For those who have survived 1st year engineering at VT, is it a supportive environment in that there are readily available resources (or even mandatory tutoring) to help if struggling with classes…or are you basically on your own. I’ve heard that some schools treat 1st year as a “weed out” year…students sink or swim. I would appreciate your thoughts and experience.
Does it help to be in the Live/Learn Community?
Thanks!
There is a ton if help for freshmen engineering courses. The science classes usually have weekly tutoring available, plus there are lots of TA and professor office hours. Math is pretty much the same, plus the empo has tutors available. It mostly comes down to the student rather than the course itself.
You can get help, but if you believe your student has a lazy streak, lookout. VT has to weed out some because there are too many, but they are hardly alone. I always say, if someone has engineering talent and they work pretty hard, they should be ok.
From my S’s experience, it is a very supportive and collaborative environment with ample tutoring and help available for those who make the effort. There is a great deal of work and the material is challenging. But help is available.
If you don’t make the effort use available resources, you are essentially weeding yourself out.
Good luck!
Go look at graduation records to see if tech’s departments “weed out” kids. You’ll find most of techs STEM degrees have a higher completion rate than UVA
With regards to the LLC’s, I have seen something on Tech’s website that says members of LLC’s have higher GPA’s than the overall student population. I don’t recall the specifics of it though.
Not OP but am wondering the same thing. My oldest son attended a competitive Big Box U with a scholarship and direct admit to engineering. However, the school readily says (we know now) that they admit too many so the bar is set to lower the # that get into individual majors. It was cutthroat and admins were unsympathetic to those who struggled. VT is a larger school with a “hoop”, as well. Do the students support each other? Can students easily form relationships with a support network (TAs and faculty) or is it more “those who make a significant effort can get help”? My current senior was initially wanting a school with small class sizes because he wanted that personal connection but he was impressed by VT during our visit.
It’s really more of a function of the student than anything else. I mean the classes arent bad, it’s just math and science like youd take at any engineering department and the intro engineering course is a joke. Some professors are more difficult than others but also every single freshman math and science class had departmental tutors as well. If someone leaves it’s either because they didnt put in the work or honestly just hit a wall, better freshman year than later on. I didnt really have to work that hard and did well freshman engineering.
Related question - assuming one is not weeded out by the first year engineering curriculum, how does VT determine who will enter which engineering major? Does VT identify minimum GPA’s for each major that guarantee admission to one’s chosen major? Is the evaluation a “holistic” gauntlet? I assume some majors more competitive for entry than others (ie., CS/CE >>>>> CivilEng, etc.)
Judd
Perfect, thank you!!!
Judd
It’s really more of a function of the student than anything else. I mean the classes arent bad, it’s just math and science like youd take at any engineering. Also, it’s not just freshman year, stuff like statics later on wipes out people as well.
When we visited Cornell on accepted students day (Cornell Days), I was really really concerned with the apparent stress levels of the girls in the Women in Engineering panels. There were trembling voices and verge-of-tears advice to parents o. how to support your daughters when they get a 30 on an exam or are failing a class. The president of the SOWE laughed and said that she had “given up” on a 3.0
At VT, everyone was so…happy. Walking puppies on campus. Offering tours of their dorms in the engineering LLC…and these were literally just random kids we encountered. D is there now, and I would say that yes, the LLc helps, as everyone is pretty much taking the same classes so it is easy to pop in and say, hey, did you do the problem set? How did you do this one?
Lots of mandatory mentoring and an extra 1 credit course that is both helpful and a little gpa boost. Career fairs, etc. D is prone to stressing out, and I think she would have been a wreck at a weed-out school. She is so …fine whenever we talk to her, never seems stressed, and seems like she will have no problem at all maintaining a gpa above 3.0, which is what is necessary to guarantee first choice of discipline. She does her work on time, though, and goes to every class. That seems to be enough.