VA Tech Class of 2021 -- Engineering Admissions Decisions

@barb2021 My S’s portal says “Freshman application serves as the application to Honors College” just underneath Fall 2017. Is that what yours says? My son also go the email that his application was being sent to Honors College.

I thought that was just a financial aid comment for all applicants.

Does anyone know. Is VT the kind of school who tells the 1st year engineering students that 1/2 of them won’t be there by graduation?
Penn State does this which I think is terrible.

S is 2nd year ME major at Tech. I don’t recall a low retention rate being mentioned at his orientation. I do remember them mentioning the retention rate for engineering students who participated in Hypatia and Gallileo was higher than engineering students who didn’t participate. I seem to recall around 95%. But I think that was only going into the 2nd year.

Sounds like PSU is trying to set realistic expectations by quoting past statistics, but I know that can be de-motivating and come off the wrong way. I’m dealing with that issue right now with my D right now as her college decisions are rolling in and I’m trying to keep her from getting too high and too low.

The first two years of engineering is a true test to see if a student has what it takes to continue to upper level engineering courses. A lot of the classes are “weed out” classes. Those who are not able to handle the coursework do drop out and switch to other majors. A lot of these classes are prerequisites to upper level classes. If the student is well prepared, has good time management and study habits they should be fine. If help is needed they need to take it upon themselves to go to office hours or tutoring.

VT offers a Summer Academy for incoming freshman which may help them transition to college coursework.
Tracks 7,8,9 which are offered the summer prior to freshman fall semester may be helpful in making the transition to the engineering program easier. The Summer Academy tracks earn students 6 credits when they successfully complete this summer program.
http://vtsa.edm.vt.edu/tracks0/all-tracks.html

@asixbn – Was your son’s time at Gallileo positive? My daughter is waffling between wanting to go into Hypatia or to room with two of her high school friends.

The VT portal is incredibly ugly. No pdf letter or anything just says accepted. Will I get one in the mail from them?

I saw the Galileo option. Do they have to apply to this or just select it as their dorm?

I realize that 1st and 2nd year are weed out classes. I just hope they don’t start the students on a negative. Penn State did this to my nephew for Architectural Engineering and it was a pretty depressing start to the program. You would think they would be encouraging students that they can make it even if statistics show otherwise. They get weeded out either way.

@MSMead Gallileo and Hypatia both have to be applied for after acceptance. It seems like acceptance is pretty much automatic as long as there is room in the dorm. Go to https://www.eng.vt.edu/ceed/hypatia-galileo/galileo for the application.

@Darling3 I’d say from a parent’s perspective that Gallileo was good for my son. They are required to do things that help prepare them down the road that other engineering students aren’t required to. Such as create a resume, attend the engineering job fair, and other social events. In addition they’re all housed in the same dorm and have the ability to knock on any door on the floor and find another engineering student who could offer help in a class he may have struggled with. My son also got involved with an engineering team at the Ware lab as a result of being in Gallileo. Although any engineering, or even other students, can get involved with a team at Ware lab.

He had a great academic year as a freshman. His first semester sophomore year wasn’t as great but still really good. That is most likely due to the increased difficulty in his courses, but he also doesn’t have a ready supply of other engineering students on his dorm floor that he can go talk to.

I’d say the biggest drawback is the housing. He was on the top floor of Lee Hall, which is not air conditioned, and he was randomly placed with another student. So if your daughter is adamant about rooming with a friend that won’t happen unless the friend also applies to Hypatia.

Does anyone know if Virginia Tech engineering is “hands on”? Do they get to do lab/mechanics etc. as a freshman or would the student need to join the Baja SAE or Formula SAE to get hands on initially?

This is what you should know….If you don’t get into Virginia Tech engineering but you want to be a Hokie, do whatever it takes to get into physics. They are not a second choice option but it is the closest major to get most of the classes you need to do an internal transfer/add to engineering. Most of the students that came in with my daughter that still wanted engineering kept physics as a double major. The advising is the best on the campus and they go above and beyond for their students. The department wants the students to succeed. Diane the advising legend has helped students with situations other than academics. The students love her and she loves the students. Every parent should want their son or daughter to have a “Diane” in their life at a large university. The students say she loves diamonds but that is because she is a diamond. I am so glad that my daughter did not initially get into engineering because she would have never met Diane.

Does anyone know when scholarships come out for VT?

I received a Pratt Engineering Scholarship today.

Congratulations!

Honors college invites are in the mail. My son got his today.

Congrats!

It means nothing. My son applied to VT very early, beginning of October. He applied regular decision, as we are out of state and did not want a binding decision when we would be paying a premium price for tuition. We heard the school had many more applications than they expected and they were having a hard time going through all the applications and supporting documents. That is why is is taking this long to get notifications out. Since they have so many applications and limited merit money to hand out, a lot of qualified people will not get money.

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.

Do i still have a chance at getting Engineering next Friday? I have 3.4 unweighted with 10 AP’s including biology, chemistry, and BC and got a 35 on both Math and English ACT sections.

10 more days… The suspense is killing us!

Despite having some really good options if this doesn’t happen, he really has his hopes pinned to VT.

Fingers crossed for all still waiting.