Are there any publicly available stats on how many applicants are accepted/enrolled into each major? DD wants to apply to the University Studies (undecided) Liberal Arts. But I’m concerned it might be a very limited number of spots.
My advice is definitely do NOT apply Undecided. At the Open House, they stress there are limited spots and it has one of the lowest acceptance rates. Vt wants to see you choose a major. That you have goals and are working toward those goals.
Well my son did apply undecided. He just turned 17 and he’s not sure if he wants to go business or chemical engineering. He’s still young and I thought it was best he not decide his major and explore some of the classes in sciences, engineering and business. If he doesn’t get in because of it, then it’s not the right school for him.
Mine also applied undecided (Liberal Arts). And I feel the same way - if she is denied, it wasn’t the right school for her because she truly is undecided.
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Given your name here, do you have someone who attends school at Villanova?
I don’t - from Northern Virginia (NoVa) 
Did he apply to the engineering division? If he enters VT not in the engineering division, then it will be more difficult to get into an engineering major later than if he starts as an undeclared general engineering student. https://eng.vt.edu/content/dam/eng_vt_edu/academics/coe_com.pdf
@Greenslipper4 It may be worth a call to advising to see what range of coursework he will actually be eligible to take if accepted under that category so that he doesn’t matriculate under any assumptions.
Unless there have been very recent changes, I don’t believe he will have exposure to engineering courses. On the business side, he may be able to take an intro to business and maybe accounting. Both engineering and business have specific 1st year math classes, so if he enrolls in math for the liberal arts program those credits would not count towards his major. Ditto on the intro to business course - if memory serves, that course is for non-business majors so if taken would be eligible as elective credits towards graduation.
You can go here and drill down by major:
Strategic Analysis | University DataCommons | Virginia Tech (vt.edu)
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Thank you. I appreciate the explanation. But if he’s truly undecided, I still would rather him go that path. Again, if it’s too hard for him to explore or change majors or to even get into the school, then it’s not the right fit for him.
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@Greenslipper4 It’s my understanding that U-Studies advisors do a good job of providing access and guidance re: exploring different programs. He may have a slightly better chance of changing to engineering vs. someone who selected a specific non-eng major (that used to be how applicants would game the system). May still be worth discussing with advising, rather than finding out at class assignment time during orientation that programs he thought he would have access to aren’t an option.
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An admissions officer recently advised my daughter to apply undecided and told her it would be easier to get accepted that way because Architecture was more difficult to get into. How can we find out if this is true or find out what are average GPAs/test scores for specific majors??
Morning! Another CC parents posted this previously–hope it helps you! It doesn’t have GPA/test scores, but it does show past applicants, admissions, and those who attended.
https://udc.vt.edu/irdata/data/students/admission/index#college
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Seems like a bad idea, because a student enrolling at VT but not in the architecture major needs to go through another competitive admission process to get into the architecture major.
https://www.registrar.vt.edu/contact/undergraduate-majors--brief/restricted-majors.html
We found the acceptance rate by major data very enlightening. My child decided to apply once we realized she may actually have a shot at one of the less selective majors.
This was a VERY informative collection of data. It looks like the last admissions cycle resulted in a freshman class for the College of Engineering that was heavy on OOS students. Looking at last year’s VT waitlist thread here, it looks like the EA acceptances were mostly to OOS, and then they committed at a higher rate than expected, leaving too few spots for IS students in regular/waitlist.
I dunno. I am hoping my DS22 still has a chance. We are IS, he applied ED and was deferred. He has been accepted to Penn State, but VT was his first choice, and we REALLY like the lower tuition.
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