Switching majors at VT

[Anonymous]

My daughter is very interested in VT. We recently visted the school at she's now absolutely determined. She is a good student (4.0 GPA, 1410 SAT), but not stellar. Her interests are broad and she leans towards the STEM field, but I don't think that her grades are good enough for the STEM fields at VT. She knows that she will need to apply to a major and she thought about applying to an easier major (communications etc.) in order to have a chance to get accepted. I told her that I think that this is a bad idea because from what I understood during the campus visit is that switching majors at VT (unless in the same sequence) is very difficult if not impossible. Does anyone have any experience with this. I don't want to crush her dreams, but I also want her to understand that this is a very competitive school and acceptance will be difficult.

[Anonymous]

VT is wise to kids trying to get “backdoor” admissions to harder-admit majors by applying to easier-admit majors. It is very difficult if not impossible to transfer into certain in-demand majors if you start as a communications or history major or something.

Plus, you have to really sell the easier-admit majors as the one you want through class selections (electives shown on transcript) and ECs. If your kid looks like a stem major on paper but is claiming to want to be a comms major, they aren’t going to buy it.

[Anonymous]

Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

[Anonymous]

It depends mostly on the major one wants to switch into at VT. PP are correct that switching into engineering or business will be difficult, while into arts / humanities will not be hard.

[Anonymous]

Go to VT's website.
Each school has it's admission requirements to matriculate to each major ie change your major.

Also have DD look at all coursework for possible intended majors at VT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

Why wouldn’t VT let her switch into engineering ?

Isn’t VT desperate for more women in their engineering program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

Why wouldn’t VT let her switch into engineering ?

Isn’t VT desperate for more women in their engineering program?

In part bc the engineering schedule is rigid. Starting a semester late can throw off your whole trajectory & make you be at the university for an extra semester or 2

But also, plenty of women apply & are accepted to VT Engineering. Last available data is about 62% acceptance for women, 53% for men. So, there’s not a desperation for women

https://udc.vt.edu/irdata/data/students/admission/index#college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

Why wouldn’t VT let her switch into engineering ?

Isn’t VT desperate for more women in their engineering program?

VT is vocal about not wanting kids, even women, to change majors especially into engineering. Its very frustrating. Many 18yo do not know what they want to do and should be able to change their minds. DH and I went to VT and this is the one negative about it on our list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

Why wouldn’t VT let her switch into engineering ?

Isn’t VT desperate for more women in their engineering program?

No, VT is not desperate for any kind of student. The PPs are correct. Impacted majors are only in engineering, business, and architecture. Switching to any other major is no problem. My own DC switched majors twice with no issues at all. Advisor was very helpful. But the switching was from one liberal arts major to another.

OP, another poster had a good suggestion for your daughter to apply to a STEM major from the get-go, or go undecided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

Why wouldn’t VT let her switch into engineering ?

Isn’t VT desperate for more women in their engineering program?

VT is vocal about not wanting kids, even women, to change majors especially into engineering. Its very frustrating. Many 18yo do not know what they want to do and should be able to change their minds. DH and I went to VT and this is the one negative about it on our list.

Just wanted to amend this - VT makes it clear that students can’t switch *into* engineering/business, but there are tons of other majors to switch to within the other colleges. They don’t prevent switching of majors at all, except into the engineering and business school.

[Anonymous]

she will fail out if not able to get in with a stem background. my kid is already taking multivar junior year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

Why wouldn’t VT let her switch into engineering ?

Isn’t VT desperate for more women in their engineering program?

VT is vocal about not wanting kids, even women, to change majors especially into engineering. Its very frustrating. Many 18yo do not know what they want to do and should be able to change their minds. DH and I went to VT and this is the one negative about it on our list.

why would it matter if its a woman? You need to have a very strong math foundation in high school to succeed at VT engineering/computer science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Switch majors into the engineering or business schools would be hard to impossible. Switching into a major in the college of science is likely not that hard. But, if they are STEM focused, it would make more sense to apply to a possible major in the college of science or just "exploring science" (the "undecided" major). Admit rate for in-state for that major is 61%.

Why wouldn’t VT let her switch into engineering ?

Isn’t VT desperate for more women in their engineering program?

VT is vocal about not wanting kids, even women, to change majors especially into engineering. Its very frustrating. Many 18yo do not know what they want to do and should be able to change their minds. DH and I went to VT and this is the one negative about it on our list.

why would it matter if its a woman? You need to have a very strong math foundation in high school to succeed at VT engineering/computer science.

+1
Women do not get preferential treatment, nor should they.

[Anonymous]

What kind of STEM is she interested in? If interested in CS/Data, should look at the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics major in the College of Science. It's essentially half CS and half stats/math. Lots of students add a CS minor. Admit rate for in-state female last year was 63%. Need to have good math background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of STEM is she interested in? If interested in CS/Data, should look at the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics major in the College of Science. It's essentially half CS and half stats/math. Lots of students add a CS minor. Admit rate for in-state female last year was 63%. Need to have good math background.

We attended the CIS presentation at another university and she really enjoyed it. It combined CS with Business and Data Analytics. I will ask her to look into this field at VT. She has a strong math background (currently enrolled in BC Calc), but she has to work hard at getting good grades in calculus. She is also interested in forensics as well as political science. She's really all over the place.