How does Virginia Tech have such a high admissions rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I know about Virginia Tech is one of my students got her PhD there and she's functionally illiterate. She did a joint program between human development and architecture and cheated her way through. Apparently her dissertation was jobbed out and her defense was a joke. And it's well known in our field that VT is where you go if you want a quid pro quo degree.

Damn. I did not know I could have cheated my way through Tech. I was well served there, and well prepared. I am guessing this is not a truthful statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I know about Virginia Tech is one of my students got her PhD there and she's functionally illiterate. She did a joint program between human development and architecture and cheated her way through. Apparently her dissertation was jobbed out and her defense was a joke. And it's well known in our field that VT is where you go if you want a quid pro quo degree.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Admission rate isn't the best indicator of selectivity. You can have a low admission rate, but if the applicants are generally not very qualified, it can be misleading.

Virginia Tech's engineering school appears to get fairly high quality applicants, but it doesn't get as many as one might expect.

Huh? How do you know they have “high quality applicants?” What is your definition of that and where is the evidence that supports that?

The data in the graphs. The mean GPA of enrolled at engineering school is about 4.15 and the mean SAT is about 1370. Both significantly higher than the university overall, although acceptance rate isn't any lower. There isn't really a universal definition for applicant quality. It is just my opinion. For an Ivy applicant, these would certainly not be considered high quality.

NP. This sounds exactly right. When we interviewed for the engineering school four years ago we were told not to apply without a min. 4.0 GPA (weighted obviously) and that's what the stats at the time indicated. Also we were not to apply ED (that's what it was then) without having finished calculus with an A. DC ended up going to UVA instead but got into the tech schools she wanted for aerospace engineering such at Ga Tech and Purdue. I don't think OP realizes that Virginia high school students self-select into Va Tech engineering.

Four years is light years in college admission. I doubt anyone is getting into UVA engineering with a B in Calc these days unless they have a special talent/hook. It's just too competitive.

I don't know what you are talking about. VT said not to apply ED until calculus BC was finished, preferably with an A. DC had an A in calculus, and 36 ACTs and was accepted at better aerospace programs than VT. Because VT had ED at the time, DC applied SCEA to an ivy, Purdue, Ga Tech. In the end went to UVA which was a Godsend because she decided she didn't want to be an engineer after all. All I'm saying is that the PPs stats above seem to be in concert with what we were told four years ago at VT. It's difficult to get in the engineering program. A 4.15 sounds about right, allowing for 4 years intervention.

But there’s a chart above that says they admit 70%, so...not really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admission rate isn't the best indicator of selectivity. You can have a low admission rate, but if the applicants are generally not very qualified, it can be misleading.

Virginia Tech's engineering school appears to get fairly high quality applicants, but it doesn't get as many as one might expect.

Huh? How do you know they have “high quality applicants?” What is your definition of that and where is the evidence that supports that?

The data in the graphs. The mean GPA of enrolled at engineering school is about 4.15 and the mean SAT is about 1370. Both significantly higher than the university overall, although acceptance rate isn't any lower. There isn't really a universal definition for applicant quality. It is just my opinion. For an Ivy applicant, these would certainly not be considered high quality.

NP. This sounds exactly right. When we interviewed for the engineering school four years ago we were told not to apply without a min. 4.0 GPA (weighted obviously) and that's what the stats at the time indicated. Also we were not to apply ED (that's what it was then) without having finished calculus with an A. DC ended up going to UVA instead but got into the tech schools she wanted for aerospace engineering such at Ga Tech and Purdue. I don't think OP realizes that Virginia high school students self-select into Va Tech engineering.

Four years is light years in college admission. I doubt anyone is getting into UVA engineering with a B in Calc these days unless they have a special talent/hook. It's just too competitive.

I don't know what you are talking about. VT said not to apply ED until calculus BC was finished, preferably with an A. DC had an A in calculus, and 36 ACTs and was accepted at better aerospace programs than VT. Because VT had ED at the time, DC applied SCEA to an ivy, Purdue, Ga Tech. In the end went to UVA which was a Godsend because she decided she didn't want to be an engineer after all. All I'm saying is that the PPs stats above seem to be in concert with what we were told four years ago at VT. It's difficult to get in the engineering program. A 4.15 sounds about right, allowing for 4 years intervention.

But there’s a chart above that says they admit 70%, so...not really?

. For the 100th time the students who apply self select as do their high school counselors and the above comments apply to ENGINEERING which is an entirely different admissions game than undecided or some other the other majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admission rate isn't the best indicator of selectivity. You can have a low admission rate, but if the applicants are generally not very qualified, it can be misleading.

Virginia Tech's engineering school appears to get fairly high quality applicants, but it doesn't get as many as one might expect.

Huh? How do you know they have “high quality applicants?” What is your definition of that and where is the evidence that supports that?

The data in the graphs. The mean GPA of enrolled at engineering school is about 4.15 and the mean SAT is about 1370. Both significantly higher than the university overall, although acceptance rate isn't any lower. There isn't really a universal definition for applicant quality. It is just my opinion. For an Ivy applicant, these would certainly not be considered high quality.

NP. This sounds exactly right. When we interviewed for the engineering school four years ago we were told not to apply without a min. 4.0 GPA (weighted obviously) and that's what the stats at the time indicated. Also we were not to apply ED (that's what it was then) without having finished calculus with an A. DC ended up going to UVA instead but got into the tech schools she wanted for aerospace engineering such at Ga Tech and Purdue. I don't think OP realizes that Virginia high school students self-select into Va Tech engineering.

Four years is light years in college admission. I doubt anyone is getting into UVA engineering with a B in Calc these days unless they have a special talent/hook. It's just too competitive.

I don't know what you are talking about. VT said not to apply ED until calculus BC was finished, preferably with an A. DC had an A in calculus, and 36 ACTs and was accepted at better aerospace programs than VT. Because VT had ED at the time, DC applied SCEA to an ivy, Purdue, Ga Tech. In the end went to UVA which was a Godsend because she decided she didn't want to be an engineer after all. All I'm saying is that the PPs stats above seem to be in concert with what we were told four years ago at VT. It's difficult to get in the engineering program. A 4.15 sounds about right, allowing for 4 years intervention.

But there’s a chart above that says they admit 70%, so...not really?

. For the 100th time the students who apply self select as do their high school counselors and the above comments apply to ENGINEERING which is an entirely different admissions game than undecided or some other the other majors

Also, they used to (am am not sure if they still do) admit people to something else if they do not qualify for engineering.

[Anonymous]

It's pretty far fetched to say that all the applicants to VT engineering are top math and science students.

All the talk about calculus being a requirement is hearsay. No one has linked to any direction from admissions about this.