380, UMD = 1280-1470, UVA = 1330-1510, UNC = 1290-1480. Tech needs to decide what’s more important: Quality student body or making money off people wanting to watch good football games. Source: http://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/virginia/virginia-polytechnic-institute-and-state-university/admission/
Btw, both the Finaid office and Engineering Dept said today that most of the merit scholarship money has already been handed out. What’s left are small awards that won’t be difference makers. Freshman year only money or 2-3K amounts (my guess based on max 7K scholarships). These merit awards are generally limited to VA residents and they were set up that way by the donors who initiated them. I don’t understand why VT doesn’t provide individual colleges with $$ to go after and specifically recruit talented freshmen from all over. Isn’t that what merit scholarships are supposed to be about? Really disappointed in my school. And really bummed I won’t be able to call my son a fellow Hokie despite all he’s done to earn a shot.
goingtoMDnow, we are in the same situation. My OOS kid with high stats was accepted and got ZERO merit aid. We ran the net price calculator before she applied and it came back showing a $6K grant, so we assumed that was the minimum she would get. Our state flagship routinely offers talented OOS kids $10K and $12K grants per year as an enticement to come – they still end up paying more. Virginia Tech’s merit aid is terrible. This is my third child to go through the college process and VT is the ONLY school that showed a grant on the net price calculator but then offered NOTHING. When I contacted the aid office to inquire about it – and to inform them that the calculator was using 2014-15 cost information instead of 2017-18 figures – they apologized and said they were going to take it down off their site to fix it. So unimpressed and disappointed. We will be looking elsewhere now, at schools where she has received the merit aid she deserves based on her hard work in high school.
Similar situation. The net price calculator showed a $4000 grant/or merit. Actually received nothing. I know its not a lot but it makes a difference. I thought the calculations were supposed to be fairly accurate. $4000 per year difference is NOT fairly accurate.
VT is a state school. The engineering school is already about 46% OOS, much to the dismay of some Virginia families whose children are not accepted . @goingtoMDnow , WVU may give more merit as they are not as highly ranked in engineering. VT just doesn’t need to give out huge merit awards to attract kids. Sorry, it did not work out for you. Offering $7,000 in merit aid to an OOS student does not sound “pathetic” to me. Glad the university financial aid people are getting feedback about the NPC accuracy. UVa and W & M are also attractive to OOS families. It’s a fine line, supporting your residents and keeping a good mix of qualified students from all over.
In many cases, your own state schools tend to be the most cost effective, unless you get substantial merit or need based aid elsewhere that bring down the cost significantly.
@sevmom good points all around and much appreciated. UMD is also a state school with a highly-ranked engineering program with similar % in-state students - many MD’ers don’t get in. My point on the $7K is that it simply won’t convince many top students with options to make the jump OOS. Particularly if their in-state is decent like VA neighbors in MD, PA, and NC. VT has to decide whether or not it will compete directly for top OOS students using cash or offer nothing and pickup those who don’t get accepted in-state and a few heavy VT leans who are rich. Trust me, my son was a HEAVY VT lean, but we aren’t rich. He had set a bar at $15K/yr to pull him away from UMD’s scholarship offer. So even $7K really wouldn’t have been enough to sway him. And I suspect VT knows that, which is why he got nothing. Why waste it? With his #s they knew that UMD would throw money at him. Bottom line: VT made their choice and passed on a stellar candidate they couldn’t afford. And my son passed on a school he couldn’t afford. Like you said… it didn’t work out for either of them. Economics.
@pilgrim6 and @MSMead I feel for both of you. It sounds an awful lot like a bait-n-switch doesn’t it? You have to feel like you were mislead at the very least. I’m sure you made important decisions about where to apply based on that info. Allowing something like that on their website that clearly over-stated merit awards is really dishonest and/or irresponsible.
All this really has me wondering how we got to such a place where college degrees are valued at 3 or 4 times first year salaries? When I went to Tech in the 80’s my total degree cost came out to about 50% of my starting salary. By all common sense, it should track with salaries, shouldn’t it? This just seems completely unsustainable. Good news is that it could hasten the arrival alternative education delivery that is more effective and easily affordable and accessible by all: rich, poor, young and old alike. Perhaps in time for our grandchildren… 
@goingtoMDnow I couldn’t agree more about the ridiculous cost of going to college. We are Virginia residents and have told our children that we are capping college costs to instate tuition. If you don’t get OOS scholarships that bring down the cost to instate tuition, you don’t go. Why pay $180,000 for a degree OOS for a degree you can get instate for $100,000? We don’t qualify for any FAFSA aid so this is all out of pocket for us.
It’s because of these high costs that some of my friends are having their very smart kids go to Community College for the first two years. They can then transfer to a four-year college. It significantly cuts the cost of the degree. My son also has friends who are doing ROTC to not only help with the expenses, but to have a job after college. These are options are not appealing for a lot of kids but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
We are still waiting to hear from VT about an admission decision as well as UofSC. Since UofSC has already awarded scholarships, we know DS didn’t get one so therefore he will not go there. So we now wait to see if he gets into VT, and if he doesn’t, it will be GMU or VCU. Can’t wait for this process to be over!
As disappointing as it is that VT did not offer the $4000 from the net price calculator, the overall cost of the tuition compared to RIT and Case Western is quite less for an excellent engineering program and the $4000 would have matched it with Penn State (in-state). We did also clearly see in the scholarship process that they recommended highly that applicants research and apply for the individual scholarships on their website. My son chose not to do this thinking there would be some merit.
He can afford to go to VT without merit but will have loans. He also was accepted to WVU with $78,000 in merit so he could go there without any loans. That program is not as highly ranked and WVU is aggressively recruiting higher stat students to balance the required admissions that they have with West Virginia residents (I think its 2.2 GPA).
The net price calculator for VT showed a $4000 grant. I do think that is deceptive. It knows we are OOS when we complete the fields but we would still have applied if it showed no aid.
The overall OOS cost of VT should be compared with the overall OOS cost of other public schools with a “technical” focus (adjusted for average merit award), such as Georgia Tech, Purdue, Cal Poly, Texas A&M, Colorado Mines, Missouri S&T, NJIT, New Mexico M&T, and others. I haven’t done this analysis but it would be interesting to see where VT ranks in terms of overall cost.
ETA: A topic for a different thread.
Lately it appears OOS public U tuition is rising far more rapidly than instate. As budgets get tighter, state legislatures are pushing schools to accept more instate students and make up some financial ground with OOS tuition. Don’t see any reason to expect that trend to change. As more general govt costs are pushed to the state level, legislatures will be pressed to find ways to come up with money. Even those schools who aren’t “sticking it to” OOS students are likely to change as the financial situation of their state changes, making it a riskier to go the OOS route imo.
Can anyone give me the screen name of a CC user who is/was a recent engineering student at VT? Preferably mechanical or aerospace. I’d like to PM them with some questions. Thanks.
D got called with a scholarship offer from Virginia Tech night before last. Only 3000, which doesn’t begin to cover the 30,000 difference between there and another school. But, was nice to actually be recognized.
@scmom2017 Is the scholarship renewable? Some of their scholarships are not. Congratulations anyway.
My daughter said it was, but I am not sure she is right.
Nothing online says one way or another.