Hey all,
Does anyone here know about Virginia Tech’s BIT program? Just looking off stats (https://secure.hosting.vt.edu/www.bit.vt.edu/index.html), some may even argue it’s a better path than VT’s Engineering majors. Can anyone tell me about the program and what job/internship opportunities are like?
Thanks.
I know several students in the program. My daughter got into the engineering school but this program is just as good. The job prospects are amazing. Lots of internship opportunities. I highly recommend the program. Graduates from the program find jobs with excellent salaries. Often juniors get internship offers for the summer that leads to fulltime offers after graduation.
The program is the right amount of technical with the right amount of business skills. Perfect for someone not interested in hard core engineering. Students with a BIT degree from Virginia tech will easily find jobs upon graduation.
Thanks! Great to hear such good things about BIT. At first, I was worried that companies may have not heard of this major so they would just look away.
After reading raclut’s answer, I haven’t heard that many good things about the BIT program, but it seems like it’s true. I haven’t heard any bad things at all either. But from what I’ve gathered from my previous experiences, it seems like a relatively easy major. There isn’t too much work involved, so there are a LOT of people going into this major. If you go into this degree within the next few years, you’ll reap all of the benefits that raclut has said. But if you go any later, it will be harder to get high paying jobs, internships, etc.
I’m going to VT this coming year, and I’m so excited! But after asking a lot of my friends what they’re majoring, a lot of them have said BIT. At this point, majoring in BIT doesn’t seem so special to me, but it doesn’t mean you won’t get far if you have a degree in it.
There are more people going into engineering than the college of business, and BIT is just one of their majos, so in perspective it can’t be as many as you make it seem @infinigirly
I had a couple friends in it, they are all doing really well after graduating. Probably one of the better business degrees to get.
Since I am interested in the IT industry, I believe I will pursue this major. Thanks so much everyone!
@starwalker13 My son is a BIT major. He chose it over Engineering after talking to several IT professionals. Their complaint was that Computer Science graduates understand computers but have no knowledge about how a business flows. He finished the year with a 3.9 GPA which is fantastic. It looks like the sophomore year will be harder with Accounting and Economics. The BIT major is capped and it looks as though they accept about 145 freshmen. Many Engineering students transfer into it but I’ve seen on my FB parents group they get denied if they don’t have a 3.5 GPA. I think they typically graduate 200 from the program. There are job fairs and my son already talked to an employer about an internship where they fly the students out for a weekend meet and greet.
At Pamplin orientation we were told BIT graduates are their highest paid graduates and the most recruited. My son was paid for ten hours a week second semester to do some online work for the county we live in. They hired him full time for the summer. He’s already met a lot of the BIT faculty and loves the school. He’s very happy he didn’t major in Engineering.
When my daughter applied to Virginia tech she had to write down her first choice major which was engineering.
I think for engineering students BIT is an excellent second choice major if they don’t get into engineering school.
A lot of engineering graduates do a minor in business or look into getting an MBA after working several years.
Eventually engineers do go into management positions so that’s where the business courses will be helpful.
In the BIT program there is a lot of flexibility and you can look at opportunities to study abroad and balance academics while participating in social activities in school.
Lots of BIT graduates end up in consulting because you have to have understand the needs of the business and be able to make the technical team understand what those business requirements are so that they develop a system that meets the customer’s needs.
One student that I know will be a senior this year. She received a scholarship from the School of Business, was part of the honors program, and spent a semester in Switzerland. This summer she has a wonderful internship.
Lots of companies come to VT to hire BIT graduates and offer them nice salaries too.
Yea, I definitely think that many people overlook the BIT major since it is not part of the engineering school. Some tips I have been given though is that the most important thing is how hard you work while you’re in college. If you work harder than an Engineering major, this work ethic can take you very far into your career! I have even looked into pursuing a Computer Science minor, so I can stay on top of coding skills, which can be used in any career path in the world we live in today.
Looks like you have a good plan.