“I feel though for other students who were not admitted that had more academic potential.” I doubt that UVa in general is admitting many students that they feel do not have “academic potential.” The average SAT in engineering is about 1420. If a kid is admitted to engineering, someone thinks they can do the work. As neonpink notes, her son was able to do the work, despite coming from a rural OOS school. You may be dealing with kids , like many from a school like TJ, who have been exposed to calculus already but a bright , motivated student can catch up. My UVa kid had BC calculus, etc. in high school , my VT engineering kid did not have calculus in high school (just didn’t want to take it and was not initially admitted into engineering-took calculus for the first time in college, aced it and quickly was able to move into engineering).You do not necessarily have to have had calculus in high school to do well in engineering.