I never thought of VT as impossible to get into, but I’m starting to get nervous reading these posts. It’s my daughter’s absolute dream school. GPA 4.2 weighted, hasn’t taken the SAT yet but PSAT in 10th grade was 1290 . . . she has no shot, right? Wondering how hard I should be talking her out of it at this point . . . It looks like the acceptance rate for her intended major is 33%. Devastating. Apparently VT is Harvard now? Damn it.
@Stellauna27 What major? I do not see any major at VT that has a 33% acceptance rate. Yield, yes…acceptance, no.
Am I reading it wrong? Fashion merchandising . . . it did say yield 33% . . . is that not the acceptance rate? Hopefully I’m reading it wrong . . .
@StellaNova I wouldn’t give up on your D’s top college choice just yet. A PSAT of 1290 is 91st percentile and with SAT prep should improve significantly her test scores and/or have her take the ACT. Looks like her intended major is impacted at 33% acceptance with the school having a 71% overall acceptance rate. Why would you talk her out of her top school? She knows what she needs to do, she needs to do it. But make sure she has some back-up plans (i.e.safeties). Good luck.
Ha! Yield is the number of accepted students who chose to enroll. Not the same as acceptance %! You gave yourself a heart attack for no reason at all.
With that said, there are no guarantees, she needs to continue to work hard every year as the number of applicants increase every year at the top 100 colleges. Sounds like she is a good student, she will do just fine…
Oh man I hope so. She has a million extracurriculars and has the second highest number of service hours in her grade (among 300+ sophomores) . . . hopefully that will be enough. I just don’t want her to keep dreaming of a school she has no hope of getting into . . . I’ll just tell her she needs to keep getting good grades (or get better ones) and kill it when she takes the SAT/ACT . . . I was soooo happy her dream school wasn’t an Ivy . . . it is so disheartening to know that VT is so difficult too, though. It seems every kid has a 4.5 GPA/1500 SAT now . . . but my daughter is dyslexic. She will NEVER get scores like that lol
A good site I go to is called collegedata.com. It has all of the most recent admission stat information provided by the colleges. btw - women have a higher acceptance rate at VT at 75%. 
@Stellaluna27 Does your daughter’s school use Naviance? If so, she should get access to that tool in Fall of next year after she takes the official SAT. I would strongly recommend that you use that data rather than what any school or third party site posts re: their average GP, scores, etc. The Naviance data reflects admission info stats for students at her specific high school. That will tell you more accurately where the bar needs to be set.
Overall acceptance rate at VT has apparently dropped for class of 2022 (It’s been posted as 56% on other threads - not sure if that’s been verified or not). Now would be a good time to start looking at other matches and safeties and drum up some interest in them (visit if you can this summer). You might find that there’s something at another school that piques her interest.
Lots of students don’t get into their dream school. But kids are resilient and so many of them end up loving the school they ultimately attend.
@Stellaluna27 - @ShenVal18 is correct that VT’s acceptance rate for class of 2022 was 56%, but that was specific to Engineering. The other majors’ acceptance rate was higher and is less competitive. The new stats should be available on VT’s site below site around October 2018 and can be viewed by major.
Remember, it isn’t just about test scores. The essays are VERY important. Be honest and heattfelt in the writing. And above all else, be herself. But if I may, take a deep breath. Your daughter sounds like a hard worker, and that will pay off in a big way. Is she in-state or out-of- state?
@Bboop42 Where did you see that was only related to engineering? As I understand it, the overall acceptance rate for the University went from 70% to 56%. It wasn’t just for engineering.
@stellaluna Test prep can make a huge difference. My D1 improved her score more than 200 points with a little tutoring. It doesn’t have to be very expensive either. Kahn Acadamy has free SAT tutoring and there may be graduate students in the area who will help for a small fee.
Another option is to pay your daughter’s teachers to really hone her scores and focus on the skills that really need improving. That’s what we did for our daughter, and it made all the difference in the world.
A sophomore PSAT is a long way (in time) from an actual SAT score and a 1290 sounds quite decent for that age. Without counting chickens, I imagine her doing well on the SAT with some prep. (If she gets extra time accommodations at school, that would be something to work on for the SAT as well.) Growth in score number is expected each year.
Acceptance rate 18776/27266 = 69% https://vt.edu/admissions/undergraduate/snapshot.html
This year’s entering freshman SAT middle 50 percentiles:
EBRW 590-670, average 629
math 590-690, average 639
https://vt.edu/about/factbook/student-overview.html
With the PSAT designed to estimate an SAT score if the SAT were taken that day, she is already above their average.
@Stellaluna27 bboop42’s link is your best starting point since you can drill down by college and major, rather than overview numbers that represent the entire student body.
https://irweb.ir.vt.edu/webtest/admission_data.aspx
And check Naviance if your school uses that tool. The mid-50 percentiles are again based on overall admission data, not how the university views applicants from your daughter’s high school. I know firsthand of instances where student scores/GPA looked solid re: mid-50% data posted by a university, but found that in terms of their specific high school the cutoff for accepted/waitlisted was higher.
@evergreen5 thanks for statistics. However, I would add that overall statistics don’t mean much - need to look at it on a region/high school basis…a student’s competition is their own classmates. Case in point - and comparing to the “average” scores…my son has a 4.25 GPA, 35 ACT, 1540 SAT, about 26 credits going in to college, is a TJ kid (if you are from NOVA you know the school), taken AP CS, BC Calc, Artificial intelligence, and a bunch more, yet did NOT get in to Tech Engineering. He got his second choice at Tech along with UVA Engineering, however my point is his credentials are huge compared to the Va Tech averages, yet his competition is other TJ kids.
@Dad0903 Did you son apply EA or RD? If RD, it’s entirely possible that admissions thought VT wasn’t your son’s choice. You are spot on re: overall stats and competition being within their own high school.
@ShenVal18 He applied RD because he wanted to keep his options open in case he got in to Stanford (a true stretch, but he wanted to try). We figured that with the high acceptance rates to Tech from TJ (usually about 40% of the Senior class, our guess is he is at the 25% level), they didn’t take the safe school concept in to consideration since they like TJ kids. Maybe we were wrong. I think he only did one essay, so maybe they figured he wasn’t fully invested. Our bad. I can say it was a blood bath for TJ kids getting in to Va Tech this year. As a side note both parents are Tech alumni.
@Dad0903 At least he was accepted into his second choice and could maybe change major into engineering after first year? The number of kids with high stats who were wait listed this year is rumored to be high too.
Through our experience and what we have learned from others this year, I’m convinced that even if a school doesn’t “say” that they take demonstrated interest into the admissions decision, the reality may be different. My advice to our neighbor who will be on the rollercoaster next year was to officially sign up for visits, go before applying (whenever possible) and put their name on any sign-in documents they can find, write as many of the essays as allowed, and even follow admissions on twitter. Anything that might put a student on the radar!
According to the common data set, level of applicant’s interest is considered at VT. I’m not sure if getting your name on every list does as much as what is reflected in the essays. If a kid submits one essay and uses the topic of choice that may come across as not having showed interest. Granted it could have been a great essay but maybe it was a common app essay or one from another school. I really don’t think VT wants to see the UVA essay about an engineering invention as the only essay even if it is clever and well written. I told my kids the top five reasons you want to be a Hokie really isn’t optional if you want to show interest and make that show that you really know the school. I believe in VT’s mind there is really a difference between wanting to be a Hokie and wanting to attend VT because of the academics and they really want to see both.