Yes, I do look at the one and two star type reviews but will likely not pay much attention to some that just seem off. I did find the original post needlessly inflammatory and provocative, and I think that is what some of us have reacted to.
I haven’t seen anyone with Virginia Tech connections here suggesting Virginia Tech is perfect or the right fit for everyone. And for the OP to now imply that Virginia Tech is full of Trumpers and religious types is equally interesting to me. Of course, there are probably Trump supporters and very religious kids on the campus. It’s a big campus. There will be kids from all kinds of political and religious (or non religious) backgrounds, racial backgrounds. There will definitely be more white kids there then other groups, so good to look at support , clubs for your kid if they are URM, LGBTQ, etc. That is part of finding fit for your child. Virginia Tech will not be the right fit for many kids.
It is clearly not the right fit for this family and I hope the son finds the right college out there for him. Good luck.
The funny thing is, when you look at voting patterns Blacksburg is a very noticeable blue dot! Also, a significant percentage of in-state students are from Northern Virginia which is hardly conservative. That’s just reality.
And that seemed to be based on 143 responses on Niche unless you’re seeing something different?249 responses on Niche about political beliefs- progressive 2 percent
Liberal 15
Moderate 42
Conservative 13
Very conservative 1 per cent
Libertarian 0 percent
Not sure 27
There are thousands and thousands of students at Virginia Tech. These Niche results are not even statistically relevant, at least not to me.
I think we can move on from parsing Niche data. Few people have ever changed their minds on CC, and I doubt Niche is statistically representative anyway.
It’s all cool @VTfanbase. As I said, I’m Switzerland in the to-VT or to-not-VT discussion.
I believe that it’s possible that just about everything the OP said can be true experiences AND VT can be a great college for most of the students that attend there.
Please please I’m really not trying to argue. I didn’t say that at all, I said for kids that aren’t pro-trump they may have issues with fitting in (that could be plenty of southern or other schools but we believed VT to be more moderate/accepting) I said for kids that are religious, they may not be into frats/sororities or drinking that seem to be a big thing, I’m not saying this is everyone all the time, just talking about things to consider based on my current experiences. For kids that might have an issue with these they may not be a good fit.
Goodness it’s like no matter what I say I’m clearly the villain. Please stop dissecting everything I write and bringing in niche data from who knows when. Someone else’s experience isn’t an argument and I’m not a middle schooler for saying it’s been bad for us. Please please stop arguing I wish I could be more specific/detailed for other parents who might benefit but I don’t feel comfortable with the tone here.
I am not the one bringing in niche data initially. A person who seems to have no connection to Virginia Tech did. Maybe he does have a connection, but did not indicate that.
And in terms of any tone set, please take a look again at your initial post. Again, all the best to your family.
Sorry, directing to the group, I’ve tried to repeatedly show my intention and tone and be more clear but it’s relentless back. As far as the tone, I never posted anything mean or personal about anyone here, I don’t feel this passionately to start insulting people over a college thread. I thought this was a forum for people looking for various views for their high school students, now I know better to never to cross the VT people again Thanks
For anyone reading this thread and wondering about minority representation at VT, I wanted to provide this info from VT’s snapshot of the Class of 2025 admitted students:
Comprehensive strategies to grow underrepresented minority and underserved (URM/USS) populations helped increase the number of incoming URM/USS students to 39.3 percent. Virginia Tech has set a strategic goal of achieving 40 percent of underrepresented minority and underserved populations by 2022. The snapshot shows that 20 percent of the incoming class is first generation. Just under 17 percent can receive federal Pell Grants.
The incoming class is Virginia Tech’s most racially diverse, posting historic highs for African Americans (8.7 percent) when combining African American (6.8 percent) and two or more races that indicate African American (1.9 percent). Hispanic/Latino students represent 10.5 percent of the incoming class. This amounts to a 93 percent increase in African Americans and a 64 percent increase in Hispanic/Latinos compared to the class of freshmen and transfers that arrived in 2017, the year before changes in admission began at Virginia Tech.
“We continued building on the successes of 2020, and the result is an incoming undergraduate class for 2021 that moves Virginia Tech closer to its strategic goals of improving access, particularly for underrepresented and underserved populations,” said Luisa Havens Gerardo, vice provost for enrollment management. “A diverse student body with robust student academic profiles facilitates creativity and innovation and allows for a rich on campus experience for all.”*
I’m sorry your family member has had a bad experience at VT. Whenever I see this, which isn’t often, I am sad for the student, since in general VT seems to be a college with happy students. In full disclosure, both my husband and myself went there (30 years ago), and my daughter is a current senior there. So I have old and new experiences. My daughter is 100% not a Trumper, and has had no issues there. Of course there are Trumpers which she sometimes talks about, however she has not run into any disrespect, and in general there are more students that are democrats. She has friends and roommates of all ethnicities, and has not notice problems. She has had no problems with getting the classes she needs, and one professor even emailed her to tell her to come to the first day of class so he could force-add her since he knew she needed a certain class in a certain sequence to graduate. As far a greek life, she is not a part of it, and while there are fraternities and sororities of course, it seems to be less than half of the students who participate. Of course, being female, she is always welcome at frat parties, where I am sure it is not the same for male students who aren’t in the fraternity. She doesn’t really like those parties anyway, and prefers to go to smaller parties with friends or bars (she is 21). The parents facebook page seems to have 3-4 topics that often come up- including long lines at the dining halls, football game questions, housing questions, and medical questions, as the most common topics right now. I think no college is perfect, there are issues with all of them. I have another daughter at another college, and each one has it’s strengths and weaknesses. I hope your family member can find the right fit for them.
I should also mention, my current senior in high school has absolutely no interest in VT, even though he’s grown up going to VT games and was wearing a VT sweatshirt since he was born. (Maybe that’s why…) Different schools feel right to different kids
FWIW, my son is politically liberal and religious. He seems to be making friends and has joined the Wesley (Methodist) student group. He wanted to go to a big, friendly school where he would meet lots of different kinds of people and has found that at VT.
I do think it takes longer to find your place in a big school if you are a quiet person who takes a while to connect with people (that’s definitely me and I had a hard time at first at a big state school until I found an extracurricular activity). Joining an LLC can help but from comments on the parent group some LLCs do this better than others. But, that type of student may just be happier at a smaller school that overall is more intentional about guiding students to community.
OP, I’m sorry your student is having difficulty. My D20’s best friend from high school is there. It’s been a mixed bag for her - lots of partying and involved in some clubs and activities, but also lots of middle school type drama. She ended last year on the outs with the friend group she had formed early on, and is using this year as a reset, socially. In a school that big, I have to imagine there’s a place for everyone; finding it certainly takes some time. Good luck to your student, I hope things turn around.
Thanks for this information. Frankly, reading the school’s statement and looking at the actual numbers, I get the impression the school hasn’t been very diverse, and has just decided in the past few years to up their efforts to do something about it. While I applaud their efforts, it takes time to change the culture of a place, and there are often difficulties along the way.
Since minorities were included on a list in one of the posts above, I didn’t want future readers of this thread to think that the university didn’t care about diversity. Until I read the “Class of 2025 Snapshot” article, I was not aware of VT’s diversity initiative. That article led me to read further via their Office of Inclusion & Diversity. It’s a work in progress as it is at many other colleges and universities but a movement in the right direction.
I agree with this. With 30,000 students it is very possible to run across students who are politically similar and also dissimilar to you. This is pretty normal in the world. My son is liberal minded and has actually gotten much more liberal since being at Tech over the years. He also has friends of all stripes. Perhaps freshmen should be encouraged to give it more than a few weeks before generalizing to the student body because there’s a lot yet to be experienced? Hopefully that would give them a chance to find their tribe and feel more comfortable.
I have found that VT is pretty moderate politically, and the town of Blacksburg as I mentioned is very blue (while rural parts of the surrounding counties skew red). If it is important to someone to only be around like-minded individuals then a large university might not be the best place to start. There are a lot of small private schools which likely would be more homogeneous in that regard.
It’s all cool 
Thanks