<p>We are visiting Va Tech on a Saturday morning and doing the info session and campus tour. Any suggestions, tips or things we should take a look at on campus or in Blacksburg on Friday night? My d is a junior in hs and is interested in engineering.</p>
<p>I heard that they are having an Engineering Open House on April 7th.<br>
That might be an interesting event to go to. We are planning on visiting then. </p>
<p>Thanks for pointing that out. Unfortunately, we live in the Midwest and are unable to visit then. However, if you’d like, we can compare notes after both of our trips to campus. Have you visited before? The academics described on their website and the photos are very impressive!</p>
<p>I haven’t visited before. My d has applied for engineering for Fall 2014. We haven’t had a chance to visit yet due to the bad weather this winter. We were told that they have an admitted students day in April.
One thing which we never had a chance to do is participate in their summer engineering camp for girls. (Ctech) We know some students who participated in this overnight camp and really enjoyed it. </p>
<p>We loved our VT visit… VT really was not even on my son’s radar until that day. They really did a great job giving us a feel for the campus and students. Our tour guide was FANTASTIC. Just a great day… hopefully the weather is good for you. We went in October of his senior year, and it was SO BEAUTIFUL. Be sure you eat lunch on campus, the food is fantastic!</p>
<p>My D applied to the COE for this fall 2014. We are still waiting to hear. We visited VT last March. It was a great visit! We stayed on campus at the Inn of VT which was really nice. We walked the whole campus and my D just fell in love with the place. Fortunately for us, I had an old friend who lives in Blacksburg so he took us to dinner right in town. What you should know about Blacksburg is the town is around a school… not a school in a town. The whole area is about VT… everyone works there or works for the school. It’s not like University of VA which is in Charlotesville where there’s a ton of stores and shopping and events etc… That said, the nearest shopping I believe is just a few miles away and school transportation will take you there! </p>
<p>If you want to go for a nice dinner, we love Bull & Bones or Sal’s…</p>
<p>Any recommendations for hotel accomodations in the area? </p>
<p>We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn last April. It was clean and we would stay again. The weather was surprising. They had an unexpected 5 or so inches of snow that night, so they put out a buffet for those who didn’t want to venture out. </p>
<p>The Inn at Virginia Tech and Main Street Inn are also nice.</p>
<p>There are a bunch of hotels in Christiansburg if you have any trouble finding one in Blacksburg. I suggest eating on campus at least once, at West End or one of the new places (I graduated in 2010 so my knowledge of the area is ever-aging) to get a feel for it. Off campus, my favorite place is The Cellar. It’s hard to go wrong in downtown Blacksburg though.</p>
<p>Speaking of, downtown Blacksburg is A) Very small and B) a literal stones throw from campus, so you should definitely take the 15 minutes to walk it. There are a ton of stores and restaurants and what not to check out.</p>
<p>Looking forward to visiting.</p>
<p>Chuy has the one of the best suggestion here. Downtown Blacksburg is definitely worth the walk. We were there last year visiting with my son during his college search and it amazes me how it remains (relatively) unchanged from when I graduated in '92. </p>
<p>I will also repeat the suggestion to eat on campus. It really was good food.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the replies. We are very excited for our trip in a few more weeks…I agree that the school food and the cafeterias is an essential part of the visit. We will save the off campus restaurants for dinner;) My d likes to be around the other students for meals. And perhaps, she’ll even find the opportunity (and courage) to talk to a few students. I’m glad to hear that downtown Blacksburg is so close. We will also want to check out the fitness centers and outdoor tennis courts. </p>
<p>Downtown Blacksburg does have a nice area with restaurants, bars , and shops. It’s not huge but it is pleasant and there are always lots of people walking around. The Main Street Inn is right in downtown . Have fun!</p>
<p>Hi Everyone, We are back from our Va Tech visit and my d enjoyed the day on campus very much. The presenters and tours were well done. We ate in one of the cafeterias afterwards and the students were so friendly and enthusiastic to talk to my d and the food was very good.</p>
<p>One of the main questions, though, coming off campus was that the tour guide told us that the is not good wireless inside of the building (due to the building constructions etc). Any comments on whether this has been a big issue for the students? We’ve eeked by with a very minimal data plan on our phones.</p>
<p>When they mentioned that on our tour, they indicated the best thing to do was to bring your own wireless router and plug it into the ethernet port in your dorm room (share it with your roomie), so you’ve got good connectivity there. This is not just an issue at VT…</p>
<p>There generally isn’t wireless in the dorms unless they’ve added it since I graduated. Then again that was 4 years ago so they may have. But you do have the option of plugging your own router (with a password) and having your own network.</p>
<p>Edit: Or do you mean cell phone coverage? I was talking about WiFi. Cell phone coverage varies from fine to nonexistant in the dorms. My room in EAJ I had to keep it in the window sill or it wouldn’t get any reception.</p>