Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, the MANY murders and the stigma of 90's safety school makes it unappealing to me as a parent.

Well then UVA should be off your list as well.

Hannah Graham
UVA LAX player killed girlfriend Yardley Love
Jens Soering UVA student and murderer

Seriously. And don’t forget “Jackie,” fake rape accuser.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

+1
This could be said about so many of the schools regularly put down by the usual DCUM crowd.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, the MANY murders and the stigma of 90's safety school makes it unappealing to me as a parent.

Well then UVA should be off your list as well.

Hannah Graham
UVA LAX player killed girlfriend Yardley Love
Jens Soering UVA student and murderer

You can spin it all you want, but at the info session, the guy on stage asked "Who likes to write long essays? No one!" Very off-putting for my child who actually does like to write. There's no need to lower your standards to admit a wider group of kids. He stood up there and said "We want to say 'Yes' to more people." And they did. And now they're overcrowded. Do they even know how admissions works? You can't just say "Yes" to "more people" and have everything magically work out when 1000s of extra students show up. There's a lack of forward thinking there that really does not sit well with me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

Absolutely true. Still a safety for some but who cares? Those colors are a perfect example. Objectively hideous but they wear it proudly. That’s love.

+1 I think VT is just baffling to people who are primarily focused on prestige and selectivity. VT manages to enroll a pretty high-stats student body while having a high acceptance rate. Kind of an anomaly in the college admissions world. And they don't seem interested in playing the "move up the ranks" game and in fact have stated the goal is to increase the size more with a particular focus on enrolling more underrepresented/1st gen students.

Yes but they seem to want to do this by dumbing things down, which is insulting to those students, and frustrating for the rest of us who want their kids to go to a university that's striving to be the best, not the "mediocrest."

"Like, writing is SO HARD you guys, so let's just have the kids write 4 short essays instead of one long one."

The four questions are actually very intentionally drawn from research on what makes students successful. I appreciate them asking students to be clear and succinct and getting just the info they want from students. At other schools that size, they get the usual Common App essay and I doubt anyone actually reads them because it's all about the numbers. We've been told VT actually does care about the answers to the 4 questions.

Honesty here. What I absolutely loved about the VT application many moons ago was that it wasn't a bunch of BS. Back then, grades and test scores. It was an easy fill. Unlike so many other schools I applied to on my typewriter with a jar of white out (pre-computer/word-processors).

I am a STEM professional and I am constantly told by teachers, colleagues, bosses, parents on my kids' soccer teams that what they love about me is that I am succinct and thorough. I am not overly verbose. My boss told me that I say in 2 pages what it takes other colleagues 15 pages to say.

Love VT but that math emporium thing makes it look like a diploma mill. Yikes. A long way from the whole story but indicative of some questionable decision-making. That and they are incompetent at admissions. Yield is tricky these days but VT is the keystone cops of college admissions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, the MANY murders and the stigma of 90's safety school makes it unappealing to me as a parent.

It really is pretty scary. The beheading of a student in a VT school cafe, the mass shooting on VT campus, and then two VT freshman students who lured and murdered a 13-yr old girl. What is going on in Blacksburg?

What are you talking about? Beheading in a cafe. Had not heard that one. That would have been all over the news.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

Absolutely true. Still a safety for some but who cares? Those colors are a perfect example. Objectively hideous but they wear it proudly. That’s love.

+1 I think VT is just baffling to people who are primarily focused on prestige and selectivity. VT manages to enroll a pretty high-stats student body while having a high acceptance rate. Kind of an anomaly in the college admissions world. And they don't seem interested in playing the "move up the ranks" game and in fact have stated the goal is to increase the size more with a particular focus on enrolling more underrepresented/1st gen students.

Yes but they seem to want to do this by dumbing things down, which is insulting to those students, and frustrating for the rest of us who want their kids to go to a university that's striving to be the best, not the "mediocrest."

"Like, writing is SO HARD you guys, so let's just have the kids write 4 short essays instead of one long one."

The four questions are actually very intentionally drawn from research on what makes students successful. I appreciate them asking students to be clear and succinct and getting just the info they want from students. At other schools that size, they get the usual Common App essay and I doubt anyone actually reads them because it's all about the numbers. We've been told VT actually does care about the answers to the 4 questions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

Absolutely true. Still a safety for some but who cares? Those colors are a perfect example. Objectively hideous but they wear it proudly. That’s love.

+1 I think VT is just baffling to people who are primarily focused on prestige and selectivity. VT manages to enroll a pretty high-stats student body while having a high acceptance rate. Kind of an anomaly in the college admissions world. And they don't seem interested in playing the "move up the ranks" game and in fact have stated the goal is to increase the size more with a particular focus on enrolling more underrepresented/1st gen students.

Yes but they seem to want to do this by dumbing things down, which is insulting to those students, and frustrating for the rest of us who want their kids to go to a university that's striving to be the best, not the "mediocrest."

"Like, writing is SO HARD you guys, so let's just have the kids write 4 short essays instead of one long one."

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, the MANY murders and the stigma of 90's safety school makes it unappealing to me as a parent.

It really is pretty scary. The beheading of a student in a VT school cafe, the mass shooting on VT campus, and then two VT freshman students who lured and murdered a 13-yr old girl. What is going on in Blacksburg?

Yeah, the MANY murders and the stigma of 90's safety school makes it unappealing to me as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

Absolutely true. Still a safety for some but who cares? Those colors are a perfect example. Objectively hideous but they wear it proudly. That’s love.

+1 I think VT is just baffling to people who are primarily focused on prestige and selectivity. VT manages to enroll a pretty high-stats student body while having a high acceptance rate. Kind of an anomaly in the college admissions world. And they don't seem interested in playing the "move up the ranks" game and in fact have stated the goal is to increase the size more with a particular focus on enrolling more underrepresented/1st gen students.

Yes, the shallowest and most insecure people around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

Absolutely true. Still a safety for some but who cares? Those colors are a perfect example. Objectively hideous but they wear it proudly. That’s love.

Yep!! I was number 10 in a class of 496 with well-over a 4.0 and high SAT scores, Varsity Freshmen on a State Championship team, Class officer, etc., etc. My parents insisted on State schools only because there were 3 of us and no financial aid.

I am a STEM major and went to Tech. My family had a general loathing for UVA because it had a really 'douchey' attitude, e.g., THE University. The majority of kids we know that went their were a certain 'type' of southern frat/sorority.

Go Hokies!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

Absolutely true. Still a safety for some but who cares? Those colors are a perfect example. Objectively hideous but they wear it proudly. That’s love.

+1 I think VT is just baffling to people who are primarily focused on prestige and selectivity. VT manages to enroll a pretty high-stats student body while having a high acceptance rate. Kind of an anomaly in the college admissions world. And they don't seem interested in playing the "move up the ranks" game and in fact have stated the goal is to increase the size more with a particular focus on enrolling more underrepresented/1st gen students.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I think college is more than just the education side. Where are our kids the happiest? Do they love it there? How is the quality of life?

Most kids who go to VT don't just like it, they LOVE it. There is a lot to be said for that.

Absolutely true. Still a safety for some but who cares? Those colors are a perfect example. Objectively hideous but they wear it proudly. That’s love.