Has the rest of the country heard of William & Mary or does VA Tech have more recognition?

[Anonymous]

I am from Louisiana and had heard of W&M before attending college. Also all those folks who have visited Colonial Williamsburg will know the school as well. In fact, I used to joke with W&M alums whether working in the village was mandatory for W&M students.

I did not know about VT until the football started getting good thanks to Coach Beamer. Now I know it is a pretty decent school, but a much different mission and profile from W&M.

[Anonymous]

Another problem with the perception of VT is its official name, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

When I lived in Singapore, the Boeing CEO for SE Asia was a VT alum and listed the official name on his bio. He was a lovely and smart guy. In Singapore, polytechnical schools are vocational-technical schools where you learn to repair cars and supervise factory workers. I would get asked by locals how a man who had not attended university had risen to such a prominent job!

The Boeing global CEO is also a VT alum but I see that he calls it Virginia Tech in his bio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another problem with the perception of VT is its official name, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

When I lived in Singapore, the Boeing CEO for SE Asia was a VT alum and listed the official name on his bio. He was a lovely and smart guy. In Singapore, polytechnical schools are vocational-technical schools where you learn to repair cars and supervise factory workers. I would get asked by locals how a man who had not attended university had risen to such a prominent job!

The Boeing global CEO is also a VT alum but I see that he calls it Virginia Tech in his bio.

VTech should change its official name to Virginia Institute of Technology, making it similar to GT, Caltech, MIT, etc., name wise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M is very difficult to get in from Nova. You need to be aiming for 75th percentile which is about a 4.47 and 34 ACt. It’s a phenomenal deal if you are applying from VA and can get in

Thanks for this. Do you know - Is the 4.47 you mentioned the GPA after a student's junior year, the GPA after the first half of senior year, or the final GPA for all of high school? Thx

Yes, it's the final cumulative GPA at end of senior year. SCHEV (the (Virginia) State Council on High Education) reports the weighted GPAs of enrolled students each fall at every public and private institution in VA (note that's the scores of the students who actually showed up and enrolled - some of the higher stats kids peel off for Ivies or UVA or SLACs). So you can assume that the stats for application acceptance is higher. So if you are applying from NOVA you should be aiming for that 75th percentile since competition is so fierce.

The SCHEV site seems to be down this evening. You can find the information at SCHEV.org, research, admissions - then enter the name of the school. I can, however, give you UVA's from memory. UVA is only very slightly higher in GPA and/or stats than W&M, so they are almost identical. So, for UVA, for last fall, the 75th percentile had a 4.49 weighted GPA, a median GPA of 4.35 and a 25th percentile GPA of 4.21. The 75/50/25th percentile scores for the ACT were 34/33/30. The 75/50/25 scores for SATs were 1500/1430/1340. Of course, your school's naviance or other personalized tracking service is what you should look at first since not all schools have such high GPAs. You should be in the top ten percent of the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M is very difficult to get in from Nova. You need to be aiming for 75th percentile which is about a 4.47 and 34 ACt. It’s a phenomenal deal if you are applying from VA and can get in

Thanks for this. Do you know - Is the 4.47 you mentioned the GPA after a student's junior year, the GPA after the first half of senior year, or the final GPA for all of high school? Thx

Yes, it's the final cumulative GPA at end of senior year. SCHEV (the (Virginia) State Council on High Education) reports the weighted GPAs of enrolled students each fall at every public and private institution in VA (note that's the scores of the students who actually showed up and enrolled - some of the higher stats kids peel off for Ivies or UVA or SLACs). So you can assume that the stats for application acceptance is higher. So if you are applying from NOVA you should be aiming for that 75th percentile since competition is so fierce.

The SCHEV site seems to be down this evening. You can find the information at SCHEV.org, research, admissions - then enter the name of the school. I can, however, give you UVA's from memory. UVA is only very slightly higher in GPA and/or stats than W&M, so they are almost identical. So, for UVA, for last fall, the 75th percentile had a 4.49 weighted GPA, a median GPA of 4.35 and a 25th percentile GPA of 4.21. The 75/50/25th percentile scores for the ACT were 34/33/30. The 75/50/25 scores for SATs were 1500/1430/1340. Of course, your school's naviance or other personalized tracking service is what you should look at first since not all schools have such high GPAs. You should be in the top ten percent of the class.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of W&M until after I graduated college and definitely didn't (and don't... sorry W&M alums, it's nothing personal!) consider it superlatively prestigious, as some people are suggesting. I knew of Virginia Tech due to the shooting. That's pretty much it.

You sound depressing.

[Anonymous]

I grew up on the West Coast and never heard of W&M until I moved east in my 20s. Heard of VT, but never had an opinion of it because you just see it on TV for football. If anyything, probably a slight negative connotation being a "tech" school, as it connotates land grant college.

[Anonymous]

Since the .com boom people see liberal arts is silly, it's not as good as STEM.

[Anonymous]

W&M is more on par with UVA. I also think most people think it's a private college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of W&M until after I graduated college and definitely didn't (and don't... sorry W&M alums, it's nothing personal!) consider it superlatively prestigious, as some people are suggesting. I knew of Virginia Tech due to the shooting. That's pretty much it.

You sound depressing.

I mean it's like asking people what they think about Colorado School of Mines and University of South Carolina. Why would you expect anyone outside of Virginia to care about these schools? Doesn't mean they're depressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since the .com boom people see liberal arts is silly, it's not as good as STEM.

Says the twit who does not realize that math and natural sciences are considered liberal arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since the .com boom people see liberal arts is silly, it's not as good as STEM.

Liberal Arts includes natural and physical sciences, mathematics, statistics, etc. So chemistry, biology, physics, biochemistry, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, data science, etc. can be included in Liberal Arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since the .com boom people see liberal arts is silly, it's not as good as STEM.

Liberal Arts includes natural and physical sciences, mathematics, statistics, etc. So chemistry, biology, physics, biochemistry, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, data science, etc. can be included in Liberal Arts.

Right but people don’t seem to get that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since the .com boom people see liberal arts is silly, it's not as good as STEM.

Liberal Arts includes natural and physical sciences, mathematics, statistics, etc. So chemistry, biology, physics, biochemistry, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, data science, etc. can be included in Liberal Arts.

Right but people don’t seem to get that.

I think some people think Liberal Arts is nothing other than sitting around drinking coffee reading poetry and discussing philosophy. A complete misunderstanding.

Most of the students at the most selective colleges will actually be in liberal arts majors. If they are in STEM, they are likely doing it through liberal arts. Harvard has over 40% of their undergraduates majoring in STEM. All but about 5% or so that are in engineering are doing it through liberal arts majors like biochemistry, neuroscience, computer science, mathematics, biology, chemistry, etc., etc.

[Anonymous]

William and Mary has a much nicer campus than I expected. Didn’t know Jen Psaki went there, but I’ll throw in Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis.