All of the stats put Virginia Tech’s acceptance rates around 57 percent. But my son’s acceptance letter says there were more than 57,600 applications for 7,085 seats in the first-year class. That puts it more like 12 percent. Obviously, these numbers are wildly off. Does anyone have any insights to share on why this is the case?
They have 7,085 spots but accept significantly more students because not every accepted student commits.
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You are not taking into account the yield rate. Va Tech accepts 57 percent of their applicants. Around 25 percent of the accepted students will actually enroll.
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Yes, because not everyone who is accepted bu the college actually enrolls there. Students apply to so many colleges theses days but can only go to one, so they might turn down 80-90% of their acceptances.
VT accepted 26,900 applicants to fill those seats last year. We don’t have this year’s numbers yet.
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Stats for last year are below:
52,296 applied
28,756 admitted
7,289 enrolled
Acceptance Rate = 28,756 / 52,296 = 55%
Yield = 7,289 / 28,756 = 25%
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57600 * A * Y = 7085
A = 0.57 (admission rate 57%)
That means that
Y = 0.2158 (yield rate 21.58%)
(Or at least using these estimated or predicted numbers.)
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Also that’s the average rate but it varies quite a bit depending on major. Some majors are 80% while others are 30%. It also varies a lot by in-state vs oos. Out of state acceptance rate is higher in most cases because yield is lower.
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Thank you!!! In case it’s not obvious from the question, math (or logic, for that matter) is not one of my strengths;)
the responses here, while mathematically correct, don’t really address why decision letters (non-acceptance) do give the impression of being highly selective, when in fact 50%+ of applicants are admitted. My sense is that this number doesn’t correspond with the general consensus of Virginia tech as a highly selective school, because the acceptance rates are substantially lower for the STEM majors it is so well known for. I don’t know how else to explain the conventional wisdom and overall sense of ‘difficult/selective admission’ compared to what the data is saying (moderately selective). It may also be substantially lower oos acceptance rates compared to in-state, as another poster said. By contrast, Clemson has significantly more overall applicants and lower acceptance rates, but a much larger pool of OOS applicants because of a smaller in state pool, and this country-wide draw area may enhance selectivity, even though that doesn’t quite come across in school ranking/prestige (as much as VT)
Is it too unreasonable to suggest that the admissions office just wants to lessen the blow of rejection? I’ve seen this before in other rejection letters: X applicants for Y spaces, when in fact the number of people accepted make up a much higher percentage of applicants because that’s just how it works. Giving the appearance of a lower acceptance rate certainly makes the rejection seem less personal.
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