<p>That’s pretty ironic if VT has a lower reputation in NoVa, considering so many top students from there apply to VT that it’s easier to get in OOS than from NoVa.</p>
<p>I agree,chuy, but there seem to be some NoVa people that frequently assert that Virginia Tech is not that desired in NOVA, that it is usually an also ran.</p>
<p>I am from NOVA and Virginia Tech is considered to be top 3 school choices for “smart kids”. UVA, W&M, and Virginia Tech are where the majority of kids apply to. JMU comes right after and the rest are… well yea…</p>
<p>Holy crap 
</p>
<p>Friday night and heated discussion :D</p>
<p>well VT is definitely a good school for engineering not just in VA but world. I am an international student who joined here this Spring and is proving to be great experience. Though i did find grad life hard here</p>
<p>But since this guy is having versatile interest: he asked for business college in one of threads. So can’t comment on that.</p>
<p>I never said that UVA is where all the smart kids go. I said it is the top choice among the strongest students, which, by the way, are not always the smartest students. It is the top choice for them, plain and simple. Virginia Tech is usually a choice below that, as are all the other in-state colleges like JMU, GMU, VCU, etc. W&M is not that popular at my high school because I attend a magnet school for science and math, but we do have a handful who always attend as well. Regardless, my magnet school takes the “top” students from about ten surrounding counties and roughly 45% end up attending UVA. What one poster said about settling is correct. A large portion of us are accepted to places like Rice, WUSTL, Johns Hopkins, USC, and even Ivies, but with finances and such a good in-state school we are forced to settle with UVA. I’m in this situation right now. I have also known students who choose VT over UVA, but it’s not the typical case. VT is an all-around good school, although I cannot see traveling across the US to be educated there.</p>
<p>Re OSS–Excluding travel, VT would be only about $5K more than Irvine. I have friends from the northeast who send their kids to VT because it’s a good value (see Kiplinger ranking of 32). VT is lovely and full of smart, talented, down to earth kids, who are very attractive to recruiters–see Wall St. Journal ranking of 13th for preparing students to perform well in a job. Per Payscale.com, VT has an average graduate starting salary of $51,600, ranking fifth in the nation among NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools, behind Stanford, Duke, Georgia Tech, and Notre Dame. The Pamplin School of Business is not as renowned as the engineering program but it is ranked 26th among public schools, and improving yearly. One thing lost in this discussion is how the school’s already good reputation continues to rise, as the talent pool improves each year. There are quite a few kids from my daughter’s class who are athletes, have GPA’s in excess of 4.0 and are looking forward to becoming Hokies this fall (and we’re from NoVA).</p>
<p>Virginia Tech in an increasingly popular choice with students from New England. Its reputation is very strong and the alum are very loyal. I think that is in part because of the value even OOS tuition represents and because since Boston College joined the ACC it (and naturally other ACC southern schools) get a lot more exposure in this region.</p>