I see we were not alone. 34 Superscore, 3.9 UW from competitive HS, lots of EC. OOS. Toured the school and received multiple phone calls about how my son would get admitted to Honors college with a large scholarship, etc etc etc. Nope. Waitlisted. He got into a number of colleges with far lower acceptance rates. Kept our name on the WL but I guess that’s one school that he won’t be attending. I figured it would be a little screwed up after last year. According to naviance from our HS, this was a flat-safety school.
@BMSagain That is just crazyness. What VT has done this cycle will again change next year with everything going on. Not only will some kids decide to stay closer to home but was thinking financially that decisions may turn due to stock market and money which has disappeared . My son kept his name on WL but we are in state and it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out
Here is just an example - The Ohio State University has suddenly offered admissions to 3,000+ students just last week which goes beyond their maximum capacities (pushed their acceptance rate from 49% to 56%) because they must sense a lot of international and OOS students will probably decide not to admit due to the uncertainty and potential financial crisis caused by coronavirus outbreak. I think most colleges (especially for those big universities) will face the same situation and start to ramp up their acceptances in order to counter the uncertainty for 2020 - 2021 school year.
Source? Admissions office staff said rolling admissions ongoing and no spike related to a specific issue, with final offer numbers not complete until the end of March. I’m not discounting the concept that Int’l and OOS students may reassess, but can’t find info to support a correlation re: OSU.
We converted the 529 savings account for our son to FDIC insured the moment he was accepted in 2018 for this very reason. Sacrificed about a year’s worth of gains but eliminated volatility and made certain it wouldn’t come up short.
@ShenVal18 - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ohio-state-university-columbus/2150942-admissions-discussion-decisions-class-of-2024-p80.html. Please read Post#1591 - 1594 for details.
Thanks. It would be interesting to see if there were mid-March spikes of a similar nature in years prior to 2019. Maybe it’s possible their target for this year has always been in that new range? It’s been a weird year all around.
@PLO2020 my friend’s daughter just received her acceptance to OSU late last week, so this makes sense.
DS trying to decide between PSU (we live in PA) and VT. My husband and I both prefer VT and he did get a small amount of merit. DS feels the pull to go where all his friends are going (PSU and he got no merit there). I noticed that VT is well known for its Quality of Life, Happiest Students, and best Campus Food. Any other accolades that any of you can mention? He got into Pamplin.
A lot of ranking sites have Virginia Tech as one of the best campuses in the country, as well. At the end of the day, though, your DS should choose based on his criteria. 30 years ago I was in the same boat, and I chose VT over PSU because I wanted to get away from people in my HS and would rather meet new people at VT. I also just loved the campus and the feel down there better. I don’t know much about the programs of the 2 schools these outside of Engineering, so I’d weigh that, as well. Tell your DS to go with his gut.
@pghmom72 Replied to your ? on the other thread. Can attest that my son felt fairly similar to the quote above and has made friends from many different states and a few countries, quite a few of them within the first couple weeks of school. Pamplin student also.
@ShenVal18 and @HokieCrazy thanks for your comments. I chose to go to Arizona State 30 years ago to get away from HS, and I’m SO glad I did! I think having a fresh start and new experiences are important factors. Thanks for your feedback.
@pghmom72 My son is trying to make the same decision, VT Engineering vs. Penn State Engineering. He is really stressing over it and unfortunately the accepted students visit was canceled. He was able to go to PSU’s and liked it, but really still wants to consider VT. We are instate for PSU so we are leaning that way. Such a hard decision.
From other thread - VT is putting out a lot of virtual tour stuff on April 4th.
It might help to sway you one way or the other if you know that coming up on April 1st is when Penn State says that your chances of being in Supplemental Housing goes up dramatically. They do housing in the order that a student accepts their admissions offer. At this point, you’d likely get better housing at VT. Just something to consider.
@HokieCrazy I was afraid of that…thanks for confirming PSU’s housing policy. My son is not ready to make a decision yet, and I’d hate for him to feel pressured to decide too soon.
@pghmom72 - Penn State engineering is as good as Virginia Tech. US News, CWUR, ARWU and other sources rank PSU higher than VT in the US and internationally. Is it worthy to pay $10K more a year and being away from home during this pandemic and uncertainty in the future? You and your son should probably know the answer by heart at this moment.
vt.edu/admissions/virtual-vt-visit
From other thread - early version of virtual tour is up
The USNews ranking that I just looked up has VT at number 13 and PSU at 25. With that said, is there really that much difference in that ranking? Both are good programs and many other factors should come into play.
Like a VT Campus smack dab in the middle of the new Amazon HQ in DC? Hmmm.