How does Virginia Tech have such a high admissions rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public School Counselors will only write recommendations if they think you have a good chance. They are the gate-keepers for Public Colleges.

This. Students applying to VA in-state schools self-select or their counselors direct them to the most appropriate school.

Yeah, I get that but 70% is really high, and yet I've known many good students who didn't get in, and not just engineering. And they ended up going to other schools with lower acceptance rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public School Counselors will only write recommendations if they think you have a good chance. They are the gate-keepers for Public Colleges.

This. Students applying to VA in-state schools self-select or their counselors direct them to the most appropriate school.

If this was true, then wouldn't we see a 70% in-state acceptance to UVA as well? But UVA's in-state acceptance was 38%, almost half of Tech's.

[Anonymous]

It comes down to mathematics... which is why the rankings that depend on admission rates are stupid.

# of freshman

UVA - 4,000
JMU - 4,500
VaTech - 7,500

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public School Counselors will only write recommendations if they think you have a good chance. They are the gate-keepers for Public Colleges.

This. Students applying to VA in-state schools self-select or their counselors direct them to the most appropriate school.

If this was true, then wouldn't we see a 70% in-state acceptance to UVA as well? But UVA's in-state acceptance was 38%, almost half of Tech's.

UVA is one of the smallest flagship schools for a state that size in the nation. That is why their acceptance rate is 38%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does Liberty have a 24% acceptance rate? That’s lower than UVA’s!

My guess? They count online learners as applicants, but don't include them in the campus admit rate. They have tens of thousands of online-only students who all get our favulous federal financial aid. Yay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The admin rate is slowly dropping since VT started accepting the Coalition App. It will be interesting to see the trend over the next several years. Years ago before GT started using the Common App, their admin rate was > 50% (I think even higher, I'd have to go back and look). Since the Common App, they've dropped significantly.

Also, VT engineering stats are higher with a lower admin rate. My kid won't look at UVA because he wants to go into engineering.

Incorrect on the VT statement. 2018 seems to be an anomaly at this point. In a few years, perhaps that will be proven wrong and 2019 will look like the anomaly. Regardless, the admission rate didn't even change all that much in 2018. Engineering is still less selective than VT overall and much less selective than UVA (39% admission rate in state and 21% out of state).

https://www.ir.vt.edu/data/student/admissions.html

VT Admit Rate Overall (Engineering only admission rate)
2010 - 67% (74)
2011 - 67% (67)
2012 - 70% (72)
2013 - 70% (73)
2014 - 73% (73)
2015 - 73% (75)
2016 - 71% (71)
2017 - 70% (73)
2018 - 65% (68)
2019 - 70% (76)

Ok this makes no sense to me. My nephew who graduated with a 4.5 GPA and a sat above 1500 was rejected from Tech engineering. He was accepted to UVA and Middlebury but rejected from Tech Engineering. I don’t see how that’s possible when looking at the acceptance rates from above.

It's a well-known fact that these colleges want to see certain courses, not just a GPA. You can have a sky-high GPA, but not have the type of math and science an engineering school wants to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The admin rate is slowly dropping since VT started accepting the Coalition App. It will be interesting to see the trend over the next several years. Years ago before GT started using the Common App, their admin rate was > 50% (I think even higher, I'd have to go back and look). Since the Common App, they've dropped significantly.

Also, VT engineering stats are higher with a lower admin rate. My kid won't look at UVA because he wants to go into engineering.

Incorrect on the VT statement. 2018 seems to be an anomaly at this point. In a few years, perhaps that will be proven wrong and 2019 will look like the anomaly. Regardless, the admission rate didn't even change all that much in 2018. Engineering is still less selective than VT overall and much less selective than UVA (39% admission rate in state and 21% out of state).

https://www.ir.vt.edu/data/student/admissions.html

VT Admit Rate Overall (Engineering only admission rate)
2010 - 67% (74)
2011 - 67% (67)
2012 - 70% (72)
2013 - 70% (73)
2014 - 73% (73)
2015 - 73% (75)
2016 - 71% (71)
2017 - 70% (73)
2018 - 65% (68)
2019 - 70% (76)

Ok this makes no sense to me. My nephew who graduated with a 4.5 GPA and a sat above 1500 was rejected from Tech engineering. He was accepted to UVA and Middlebury but rejected from Tech Engineering. I don’t see how that’s possible when looking at the acceptance rates from above.

It's a well-known fact that these colleges want to see certain courses, not just a GPA. You can have a sky-high GPA, but not have the type of math and science an engineering school wants to see.

My nephew had AP physics and took Calc BC his Junior year, and whatever course comes after that his senior year. We were still flabbergasted that he didn't get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a well-known fact that these colleges want to see certain courses, not just a GPA. You can have a sky-high GPA, but not have the type of math and science an engineering school wants to see.

My nephew had AP physics and took Calc BC his Junior year, and whatever course comes after that his senior year. We were still flabbergasted that he didn't get in.

Maybe he had poor recommendations or they didn't like his style of writing. I think the people can come up with an idea of why they weren't admitted. You probably don't know the full story about his high school career and are just hearing the highlights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It comes down to mathematics... which is why the rankings that depend on admission rates are stupid.

# of freshman

UVA - 4,000
JMU - 4,500
VaTech - 7,500

JMU has a 71% acceptance rate. So that's no it.

[Anonymous]

When I think about who applied to VT from my son's class, it was a bunch of solid students who were reasonable candidates or better. As a group, they were better than those who landed at JMU.

When I think of those who applied to UVA and WM, there were far more hail marys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I think about who applied to VT from my son's class, it was a bunch of solid students who were reasonable candidates or better. As a group, they were better than those who landed at JMU.

When I think of those who applied to UVA and WM, there were far more hail marys.

Have seen this phenomenon as well. More "reach" applicants to UVA and W&M than VT. VT is a safety school much more often than it is a reach school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It comes down to mathematics... which is why the rankings that depend on admission rates are stupid.

# of freshman

UVA - 4,000
JMU - 4,500
VaTech - 7,500

JMU has a 71% acceptance rate. So that's no it.

It's not a flagship or highly regarded, so there is that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I think about who applied to VT from my son's class, it was a bunch of solid students who were reasonable candidates or better. As a group, they were better than those who landed at JMU.

When I think of those who applied to UVA and WM, there were far more hail marys.

This is an interesting comment. Anecdotal, but it reflects a driven focus that many -not all- Tech students have. In engineering and sciences it’s a hunker-down-and-work hard place. There are lots of college life/community service/ club /internship / research opportunities and lots of go getters who take advantage of them. It also has students from other areas of VA the DC metro area forgets about; even scoffs at. Agricultural sciences, sustainable building, packaging engineering, etc. It is a tech school and the basic requirements for most majors are several semesters of chem, math, often physics and biology and it can be grueling. Students choose it with specific goals in mind less than: what’s the best school I can get into ( the Hail Marys).

As for rejecting high stat students, I have no clue. I hear it’s happening. I do understand if they think they won’t come. I do not at all understand when it’s ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I think about who applied to VT from my son's class, it was a bunch of solid students who were reasonable candidates or better. As a group, they were better than those who landed at JMU.

When I think of those who applied to UVA and WM, there were far more hail marys.

This is an interesting comment. Anecdotal, but it reflects a driven focus that many -not all- Tech students have. In engineering and sciences it’s a hunker-down-and-work hard place. There are lots of college life/community service/ club /internship / research opportunities and lots of go getters who take advantage of them. It also has students from other areas of VA the DC metro area forgets about; even scoffs at. Agricultural sciences, sustainable building, packaging engineering, etc. It is a tech school and the basic requirements for most majors are several semesters of chem, math, often physics and biology and it can be grueling. Students choose it with specific goals in mind less than: what’s the best school I can get into ( the Hail Marys).

As for rejecting high stat students, I have no clue. I hear it’s happening. I do understand if they think they won’t come. I do not at all understand when it’s ED.

The comment is just confirmed bias.

She has no way of knowing who are good students and who are not good students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The admin rate is slowly dropping since VT started accepting the Coalition App. It will be interesting to see the trend over the next several years. Years ago before GT started using the Common App, their admin rate was > 50% (I think even higher, I'd have to go back and look). Since the Common App, they've dropped significantly.

Also, VT engineering stats are higher with a lower admin rate. My kid won't look at UVA because he wants to go into engineering.

Incorrect on the VT statement. 2018 seems to be an anomaly at this point. In a few years, perhaps that will be proven wrong and 2019 will look like the anomaly. Regardless, the admission rate didn't even change all that much in 2018. Engineering is still less selective than VT overall and much less selective than UVA (39% admission rate in state and 21% out of state).

https://www.ir.vt.edu/data/student/admissions.html

VT Admit Rate Overall (Engineering only admission rate)
2010 - 67% (74)
2011 - 67% (67)
2012 - 70% (72)
2013 - 70% (73)
2014 - 73% (73)
2015 - 73% (75)
2016 - 71% (71)
2017 - 70% (73)
2018 - 65% (68)
2019 - 70% (76)

The link you provide only has the academic profile of entering freshmen, not the overall admission numbers for the college of engineering.
Where are you getting your numbers from?

From ASEE: http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/8059/screen/19

The 2018 admission numbers suggest a 53% admission rate for engineering.