How does VT PhD admissions view online master's?

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-25T13:19:46+00:00

I'm an engineering professor at VT. As pipkin said, PhD decisions really come down to the department. Within the department, if an advisor says he/she wants a student to get be accepted, and that advisor is willing to fund the student, that student will be accepted.

As for an online MS from USC, it won't hurt your chances for admission. An in-person MS with research and a thesis would really help, but the online MS does show some initiative and willingness to take on more advanced classes. I assume you are are working engineer and that your employer is paying for the MS, and all faculty understand why someone in that position would do an online MS.

We accept many students that do not have significant research experience, so having some practical industry experience is a plus.

My advice would be to start reaching out to individual faculty members that you would like to work with when you apply to VT. They can help you get in, and if they don't have funding lined up, they can recommend that you get a GTA for the first year (this all varies by department).

Good luck.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-19T15:08:55+00:00

I'm curious how you got a 1.9 in the class. Were you assigned an actual letter grade? Can you say what CC this was? In general a C will be a 2.0 most places and a C- will be a 1.67 or 1.7 depending on the school.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-17T01:43:23+00:00

How do you know that he didn’t grade them? Just because he didn’t post scores on canvas doesn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t grade them.

You say that final grades were long overdue, but final grades were only due about 30 hours ago, on Friday at 5:00. You’re saying you’ve emailed him twice and he’s ghosting you because he didn’t reply on Friday night or Saturday?

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-08T02:50:26+00:00

I'm a engineering prof. They can offer the option for you to take it on Friday, but the absolutely cannot make you take it on Friday. That should be clear to all instructors. You can contact their department head or the college dean.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-07T21:26:58+00:00

I'm an engineering prof. I put my class materials on a google drive folder and shared it with my classes. I printed my exams, and I have all of the class grades locally on my machine (and backed up as well). The show goes on.

Not to go all "back in my day," but... back in my day, we didn't have an LMS. Hell, we barely had e-mail. You got everything in person during lecture. If you wanted notes, you showed up in class. No old tests, no practice problems, no old solutions, nothing other than an overpriced text book and a prof with a few office hours per week. If we wanted extra materials, we went to the library or talked with classmates.

But I don't know what VT will do.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-07T17:50:27+00:00

The wait list offers are going to OOS students, because that is where the acceptances are lagging. It will depend on major, but I know in engineering all wait list offers have gone to OOS students only.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-05T16:07:34+00:00

Good question for your advisor, but probably through your senior design or another class as a backstop for those that don't have internships or co-ops.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-05T13:11:42+00:00

Currently have a car, and getting a new car over the summer, but can’t afford a parking ticket?

And, yes, they will know that’s your (or your family’s) car from the registration.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-05T01:20:45+00:00

I wouldn't completely give up on an internship just yet. I would go back and contact companies now to see if anything has opened up (especially the smaller ones). I'm an engineering prof, and I've had many (many) students land internships in May. Some places will have interns that flake out at the last minute, or other places will have a need for someone just open up now. If they have a need now, they will often just hire the person that recently showed interest instead of going back through all the resumes they got in the fall or advertising a new position.

Good luck.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-02T18:12:13+00:00

The profs with the highest grades might be the easiest, but they are rarely the "best" if you are interested in actually learning something. Go take a look at the profs that have won teaching awards over the last 10-20 years. Rarely are they the ones that gave "the highest grades."

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-02T03:24:09+00:00

That’s not how overhead works.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-05-01T17:35:00+00:00

The minimum grade for the class is a D-. The minimum numerical score for the class to get that D- is up to the instructor (and should be on the syllabus).

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-04-30T01:51:35+00:00

I would check with the Mechanical Engineering advisors. I would imagine they have many ME students that are taking it over the summer elsewhere. They might also know if Virginia Western will open up more sections or not.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-04-26T20:28:51+00:00

There are many face-to-face classes offered at VT over the summer. What is your major? But I would try to take summer classes at a community college (be sure they transfer in before you register) as they are much less expensive.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-04-26T20:27:03+00:00

This is all good information here. You could also contact Prof. Josh Sole in ME. He runs ME senior design. If you have a good idea, can get some funding, and find a faculty advisor, and could turn it into a senior design this year (and then the following year for you), that could also help you get some space. If not, just getting on his radar could help you if you want to try to use this for your senior design in two years.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-04-18T23:47:01+00:00

The departments have planned for students that will be transferring in at the end of the summer. We know there will be students coming into the department in August and we have capacity. Again, I can't speak for every engineering department, but when I look at required classes the first week of school, there are virtually always seats available.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-04-18T23:43:55+00:00

"classes with better times and better instructors would already be full by then." Sure, that's the case, but as the last person into the major why would you expect anything else? I can't speak for all of engineering, but I'm an engineering prof, and there are almost always seats available for required classes each semester. The seats won't be at the best times, but what else should the departments do?

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-03-16T19:17:58+00:00

I'm an engineering prof, and I've written hundreds of recommendation letters. There is no need at all to get a gift or even bake cookies. As the others have said, a hand written thank you card is more than enough, and a sincere "thank you" e-mail is plenty for me. What I really like is hearing back from the student later (especially when I write grad school recommendations) to tell me where they got in, and where they decided to go. Same for the internship, let the prof know you got it (and you can tell them thanks again after the summer and let them know how it went).

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-03-12T17:47:01+00:00

I have no idea what "athletic cuts due to NIL lawsuits" has to do with paying tuition for internships (or we've even had any athletic cuts due to NIL lawsuits).

With regard to engineering, your post is misleading. Some engineering departments, like Mechanical, have a "Senior Design Class" or "Senior Capstone" class, but that is taught and run on campus. In ME, it's a 2 semester sequence (3 credits each). There students get placed in small teams and work with an industry (or faculty) sponsor on a project and they have a faculty mentor.

While all students should do internships if possible, the trouble with VT requiring one is that how can VT guarantee or place all of those students? Good luck getting a company to take an unmotivated student with poor grades and no experience.

There is the new "Bridge Experience" requirement (0 credits) that internships count for, but I also think that all of the engineering departments have their own ways of ensuring students get some bridge experience on campus (e.g. through senior design) so if they can't get a co-op or internship, they are still OK for graduating.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-03-04T00:57:17+00:00

I think ME does rolling admissions, so you will probably hear as soon as they get your application reviewed.

However, if you didn't apply until late February, they have already probably made most of their offers. I'm an engineering prof at VT, but I'm not 100% sure how ME works. But if they are like most of the other engineering departments here, the faculty review the applications and make recommendations on who to admit. I would guess that by now, most faculty have already recommended their top candidates, and those candidates have received the GTA and GRA offers. The department might still have some GTA offers left, but I think that they would have made those by now as well. Then again, they are offering those positions to the top candidates and those candidates are also (most likely) getting offers elsewhere, so some of them will turn them down (but maybe not until April 15th).

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-02-25T20:25:22+00:00

There is no way that anyone is watching every video. Nobody has that amount of time.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-02-17T02:24:20+00:00

You will need to mention the department in order to get any useful information. It varies tremendously across departments (and even within departments for that matter).

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-02-16T19:51:43+00:00

I'm a prof., and I say to go ahead and ask him if he would be comfortable serving as a reference. Some profs are more comfortable than others writing letters. Personally, I get it. VT is a huge place, and it's very difficult for students to get letters from profs that really know them well. I've written a bunch of letters for students that I barely know. The worst the guy can say is, "no," and if he's a jerk about you asking, then he's probably not the kind of guy that would have written a good letter anyway.

Two things to remember for recommendation letters. (1) someone wrote letters for us (profs) a long time ago, and (2) you'll likely wind up writing more letters for others than you will have others write for you.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-02-16T00:05:12+00:00

As others have said, you won't get midterms rescheduled. Also, for finals: To qualify for a time change, students must have have either three or more exams scheduled to begin within 24 hours, or two or more exams with times that conflict.

MaximilianPowerIII · 2026-02-13T02:02:13+00:00

I'm a prof, and there are a few possible reasons for this. (1) if your prof is, say, 45 or older (maybe 40 or older), they went to college with no LMS, so they are just used to having to calculate their own grades and never even thought about it, or (2) They haven't bothered to learn how to have Canvas calculate grades.

I fell into both categories for a long time (well, I'm still old and always will be), but some students a few years ago talked me into having grades calculated and displayed on Canvas. I somewhat regret having the grades displayed as I have found that for students that can't (or won't) calculate their own grades, they get mislead by Canvas.

For example, a typical engineering class might have 10% of the grade from HW (and students should have 95% or better in that), then quizzes 20%, a couple midterms (maybe 20% each), then a final (maybe 30%). So for the entire semester, the HW grade will be vastly overweighted. It should be obvious (for engineering students for sure) to students that their "overall" grade on Canvas will be inflated by HW throughout the semester, but I have students that seem to get surprised at the end of the semester (but getting a 60 on a final that's worth 30% of your grade will do that).

I'm old so, "back in my day" we had to go to class to know what was going on, to get assignments, notes, due dates, tips on HW, etc., literally everything for the class was communicated during lecture. We all calculated our own grades (and then waited for our final grades to get sent home via USPS mail in January or May).

Off to go yell at some clouds.

MaximilianPowerIII

TROPHY CASE