Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ut Prosim in action

There are many things that make Virginia Tech a great place. We have excellent academics and faculty who are experts in their fields. We have exciting research opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. We have national award-wining food and a beautiful campus. Football! Most important, we have great school colors: orange and maroon! The list goes on and on. However, one undeniable truth is that we have a strong community - a strong network that unites Hokies throughout the world.

Hokies United, a student-driven volunteer effort, is just another example of our motto (Ut Prosim - That I may Serve) in action. Hokies United coordinates responses to local, national, and international tragedies that impact Virginia Tech students and communities. Currently, Hokies United is raising funds to help those impacted by the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Previous efforts organized by Hokies United include: April 16 Hokies United, Hokies for Huskies, Tsunami Relief Efforts, Hurricane Relief Efforts, and Honoring Those Who Protect and Serve.

The bottom line is: the Virginia Tech community is powerful and its focus of learning both inside and outside the classroom is evidenced in part by living our motto (Ut Prosim, That I May Serve).

More info:

Hokies United

The Big Event

VTEngage
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Monday, February 15, 2010

Living the motto

Virginia Tech has a motto: Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), which was adopted in 1896. Serving its communities is a biggie for the university. So much so that our students, faculty, and staff all get in on the act. Virginia Tech strives to live the motto through its three missions: learning, discovery, and engagement.

Next time you're on campus, check out the Pylons at the War Memorial and you'll even see Ut Prosim represented there (the eight Pylons feature the university's values: brotherhood, honor, leadership, loyalty, service, sacrifice, duty, and Ut Prosim).

One annual good deed that students participate in is The Big Event. Usually held in early spring, Hokies gather on the Drillfield and disburse in groups to do service projects throughout the New River Valley.

Another resource for Hokies (and Hokies at heart) is VTEngage, which encourages students, faculty, and staff, as well as their friends and family to volunteer in their respective communities. VTEngage is a great resource for learning about opportunities for community service and logging your community service hours.



More info:

The Big Event

VTEngage


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Friday, February 12, 2010

Application Review Process: Yep, you guessed it! We care about test scores too!

By Jonathan Schramm
Assistant Director
Undergraduate Admissions

So far, in my blog series on the application review process, I've discussed two important factors that can affect the outcome of admissions decisions at Virginia Tech: curriculum and grades. There is a third, and that is standardized test scores.

If you think of academic qualities like a tripod, all three legs have to be there for the application to stand up to scrutiny. In the case of selective admissions, the three legs are curriculum, grades and test scores.

The last is pretty straightforward. You either have competitive test scores or you don't. It may seem unfair. It's three hours of your life for goodness sake, usually on a Saturday morning, when you haven't had a wink of sleep and are stressed out of your mind. You go in, reading glasses askew, hair unkempt, and you come out with a number attached to your name.

But there is a reason they're so important, and there's a reason they're called s-t-a-n-d-a-r-d-i-z-e-d test scores. High schools are so different from district to district that it's not always advisable for colleges and universities to make decisions based solely on an applicant's grades and curriculum. So the standardized tests are one way we can tell applicants apart.

At Virginia Tech, we do all we can to insure your best score comes through in the review process. For instance, we'll accept both the ACT and the SAT. We also "super score," meaning we'll take the best score from all your exams and put them together so you have the best possible chance for admission. Right now we're just looking at the Critical Reading (SAT)/English (ACT) and the Math portions of the tests, but will use the Writing for placement
purposes. The average SAT last year was a 1250 and the average ACT was a 26.

I hope that helps clear some things up. Tune in next time when we talk about personal qualities, the softer side of the review process.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Living it up in Hokieland

As an incoming freshman, you have two housing options at Virginia Tech. First, you can chose to live in a residence hall. Second, you can apply for one of our many theme housing options.

A few housing facts:
  • More than 9,100 students live on campus
  • We have more than 5,000 incoming freshmen each year
  • Freshmen are required to live on campus
  • Freshmen can bring their cars to campus, but we are a bike-friendly campus. You should check out the Bike, Bus & Walk Program.
  • You should checkout Roommate 101
In addition to living on campus, you definitely need to eat on campus! We have award-wining food and many dining options from which to chose.

More info:
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Monday, February 8, 2010

Liz's story: a personal perspective on theme housing

By Liz, a junior in the College of Science
Major: chemistry and psychology
Resident Advisor, Hillcrest Hall

Making the decision to come to Virginia Tech was easy. When it came time for me to look at colleges, I didn't even consider any other school because I knew that I was meant to be a Hokie from the first time I stepped foot on the Virginia Tech campus. Making the decision on where I wanted to live my freshman year was not so easy. I love meeting new people, but the thought of being placed in a random residence hall, with random people, and a random roommate was still a little frightening to say the least. From my experiences in high school, I did not think I was mature enough to responsibly handle the pressures of college life alone. Therefore, I began to look into theme housing programs because I liked the idea of living in an established community.

After exploring the theme housing options, I decided to apply to The WELL. The WELL, which stands for "Wellness Environment for Living and Learning," is the wellness and substance-free theme housing program at Virginia Tech. In The WELL, I lived alongside a group of spectacular individuals who shared a common interest in pursuing well-rounded, healthy lifestyles. Being around these individuals encouraged me to make wise decisions and helped me find my footing in the college world. In retrospect, choosing to live in The WELL. was the best decision I have made in my college career.

Since my days in The WELL, I have experienced life in Lee Hall (in regular housing) and Hillcrest Hall (the honors theme housing community) as a resident advisor. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my time in a regular residence hall and would not trade it for anything, my experience in tThe WELL and now in Hillcrest has been different. While the community I felt on a regular hall was strong, there is truly a deeper, unspoken bond between members of a theme housing community.

Theme housing provides a unique environment for you to establish a community of support, because all of the individuals you live with are focused and united under a common goal from the start (whether it be wellness living, academics, leadership, engineering, diversity, etc.). So, if you are interested in becoming part of a unique community here on campus, explore theme housing. It's not for everyone, but if it is something you are considering, I say, "Go for it!" I was a little apprehensive about living in theme housing my freshman year - but it is a decision I am glad I made and it has made my experience at Virginia Tech so much more than I could ever imagine.

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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Application Review Process: We Care About Grades Too!

By Jonathan Schramm
Assistant Director
Undergraduate Admissions

In my last post, Application Review Process: We Care About Curriculum, I discussed how an applicant's strength of curriculum is viewed in the application review process, and also left you with a bit of a teaser regarding the next most important factor ~ Grades, not to be confused with GPA.

Now, what I mean by that is, we're not so much looking at the overall grade point average, as we are the course-by-course performance (just so you know, to be a competitive applicant at Virginia Tech, we like to see a strong A/B average).

When we're perusing your transcript, we're mentally (and sometimes physically) marking out:
  • AP Weightlifting,
  • Advanced Show Choir, and
  • Honors Underwater Basket Weaving.
And we turn our attention to specific marks in core courses, like:
  • Math,
  • Science,
  • English,
  • Social Sciences, etc.

When it comes to your GPA, we all but discount the grades you received in your electives, and instead look at how well you did in your tougher, more academically focused courses.

Now, we do take some other factors into consideration when determining your in-class performance, not just the letter grade. Grading scales are one. We know at some schools a 90 to 100 is an A, when at others it's 94 to 100. That's where our policy of reviewing applicants within the context of their schools comes in. When we do this, it doesn't matter what your grading scale is, because you're not competing against applicants from other schools, but against your peers. Therefore, it's not about an average GPA, but more about how an applicant performed within their academic environment.

Trends in grades is another factor we consider. If an applicant started off a little slow in their freshman and sophomore years, then started improving their grades during their junior and senior years that can help. Likewise, if a student did well throughout their academic career, but then their first marking period grades during their senior year drop dramatically, that may raise a few eyebrows.

Again, your school profile tells us a lot about grade distribution, and the rigor of the course work, etc., so be sure to check that out if you haven't already.

Hopefully you're beginning to see that there's a lot that goes into reviewing applications at Virginia Tech. Check back next time, when I discuss the role SATs and ACTs have to play in the process.

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