Apply for Galileo & Hypatia

2025-2026 Applications Now Open!

How to Apply

Any first year student who has been accepted to the College of Engineering may apply to our communities.

Want to apply a community BEFORE you accept your offer of admissions? You can do that too! Either way, get started here!

How do I get to the application?

If you have already accepted your admissions offer follow these steps:

• Go to the Living and Learning Communities housing website.

• Read through the instructions and information. When you are ready to apply go to the StarRez portal link provided and walk through the steps of completing your housing contract. The application for the Galileo and Hypatia communities will be available after you complete this step.

• You will need your PID and password to apply. So have that info ready

• Fill out your information and complete all essays and other questions. Reviewers will not review an incomplete application so make sure you have answered everything!

If you have NOT accepted your admissions offer follow these steps:

• Go to the following links to see the application

• For female first-year engineering students: Click here for Hypatia

• For male first-year engineering students: Click here for Galileo

• You will need your admissions application number to apply. So have that number ready!

• Fill out your information and complete the essay and other questions. Reviewers will not review an incomplete application so make sure you have answered everything!

• Please note you will not be able to accept your community offer until you have accepted your admissions offer to Virginia Tech.

• You will receive an email response with a record of your submission, keep this email for your records. 

Essays

We recommend this be written in a Word document and have someone review your work before submission. You may copy and paste the essay into the on-line application.

The essay question has a required length of 300-500 words.  If it is shorter than 300 words or longer than 500 words, your application will be denied.

We highly recommend you read through the webpages explaining the course, mentoring, etc before you write your essay. Another great place for info on the community is our student run website that includes some common FAQ responses. 

Essay Question:

• "Why do you want to be part of Galileo or Hypatia? What unique perspective, background, or set of experiences will you bring to the Galileo or Hypatia community? Galileo and Hypatia have long recognized the importance of building a diverse community. How will your life experiences enable you to contribute to diversity within Galileo or Hypatia?" 

What is Next?

• Application review begins in late January through May or until the communities are full.
• Decisions are made on a rolling basis.  Each Monday at 8 am new applications are pulled for review.  Decisions for those applications are sent out the following week.
• Applications are reviewed by community faculty and staff, and current upper class community members.

For questions or concerns concerning Galileo or Hypatia, send an e-mail to ceed@vt.edu.