This is a big miss on VTs part imo. Especially with COVID and so few kids able to see the campus in action. The colleges that released decisions early to the high performers know what they’re doing as these kids start to envision themselves there and connect with other accepted students. Being the last one to the party has it’s price.
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I unknowingly applied to the college of architecture and urban studies, for a major of environmental policy, is that school harder to get into than the others? And if I don’t get accepted into that one can they accept me into liberal arts? Not really sure of my chances at tech, 3.855 and 1330, lots of extracurriculars, all A’s senior year though
You are only considered for the major that you apply for. You will not default back to general studies.
Okay thanks, do you know if that school or major is more competitive?
Yes, VT has done EA before. In fact last year they made it known that the majority of the class would be chosen from ED and EA, and that was followed.
@PH As I’ve said before, because they do ED before EA, and because they encourage everyone to apply either ED or EA, they have a lot of apps to go through before announcing EA results (most schools have a significant portion still in RD). Maybe they will rethink this in the future, but the highly selective schools that only have ED and RD (think Ivy and other top privates) make students wait until late March into April. If your student can’t wait for the decision from VT, then I suppose go ahead and accept another school? Having some patience before a big life decision is not necessarily a bad thing. I will say though, for about the last 3 or 4 years there has been a real lack of consistency from VT in its admissions policies and practices, and I think that’s one of the reasons they keep having over-enrollment issues.
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@rbc2018 I completely agree. Patience is a virtue. This year is different in that due to COVID college visits often didn’t happen and when a student has 2 or 3 months to feel “connected” to another school it is sure to sway the decision. Many large public institutions similar to VT in rank and size have ED, ES and RD and began releasing acceptances as early as late Nov for EA. It’s a marketing strategy that works, in my opinion, and it works even better this year when many kids have not had the opportunity to determine a 1st choice school. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, and of course VT will still fill a class with amazing students.
Yes, very true. I have a current senior as well and we are waiting on several in early April, ugh, plus some deferrals that are somewhat open-ended (so very quick turnaround on some of those as far as potentially deciding). There is something to be said for wrapping things up early! My junior Hokie knew where he was going by Thanksgiving.
Does anyone know how many applications they received this year? I also applied to Clemson and they received 43,000 applications which is up about 56%. Curious if other schools are in this same situation.
42K+ this year. A 33% increase from last year. Reason: Kids are applying to more schools this year, no test scores required and added to the common app for the first time. Couple that with deferrals and over-enrollment the previous two years could spell disaster for many kids expecting to gain admission. Cynic here but this is the opportunity the University Admissions staff has been waiting for, to shape the class exactly how they want it to look without those pesky test scores to act as a check and balance.
I expect this class to break a lot of social barriers and there to be a public relations bonanza effort as a result.
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Agree it’s a very unpredictable admissions cycle!
What kind of ‘firsts’ do you expect them to break? Just curious. I’m anxious on behalf of my S about this one, as VT has long been near the top of his list.
Same here. Its the school I’m most nervous about for my son, and he’s applied to schools with single digit acceptance rates. But Virginia Tech has risen to the top of his list, and if he gets in its where he wants to go. I just wish he’d realized this a little sooner and could have applied ED!
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Same. My son loves VT and I am very nervous because our school had over 60 kids apply this year. Yield is the big question mark this year and I hope they don’t under-accept and do a lot of waitlisting…
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apparently VT is requesting first semester grades from one of my son’s friends. Is this typical? The student did fail a DE-class junior year due to illness … so that was my best guess at why they may have requested the grades.
did they request from others? if they weren’t requested - is that a good or bad thing? haha
Were I a betting person, I would wager that there will be a very large wait list since that is the best hedge vs. over enrollment.
No “firsts” per se. VT has been very clear over the past several years that they are moving towards having the student population be more representative of the state’s level of diversity. They have actively pursued first generation and under-represented groups for several admission cycles now, and current application stats reported on VTNews show a substantial uptick in apps from those populations.
With respect to a prior post about “pesky test scores” serving as a check/balance for applications… it’s becoming pretty accepted that how a student performs on a given standardized test on a given day/week/month isn’t an accurate predictor of how “good” a college student will turn out to be vs. rigor of curriculum and performance over their HS years. Expect more and more major universities to go test optional in the year’s to come.
I agree. It’s really the best tool colleges have to manage yield/enrollment in such an unpredictable year.
Hard for students, but I expect we’ll see a lot of WL in Feb. but also a lot of movement on it as early as April. True for VT and many other places.
Yep. I’m anticipating a very low number of RD applicants to even be considered (same as last year) and a very large number of wait list spots offered. Like clockwork that will cue the “my superior S/D (who applied EA rather than ED, but now claim VT was their #1) with stats out the wazoo was waitlisted… this is an outrage” posts. Last year’s decision thread was a doozy.
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I don’t see anybody saying to use test scores instead of GPA. They are saying that test scores offer another data point to ‘validate’ a high GPA, especially since grade inflation is rampant in some places and so many kids come out with high grades that it’s not enough of a differentiator. So the idea is that GPA + scores are more predictive than GPA alone, which I think is very plausible. Also, without scores, things like 150 word ‘essays’ become important which seems even sillier to put heavy weight on than a nationwide standardized test. At least with the standardized tests we know who took them (Aunt Becky’s kids being the exception of course), whereas with essays which are now all the rage for admissions you have no idea if the student wrote it, the parent, or some high-priced essay coach.
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Are we thinking Friday February 19th for decisions? Anyone know the date?
That’s not typical to request scores. We got a notice from the high school counselors that they were sending out semester grades but would not be sending to VT because they don’t want them.
I also feel really nervous about VT. It’s S21’s first choice and really should have gone ED but wanted to also be able to consider UVA ( even though I knew there was zero chance he’d get in). VT feels really unpredictable after last year.