I have a senior in this exact situation (700/710/4.0uw)and your advice is excellent advice. DC has four acceptances and all of them so far give him a route toward his desired career. It didn’t turn out as we expected but that’s ok. You can’t control what you can’t control. One of his acceptances is to a school that used to be a safety but isn’t this cycle. What you are hearing from this class won’t be true for yours. It’s a mad dash of crazy. |
Sometimes it absolutely is, but that’s what the people want, so no need to complain. |
Once the schools follow Dartmouth and switch back to test required, the craziness will tamp down a bit. |
That is what out of state folks money goes too!! |
| If 1st Gen is an admission criteria, then not being 1st Gen is of course a factor in not being admitted. It’s not the only factor of course, but it’s not complaining to say it has an impact. |
What are you talking about? No, the reason why kids are getting waitlisted and rejected en masse is because too many kids go to college. Why is that? Because in the 90s we vilified skilled labor jobs. I'm an elder millennial and teachers, admins, and parents drilled into our heads that the only way to be successful was to go to college. Not going to college meant you were a loser and would never amount to anything. Now we have 420 person graduating classes where 99.9% are going off to college. The college system doesn't have the space to accommodate all the grads. Why? Because the same thing is happening now that did in the 90s: we have vilified some colleges. We have kids believing that unless they attend VT or UVA then they'll not amount to anything. My kid watched a TikTok live with a guy who was having a mental breakdown because everyone in his family has gone to VT and he was waitlisted. And he was showing that he has the better stats out of his siblings who are there or who have graduated from there recently. The only university in VA I would avoid is Liberty University, and then the only reason why is because I know several people in recruiting who have said that LU is on their ban list to never hire grads from there. |
VT is actually not generous with need aid. They only meet about half of need, on average. I helped a 1st gen kid with his VT app and he was accepted but the only aid he got was Pell + VA state grant. Still had to come up with $20k/year. So he stayed home and went to GMU. Maybe if they admitted fewer high-need students they could better meet need but that's not their approach. |
. Too bad your kid is graduating from Fairfax. If he was graduating from Clarke or Fauquier he would be in. |
The number of kids applying to college is actually declining but those aiming for more selective schools (not even super selective schools) are putting in a lot more applications. And as admissions gets more unpredictable they naturally respond by putting in even more applications. That all makes it even harder for colleges to predict their yield so they respond by waitlisting students to avoid over-enrolling a class. And/or taking more students via ED so they can lock them in, making EA/RD even more competitive. https://fortune.com/2023/03/09/american-skipping-college-huge-numbers-pandemic-turned-them-off-education/ If you can get out of the mindset that only certain brands/rankings are acceptable, you can find many options that accept the majority of applicants. https://www.vpap.org/visuals/visual/college-admission-rates/ |
Why? Because record number of applications and limited spots. |
I mean, I'm sure your kid is great, but so too is every other kid seeking a spot. The supplementals at VT are EXTREMELY important for differentiation. |
Not necessarily. PP shared this site that breaks out admissions rates by county. Fairfax admission rate was 42.5%. Clarke=50.7%, Fauquier=45.3%. So, a little higher but not a lot. https://www.vpap.org/visuals/visual/college-admission-rates/ It all comes down to major. The admit rate to the Business School for a not URM, not 1st gen, in-state male was 22.7% last year. Just a few years ago the admit rate was >50%. But, if you lived OOS would likely be in -- the OOS admit rate for that profile is 66.2% but yield is low. https://udc.vt.edu/irdata/data/students/admission/index#college |
| You guys need to learn how to play the current game. All AP classes. Then move to a county that is not considered NOVA. Rich NOVA kids are at a major disadvantage and unwanted in the state schools. We moved and my daughter had a 100% acceptance rate to all the state schools she applied too. |
Who has the kind of mobility where you can sell your house and leave your job all in the name of your kid getting admission to Virginia Tech? You, obviously. But not most of us. |
| We just moved about 15 minutes further out. Worked out very well for us. My daughter also had her teachers with Doctorates degrees read over her essays before she submitted them. The Tech ones were hard due to being so short. She worked on them for a solid week every day after school. |