Reply to Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
TJ kids have Avery high admission rate to VT, especially considering most apply to the engineering school.  If Pitts so third rate, what’s your opinion on why they want to go there and not VT?  Because VT is 4th rate? [/quote]

Pitt and VT are very similar for so many things. On paper, they are are almost siblings of each other: demographics (70% white, 10% Asian), rankings are a couple places of each other in many STEM majors. For example, both are solid 3rd-tier CS programs (and 3rd tier is very respectable and in demand; the import of which lessens significantly after the first/second job). Both are a 4 hour drive away from the geo center of FCPS

Given this, Pitt gets the nod because:
1) Pittsburgh v. Blacksburg. Major sports franchises, 2 other major universities, great urban city that's coming back
2) CMU gravity pulls in IT investment. Uber AI is there. Google (Waymo) is there. They are not there in Blacksburg.
3) Several TJ students (i know at least 1) are there for the direct medicine admit 8 year program. The med school is fantastic.
4) CS is a separate school, not part of engineering. They started this 2 or 3 years ago
5) Beautiful campus (VT is also nice)
6) And perhaps the biggest intangible: Pitt is appreciative of TJ and they *show* it. Great merit. Honors admission. They send stuff regularly - letters, data brochures, tchotkes (we even got a Google Cardboard to VR the Pitt campus!). Just like CMU next door (who asked the audience at Tartan Day "who's from TJ? We love you guys! We admit more from y'all than anywhere else"), it feels very good to be wanted. Conversely, we got squat from VT. Not a peep. As far as I know, unlike UVA who did a nice admitted-student briefing in FFX, there was no Hokie reception at all in the area. At least we did not get an invitation.

[b]And unlike the drive south, no confederate flags were seen on the road trip to Pitt.[/b][/quote]

I think this may explain part of the decline in the number of TJ kids applying/attending VT -- nonwhite/non-Christian kids feel more comfortable in places other than Blacksburg.[/quote][/quote]

Says someone who has never been to Blacksburg.  Tech is an oasis of intellect and inclusion in SW VA.  Not unlike Penn State in PA.

It is worth noting that Pitt offers enough merit aid so that Pitt is often cheaper.  Also, they have rolling admissions....So students might be accepted before they even apply to Tech.[/quote]

+1. My TJ kid will finalize his app this week and submit before school starts. Expects an answer in mid to late October. If he gets in, like 98%-99% of TJ kids do (while applying to 8 year med and engineering), there is zero reason to apply VT.  Especially since there is now a sizable contingent of TJ students and Pitt and alums, and they are coming back and giving Pitt great word of mouth. And they all say Pitt continues to take care of TJ kids once on campus— research, honors college, internships etc.

Pitt made a decision 5-6 years ago to throw anything and everything they could at TJ to create a TJ-Pitt pipeline. And they bet big that 100 TJ kids on campus at one time would burnish the schools STEM cred. And it seems to be working. The base school STEM kids I know are all also applying to Pitt as a safety to a reach.  I’d be interest to see the NOVA heat map.

Fact is, a school gets better by attracting talent.  And TJ is a proxy for talent. You don’t have to seek out talent one by one, school by school, when there is a huge pool of talent in your backyard.  A school gets worse by putting up barriers that keep talent out.  And my over-enrolling.  It will be interesting to see what VT does. [/quote]
I wouldn't consider the bottom 1/4 of TJ STEM talent.[/quote]

First— the bottom 15% of TJ are the ones who drops back.  There are a few stragglers with a sub 3.5W GPA.  TJ doesn’t automatically pass and they counsel below a 3.0 UW out.   Just making it through the depth and breadth and rigor of the curriculum is tough.  In case you missed the nearly complete list of where TJ kids are going.  Second, Pitt is getting a lot of talent, not just the bottom 1/4. Kids interested in med school and engineering who don’t have an unlimited budget.  Just like VT.   The kids listed from this years senior class included a lot of “talent”.   Just like the VT list. [/quote]

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