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.

They may counsel them to certain schools but VT doesn't actually require any recommendation (at least for the school overall, I don't know if CoE is different)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

This is your answer. Now look at how many applicants to each.

And PP is right - that’s why USNews stopped using admit rate in their rankings two years ago.

Actually for a school that’s as large as Tech to have a class with a Freshman profile as high as Tech’s is rather unusual and speaks favorably on the school. They have a lot of spaces to fill yet they get enough applicants to have an average unweighted GPA of 3.9.

I'm quite sure that's a weighted average.

[Anonymous]

This is simple OP.

In 17-18:

UVA - 36,779 applications for 3,788 spots (number enrolled)
VT - 27,393 applicants for 6,832 spots

VT has fewer total applicants than UVA for almost twice as many seats --> VT has a higher acceptance rate. If VT had the same number of slots for first years as UVA, its acceptance rate would be far lower.

[Anonymous]

The unweighted GPA is 3.7.

I'm guessing that they have a liberal admissions policy for all schools other than engineering/compsci. Or at least for all liberal arts.

I'd be interested to know the admit rate for eng/compsci. And the GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

This is your answer. Now look at how many applicants to each.

And PP is right - that’s why USNews stopped using admit rate in their rankings two years ago.

Actually for a school that’s as large as Tech to have a class with a Freshman profile as high as Tech’s is rather unusual and speaks favorably on the school. They have a lot of spaces to fill yet they get enough applicants to have an average unweighted GPA of 3.9.

It kinda speaks to how hard it is to get into UVA which is tiny for a state so large... really your only two choices with a 3.9 is jmu or va tech. Va tech sounds better and they have D1 sports.

[Anonymous]

A big factor has to be that VT isn't on the Common App so that discourages kids who aren't really interested or for whom it would be a big reach from throwing it in as an extra application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This is your answer. Now look at how many applicants to each.

And PP is right - that’s why USNews stopped using admit rate in their rankings two years ago.

Actually for a school that’s as large as Tech to have a class with a Freshman profile as high as Tech’s is rather unusual and speaks favorably on the school. They have a lot of spaces to fill yet they get enough applicants to have an average unweighted GPA of 3.9.

It kinda speaks to how hard it is to get into UVA which is tiny for a state so large... really your only two choices with a 3.9 is jmu or va tech. Va tech sounds better and they have D1 sports.

In-state, though, UVA's acceptance rate has historically been in the 40%+ range. Recently has dipped lower. UVA gets far more applicants from OOS than in state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This is your answer. Now look at how many applicants to each.

And PP is right - that’s why USNews stopped using admit rate in their rankings two years ago.

Actually for a school that’s as large as Tech to have a class with a Freshman profile as high as Tech’s is rather unusual and speaks favorably on the school. They have a lot of spaces to fill yet they get enough applicants to have an average unweighted GPA of 3.9.

I'm quite sure that's a weighted average.

No. It’s definitely unweighted.

[Anonymous]

According to naviance we’ve had a ton of kids get in with gpa’s well below 3.9. Pretty much every kid as low as 3.6 gets in. Nothing special about our school, other than OOS. Makes me doubt the 3.9 unweighted average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This is your answer. Now look at how many applicants to each.

And PP is right - that’s why USNews stopped using admit rate in their rankings two years ago.

Actually for a school that’s as large as Tech to have a class with a Freshman profile as high as Tech’s is rather unusual and speaks favorably on the school. They have a lot of spaces to fill yet they get enough applicants to have an average unweighted GPA of 3.9.

I'm quite sure that's a weighted average.

No. It’s definitely unweighted.

On SCHEV, the latest median GPA for VT is 4.02 so clearly that's reporting weighted GPAs.

https://research.schev.edu//enrollment/B10_FreshmenProfile.asp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to naviance we’ve had a ton of kids get in with gpa’s well below 3.9. Pretty much every kid as low as 3.6 gets in. Nothing special about our school, other than OOS. Makes me doubt the 3.9 unweighted average.

They probably aren't apply to engineering. There is a big difference between engineering and other majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to naviance we’ve had a ton of kids get in with gpa’s well below 3.9. Pretty much every kid as low as 3.6 gets in. Nothing special about our school, other than OOS. Makes me doubt the 3.9 unweighted average.

OOO= more tuition=special

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This is your answer. Now look at how many applicants to each.

And PP is right - that’s why USNews stopped using admit rate in their rankings two years ago.

Actually for a school that’s as large as Tech to have a class with a Freshman profile as high as Tech’s is rather unusual and speaks favorably on the school. They have a lot of spaces to fill yet they get enough applicants to have an average unweighted GPA of 3.9.

I'm quite sure that's a weighted average.

No. It’s definitely unweighted.

No, it's the weighted average. That's how VA schools report their data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A big factor has to be that VT isn't on the Common App so that discourages kids who aren't really interested or for whom it would be a big reach from throwing it in as an extra application.

They will be a Common App school next year or the year after. They are hungry for those applications.

[Anonymous]

From https://irweb.ir.vt.edu/webtest/admission_data.aspx
You can run these reports for each school, but here are the two for VT overall and VT engineering.


VT Overall


Engineering Only