Agree. TBD this whole time has been ridiculous. Now i feel like we are just waiting around, hoping they will have pity on 25% more some time in Jan. Not the way thibgs should be done, especially for a school of Techs caliber.
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For EA applicants, this is WAY later than most other schools. Probably not the smartest game plan by Tech.
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We have not received ANY decisions from ANY of our EA schools - just those for rolling admissions. Most of our EA schools are coming out the end of this month.
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No one has to accept until May 1st, so it isn’t really a big deal, but people think if they don’t hear back immediately, there is an issue. Large, competitive schools need time to look through applications and decide on who they want to make offers to. It benefits kids that aren’t high GPA, high test score because they are looking beyond that. I’d encourage people to understand why it takes a large, competitive school time to process apps and know they don’t need to make a decision for a long time.
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Don’t disagree. But other large competitive schools manage to get EA out a month earlier with the same number of applicants and same overall competitive profile. I would also speculate that there is something psychological about knowing you’re wanted and mentally visualizing the upcoming year, and from a practical perspective making plans to visit … and that doesn’t necessarily play out in Tech’s favor.
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Exactly. And if VT is now saying end of February, that’s a month lost for visits if nothing else.
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Good luck to everyone, for what its worth my son got admitted for Engineering/Computer Science in the 12/21 batch…he is out of state with a weighted 4.32 GPA, a 32 ACT score and 4 AP classes. He is a good student but a friend of ours in N. Virginia had a son with a much higher academic profile get rejected last year from the Engineering school…he got hosed by being in NOVA, while my son probably benefited from being from Pennsylvania as they definitely consider geographic diversity. My son did not get early admission to Computer Science at Penn State (they deferred a decision on him into the regular pool) likely because we are in the Main Line Philly suburbs that is the equivalent of being in NOVA for the Virginia schools.
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The questions is: What % of the EA pool did VT review before they released the 25% target? Many students with much higher stats from the SAME high school did not hear back in December while their peers with lower stats got offers already.
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Thank you for posting this anecdote - there seems to be a misguided belief here that somehow VT looked through ALLLLL the applications and only selected the best profile students in the first yield of December (first 25%). I don’t think it is possible to go through ALL the applications in that short of a time frame - I personally think they went through a large number based on who knows what (AO, date submitted, last name, who knows?). From the language of the letter from that day - those decisions were ready, and those not selected it seemed they simply had not gotten to them. The letter stated it had nothing to do with their placement in the pool/competitiveness.
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What they’ve done is a de-facto deferral of every application they received other than the applicants they notified. Interesting decision (to put it lightly) during this time of schools moving away from deferrals altogether.
Right now, students who didn’t get notified are wondering if their application was already reviewed and rejected and/or trying to figure out when they might get a response from VT.
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Tech is not helping themselves here. I wonder how the stats for this year will compare to the years immediately before and after (whether they stick to no ED or not).
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I posted this to the JMU Early Action forum yesterday, but I feel that it applies here as well:
I’m of the opinion that all colleges and universities should move to a rolling admissions model similar to that of Pitt and Penn State. My son applied to both on October 31 and had a decision from Pitt (acceptance to main campus) on December 8, and Penn State (acceptance to main campus) on December 11. There’s literally no reason that other schools couldn’t do the same thing.
Of the 14 schools my son applied to EA, we’ve already received a decision from 9 and expect to hear from 4 others by the end of the month. Potentially waiting until late February for a decision from Virginia Tech is just going to be anxiety-inducing.
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The tension between rolling and non-rolling admissions is problematic. Potentially, my son will have to decide to accept or reject a scholarship offer before he hears from Virginia Tech. A high school friend of his recently pulled the trigger on attending Pitt instead of waiting to hear back from Virginia Tech. VT accepted a few of their classmates in the first batch. “Pitt wants me but VT doesn’t” is a real thing.
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Don’t feel bad about pressuring your son to take the SAT. I still remember my SAT score and have actually been on Financial industry threads where our SATs from 30 years ago are discussed, FWIW. You can be smart and not do well on the SAT but you can’t be dumb and score a 1500 on the SAT. Your son is very bright. Personally, removing the SAT requirement hurt the smartest kids, and the least privileged, the exact opposite of what the anti-SAT lobby publishes.
My son was beaten down by a public school that has a lot of issues, he was tracked out of higher classes, and was forced to be remote for a year and a half, where rampant cheating occurred and teachers didn’t show up for classes. His hs prides itself in being hard graders, which doesn’t translate in comparison to private schools where you can’t get a B and states that have lower standards. When he scored high on the SAT it brought his confidence back and allowed us to advocate with him at the school. We applied to colleges that value the SAT.
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If this was the case, there have been some rejections, however they had none.
They kinda would have gone through all applications though, at least on a cursory level… I’m sure they get data on all applicants in a database format that gets loaded into their application processing system. Once done, it’s not that difficult to pick the top x% based on GPA, SAT and other factors they care about (e.g. first gen) as well as apply algorithms to determine probability of each applicant accepting an offer, etc. Pick the top 2,000, do a deep dive into them all (essays, etc.), and make offers on a 1000 (or whatever the target number is).
Also, for those with high GPA that didn’t get in, that’s yield protection at work. VT does yield protect. Happened to DS1 and many others in his cohort couple of years ago as well as subsequent cohorts. If they think you will get into a better school, they may defer/waitlist or reject you. Of course, that’s not a stated policy of their and a lot of folks vehemently deny that VT yield protects. If walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
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Thank you for the helpful post. I haven’t heard the term “yield protect” but I have wondered if schools do that.
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Actually there is a very specific reason they cannot: it creates pressure - and advantage - to applying as early as possible. Lower SES students from under resourced HS typically do not do this. At this moment in 2024, schools cannot afford to disadvantage lower SES applicants.
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try having to wait until March/April for decisions from CA schools. Then you have a month to decide!
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No one should have to wait that long for an admissions decision from a college or university.
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