Yeah, VT does not give out much aid. It’s unfortunate, because it’s a great school. I have degrees from UCSB and VT, and honestly, probably preferred VT overall.
It’s really obscene how expensive higher education is, imo. We are out in Northern Nevada, so we looked at some UC schools for my daughter, but they were all around 72-77k cost of attendance per year as an OOS, lol. We are going back east for school and VT is the most expensive option for us as well.
What were you expecting? I’ve been reading here and elsewhere that VT gives little to no aid, so the fact that your DS presumably didn’t receive much shouldn’t have been a surprise…
Isn’t W&M a meets need school and VA Tech is not?
Probably need-based as W&M is a meets need school.
William & Mary meets full need only for in-state. I don’t think Virginia Tech makes the same guarantee but it’s also less expensive than W&M.
It’s not about what I was expecting. When you apply you really don’t know a) where you will get in, or b) how much each school will give. My son got a lot more money from places that similarly we heard “don’t give much aid”, so who knows? Bottom line is VT is by far the most expensive option out of 13 schools, including privates. I think that’s crazy and I am sure they lose a lot of students because of it. But clearly they don’t care!
Yes, but they also gave DS $21K a year and he is OOS. That’s a lot better than VT
Yeah, VT is an a position where they are sometimes over-enrolled, so from a supply/demand perspective they are priced correctly, but I would 100% agree that it is not worth that kind of cost for OOS. It’s been a great school for my son so far, but it was also the cheapest one he got into (besides VCU but only by about $6k per year, and he elected not to apply to Alabama which would have been cheaper for him because of they’re very generous merit based scholarships).
I was a bit surprised that VT didn’t turn out to be my daughter’s cheapest or best option, since we were in-state. After all the out-of-state merit and honors came in, it fell somewhere in the middle of all our options. My daughter didn’t get any merit or honors at VT. My guess is that they have enough in-state students, and schools might be looking for some geographic diversity.
As someone whose family represents a “geographic diverse” part of the state, VT doesn’t give much merit to kids around here either. Our saying around these parts is that there are enough rich people in NOVA who are more than willing to pay full price to give us any breaks. 
But it is easier to get accepted with lower test scores down here… Paying for it OTOH is the problem… In-state costs are well beyond the means of many in my area.
We’re OOS, but barely…we’re in NC, 2 hrs from Blacksburg. My D24 received a very nominal award which is what I expected based off what I gathered on this forum. While VT is stingy, the kids in our area that I know that have received larger scholarships to our state schools all seem to very competitive students that have need. NCSU is known for being stingy too (my kid hasn’t received any aid info from them yet). I know of a NC kid at Clemson - they are need based, but went to Clemson since they offered a better financial aid package, making it cheaper than NCSU (she’s pre-vet med). I’m not sure about UNC - but would be shocked if they gave much non-need merit out, but I know of kids that have “won” free rides to UNC through locally funded scholarships (literally it’s a random drawing of those accepted to UNC in our county, funded by locals). My kid had no interest in going further south, so she didn’t apply to USC or Clemson - but they’ve been known to offer in state tuition in lieu of merit (SC college in general are having trouble attracting students). My D24 was accepted to Elon (private) - they gave her a $10k annual scholarship immediately upon acceptance. She wasn’t interested enough to pursue their other merit scholarships - no idea if she would have received more, but that $10k sort of brought it in line with VT OOS.
My kid is a little dismayed, assuming she would get some sort of merit aid because she has great stats & test scores, but at the end of the day, she just like so many of the kids - interested in the larger, more competitive, popular schools, where if you don’t want to pay, there is some one else in line behind you willing to do so. It’s unfortunate for the kids that don’t qualify for merit, or receive enough need.
There seems to be a fair amount of NC kids that were rejected from either UNC or NCSU, who don’t like any other IS options in NC, so are going to schools like VT, UTK (and I doubt if they’re giving much $$ based off their applications their year), Clemson. OOS tuition is a profitable business model for them.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but the entire higher education system is broken.
Thanks! We are in a reverse situation…did not get into VT (we live in VA) but got into NCSU and USC. What are your thoughts on NCSU? It seems like 88% of kids are from NC so do OOS kids feel part of the community? Also, any insights on NCSU business school (Poole School of Management)?
My DS got into FSU who waived OOS tuition, but not interested, as I only made him apply since he was also looking at UF. He mainly applied to larger public schools with D-1 / Power 5 sports and “top 25” Public rankings overall and for his field of interest. They offered little to no merit, but other public schools like Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, South Carolina, UTK, that I know some of his friends applied to, all seem to have offered them a lot of merit. Unfortunately, those schools didn’t interest my son or his desired major.
We didn’t apply to any private colleges due to the “sticker” price, not realizing how much some of those schools offer in Merit. Luckily, my DD32 plans to stay in state for now…, as she has to make it through HS first… 
Hey! I answered you a couple of weeks ago on a Poole thread I started a few months ago (since I couldn’t find any info). Did you go to Experience NC State? If so, what did you think?
My kid wants to major in business too. Frankly, I struggled to find alot of info about Poole. We know lots of students at NCSU (we’ve lived in NC for 10 years now), but only 1 in Poole, and she’s a CC transfer, who comes home every weekend. All the other kids we know there are STEM majors, or Ag. I had one NCSU engineering dad say “I didn’t even know State had a business school.” Dang. I’ve had several knowledgeable folks say they think UNCC & UNCW have business schools comparable to Poole. On the job market side, since 82% of grads are from NC, of course most stay in NC. If your kid wanted to go back to NOVA (my D24 was born in NOVA… ;-))…I would expect your kid would have to do more networking/legwork to get there. That said, seems like it’s pretty easy to find an internship locally, even during the school year.
When we went on a Poole tour there was a student ambassador from NJ (he was an acct major, had been interning in NJ and had a job lined up back there). But, most of the other student ambassadors we met were from the Raleigh area, so super local. I know of a VA student (parents are both VT alums) who is going to NCSU for athletics. But I can’t really say how OOS students fit in. NC is a pretty big state, so there will probably be a bunch of Raleigh & Charlotte kids, but also some from more rural areas making it a bit diverse. With that said, most of D24’s friend group is going to State. But there will also be some 30 mins away in Chapel Hill…so college kids from our area that were HS friends are often between campuses on the weekends.
We went to a VT Meet & Greet in Charlotte about a month ago. Frankly, I was shocked at all the kids there that went to CLT area high schools that were waitlisted or deferred from NCSU (we live in a smaller, more rural county). They were all primarily interested in engineering and were in a bind - VT OOS, UNCC or wait out NCSU - at least business majors have more options. This is a crazy process.
D24 had big aspiration to go far away to college…but at some point said she only wanted to go 2-3 hours away. I totally respect that, better for her to recognize that before she goes. That radius includes schools like UNC, NCSU, VT, USC, Clemson, App State…UTK is about 4 hrs. We lived in AL for 5-1/2 yrs, so perhaps too familiar with Bama, and their fans 
. She would have qualified for their Presidential Scholarship, but there was no way she would consider it. During the application process we didn’t realize Clemson offered in state merit - we just thought if we’re paying OOS, it would be to VT. In hindsight I wished we would have looked at it, and she now says maybe she should have paid more attention to UNCC or UNCW…but I don’t think either of those would have checked her boxes. Fortunately, we can make VT work without debt or sacrificing retirement, and I wholeheartedly think it’s the right place for her…I just wish they gave you a discount if you & your kid were born in VA! Ha!
Thx! Yes, we went to Experience NC State and overall we were impressed. Nice campus. Raleigh is a great area. Poole was very friendly and welcoming.
I only have anecdotal info on Poole (my Hokie also was considering it as we are in NC). My Hokie, along with other Hokie business majors, was invited to participate in a Women on Wallstreet recruiting event in Charlotte. I was very curious about the other schools represented and asked my daughter (they wore nametags with their colleges) and she did not come across anyone from Poole (VT was well represented as was UGA, UNC, Wake Forest, and others). Full disclosure - she did not get that offer, but other Hokies that she knows, did.
Later, she attended another recruiting session for a major bank here in Charlotte. This time she noted that several of her HS classmates who are attending Poole, were in this group of recruits. She received the offer (and accepted) but noted the none of the Poole kids are in the final group. That could just mean that they decided not to take the offer - like I said, anecdotal.
The great advantage to Poole is its location to Raleigh and Research Triangle Park. I suspect that many kids are getting offers from companies there (lots of tech-based companies).
I think Poole and Pamplin are kind of in the same position, being business programs at STEM heavy universities. I just think Pamplin is doing a better job setting itself apart than Poole is (maybe it would help if Poole renamed itself to a school of business instead of a school of management?)
If by “USC” you mean “UofSC”, Darla Moore has an excellent reputation (and if your student likes UofSC, I would put their program above Poole - plus lots of OOS kids there). No matter where your student chooses, if they want to end up in a particular area of the country, they will likely have to do some extra legwork to get there, but it’s definitely possible.
Merit can sometimes be an illusion. My daughter also received a nice merit package from UTK but once I joined a parent FB group and read about all the extra charges that UTK adds on for various majors (including engineering AND business), it became less of a good deal.
It is unfortunate that VT doesn’t offer much merit, but the caliber of student is already pretty high, so the bar would be high too. My daughter only has one more year and we will certainly be celebrating next spring when we make that last OOS tuition payment. We are fortunate that we can send her to VT without a financial strain. If that weren’t the case, she’d be at NCSU - and honestly I don’t doubt for a minute that she would be kicking butt there too!