Yes. We had a previous account - VTAdmissions - that we are no longer able to access. Due to information we’ve seen posted here recently, we wanted to re-establish ourselves on this page to provide accurate and timely information when necessary. - Kayla, Senior Associate Director of Operations
11 Likes
That’s the full data set by program, demographic, etc etc. Play around with it. It does NOT give information by application (EA, RD, Deferred, etc).
Son likely won’t be attending VT (the most expensive school of all his CS acceptances), but he saw this today in his email and was intrigued:
"In addition to your early action offer of admission, you have been chosen for Virginia Tech’s inaugural Admissions Squared (A²) opportunity that is part of the Tech Talent Investment Program. Based on your strong academic achievement, enrollment in AP Calculus BC/Dual Enrollment Calculus and AP/Dual Enrollment Computer Science courses, you are being offered admission to the Master’s of Engineering in Computer Science or Computer Engineering at the new Innovation Campus (IC) in Alexandria, Virginia.
“The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus will be both a place and a culture that unlocks the power of diverse people and ideas to solve the world’s most pressing problems through technology. The IC hosts the Master’s of Engineering in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. Upon completion of your Virginia Tech bachelor’s degree with a 3.0 GPA or higher, you can immediately start the master’s degree program and be eligible for Tech Talent Scholarships.”
4 Likes
That wasn’t our experience. Older son went to HS in Fairfax County and, if anything, experienced grade “deflation.” High grades were tough to come by, but there were a lot of really bright students — his HS class of 550 had an “average” SAT score just under 1400. He got waitlisted at UVA, accepted to VT Engineering and ended up at William and Mary…before transferring to UVA.
We moved to southeast Virginia where younger son is in HS. Same size school “brags” about 70% of class having greater that 4.0. He was accepted to VT Engineering ED.
Perfect reason to go back to test (ACT/SAT) required. GPA’s from school to school are like comparing apples to oranges. Test scores, on the other hand, differentiate students in a uniform way. You’ll always hear “some kids don’t test well” and all those other excuses, but bottom line is when millions of kids around the world take the same test on the same day, the scores tell you something (as opposed to comparing GPAs). Whether the school decides to use that info is another story…
5 Likes
I don’t think that’s exactly accurate. At my son’s school there are a number of kids who get tutoring that significantly raise their scores. I know kids who got a 1400 first try with no tutoring that I would consider more “gifted” than others who got a 1500+ but after a summer of tutoring.
It’s a bit of guess work on the AO’s part to figure things out. Some of it is comparing against their demographic peers… I think a 1360 from a kid in some circumstances is more impressive than a 1500 from another kid.
3 Likes
Same… but 4.5 and 1500 sat plus a ton of extras. Biology
Spot on! My son’s both went to a private school (one is a senior this year), no APs allowed as a freshman, only 1 offered Sophmore year (AP US History) and no parents allowed to petition to push for AP classes instead the students have to apply to take APs and they look very closely at previous grades before approving to take AP and honors classes. Fewer than 8% come out with a 4.0 GPA or higher, unlike our local Fairfax county public school where over 30% are graduating with a 4.0 GPA or higher. Ourt school has both mid terms and final exams that count for 20% overall grade. I just do not know how admissions offices can truely make decisions in this current climate. I fully understand applicants are assessed within “their” school and not compared with other high schools, but the lack of standardization makes it impossible, especially when colleges want to publish higher stats for rankings. Adding that our school is 200 years old and it’s academics are highly regarded, students graduate and are well prepared for college level courses, but this year I’ve heard there are many more deferals and waitlisted students.
2 Likes
100% and along with that make the test a one-time test like all other tests are through college. None of the lets re-try and re-try. Take it once and be done! Not sure how the kids that “don’t test well” will manage through college.
2 Likes
There’s many more deferrals and waitlists because depending on what school you look at overall applications are up 5-50%. The colleges are struggling to accept a number that won’t land them in hot water from an over-enrollment standpoint. Accept ~ the same number as they have in prior cycles and if a good portion of those kids don’t submit a deposit, we go to the waitlist. VT historically makes pretty active use of its waitlist.
Admission officers get assigned regions - where part of the intent is to understand the school differences (private/public, AP accessibility, etc, etc). Not a perfect system by any stretch but not shooting in the dark either.
4 Likes
Agree, for a large number of top 100 colleges, the applications have increased considerably this cycle and yes the regional reps do get to know the schools and the profile of that school to be able to access applications within context. But the question is why has there been such an explosion of applications since 2020 - the reason is test-optional. Some colleges are requiring test scores again for the next cycle - Purdue was one of the more recent schools to add this requirement.
1 Like
I’m going dispute your assertion around the explosion of applications being a result of test optional.
Virginia Tech - saw a 4-5% increase in applications this year. Remains test optional.
UTK - saw a ~45% increase in applications this year. Went back to requiring test score.
Small sample size admittedly - these are just two I’m familiar with, I’m sure a deeper dive can find other examples that refute or support
Personally believe that the explosion in applications is driven by 2 things -
- Common App (it’s just EASY to apply to more schools).
- It’s a self-perpetuating issue. The more kids that apply to more schools make the outcomes less certain. To make sure the kid has some sort of options at the end of the decision cycle it drives kids to apply more places. Kids apply more places and applications go up and things get less certain and it goes round and round.
12 Likes
Agree with this as well. I know MIT purposely stays away from the CommonApp as they get enough self-selecting applicants regardless, and want those that apply to seek them out, versus an easy copy-paste CommonApp approach which would overwhelm them.
Can you please address the question of whether students in populated areas are at a disadvantage due to the larger number of qualified applicants from their area? Geographic location is listed as a very important criteria in the Tech common data set, so student in place like NOVA and suburban Richmond and VA Beach are wondering if the are being penalized.
1 Like
Very important: Rigor of curriculum, GPA, Essay, whether you are first generation college student, geographic residence, state residence , race/ethnicity.
I think they say that they balance out geographic/state right in their published criteria. More populated areas are going to have a larger number of qualified applicants by definition.
2 Likes
Being judged on merit is the best way to ensure students are admitted to schools that are a good academic match for them. Going to school that is a good match improves the chance of success.
Virginia Tech cites “race/ethnicity” as a “very important” admissions criteria. The results of that discrimination are clear in the admissions numbers on their own DataCommons tool. Some of their acceptance numbers show a 30%+ swing depending on the gender and race of the applicant. That’s pretty huge. (For example, in Engineering, white and Asian in-state males are only admitted at a rate of about 35% vs an astounding 69% for a black female.)
If the Supreme Court soon rules that using such criteria is discrimination and in violation of our laws, future students might see themselves judged more on their merit.
2 Likes
I would have to imagine that the application pool for white and Asian males is much larger than the black female pool…I would also like to believe that the black females that were accepted were judged on their merit.
7 Likes
While I don’t have any special insight, I’m seeing a lot of people speculating in “geographic residence” without seeing any additional context around it. This could refer to international students which would be of interest to admissions, as opposed to “state residence” which is US.
Yes, I would also like to believe that.
But in order to believe it, we would also have to believe that for some reason, the black females applying are somehow twice as qualified as the white and Asian males. What could cause such a discrepancy in preparation between those different groups? Are the white and Asian males receiving a subpar education that is resulting in them being less qualified and less worthy of a spot?
If race and ethnicity were not being considered, we should see less disparity between different groups when looking at the data. If the pool of one group is larger, and all the pools are being judged on merit, than larger pools would have bigger representation.
1 Like
Simplest explanation is that fewer black females apply to Virginia Tech than Asian males, and probably all applicants have a pretty similar band of test scores and GPA. So, fewer applicants means higher acceptance rate.
5 Likes