The ED acceptance rate is not much different from RD. Not sure why people think it's an advantage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into Engineering. Not selected for Honors, though it is hard to understand what they were looking for.

My kid got admitted. Psychology major. 1520 SAT and 4.2 GPA, and Governors Academy. Also not accepted to Honors College. I agree it's hard to know what they are looking for...

Congratulations!

It sounds like the Admissions Office has been telling people they put a lot of weight on the short-answer questions.

It does seem like some yield protection might be going on. VT is high on my junior's list (College of Science fortunately, not COE/Business) and I think he needs to figure out if it's a solid #1 and be willing to do ED. It should be a match -- GPA just about the median - but he has a really high SAT (just a good test taker) so I worry he'll get wait listed if they they he's using it as a safety but isn't seriously wanting to go.

Thanks! Psychology is in College of Science, so maybe your DC and my DC will be classmates someday.
I would say having gone through this experience that if your kid has #1, then I *STRONGLY* recommend going with the ED option. Both student and college know where they stand, and it's so wonderful to have it done by the winter holiday break.
This works for folks in our situation who for financial reasons are sticking with public in state. I know other folks are trying to weigh lots of merit aid options... but yeah, if you are in state VA and your kid wants Tech, then absolutely apply ED.

Yes, I'd love it if he did ED and we could wrap this up in the Fall! He's going to VT's March open house and spending time with a friend who is a freshman there. I hope that will give him enough of a feel for it to know if ED's the right thing for him.

By the way, for Virginia Tech there is no "deferred to regular decision" option from Early Action. Yes, this is different from other schools. Their whole thing is different--note the late notice for EA and the short period of time between EA and RD.
For Tech, when you apply EA, there are only 3 possible decisions: accepted, denied, waitlisted.
For this year, it's highly unlikely they will be pulling from waitlist, so getting waitlisted is essentially getting denied.

Anonymous wrote:I suspect their acceptance rate will be well south of 70% this year.

Keep in mind it was never 70% for kids from NOVA. I posted about this earlier in the thread. SCHEV publishes admit rate by locality, and for all of the NOVA districts, it's 50-55% admit rate. And that was before the over enrollment of last year, so you have to assume they are being even more conservative this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into Engineering. Not selected for Honors, though it is hard to understand what they were looking for.

My kid got admitted. Psychology major. 1520 SAT and 4.2 GPA, and Governors Academy. Also not accepted to Honors College. I agree it's hard to know what they are looking for...

Congratulations!

It sounds like the Admissions Office has been telling people they put a lot of weight on the short-answer questions.

It does seem like some yield protection might be going on. VT is high on my junior's list (College of Science fortunately, not COE/Business) and I think he needs to figure out if it's a solid #1 and be willing to do ED. It should be a match -- GPA just about the median - but he has a really high SAT (just a good test taker) so I worry he'll get wait listed if they they he's using it as a safety but isn't seriously wanting to go.

Thanks! Psychology is in College of Science, so maybe your DC and my DC will be classmates someday.
I would say having gone through this experience that if your kid has #1, then I *STRONGLY* recommend going with the ED option. Both student and college know where they stand, and it's so wonderful to have it done by the winter holiday break.
This works for folks in our situation who for financial reasons are sticking with public in state. I know other folks are trying to weigh lots of merit aid options... but yeah, if you are in state VA and your kid wants Tech, then absolutely apply ED.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into Engineering. Not selected for Honors, though it is hard to understand what they were looking for.

My kid got admitted. Psychology major. 1520 SAT and 4.2 GPA, and Governors Academy. Also not accepted to Honors College. I agree it's hard to know what they are looking for...

Congratulations!

It sounds like the Admissions Office has been telling people they put a lot of weight on the short-answer questions.

It does seem like some yield protection might be going on. VT is high on my junior's list (College of Science fortunately, not COE/Business) and I think he needs to figure out if it's a solid #1 and be willing to do ED. It should be a match -- GPA just about the median - but he has a really high SAT (just a good test taker) so I worry he'll get wait listed if they they he's using it as a safety but isn't seriously wanting to go.

It comes down to a numbers game....and being from NOVA you are already at a disadvantage due to (a) high density of students in NOVA - we all know about overcrowded schools in our regions and (b) high number of students with similar stats - all Honors/APs with 4.0+ GPAs.

They calculate the number of spots/% they can offer in EA/ED and they calculate (based on past performance data) an average % they anticipate on accepting those offers.
They calculate the number of spots/% they can offer in RD and they calculate (based on past performance data) an average % they anticipate on accepting those offers.

Then take into account that they take a certain % from each region in VA (Northern, Central, Southern, etc.), a certain % from each school district within the region, and a certain % from each school....add to that making sure they have a diverse pool of applications.

For VT...this is the calculation that was way off last year - they did not expect the # of acceptances they received, hence the over-enrollment.

That is why they are erring on the side of caution and wait listing/deferring many qualified (maybe even over qualified) applications.

Also to note - there is less competition at VT for applicants selecting liberal arts majors. VA currently has a teacher shortage so those selecting Education would also be highly desired. So I suspect those selecting liberal arts/education majors might have a lower threshold for entrance qualifications than say someone applying to Engineering.

I do feel that is it totally unfair to have students select a major at 17-18 yrs of age and even if they do "know" what they want...a majority will end of changing while in college anyways....hence why it often takes 5-6 yrs to graduate for some.

Anonymous wrote:I suspect their acceptance rate will be well south of 70% this year.

Did they account how many applications they got? Did they give any statistics about the early group?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into Engineering. Not selected for Honors, though it is hard to understand what they were looking for.

My kid got admitted. Psychology major. 1520 SAT and 4.2 GPA, and Governors Academy. Also not accepted to Honors College. I agree it's hard to know what they are looking for...

Are they going?

Still waiting to hear from some schools, but they liked Tech a lot when we visited.
One interesting question to consider (I'll probably post as a separate thread)... they have been accepted to Honors College at JMU, VCU, and GMU. Lots of nice things about Honors Programs, so worth considering. I've suggested DC also do some more research comparing the different Psychology departments. DC knows grad school will have to happen to pursue the Psychology career, so that's part of the equation, too. We are just grateful DC has lots of good options, with maybe more to come.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into Engineering. Not selected for Honors, though it is hard to understand what they were looking for.

My kid got admitted. Psychology major. 1520 SAT and 4.2 GPA, and Governors Academy. Also not accepted to Honors College. I agree it's hard to know what they are looking for...

Are they going?

Note re: honors. Have seen students invited in Sophomore year.

I suspect their acceptance rate will be well south of 70% this year.

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into Engineering. Not selected for Honors, though it is hard to understand what they were looking for.

My kid got admitted. Psychology major. 1520 SAT and 4.2 GPA, and Governors Academy. Also not accepted to Honors College. I agree it's hard to know what they are looking for...

My kid got into Engineering. Not selected for Honors, though it is hard to understand what they were looking for.

College Confidential is reporting some brutal results, mostly Engineering and Business/IT. Is anyone getting admitted?