Virginia Tech® home

First-Year Applicant FAQ

There are two ways to apply for undergraduate admission to Virginia Tech - as a first-year or as a transfer. Transfer applicants have attempted at least 12 credit hours at the college or university level beyond their high school graduation.

If you have not attempted at least 12 credit hours at the college or university level beyond high school graduation, then you should apply as a first-year student. Note: This includes students who are earning an associate degree at the same time as their high school diploma.

You will apply for admission to Virginia Tech through the Common App.

Our application goes live each year on August 1, so you can apply after that date. Most students will apply during the fall of their senior year of high school.

We offer a lot of different opportunities for you to try Virginia Tech out for yourself! We host daily visits when classes are in session, as well as three different Open House weekends throughout the year. You can find more information about visiting campus on our visit webpage. Note: Virginia Tech does not provide fee waivers for visits, and demonstrated interest is not considered during application review.

If there is a circumstance that you would like to share that impacted you academically or personally, we encourage you to share this information on your application in the Additional Information writing prompt on Common App. Your counselor may also write a letter of circumstance on your behalf and email it to admissions@vt.edu to be added to your application for review. Please note that this should not be used to share letters of recommendation.

There is no specific GPA requirement to apply to Virginia Tech. Our most competitive applicants will have a mix of As and Bs, while pursuing upper level coursework that is offered within the context of their high school. GPAs can vary greatly from school to school, so our focus in the review process is on the grades you have earned.

Yes, you can request a change by emailing appchange@vt.edu as long as the other deadline is still open for the decision plan type you would like to change to.

The decision to submit test scores is a personal decision for each applicant. We encourage you to review your test scores along with your application and academic documents to make the decision that feels best for you. 

  • If you feel your scores supplement your application and add value to your academic achievement, you may want to select for your scores to be reviewed. 
  • If you feel that your test scores are not a good reflection of who you are as a student and may distract from your achievement in the classroom, then you may not want them reviewed. 

Please note that test scores are only one piece of holistic review at Virginia Tech and we have no preference on whether or not you submit scores. For more information on test-optional at Virginia Tech, please see the Test-Optional at VT webpage.

We have two deadlines for first-year applicants - one for each decision plan type that you can select on the application. You can learn more about the decision plan types and deadlines on the First-Year Decision Plans page.

Requirements for first-year admission can be found on the First-Year Admissions Requirements webpage.

After you apply for admission, you will receive an email within a few days to create an account to access your Applicant Portal. The earliest emails will be sent out is September 1.

We offer over 150 different majors and options. You can explore everything we offer on the Virginia Tech Undergraduate Majors webpage. When you apply, you will select a specific major or undecided option.

You can change your major up until the application deadline for the decision plan type you selected on your application. You can request a major change up until the following dates:

  • Early Action: November 15
  • Regular Decision: January 15

Yes, but the change in preference must be made before the deadline of your specific decision plan type. Here are the deadlines to change preferences:

  • Early Action: November 15
  • Regular Decision: January 15

Changes to your application (examples include: address changes, major change requests, withdrawing your application, etc.) can be submitted to appchange@vt.edu. More information on application changes can be found on our Policies webpage. Please note: Any changes made on Common App after you hit submit are not relayed to us, so you will need to communicate with us directly on any changes.