Because rankings are pretty meaningless, suggesting that small differences in metrics, that may or may not actually matter to you, are meaningful. I didn't know their rankings so I looked them up, plus the actual composite score on which they are ranked. So the "so low" ranking of VT reflects a 3-point difference in composite score. How is that in any way reflective of a massive difference in quality? VT rank 75 / score 65 Pitt rank 59 / score 68 UMD rank 59 / score 68 Penn State rank 63 / score score 67 I also looked at them in College Navigator and on a couple metrics that matter to me -- retention rate and graduation rate. They are all pretty similar, with Penn State the lowest: Freshman retention UMD 95% VT 93% Pitt 93% Penn State 87% 5-year graduation rate UMD 85% VT 83% Pitt 82% Penn State 70% Stop outsourcing your analysis and decision making to US News!! |
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I can share our experience, obviously anecdotal.
Last year our pretty high stats DC - 4.0 UW, 1440 SAT was waitlisted/deferred EA. Applied to a really popular and competitive program but not Engineering. Eventually decided to go to another EA school, withdrew the VT application and is happy. This year, our senior DC fell in love with literally every school they visited. VT happened to be the last. Based on their analysis of their sibling's experience, our current senior decided to apply ED. Same program, similar stats but slightly lower test scores. Did not submit test scores but that had less to do with Tech than another program with a guaranteed grad school acceptance where our DC scores would not have made the cut. |
A castrated turkey |
PP here. Our DC was accepted and is very happy. |
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WL for an early action 4.0 uw GPA and 1440 SATs?
We’re so screwed. |