Hi everyone!
Can someone give me a good 1-2 solid reason(s) as to why the acceptance rate of Virginia Tech is so high (71%) even though it is ranked 16 across the US in Engineering dept (Undergraduate) by the US World News and Report.
Generally, schools with so good Eng reputation has a low acceptance rate, but it is not in the case of Virginia Tech. Why?
Ps:- I know the term ‘good’ is relative, but still 71% is quite high. Isn’t it?
Your question has been discussed recently here:
The university wide acceptance rate is different from the college of engineering acceptance rate, and so is the GPA and SAT score average. There is a well buried page on the college of engineering website which does list this, the page I’m thinking of also has the college mission listed, various info on faculty and course descriptions. Of course GPA is kind of nebulous. Because it doesn’t tell you how many AP classes versus non-AP.
Thanks to both of you.
I read the thread. Quite helpful.
also note that VT is not as of 2016 on the common app, all freshmen entering in 2017 did he VT application. This changes next year, they will be on the coalition app, which will mean a lot more applications most likely. Go research Georgia Tech’s acceptance rate after they added the common app (sometime in recent history like 3-5 years ago) it steadily declined. Boston College had the same result when they migrated, so much so that they added an essay to their common app to reduce it…which they said was somewhat successful.
Wow, really buried! Here is the referenced page.
http://www.undergradcatalog.registrar.vt.edu/1718/eng.html#7
As @maddy23 noted, Georgia Tech moved to the Common App in the 2013-2014 timeframe. Their acceptance rate dropped from 54% to 40% in one year. It now stands at around 25%.
Because of their unique application and the tech focus of the school, the VT applicant pool is very self-selecting. But in time, as other “non-tech” colleges of the University gain in popularity and as VT transitions to the Coalition App, their acceptance rate will drop, which in my opinion, is unfortunate. VT is a great school that doesn’t need to window dress their acceptance rate.
I have had the same question and read the previous threads and none of the responses satisfied me.
People threw out false statements about College of Engineering having a lower acceptance rate, which is not supported by VT’s own numbers. In 2016 CoE had 7,783 applicants, 5,541 accepted (71.2%) and 1,650 enrolled. That is straight from VT’s website. The GPAs and test scores are higher for the average person being admitted to the CoE, however.
The self-selecting argument does not hold up either. Georgia Tech is a predominately ‘tech’ school as is NC State and they get loads of applicants driving their acceptance rates down.
The Coalition App and Common App certainly have had a material affect on number of applications for the other schools, but I keep coming back to the metrics of the accepted students and they simply do not compare to the other top-flight public schools in the Southeast, whether they are ‘tech’ schools or not. For example:
School Avg SAT
VT 1212
Georgia Tech 1425
U Florida 1349
NC State 1305
I am not sure what the reasons are, but the data indicates that VT is just not as competitive to get into than many of its peers. The acceptance % and test scores both point that direction.
@fl1234 your acceptance rate is correct. As you mention, the fact that VT does not accpet the Common or Coalition App is a significant factor in the rate being higher than other engineering programs that are ranked lower by The U.S. News rankings of the undergraduate engineering programs accredited by ABET are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions.US News. Not sure where you pulled the SAT data from, but the average SAT for incoming COE Freshman is 1300.
Its also worth noting that the US News rankings do not consider acceptance rate or other objective factors. As stated on their website, “The U.S. News rankings of the undergraduate engineering programs accredited by ABET are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions.”
Sorry, glitch in last post.
@fl1234 your acceptance rate is correct. As you mention, the fact that VT does not accpet the Common or Coalition App is a significant factor in the rate being higher than other engineering programs that are ranked lower by The U.S. News.
Not sure where you pulled the SAT data from, but the average SAT for incoming COE Freshman is 1300.
Its also worth noting that the US News rankings do not consider acceptance rate or other objective factors. As stated on their website, “The U.S. News rankings of the undergraduate engineering programs accredited by ABET are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions.”
MJEngDad I pulled the VT SAT data from their website. Data for the other schools from their websites. 1300 for the CoE is what I saw as well. I didn’t dig deeply into the other school’s SAT numbers to see if their CoE has higher than university-wide average scores too. Might stand to reason that they do? It is not accurate to cherry pick scores for one university to compare to amother’s nominal scores.
@fl1234 my mistake. I thought you were reporting COE scores for all school.
Never think of a school if they are good and bad because of acceptance rate… If you want to know how good a school look at the average application stats…
Georgia Tech’s admit rate dropped from 54% to 25% since they started using the Common App.
Quite frankly I am getting tired of this discussion. Virginia Tech is an amazing school and my freshman daughter is thriving there. I have a son at Wake Forest and in my motherly opinion the stress and competitiveness of that school does not serve its students well and trust me their admission rate is very low. Virginia Tech has a huge Alumni base and these kids are getting great jobs after graduation.
^amen