@JustGraduate - I think you’re probably correct about the geographic diversity. Regions with a higher population density are going to have more qualified applicants left out.
In 2016, 176 kids in my S19’s Fairfax county HS applied to VT (almost exactly one-third of the class), and 100 were accepted. Average accepted was a 1400 SAT and 4.0 GPA, but the kids applying do not have a huge range of stats - a lot of high stats kids are not accepted. (My 3.4 GPA/30 ACT older kid didn’t bother applying).
I don’t know what’s happening in Loudoun, but we have finals that count for 20% of the grade. Mid-terms, when given, are just averaged into second quarter grades. Test corrections are allowed on occasion (usually in a really tough unit of science or math, but you can only bring your grade up to a low C, I believe).
OK awesome stats. In my central va hs we had a 58% acceptance ratio last year. Its almost identical to you. So Fairfax is not experiencing a lower percent getting in than our hs. The interesting thing is that of our kids getting in we had some folks with higher GPAs get rejected and some with lower get in. Major was a factor in most if those inconsistencies. For example an engineering major with a 4.5 did not get in but a liberal arts 3.6 did. So in general its tough for everyone not just nova folks. All va students have it tough.
For all of those surprised, I just want to give an example. The valedictorian of our class has a 4.6 something GPA. Takes too many AP courses and honors classes. But is she super smart? Lol, no. I want to say she’s average, perhaps a little above average. She’s just very academically motivated. She’s at almost every test retake session, to go from a low A to a higher A. If she gets a low grade on a quiz, she LITERALLY whines to the teacher in front of everyone. Keep in mind, she has a very loud voice. Here’s an example:
We all just graded our own quizzes
Teacher: So how did everyone do on this quiz?
Vale. girl: OMG, I did horrible!! I got only half of them right!!! This was SOOO hard!! This was really unfair and I don’t get how we can be tested on this!!!
Meanwhile, I’m just sitting there rolling my eyes. I got a horrible grade as well, but I know my mistakes and I know I could do better. But what is she doing? WHINING. JUST SUCK IT UP OKAY.
Another example with the same person: She took AP Stats at the beginning of this year, and then later dropped out. Why? Because she just “can’t” get her first B ever during her senior year. Even worse, she said that her dad has cancer as her reason to drop out.
This is non-academic, but there were NHS officer interviews, and she interviewed to be the president (of course). After she came out of the interview, she felt confident and literally said she “pulled out the cancer card.”
Another example. She and this other 11th grade girl were both accepted into Governor’s School. Since only one person can go, she bullied the heck out of the poor 11th grade girl because it was her last chance as a senior whereas the 11th grade girl can try again next year.
Wow I’m sorry to hear that. My nieces, also in Loudoun county describe the exact same scenario. My neighbor’s daughter turned down gmu for education because she didn’t want to student teach in nova,because she had been told the students,and parents, were brutal about insisting their kids had to have A’s to the point of harassing the teachers.
I can assure you that most other places are not like that and I hope you see next year that it won’t help these kids,one lickety bit in college☺ it will be quite a wake up call.
To your credit you are not blind to this,and you know it is wrong.
Does anyone remember the good ole days of a simple, consistent 10 point scale, no +/- and no weighting? There was also no such thing as a GPA above 4.0. Those were the days. :))
@bboop42 - I still have a difficult time wrapping my head around GPAs higher than a 4.0. It’s like when I hear a coach say he wants his team to give, “110 percent!” Um, coach? 100 percent means it’s full. I’m glad my kids’ school uses an unweighted, straight-up scale of 4.0 for an A and so forth. Makes calculating easier on my math-addled brain.
@bsangs Weighted GPAs are completely irrelevant for admissions. I prefer schools that require SSAR (Self-reported Student Academic Record). They don’t want to know what you think your GPA is. They just want to know every class you took, its level of difficulty, and your grade. Then THEY figure out your GPA. IMO, this is the most fair measurement. UF uses this system.
I am always puzzled when someone states they have a 4.9 GPA on a 4.0 scale.
@stem2017 agree. It should be standard to show the class and the% grade (not letter grade since there are too many scales…10pt, 7pt, +/-) then it would take some of the noise out of the system. Also, fewer of the “why didn’t I get in with a XXX GPA when so and so has lower and did?” Maybe because their grade is not weighted or they have a different grading scale, etc. I would not want to be an admissions officer given all the various things they have to weed through to try and get apples to apples base comparisons as a starting point. It must be a very difficult and thankless job.
@hsjunior1354 LOL no VT doesn’t hate instate… their overall enrollment for that group is on par with most/many other state U’s. However, CoE apparently does prefer OOS students, or at least for one reason or another more OOS engineering students actually enroll than in state.
Remember also VT is a land grant university making the mission to educate as many Virginians as possible. That doesn’t jive with a low acceptance rate.
Nothing wrong with a low acceptance rate, that just signifies that you have far more applicants that slots available.
However! If the acceptance rate is lower for in-state students than OOS students, then we have a problem.
This year, Georgia Tech announced that the in-state acceptance rate was 44%, while the overall rate was 23% (and I believe the OOS rate was 18%). If the acceptance rate is about the same or higher for in-state students, then we don’t have a problem. If it’s not…
The same can be said about the average stats of accepted students. If the OOS students have lower stats, then VT is giving a preference to OOS students, which would also be a political nightmare. If the OOS students average higher stats, then we don’t have an issue. This problem pop up in California, where the state auditor claimed the UC’s gave a preference to OOS students (at UCLA, UC-Berkeley, etc.). The UC’s claimed they did not. Now the UC"s have negotiated an agreement with the state legislature around OOS enrollment.
CoE is not yet enrolling more OOS than instate… last couple years they’ve enrolled 45%+ versus ~30% for university as a whole. To me that’s a substantial difference between the 2 categories of students. All the evidence I have is anecdotal but I’m surprised at the number of instate students with HIGH state (4.0 UW, high test scores) who didn’t get into CoE - and these are just kids I know from NoVa. The problem in VA is there’s a decent gap between VT engineering and other programs in the state (other than UVa). So a lot of really really good students here are forced to decide between going OOS state to get a similar caliber education (with the $$ bump that so many can’t afford), stay instate and go down a notch or 2, or look at other majors.
@JustGraduate True, VT is like UIUC or GT, it’s known for it’s engineering program and most OOS students who apply to the school, are applying to the COE. It then leads to the COE having a higher % of OOS students, than the other colleges.
I think Virginia residents (I"m not one), would think its’ fair, as long as the accepted OOS students have higher stats/holistic metrics than the in-state students that are denied a slot, and that a reasonable cap is set on the % of COE slots that go to OOS students.
I’m glad my kids’ school uses an unweighted, straight-up scale of 4.0 for an A and so forth. Makes calculating easier on my math-addled brain.