• Male/Asian
• Hoping to pursue under Cybersecurity Management and Analytics
• Early Action with plans for financial aid (also hoping to go to fall visitation program in Sept)
• In-State student (NOVA)
• 3.94 Weighted GPA
• Test Optional from SAT/ACT
• Courses taken (AP/DE/Honors): AP (5), DE (3), Honors (5)
• Extra-curricular: Computer Science Honor Society (2 years), Marching Band (2 years, got awards/mentored newcomers during camps), Indoor Drumline (1 year, got award), Cyber Club (2 years), CyberStart America (2 year, including upcoming competition senior year), Concert Band (3 years), NHS (intending to join senior year), will prepare for CyberPatriot too
• 10+ hours for CSHS, Tag Day (2 years, 5 hours/fine art community fundraiser), NOVA Tech community blogger during summer (student led; by a friend)
Received plenty of honors (from Common App section; self improvement awards)
Senior year classes: English 12 DE, AP Statistics, Geospatial Science DE, Academic US/Gov, AP Psychology, Intro to Cybersecurity, App Development Honors
My sophomore year I took Intro to Comp Math, and Junior year took AP Computer Science A
So a lot about what I’ve heard for this year’s cycle (information sessions/Q&A’s) is that GPA is not reviewed and it is the course rigor that matters on the applications.
Also, to be specific, the unweighted GPA calculation is much different for our curriculum but I do believe the weighted is out of 4.0.
TO will hurt you. Also, Tech isn’t known for being generous with aid.
You can attend a CC for two years and be guaranteed admission to any VA public university if you meet the requirements (very achievable gpa and taking the correct coursework for your Associates degree).
Some students are accepted as transfer students after one year at Tech, but it’s not guaranteed.
Weighted typically means you get bonus points for Honors or AP. I’m asking you to take the weighting off to compare you apples to apples with other kids.
Their CDS says GPA does matter and I have to assume it does.
But it sounds like you feel confident. So good luck.
I think you look like a solid applicant. I’m sure you know that coming in from NOVA is competitive for in-state VA universities. You have EC’s that are related to your desired major, which is great.
VT puts a lot of weight on their short answer supplemental essays, so knock those out of the park. You may or may not know that their mantra is “UT Prosim”, and they take that very seriously. If you don’t know what that means and what it means to VT, my advice would be to research it and try to convey that theme through your essay answers.
Unless they’ve changed their position on SAT/ACT in the last 2 years when S23 and I attended an admissions presentation there they stated explicitly that “We are test optional but in reality we don’t even look at them and in the next couple of years likely to list as no longer accepting.” You may have more recent information that contradicts that though.
We attended a campus info session last month and they did NOT mention that about test scores. I believe they just said they accepted either SAT or ACT. They did say that GPA would not be considered and that it is about rigor. And yes, they stressed the importance of the 4 supplemental answers.
Did you hear anything similar during the visit, something I’ve heard in the Q&A session: they were like SAT scores wouldn’t be necessary if you went TO or it wouldn’t be considered (I might’ve misheard though)
I suspect they are not using the SCHOOL CALCULATED GPA. They are taking the transcript and plugging it into their own algorithm (many schools do this) where the rigor may have a weight specific to them and then getting something they compare across the applications. Tough to believe they wouldn’t consider the grades received on the courses taken.
That’s a good point. I wish I would have clarified during the session as I know class rank is not considered. It would make sense that your high school GPA would be recalculated for their purposes.
I also have a kid considering VT. From the VT website (First Year FAQs page):
There is no specific GPA requirement to apply to Virginia Tech. Our most competitive applicants will have a mix of As and Bs, while pursuing upper level coursework that is offered within the context of their high school. GPAs can vary greatly from school to school, so our focus in the review process is on the grades you have earned.
So far these are the AP classes I see listed. What are the other 2?
AP Statistics
AP Psychology
AP Computer Science A
Go through your transcript and look at your academic classes (English, social studies, science, math, and foreign languages). Give yourself the following points for each class:
A-4
B-3
C-2
D-1
F-0
Then divide by the number of classes. That will give you your unweighted GPA.
On the upper right hand side you can switch between the University view and the College Major view, but it will provide historical admission data.
The Cybersecurity Management and Analytics majors is quite new, so there is only one year of admission data for it (23-24).
For in-state Asian males, the acceptance rate was 27.5%. It was 28.8% for in-state males of any race. It was 30.2% for in-state students of any gender.
The website I linked to, however, did not provide any kind of information on the academic stats and background of the students, so it’s difficult to know how you compare.
Your reluctance to calculate an unweighted GPA makes me suspect that your GPA is below the norm for Virginia Tech. Your reluctance to share your AP scores leads me to believe that your scores were on the lower end as well. As a result, I would guess that acceptance into this major would fall in the low probability bucket (less than 20%). So, by all means, take your shot for admission. Just make sure you have at least one (and preferably more than one) school that you apply to that your family can afford, that you would be happy to attend for four years, and that you are extremely likely to be admitted to.
Additionally, if your heart is set on this major at this school, Virginia does have options where you can complete two years at a community college and then be guaranteed acceptance at Virginia Tech (Richard Bland is one of those options).
