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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Any kid who gets admitted to VT engineering is smart enough to do well.   But not all will.  The have to learn how to study differently than they did in high school and work hard.   My oldest skated in high school, did well without having to hit the books and did not have good study habits.  He really struggled freshman year at VT and did not get his 3.0 to get into his preferred major. He had to kick it way up sophomore year to up his grades and then got in. It was a good lesson for him.  he graduated with a great job offer by October his senior year. My second at VT engineering always had to work hard for grades in high school so had much better study habits.  And has a 3.5 after 3 semesters. [b] I don’t really get the “avoid VT cus it does “weed out” comments  - don’t you want your kid challenged to put forth their best? [/b][/quote]

Thanks for this comment. It sounds like your kids had great experiences and are doing well.

As for the part I bolded:  The issue with weeding out is different from wanting them to put forth their best.

When schools are weeding out, sometimes it is the kids who should go, but at other schools they weed out enough kids that kids who would be perfectly good engineers, or even excel once classes were smaller never get the chance.  Plus, a weedout environment changes the dynamic among the students.  For some kids, this environment brings out their best, for others it brings out their worst.  It also can vary from school to school what kind of advising they provide to the kids who are struggling.  So we should all help our kids make the right choices for their goals, but also for the personal strengths and weaknesses they bring.

I know myself what it feels like to be nearly weeded out due to enrollment in a grad program for which I did not have proper preparation (don't ask me how I got in, because that is a good question). I survived, but barely, and have gone on to the professional life I wanted.  However,  I was scarred for decades from the experience and would prefer not to visit that on my child.  [/quote]

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