Easiest majors for acceptance at W&M or VA Tech?

[Anonymous]

DC (sophomore) really wants to attend one of these two schools. Is there a good strategy for admissions if the student is genuinely undecided on a major?

[Anonymous]

William and Mary does not admit by major

[Anonymous]

History of music

[Anonymous]

For Tech, not engineering, comp science, or business. Just know that they are restricted majors so if he wants one of those, he can't easily change later. I think the college of agriculture and the college of arts and science are easier.

[Anonymous]

W&M does not admit by major however the major you select on the application does *slightly* impact admission outcomes however im not sure to which degree

[Anonymous]

Someone told my DS to apply as a geography major to VT and he got in with slightly below average stats so, maybe??

[Anonymous]

It can be hard to switch majors at VT. A friend’s child went in for social work, now wants to major in finance and having a hard time changing. Also I heard from counselors that VT is catching on to kids doing this so make sure electives, extra curricular, etc support the intended major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It can be hard to switch majors at VT. A friend’s child went in for social work, now wants to major in finance and having a hard time changing. Also I heard from counselors that VT is catching on to kids doing this so make sure electives, extra curricular, etc support the intended major.

Because everyone knows what they want to major in when they're 17.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It can be hard to switch majors at VT. A friend’s child went in for social work, now wants to major in finance and having a hard time changing. Also I heard from counselors that VT is catching on to kids doing this so make sure electives, extra curricular, etc support the intended major.

+1 in particular, one of the VT essays is "Describe a goal that you have set and the steps you will take to achieve it." It can be turned into essentially a "why VT" essay - your professional goal, what you've done so far (classes, ECs) and how that major at VT will help you achieve that goal.

You can look at VT major acceptance rates here: https://udc.vt.edu/irdata/data/students/admission/index#college

The trends for some majors are interesting -- kids must be getting the message that geography is "easy to get into". It was a >90% until 2023 when applications more than doubled. Now the admit rate is 60% (up from 46% the year before).

[Anonymous]

At VT I’d apply to anything in Human Arts and Liberal Sciences. ARCH and Engineering are ultra competitive now. Pamplin business is getting that way.

[Anonymous]

I find it surprising that your kid is looking at both of these schools...the experiences at each differ greatly.

[Anonymous]

William & Mary does not admit by major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For Tech, not engineering, comp science, or business. Just know that they are restricted majors so if he wants one of those, he can't easily change later. I think the college of agriculture and the college of arts and science are easier.

Add to this Psychology.. that is also a hard one.

I've heard that English is easier. Our DC attended Tech and applied as a French major. She later added a double major of technical writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it surprising that your kid is looking at both of these schools...the experiences at each differ greatly.

Same. Why these two?

[Anonymous]

That's not how college admissions are done. It's more important to tie your academic interests and activities to your prospective majors than to speculate the "easiest" major.