@Gator88NE My sense is that VA residents are not comfortable with the 15% plus gap between instate and OOS COE attendance. Mainly because most know of very high caliber VA student who didn’t get in - and it’s not clear that OOS have higher stats. Frankly I’m surprised it hasn’t been brought up as an issue as much as I would expect - if these stats were for UVa, all heck would have broken loose years ago! The change to reign in transfers from within the school may result in more interest in how VT manages the instate - OOS numbers.
I wonder if one of the reasons for higher OOS is a desire for VT to be considered more than a good regional engineering school, and shift to a more national profile. It could also be a way to bring more qualified engineering graduates into the state for employment, given that a good chunk of CoE grads stay in state for jobs.
My sense is that having OOS students in the engineering college adds to VT’s national profile, as you suggest, also adds geographic diversity to the Virginia Tech student experience, but probably more important brings in cash as OOS students pay higher tuition.
If you are attending Virginia Tech for engineering, architecture, agriculture, or veterinary science then great job. However, if you go for any other major then I will question your true intentions of going there for school. I attended VT as a Biology major for a year and enjoyed my experience but not as I expected I would. I decided to transfer this past year to another university due to majoring in health-related fields that I knew Tech wasn’t very strong in. The teachers I had seemed to care more about their research and the salary they made instead of the actual students they taught. Additionally, Tech made me take courses that weren’t even required for my graduate program and due to transferring, I now get to graduate early by having a more concentrated major with teachers who all know my name and teach with complete expertise. Not to mention, I saved $15,000 in tuition and apartment costs. Go to the school that is best for your major, not for the ammentities it offers. Tech is a good school, but is overshadowed by many schools and is not well-known outside of the East Coast.
My son got into Va Tech, but was rejected by the University of California schools in state. The whole system is crazy. He also had a snide remark made to him about the 70% acceptance rate. the Va Tech out of state tuition is only slightly higher than the UCs - we’re thrilled that he will most likely be a Hokie next year!
Did you apply for financial aid or no? It is a public university, without a huge endowment like some privates, out of state tuition is twice in state, they need the funds???
wondering too what does your transcript read like? My DD got in and will be attending, we are OOS. Her weighted GPA was like 4.2. Unweighted might have been 3.7. But she has BC Calculus this year, has taken AP Physics 1 junior year, AP Physics 2/C this senior year, IB computer science, IB Engineering Design, Design Technology, very STEM focused curriculum. 720 Math SAT. Other non-engineering AP’s which should place her out of electives in English, History and Econ. Maybe your course selections were important…
I can set the record straight -/just leaving VT now and although the stats say one thing -it’s not true for ENGINEERING -were oos and they accepted only about 1775/8000 this spring. A GPA of 4.12 31 math or 685 M (said send all ACT/SAT they take highest math but if you want to get in your numbers have to be higher. We were very impressed with the campus all around !! We would be happy to go there but again it’s only our 2nd college visit -next to Duke. Lol
In 2013 orientation, were told they had 7200 applications for 1800 CoE spots
Avg GPA for entire entering class that year (not just CoE) was slightly over 4.0
So if they’re accepting 70% of applicants with a 4.0+ average, that tells you a lot about the level of apps they receive. Would love to see standard deviation numbers though
I’m a little late to this discussion. I think they’ve been trying to “grow the school,” as in, trying to become a larger school, for whatever reasons. My daughter is OOS too, was thinking she was going to NC State College of Eng (which is highly competitive for instate) and with much lower admission rates. Wound up getting into both, Purdue, even waitlisted at GA Tech, but fell in love with VT as soon as she stepped on the campus. Got a $5000 scholarship late last month to VT, and it was set. I’ve been comparing stats of admitted students and they are very comparable (she’s going to be around the 40-50% area as far as her GPA and ACT scores) for both schools. GA Tech - she would have been in the bottom 25%- but she’s happy she got waitlisted. She thought she would be more excited about a school that was “harder” to get into, but in the end you have to go with the right fit for you and #16 for Engineering is pretty great.
I wonder how many of the “highly qualified in state” VA students are male. There is a big push afoot at all engineering schools to increase female enrollment. And also how many applied for financial aid.
@hsjunior1354
Just to throw out my stats while applying to VT:
Currently: Rising Sophomore at VT in Mechanical Engineering. Finished with a 3.97 GPA.
I was class rank 43/280 at the end of my senior year.
I had a 91.3/100 GPA (my school never used the 4.0 scale)
My SAT was 1250/1600, Math:700
Took 3 APs, Calc 1, Physics 1, Physics C
So far, my chances of being accepted were very low. Virginia Tech cares about grades but doesn’t limit them to just that.
I am also an Eagle Scout
Played in the Symphonic Band/Jazz Band all 4 years of high school
Played Basketball my first year in high school
Competed in Clay Target 3 years while in high school and did very well
did some other stuff too within the community.
To get into VT, you not only should have decent grades but be active in extra curricular activities, especially in the community. I milked service through Boy Scouts (after all there modo is Ut Prosim meaning That I May Serve) and my competitive shooting and I was accepted.
@stocky56 - glad you are enjoying VT and doing so well! Congrats!
It’s helpful to see your stats. I will caution that info VT publishes shows stats improving for accepted students each year for CoE, it’s getting even more competitive. No surprise I guess. Another aspect that’s changing is the % of OOS CoE students being accepted… it’s currently running in the upper 40% range which IS a surprise IMO. Compare that to 30-35% OOS state accepted students for the college at large and it’s a rather interesting stat.
Alright Engineering at Virginia Tech is very difficult to get into, but general acceptance IS fairly easy. Nearly 50% of the students from my high school apply to Virginia Tech every year and everyone above a 3.4 GPA and above 1100 Sat score are admitted. 1 student out of nearly 300 students scoring better than a 1200 SAT was denied.
This is the beauty and the mission of a true land-grant university. I’ll bet each and every one of those 299 students accepted is happy about the VT acceptance rate.
@RightyRiper what part of the state are you in? In the past, I might have agreed with your comment but the acceptance rate at VT in the last 2 years has dropped 5% points and kids with great stats have gotten denied or WL’ed recently.
@RightyRiper I can see why you think it’s easy to get in to. My son’s northern VA public school’s average SAT is usually about 1280 - students with 1100s are not applying to VA Tech, much less getting in! Most of the applicants have at least a 1300 and above a 3.8, and about 75 kids were rejected last year.
I have a junior who will probably apply next year and I think it’s still a question mark if he applies for engineering. He has a 3.83 (should be just over 4.0 after this year) and a 1480 SAT (780M, is retaking to try to get a 1500), but will only have 6 APs total. This might not do it in his school, where the average admitted GPA is about a 4.1 and average SAT about 1400 for VA Tech. I’ve also heard that they really want to see Physics C but the physics teacher doesn’t recommend taking it concurrently with Calc, so that’s probably not going to happen.
He’s interested in a couple of other majors, so he may still end up there.
Someone chance me!
White Female In-State but NOT from NOVA
3.7 GPA
1060 SAT (I know it’s low)
Legacy
100+ service hours
Cheerleading all 4 years of highschool
Clean disciplinary record
I applied to Criminology, hoping sense it’s not one of the more popular majors I’ll have a better chance with my SAT score:/ thank you!!
