<p>Academics ?
Future prospects, Career Fairs, Internships ?
Do we have hackathons and other famous computer events going on in the vicinity ?
If I plan to move to west or east coast in major cities, How much reputation does Virginia Tech with its name, carry ?</p>
<p>Please Help! :)</p>
<p>I’m a current junior in Computer Science and Math so I can help you out. Academically the program is very intense and well respected. Almost every major tech company hires here so your career prospects will be great. </p>
<p>Companies that hire here: <a href=“https://csrc.cs.vt.edu/companies”>https://csrc.cs.vt.edu/companies</a></p>
<p>We will also be hosting one of the largest student run hackathons in the South Eastern United States in two weeks. You can get more information here: <a href=“http://www.vthacks.com/”>VTHacks 11;
<p>The last information about the hackathon, Made my day 
The only thing that I am worried about is the location of Blacksburg. You don’t get to attend various hackathons and don’t get much exposure either, What do you think you miss out from other grads in big cities, regarding to CS and uplifting your resume.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response :)</p>
<p>We actually have one of the most active “hacker” communities in the nation. </p>
<p>Have you ever heard of Major League Hacking? They’re a national organization whose sole mission is to bring hackathons to college campuses. They also help out with funding, advice, etc; they even keep track of national standings. </p>
<p>Virginia Tech had one of highest national standings last Fall. You can find out more information about it here: <a href=“http://mlh.io/standings/f2013/”>http://mlh.io/standings/f2013/</a> </p>
<p>There’s a group that I’m apart of and its called “VT Hackers”. We’re mostly CS students who are interested in hackathons and building stuff that are cool. Some of us want to become entrepreneurs, some do it for fun, and lots of people get jobs from our activities. I personally got an interview with Apple from it. You can look us up on Facebook : <a href=“https://www.facebook.com/groups/VTHackers/”>https://www.facebook.com/groups/VTHackers/</a> .</p>
<p>We’re pretty open to anyone who just wants to do cool things. This school year we went to PennApps ( University of Pennsylvania) , MHacks (University of Michigan), LAHacks (UCLA) , YaleHacks (Yale), and many others. Some people went to MITHacks (MIT) and I believe we also sent people to Hack Brown (Brown University). I’m currently on a bus to a hackathon at the University of Maryland. So if you want a hacker community, we definitely have an active one. You wont have a problem being noticed. </p>
<p>Great to hear this :D</p>
<p>I am really inclined on my Final decision towards Virginia tech. There are a couple of general questions I have too, if you can help</p>
<p>1) What are some big interesting extra-curriculur events/fests(apart from sports) that occur every year at VT.(the website isn’t much helpful or organised)</p>
<p>2) Being a small town, I know there’s not much scope of good nightlife. But what about other outdoor activities. What are some places we can visit nearby for chilling out and having some great fun? I find Blacksburg in middle of nowhere, on the world map.</p>
<p>3) You are junior in CS. I hear the career centre is great at VT but I wonder how much truth lies in that fact. If you don’t mind, can you tell me whether you have found internships by now ? If yes, we’re those big companies? (I guess I am sounding bad here, but just too inquisitive as international student 8000 miles away)</p>
<p>There’s always some concerts that are always pretty good. And the nightlife is good as it’s basically just a college town which I like. Also lots of people go hiking and to the river. </p>
<p>And I’m not a CS student, but the engineering expo is legit. As is on campus recruiting. Basically all the top engineering companies recruit here and Tech has alumni at many different companies that you can network with. </p>
<p>yes, can anyone tell me where/when you got CS internships and approx. how much did they pay (just curios). Is it hard to get internships with companies like MS, Google, Amazon etc.? how about other companies and do they care about GPA a lot?</p>
<p>Plenty of people get Amazon and Microsoft; Google is less common. All three companies sponsor activities on campus and give students a chance to talk to recruiters face-to-face. </p>
<p>Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are some of the top choices for CS majors, so you’ll have to be competitive. Do well and differentiate yourself and you’ll be fine. </p>
<p>@CloudyCloud Is it possible to get an internship after freshman year? Is it good idea to get a Oracle Java certification to get a head start, because I think I am actually capable of getting that before college starts.</p>
<p>Would getting straight A’s differentiate myself? I mean how easy is it for CS majors to get high GPA’s at VA Tech?</p>
<p>It’s possible to get an internship after your freshman year but it is uncommon to get one from a big company.</p>
<p>The only thing I can say about getting a big internship is that you should wait until you get here before you start making plans on getting straight A’s and getting internships at Microsoft and Amazon right after your freshman year. </p>
<p>This is college - not high school. Getting straight A’s in CS is very difficult and even then, you’d still be uncompetitive for big internships.</p>
<p>First off, they typically want juniors because they have a more solid CS foundation. Second, many people have side projects and stuff to show off before getting into internships. Freshman can have that too, but it’s less likely to be high work. </p>
<p>Not to knock you or anything. You can do whatever you want and by all means apply to those jobs if that is what you truly want. I would just suggest that you get here, work very hard, and adjust your plan as your circumstances change. </p>
<p>@CloudyCloud Thank you for the insights. Alright so you are basically saying getting straight A’s is not necessarily going to make you competitive. OK - then what makes a candidate competitive? Just wondering, what do you mean by projects? Are these projects you are referring done as part of class work or by being self-motivated or what? Thanks!</p>