Have fun on your visits! Cabo Fish Taco is right on Main Street. Inn at Virginia Tech and Main Street Inn are nice for future visits. Hahn Horticulture Center may have some nice things in bloom (unless it is still too early there). If you feel like going out of town a few miles, Cascade Falls and Mountain Lake Hotel (where Dirty Dancing was filmed) , are in Pembroke, Virginia.
@MSMead let me know what you think of the Hyatt…it’s just opened. Great location!
Yes, I am from NY and appreciate their pizza… they have pizza for people with allergies too!
My son asked us to cancel our hotel for tomorrow night and cancel his Hokie Focus spot for Saturday because he decided to accept admission elsewhere.
The reservation is probably gone already but worth a shot for anyone that was looking for a hotel. We were supposed to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Blacksburg on April 7.
We are going Saturday. This is going to be one hard decision. Son has narrowed his choices to VT and Miami University of Ohio. I am going to work hard to keep my mouth shut so he can make up his own mind without my interference. That being said, I do want him to have the VT experience. What are the “must do’s” while on campus?
@mamma1st Congratulations to your S! Can you share where he will be going?
@stem2017 He will be going to UVA.
For those going to Blacksburg this weekend, my son reported a skiff of snow overnite! Temps should warm up and be nice going forward, but it’s a reminder of the motto for BBurg weather - if you don’t like what it’s doing now, just wait a bit and it will change! It’s typically a bit breezy there so layering is typically a good approach.
Be safe and enjoy your weekends!
Thanks! Headed there this afternoon.
Hokie Focus thoughts from April 8:
- Park at Perry St lot early. Get there by 8:15. There are thousands of people here and the line of cars getting in was crazy long.
- You are seated by major in a theatre for opening session.
- You break out by major after opening session. This part was the most useful.
- Have lunch. We ate at West End Market on campus, as some students said it was best food on campus. There are different cafes within West End where they serve everything from smoothies to salads to burgers to steaks. Yes steak. And lobster.
- Go to Squires student center. They have different booths for organizations and swag. Admissions is giving away beanies and sunglasses if you tweet a picture.
- Campus tour.
Have fun.
Hokie Focus update.
First: Hyatt is really nice.
2 morning lectures. Son tuned out for both. They should really separate kids from parents to engage kids.
Campus is really beautiful. Large but not too large. Architecture is beautiful. My S felt their mascot should be a knight based on architecture.
But…he said you can’t make friends with architecture.
He didn’t connect with any students.
BTW. We got there at 8:40. No car parking line. It really did not start unt 9:00.
@MSMead NCState accepted student day for early action engineers broke out students and parents as soon as we walked in the door. Really well done. Students romped around campus in small groups, etc. Got back together at end of the day. Small # of students though - no more than 100 or so. Think VT should try to do something like that, even if it’s just seperate lectures.
Glad to hear about Hyatt
Where do you think son will go now?
My guess is he’sheaded to RIT.
Hokie Focus Impression
- Parking was plentiful. We parked in the garage with no problem and didn’t get there until 8:45.
- We were greeted by a great bunch of energetic students who genuinely appeared to love this school and their experience here.
- The opening lecture started right on time and was very welcoming and informative in terms of overview.
- We were seated by major and it worked well at dismissal as we were lead by student ambassadors to the major informational session.
- The major information session was long (almost an hour and a half) and there were moments where my S became slightly disengages BUT for the most part it was extremely helpful and the speaker - in our case the director - was very knowledgeable, responsive to questions and attempted on many occasions to bring the students into the discussion.
- We wanted to walk through the info fair so we chose to Grab a sandwich in Squires and ate amongst a bunch of students who were very friendly.
- The info fair was “ok” - I expected a showing of more clubs and more students but it was still good in that it provided an opportunity to see the “big picture” of how much you can get involved in here at VT
- Tour - our tour guide was fantastic! We spent time around the entire perimeter of campus, she answered tons of questions and we had a very interactive group.
- Overall - I think the Hokie Day is what you make of it. The day is not carved out for you after your info session. It is up to you to choose additional breakout sessions or walk around and immerse yourself in the campus.
I will say that it would be a great idea to “force” the kids upon one another a little by breaking out away from parents perhaps so they could get a better feel as to whether they would like or connect with the student body. However, I think our experience was fine without that division. The goal here seemed to be to give parents and students an in-depth look at the campus in general and the particular program the student was admitted to. - My S’s impression “this place is great!” “I really like it here” “I see myself here” “I feel comfortable here” and the list goes on. My impression was that first, yes, the campus with the stone buildings is absolutely impressive, second I felt welcomed by everyone there, third I was impressed by the amount of knowledge and ability to respond to lots of questions was held by the info session speaker and the tour guide, fourth I came away with the impression that the students here truly do love being here which is a huge indication in my eyes of the overall “health” of the campus, it seemed neither subpar nor too intense. Lastly, the spirit of Hokie Nation is a draw. I feel that the students walk around feeling like they are a part of something much bigger than themselves and/or their small friendship group. It’s like a big extended family which attracted me greatly. I have been privy to campuses and educational experiences where school spirit is destroyed by an unsatisfied number of students or on the other hand an overwhelming existence of competition amongst peers. Those two situations are draining and stressful on students. The amount of happiness and spirit I saw today on campus by enrolled students simply confirms to me that they are happy at VT.
I’m sure everyone will have a different experience but best of luck to those going tomorrow! Make the most out of it and enjoy!!
“He didn’t connect with any students”. Just curious about expectations for the day/what that means?
Home Place in Catawba, Virginia has good food. Nice drive, nice setting , a few miles from Blacksburg.
In regard to “connect with students”, he didn’t feel like those he met were like him. He would be perfectly fine there I’m sure. He really liked the Galileo dorm tour and presentation. He said it would have been a hard choice between VT and RIT if he got into Galileo but thats a limited opportunity with no idea if he would get in. BTW the Goodwin engineering building is very impressive.
At RIT he felt like all the students he met were just like him. As he looked around there (in the tunnels etc) they were obviously into video games and geeky things like humans vs zombies to blow off steam after finals.
I really wish they has separated the students from the parents for the presentations at VT. It would have been great for him to walk around with other admitted students in engineering and maybe feel a connection. I loved the campus and Blacksburg. Its a great college town experience. Im a little disappointed in his reaction.
He was also concerned about their statement of beliefs that they handed out which he thought may cause an atmosphere of censorship.
Its all about fit.
Interesting that he thought the principles of community sounded like censorship.
It wasn’t all of the principles. I think for him it sounded like any negative opinions on issues(whatever tbey may be) would not be accepted or openly debated. He has a class called Principles of Democracy in which they learn about and debate sensitive issue’s. He was not saying that the principles indicate this, it was just a question for him.
@MSMead I can understand why your son might not have felt it was the right place for him. It sounds like he is very “techy” - am I even spelling that right? lol - and I agree that the kids did not seem as “tech oriented” as one would think? In other words, walking around Worcester Poly or RPI etc. (I don’t know about RIT) you encounter more kids that just have that tech look? I can’t explain it but I do understand. VT seemed more diverse and encompassed an athletic/community experience of some sort that I cannot put my finger on. For us, this was key because although my son loves technology he plays baseball, lacrosse, volleyball etc and always would shy away from things like debate, science club and/or robotics. Poly nor RPI was a right fit for him and they are both fabulous schools. So, you are right, it is all about the right “fit” for each kid. Glad your son has found his “home away from home” at RIT!! Best of luck to him 