Asian American/Male
• 3.94 W/ GPA; Test Optional
• In-State (NOVA)
• College Courses: AP (5), DE (3)
AP/DE: AP Computer Science A, AP United States History, AP Precalculus, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, Physics DE, Geospatial Science DE, English 12 DE
I also have business knowledge from taking courses like Personal Finance and Economics my junior year (both academic/regular level classes)
• Extracurriculars: Computer Science Honor Society (11-12), Cyber Club (11-12), Marching Band (10-11), Northern Virginia Technology Education Initiative Student Volunteer/Web Blogger (11-12), CyberPatriot (12), CyberStart America (11), Indoor Drumline (9), First-year DECA member (12; not included in apps)
• Community Service/Volunteer: Computer Science Honor Society (Tutoring students in need of CS/Cyber topics; earning 10+ hours), NVTEI (Currently writing blogs and shifting focus to business; earning 1 hour per blog)
• Awards: CSHS Inductee, Marching Band Self-improved Award, Indoor Drumline Self-Improving Award
I am currently interested in the business field. While several of my activities focus on cyber and BIT-related areas, I want to explore my options further with the business (undecided) major.
I don’t think your GPA is high enough to go TO at Virginia Tech. I would try to take the test. It’s also unclear how much advantage or not in-state students have at VT. They definitely don’t seem to be given as much of an advantage as, say, UGA.
VT also puts a lot of emphasis on their essays (last year they had 1-2 essays and a couple shorter essays as well). I would definitely put some time into those as they do weigh that heavily.
Business major is competitive but nothing like engineering.
My unweighted is a 3.67 (don’t know the scale for unweighted) and my weighted is out of a 4.0 scale. Something I heard from the admissions committee during information sessions and Q&A’s was that they don’t look at GPA, rather the course rigor (AP/DE) since many schools use different GPA scales.
Admission from NOVA is competitive, as I’m sure you are aware.
It appears that you have rigor (not sure what your final grades were/are in the AP/DE courses) and a good list of EC’s with some volunteer work, which VT likes to see as service to one’s community is big there.
Did you take one of the standardized tests and just don’t want to submit?
Does your high school use Naviance or Scoir where you can see how other students from you HS with similar stats fared with VT admissions? Is there any data from VT admissions with a number or percentage of admitted students for Business Undecided vs the BIT or cybersecurity paths?
The Pamplin business programs have become increasingly more popular. Definitely make sure you nail the VT-specific supplementals.
I have taken several SATs but none I would say are decent enough or even average to submit for Virginia Tech. Also, my school does not use naviance. Recently, I have went to the data commons website for Virginia Tech, and it said that Business Undecided had a 25% acceptance rate for Asian Males that applied the previous year. BIT and Cyber was about a 30-31%.
Maybe consider choosing a specific business major with the thought that you can change it if you decide to go a different direction within the business program. My daughter is a senior in Pamplin (finance/commercial real estate investment double major). It was pretty easy for her to add the second major - Pamplin has windows in December and May where you can apply to change your major or add one. You just need your advisor to approve it.
I know some colleges embrace the undecided majors more than others and I honestly don’t know what VT’s take on it is but if your research comes back with a higher acceptance rate for specific business majors in the areas you are interested in to begin with, rather than going the undecided route, that might be a strategy that could help your chances. You could also reach out to admissions and see what they say (although they may not give you a specific answer) and also your high school counselor.
I chose business undecided because I really wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do, but it was definitely something within the business field. I also talked it out with my counselor, and my counselor assured that business undecided might be a strategic move for my situation.