Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She's undecided on major. Good at arts/humanities. She may go "undeclared" if that's allowed. So far, top two pics are JMU & Christopher Newport, though she's only looked at 5 schools.

Both of those schools were my child's top picks as well! You can't go wrong with either one.

OP here -- I thought it was funny that she had both a bigger and a smaller school as her top picks so far. I feel like there are so many differences and thought she would really start to narrow down what she is looking for in a college soon (like big school vs. small school; urban vs. suburban, etc.). I like hearing that these were the two top picks for someone else . Curious if your kid ended up getting in/choosing one of these - and what they decided. Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:DS graduating this year has a 4.05 WGPA (with clear upward trend) and 1320 SAT. Got into GMU, CNU and JMU. Waitlisted at Tech (altho according to Naviance he was clearly in the acceptance zone) and W&M (which according to Naviance was a reach).

That's helpful, thanks! And congrats! -OP

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She's undecided on major. Good at arts/humanities. She may go "undeclared" if that's allowed. So far, top two pics are JMU & Christopher Newport, though she's only looked at 5 schools.

Both of those schools were my child's top picks as well! You can't go wrong with either one.

DS graduating this year has a 4.05 WGPA (with clear upward trend) and 1320 SAT. Got into GMU, CNU and JMU. Waitlisted at Tech (altho according to Naviance he was clearly in the acceptance zone) and W&M (which according to Naviance was a reach).

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think everything but UVA and W&M would be safe based on those stats and course rigor.

VA Tech seems much more focused on GPA over SATs. My DC's FCPS scattergram shows 0 denials for anyone who has under over a 4.0 weighted GPA (plenty of SAT scores in the 1200s). My junior with a 1480 SAT and 3.85 GPA is in iffy territory if he doesn't get it up to a 4.0 this year.

Agree with this poster and 14:13 PP. VA tech for engineering would be a long shot but she’ll be comfortably within range for most other majors. Even UVA and W&M aren’t completely out of reach, especially if she can pull up the SAT score.

Agreed. OP said the 1300 was without any prep. College Board just came out with a statement saying 20 hours of prep using its free prep materials results in an average gain of 115 points. Even if OP's kid just did that and scored a 1400, it would make a big difference. She'd go from being under the 25th percentile for UVA to in the middle of the pack. Her GPA is still slightly low (their avg is 4.23), but I think she'd have a fighting chance.

The average gains are brought higher by kids who score very low on the tests. At the higher level it is rare to see a student with 100pt gains--esp. someone who has been 'prepped' by attending a good HS. Also, some of the gains come from just getting older and having more content. That said, another reason to have her take it again is that several schools (incl. UVA and WM) superscore, which means they will look at the highest test in each category. So even if she didn't get a much higher score, one of her scores (reading or math) might go up. I would have her take it again--she a high match, close to safe for JMU, VT, and GMU but it seems things get more and more competitive each year and why not have a better shot for UVA and more safety for the others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think everything but UVA and W&M would be safe based on those stats and course rigor.

VA Tech seems much more focused on GPA over SATs. My DC's FCPS scattergram shows 0 denials for anyone who has under over a 4.0 weighted GPA (plenty of SAT scores in the 1200s). My junior with a 1480 SAT and 3.85 GPA is in iffy territory if he doesn't get it up to a 4.0 this year.

Agree with this poster and 14:13 PP. VA tech for engineering would be a long shot but she’ll be comfortably within range for most other majors. Even UVA and W&M aren’t completely out of reach, especially if she can pull up the SAT score.

Agreed. OP said the 1300 was without any prep. College Board just came out with a statement saying 20 hours of prep using its free prep materials results in an average gain of 115 points. Even if OP's kid just did that and scored a 1400, it would make a big difference. She'd go from being under the 25th percentile for UVA to in the middle of the pack. Her GPA is still slightly low (their avg is 4.23), but I think she'd have a fighting chance.

Anonymous wrote:I think everything but UVA and W&M would be safe based on those stats and course rigor.

VA Tech seems much more focused on GPA over SATs. My DC's FCPS scattergram shows 0 denials for anyone who has under over a 4.0 weighted GPA (plenty of SAT scores in the 1200s). My junior with a 1480 SAT and 3.85 GPA is in iffy territory if he doesn't get it up to a 4.0 this year.

Agree with this poster and 14:13 PP. VA tech for engineering would be a long shot but she’ll be comfortably within range for most other majors. Even UVA and W&M aren’t completely out of reach, especially if she can pull up the SAT score.

OP, at CNU the most important thing is for your DC to express her love and devotion to the school. That and conservative politics. They protect their yield. Much more likely to admit if they are sure she is coming.

I think everything but UVA and W&M would be safe based on those stats and course rigor.

VA Tech seems much more focused on GPA over SATs. My DC's FCPS scattergram shows 0 denials for anyone who has under over a 4.0 weighted GPA (plenty of SAT scores in the 1200s). My junior with a 1480 SAT and 3.85 GPA is in iffy territory if he doesn't get it up to a 4.0 this year.

Anonymous wrote:If a school dramatically cuts their offers, that means they are going to go to the waiting list in a big way and manipulate their traditionally low yield rate that way.

If you're talking about VT, they didn't change their number of offers at all from last year. Also, last year, nobody got off the wait list.

If a school dramatically cuts their offers, that means they are going to go to the waiting list in a big way and manipulate their traditionally low yield rate that way.

I think she has a great shot at JMU, VCU, UMW, CNU, GMU. I think she’s has a good shot at VT. And I think she has a long shot at UVA or WM. If you’re determined to stay in state, I would just have her apply to 4 or 5 of them and then weigh her options. If she doesn’t have her heart set on any one school, I think you’re in a great spot.

Anonymous wrote:I would work on getting that 1300 up. I don't think it will get them into VT these days. I know many kids with higher scores than that (not engineering) who didn't get into VT this year.

1300 is more than good enough for VT unless you're talking about Engineering, and even then it's possible.

OP again- thanks everyone who has replied so far. Naviance for her school shows very good odds for all except WM and UVA. But I have heard horror stories this year and I can’t decide what to believe.

She toured and didn’t like WM, so I guess we aren’t worried about that. We haven’t looked at VT yet and plan to do so. Also plan to check out UVA (if she really likes it - I feel like she could always apply- knowing it would be a long shot. It might make her want to try again on the SAT- who knows.

Two more things: (1) If she keeps on track, I think her GPA at the end of the year (junior) will be about 4.2. She’s taking IB in math, English and history and also two IB electives. She’s taking physics (not IB) too. (2) that SAT score was with zero prep- so I’m sure she could do better, but I she really has no desire to take it again if she is a sure bet for the schools she’s looking at (this is the main reason for this post— I don’t want to tell her she’s safe if she’s not).

Thanks!

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Anonymous wrote:I would work on getting that 1300 up. I don't think it will get them into VT these days. I know many kids with higher scores than that (not engineering) who didn't get into VT this year.

People need to look at actual numbers, rather than speculating. 1300 is close to the 75th percentile of admitted students for VT. Average GPA is 3.64. so OP's kid will be very competitive for VT.

http://www.prepscholar.com/sat/s/colleges/Virginia-Tech-SAT-scores-GPA

As for the other VA schools, based on prepscholar data:

JMU -- absolutely; the 25th/75th percentile split for SAT was 1040/1220. average GPA was 3.5.
UVA -- almost certainly a no
W&M -- also a no
VCU -- absolutely competitive.

If you're talking about VT, then look up the admitted stats by major: https://www.ir.vt.edu/data/student/admissions.html

No need to speculate.

Ok, so just skimming those numbers, it seems OP's kid is at, or above, the average GPA and SAT score for admitted students for every major.

What does Naviance say OP? We can guess all we want, but historical data from your high school is really gonna tell you a better picture than any of us.

Sure. I guess I'm just confused as to why people are so down on OP's kid's chances of getting into VT. This is a school with a 71% acceptance rate in 2017.

Because admission percentage doesn't tell the whole picture. VT has a highly ranked engineering school for example and according to many who just went through the 2018 cycle, that 71% moved down to the high 50~%

I'll believe that movement when I see it. A decrease of close to 20 percentage points in a school's acceptance rate in 1 year would be virtually unheard of, absent a major admissions process change, like when UChicago began accepting the Common App.

Apparently, they received a record number 32K applications this year. Up from about 27K last year. They offered 18,700 spots in the class with the goal of a class of about 7K. 32K applicants divided by 18K offers = ~56%.

BOOM

I won't believe that without a source. It would be unheard of for them.

https://vt.edu/admissions/undergraduate/wait-list-faq.html

"This year Virginia Tech received over 32,000 applications and we expect 6,200 to accept our offer and enroll. If we have fewer than 6,200 students accept our offer, we will offer admission to some of the students who chose to remain on our wait list."

Also, that 18K number I got from the # of offered admission (2017):

https://vt.edu/admissions/undergraduate/snapshot.html