Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)
Blacksburg, Virginia · Founded 1872
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Test-optional
Virginia Tech is test-optional for first-year students entering through fall 2028. On the application you choose whether your SAT or ACT is reviewed, and you can change that choice until your plan's deadline; the university says it has no preference and that leaving scores out will not affect your admission decision. Without scores, reviewers put more weight on grades, course rigor, the Ut Prosim Profile and activities, and the Writing sections are never used. 41% of enrolled first-year students submitted an SAT score and 9% an ACT. In its own Common Data Set, rigor of the high school record is rated Very Important and test scores Considered. Transfer applicants' scores are not used. Source: vt.edu - Test-Optional at Virginia Tech and First-Year Admissions Requirements; Virginia Tech Common Data Set 2024-2025, sections C7-C9 (verified September 2026).
About
Virginia's land-grant university, which calls itself the commonwealth's most comprehensive, with about 31,500 undergraduates on a 2,600-acre main campus in Blacksburg. Business and engineering are its two largest fields, together more than two in five bachelor's degrees, and applicants choose a major on the application and are reviewed within it. Just over a third of first-year students come from outside Virginia.
History
Virginia Tech opened as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, a land-grant school first housed in the old Olin and Preston Institute; on October 1, 1872, Addison Caldwell walked 26 miles from Craig County to enroll as its first student. A new name in 1896, commonly shortened to VPI, marked its growth, and the shortened Virginia Polytechnic Institute became official in 1944. Women were first admitted in 1923, and in 1970 the General Assembly granted university status and the formal name Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
What stands out
- Applicants choose a major on the application and are reviewed within it
- Test-optional for students entering through fall 2028, with no preference either way on sending scores
- Non-binding Early Action and Regular Decision, with no Early Decision
- One of three public universities in the country with both an active corps of cadets and a civilian student life
- 93 percent of first-year students come back for a second year
Popular majors
Campus life
Students are Hokies, after the "Old Hokie" cheer a student wrote in the 1890s, and the school colors are Chicago maroon and burnt orange. The Corps of Cadets, the university's oldest tradition, lives on the Upper Quad. Crowds in Lane Stadium jump to "Enter Sandman" as the football team takes the field, a tradition since 2001.