<p>Hi, Our son was accepted into University Studies after Applying to Engineering (ME). Other applicants have been waitlisted. I am assuming that waitlisting is done by the colleges to fill the slots opened up by students that decline the offer by the college and that the students offered University Studies ranked lower than the waitlisted applicants. Is that a fair assessment? VT was my son's 1st choice but he has acceptances at other universities so I want to help him make a decision. Thanks, and thanks to those contributing input to several University Studies threads out there - I am sure we will be back with some more questions.</p>
<p>At Virginia Tech (And many other colleges), they divide up the entire university into schools- College of Business, Engineering College, Arts & Sciences, etc. </p>
<p>Your son was denied Engineering (One of, if not, the most competitive schools at VT). That means that he has an opportunity to get a degree of general studies, just not starting out in the Engineering program. He does have a chance to do 1 year of general studies and then transfer into Engineering, but that will most likely take another year of college (4 years starting from the day he gets into Engineering, most likely) as well as much more $$, and time wasted. </p>
<p>At this point, he can accept VT’s offer and go to Virginia Tech to complete his studies in another field (He is guaranteed a slot in Virginia Tech’s main university, not their Engineering program). If he was waitlisted, that means that the entire slots are filled, and once a person denies going to Virginia Tech, they start pulling from the WaitList to fill it in. </p>
<p>Hope that helps, and if my information is slightly wrong, hopefully somebody else can explain it better.</p>
<p>Congratulations on the University Studies admission. Much better than a waitlist. Some years they take little if any kids off the waitlist. My son is a junior, originally in university studies (SAT’s were fine but high school grades could have been better so he was placed in university studies instead of engineering). He did very well as first semester freshman and was allowed to take the engineering course second semester ( I think you can also take it at community college but didn’t know that before he started school-but double check on that). Your son’s advisor would help him pick the other classes as a freshman that will mirror what the general engineering students are taking. Son is on track to graduate in 4 years with no problem. Good luck with the decision.</p>
<p>Sevmom, I also have the same problem as StottieCake.</p>
<p>So let me just clarify. My best plan of action is to go ahead into VT to take University Studies and everything will fall in place for me to graduate with a degree in Engineering in 4 years.</p>
<p>Or is my best plan to graduate with an Engineering degree at Tech in 4 years to take a general engineering course at a community college and then transfer to VT’s Engineering school my sophomore year.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance! This is really getting to my head as it might also be for others in my situation.</p>
<p>JPatel52, I can only say what worked for my son. He would not have wanted to go to community college if he had the opportunity to go to Virginia Tech,even if he had to start in University Studies.He wanted to go away to school. The only course he may have taken at CC may have been the one engineering class you can’t take in University Studies (Engineering Exploration I believe). He took all the same things the general engineering students were taking his first semester except for that one Exploration course (he took chemistry,linear algebra,calculus,etc). He did well the first semester(that’s the trick to stay on track) and was okayed to take the Engineering Exploration class his second semester at VT. It can be done in 4 years but it will involve hard work, doing well and staying on track. Good luck!</p>
<p>Waitlisted = You probably don’t get to attend VT. You only get to if enough other people decide not to attend.</p>
<p>University Studies = You get to attend VT, but not in Engineering. You can transfer in later. You might be a year behind. If you can get into the community college engineering class your freshman year you might be able to stay on track, maybe.</p>
<p>Thank you sevmom!</p>
<p>This gives me confidence in my approach to starting off my college path at Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Let’s test my new understanding: If the College of engineering does not fill (due to a unexpectedly large number of students declining their offer) the college would take accepted University Studies students over the waitlisted students. We did find this scenario in another thread even though it may be highly unlikely. Our next step is to understand exactly how hard it will be to stay on track to graduate in 4 years and the impact of AP credits.</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>I’m with StottieCake completely. I’m still unsure how hard it will be to stay on a 4 year track but I now know that it is possible. I did take many math/science AP’s. I got 4’s on AP Computer Science and AP Chemistry and I am currently taking AP Physics C and AP Calculus BC. I’m hoping this will help me make it 4 years.</p>
<p>That’s not quite how it works. If you’re accepted in University Studies and decide to attend VT you’ll start out in University Studies, period. I don’t know of any scenario where the engineering college would let more freshman in. You may be able to transfer into engineering, though, if you’re able to take the intro to engineering classes either at a nearby community college or (and it is very unlikely you’d be able to get in as a freshman) at VT. If a large number of engineering freshmen turned down their offers it would just free up more seats in the intro to engineering classes, although they’d go to the sophomores that are trying to transfer in first.</p>
<p>If you cannot take the class your freshman year it will be very difficult not to be a year behind, bordering on impossible. Most of the classes that are required for engineers in their later years are major-specific classes, which are not offered over the summer, and are not offered to people that haven’t had the intro class. You shouldn’t be taking summer classes anyway though, because that’s when you’re supposed to be working internships or doing research.</p>
<p>The best bet to graduating in four years is to try and get into the New River Community College intro to engineering class. If you have AP credits that will let you lighten your courseload freshman year to make up for the fact that you have to drive to Christiansburg for a class a few times a week.</p>
<p>chuy, My son took Engineering Exploration second semester of freshman year at VT. He was able to move pretty quickly out of University Studies into general engineering because he did so well as a first semester freshman . That is key.He also had over 700 on math SAT but not sure if that was a factor as well. He took Engineering Problem Solving second semester sophomore year but was already in general engineering by then. He was also an AP Scholar with Distinction so did have some AP credits.</p>
<p>Is he on track for four years? The problem as I understood it is that until you take the second semester of intro to engineering (which may be the same thing as Engineering Problem Solving, I’m not sure what they call it now) you can’t take the engineering classes for your major (Electrical, Materials, etc), which puts you too far behind to catch up in four. If it’s possible that’s great though.</p>
<p>Yes, he is well on track to graduate on time. To give hope to the University Studies people-he was waitlisted initially and when he got off the waitlist,he was placed in University Studies and was happy for the opportunity. He has made Dean’s List every semester. Being placed in University Studies first seemed to have given him the drive to do well and prove himself. It can be done. Even if it takes a little longer than 4 years for some, I would not let being placed in University Studies deter you if your have a strong goal to get a degree in engineering. You need to be proactive and let your advisor know you want to get on track to graduate with your class so they can help you build the schedule to make that happen. And you need to be determined to get off to a good start with studying as it is a hard major. It can be done but it is hard. There is no shame if engineering ends up not working out and you move to a different major and Virginia Tech is a great place to be, with great opportunities,regardless of major.</p>
<p>Thanks sevmom and chuy, I think others in this situation need to look very carefully at the proposed degree path sheets for their chosen degree, if they know it, and then confirm with the university. While sevmom’s son’s experience is encouraging I think our situation may be different in the following ways:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I have only looked at ME but the other degree paths might differ slightly in their pre-requisites which may make it easier or harder to keep on track to graduate in 4 years. JPatel52 look at your intended degree’s proposed degree path sheet.</p></li>
<li><p>The pre-reqs may have changed to make it virtually impossible to graduate in 4 years (without summer classes). That is how it looks for ME. It looks like for students graduating in 2013 & 2014 that ESM2104 has ENGE1114 as a pre-req. That has not always been the case. This puts ENGE1024 at the head of a critical path with no flexibility. It may be possible to take ESM2104 in the summer between freshman and sophomore year which assumes you can take ENG1024 in the spring of freshman year.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You can also take an engineering pre req course this summer at a local college and possibly the summer between fresh/soph year. Though you might end up a year behind on internships, that would help you graduate in 4 years. I know a number of students over the years who did not get into programs of choice and managed to move into them later.</p>
<p>Even if the goal is to graduate in 4 years in engineering, for many kids,it could take longer. My older son got through UVa engineering in 4 years and younger son is getting through in 4 years at VT. However, you really need to take a full load every semester .Son has taken 17 or 18 credits a couple times.At many schools, not just VT, it takes more than 4 years for many. You have to start out in General Engineering at VT so do keep in mind that your son’s plans about ME could change and he could decide he likes another engineering discipline better (or possibly that he not longer wants to pursue engineering at all-that does happen). That’s why it’s important to like the school and since you’ve said VT is your son’s 1st choice,StottieCake, the school itself is an important consideration. Hope you get all your questions answered so your son can make a choice confidently.</p>