<p>Which housing should I go into? </p>
<p>Themed housing</p>
<p>Residential college</p>
<p>Enhanced learning community</p>
<p>Academic major learning community </p>
<p>What are the pros and cons of both?</p>
<p>What are some pros and cons of all** sorry I wrote that in a hurry.</p>
<p>The only one I’d absolutely avoid is the “substance free” themed one. It’s populated half by people that want to be there and half by people who’s parents made them sign up for it because they had a problem. With predictable results.</p>
<p>haha okay thanks. What do others entail? Which is most fun? I am so all over the place with this</p>
<p>which have good locations? etc.</p>
<p>There are pros and cons to all of them really. Barringer/Newman/Johnson/etc are a bit out of the way but closer (than a lot of people realize) to a few good off-campus places. It’s a bit of a walk to D2 and West End but is very close to Owens. Eggleston/Campbell/Slusher are right next to the drillfield so a bit closer to classes. WAJ/EAJ/New Res West/etc are further from the classes but next to West End (the best dining hall) and closer to the Cage (on campus parking.)</p>
<p>Really campus is so easily walkable that none of them are in a bad location, except for the honors housing which is off in the middle of nowhere I believe.</p>
<p>so Barringer/ Newman/ Johnson… which of the categories (listed above) do these dorms fall into. I am so confused as to how this works. I wanna make sure I am not signing myself up for something I am not gonna be into</p>
<p>They’re all just regular housing, although I think all are single-sex. There are co-ed dorms too although they’re usually single sex per floor or something similar. Really if you don’t sign up for a program of some sort you’re going to end up wherever they put you.</p>
<p>For my personal experience I lived in Barringer and really liked it. It’s a smaller dorm and you really get to know everybody else. It doesn’t have any amenities but you won’t have any unless you’re in RLC anyway. I also lived in East AJ although its been completely renovated since I lived there.</p>
<p>The academic major learning communities are all pretty much related to science and engineering. The different communities take up all of Lee Hall. Since the OP is, I believe, planning on majoring in Accounting these communities aren’t applicable.</p>
<p>Residential Honors Residence is in East Ambler Johnston and you can read about it here: [Honors</a> Residential College at Ambler Johnston Hall | Virginia Tech](<a href=“http://www.housing.vt.edu/llc/hrc/]Honors”>http://www.housing.vt.edu/llc/hrc/). I think Hillcrest is also an Honors residence and is the only one that might be considered out of the way.</p>
<p>All the other residence halls are within walking distance of everything. VT is large but the campus is relatively compact in that the residence halls are for the most part within sight of each other. (birds eye view anyway - - there are a few groupings into quads that will block your ground level views).</p>
<p>Yeah, to clarify Hillcrest is the one way out of the way Ambler Johnson is in a good location in my opinion. Close to good food/sports complexes.</p>
<p>goreh- I think a good way to go about thinking is which is more important to you- the features that the dorm has (AC- very few, how close it is to classes or food, co-ed, room size etc) OR the features of the learn-live community–</p>
<p>To my knowledge, Lee hall is all Academic Major Learning Communities. The Enhanced-learning Communities are spread between Newman, Pritchard, Pedd-Yates, Hillcrest, and the Corps dorms. Residential colleges are in AJ. Themed housing is in Newman (as well as Oak Lane, but that doesn’t really apply to you).</p>
<p>You’re pretty much guaranteed no AC unless you do RLC in Peddrew-Yates or one of the East or West AJ programs. Don’t know if that is a factor for you.</p>
<p>One thing to think about in applying-- and I would apply to one of these programs, but that’s just me-- is that it at least guarantees you housing. To my knowledge, VT has too many kids to fill the rooms properly every year and some end up with RA’s/makeshift rooms for the first month or so. I’m not positive, but I think doing themed housing gets you a “normal” room since they have an application process and all.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman in the Da Vinci Group. He lives in Lee Hall. Da Vinci students are grouped together in the core classes and they have a seminar class together as well. The advantage to living in a dorm with students in your major is that you get to know them all very easily. You see them in your classes and in the hallways of your dorms. You can walk down the hall and ask a question of someone from your class and can easily form study groups. </p>
<p>One note is that if you are an honors student, being in Da Vinci makes it difficult to take honors classes your first year. The reason is you would likely want to take honors bio or chem but are put in the Da Vinci bio and chem classes, so you aren’t able to. My son checked with his advisors though, and they said he can wait till year two to start the honors classes. </p>
<p>I feel that he benefited from being grouped with students of the same major for his first year at a big college.</p>
<p>A couple of questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>What floor of Lee is the DaVinci community located on?<br></li>
<li>How many are in this community? </li>
<li>Are the Galileo/Hypatia/Curie programs on the same floor or different. </li>
<li>Does Lee house any students other that those in these communities?</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks much.</p>
<p>The real question is what do you want in housing? Are you very social/plan to go out and party/find making friends easy, or are you very concentrated on academics/hanging out with people in your major/don’t plan on going out.</p>
<p>The majority of students obviously just do general housing and move off campus after freshman year. From my impression freshman year, the kids who were in residential communities were normally secluded and never really branched out of that circle, by senior year if they hadn’t moved off campus they normally had a much smaller network of friends.</p>
<p>The leadership group was as social as anyone else since everyone just did it to get AC. Galileo had a bit of that going on though.</p>
<p>I’m going to be a summer transfer.
Is there a good dorm close to the Art department (my major).
When I get to VT I’ll be considered a second semester Junior, which is why I’m doing the summer session, to catch up a bit to be on par with everyone else senior year.
Is there housing that is really nice (or an apartment style option) that is also close to good food and (preferably) far from the sports complexes? I’m not into football and don’t really want to be able to hear the stadium. Thanks for any help!</p>
<p>JennyK: There are no football games during the summer.</p>
<p>I believe the School of Visual Arts is located in a building next to Squires Student Center and downtown Blacksburg. If you really want to be close, you are probably better off finding an apartment downtown than living on campus. The selection of food is better than on campus as well, since most dining halls are not open in the summer.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman at VT right now, and chose to do the residential college. It was the first year students were allowed back in west aj since renovations and it’s beautiful. We’ve nicknamed it hotel waj. You get a/c (huge plus), a huge kitchen, a game room, a fitness room (just a small hotel-like one), nice bathrooms, great lounges, and fun events. Some events- we have faculty tea on fridays where we meet and hear a speaker while eating yummy catered food. We also get coffee and doughnuts in the lobby on friday mornings before classes. LOTS of fun stuff. Another plus is the floors are co-ed. Right now it’s separated on the floor by wings almost, but it’s really nice being right around the corner of your friends. Rumors are saying that next year all rooms will alternate boy girl boy girl though- which would be cool. While it is a pretty far walk to most academic buildings it puts you right by west end (YUM) and Lane for the football games. Freshman who apply do have to agree to stay for two years- but there are loopholes. however, i definitely think it’s worth it.</p>
<p>Ajm907 I just applied to the residential college today. Is it difficult to get into? How long do they take to get back to you on acceptance?</p>
<p>Sent from my C5170 using CC</p>
<p>ajm907 - I believe I read that your room mates got randomly assigned in west aj…did most people you know have success with that or did you actually get to pick a room mate if you wanted to…?</p>