<p>Even though my son had already accepted his offer and had already the campus for a running camp last year, we came to Hokie Focus yesterday. It was a great experience. I am so happy he will be attending a school with such a strong sense of community in addition to the great acedemic program. Yesterday had 6800 participants for the 3.2 mile run for 32. During the presentations it was mentioned that last year tech had the largest collegiate participation in the world for Relay for Life. We met many friendly and helpful students and faculty while walking around the campus.</p>
<p>What did everyone else think of Hokie Focus?</p>
<p>We were in the same boat last year. My son had already been accepted ED & was going but we both just wanted a second look. We were able to truly feel that Hokie Spirit & look at the campus with a finer viewpoint instead of of a “love the school but we’ll see what happens once you get accepted” point. Seeing the dorm rooms & how they were set up were great, how the laundry worked, finding the bank branch we already use, etc. And of course seeing the smile on my son’s face when it was done & having him say “VT is for me & I can’t wait” was the icing on the cake. Good luck to your son this fall!</p>
<p>Wow - did we attend the same Hokie Focus? Background: my daughter is currently a sophomore at VT and my son is committed to attending in the fall. My daughter LOVES VT and my son is really excited about attending. We ran the 3.2 for 32 and attended the Sunday program.</p>
<p>That being said, I think the presentations for the day fell very short. First, President Steger read his speech. We have seen him before so we knew what to expect. However I was surprised at the irrelevance and poor delivery of the speeches by the President and Vice-President of Hokie Ambassadors. I was told that the presentation for the University Studies (US) students was downright depressing. The presenter started off the session by the letting the admitted students know they were not losers just because they didn’t get into engineering. This was insulting to those students who had applied directly to US. I was very saddened by the whole day since my son has friends who were undecided about attending VT and were very turned off by the presentations. </p>
<p>VT is such a wonderful school and provides an outstanding college experience. Its too bad they dont feel a need to market themselves on the accepted student day.</p>
<p>@Wormula: I was just wondering what about the Pres. and VP of Hokie Ambassador’s speech you thought was bad? I know the President pretty well so it’s somewhat shocking to hear that. I am also a new Hokie Ambassador. What did they speak about?</p>
<p>@HokieFreshman: congratulations on becoming a Hokie Ambassador. I understand that it is very competitive. My daughter (sophomore at VT) had exact same comment as you: “shocked” to hear that Prez of Hokie Ambassadors was not great. Apparently he has a reputation as a great public speaker and is beloved on campus. I have no desire to say anything bad about this clearly accomplished young person. All I want to say is that both he and the VP missed the opportunity to talk about the strength of the Hokie family, very real sense of “Ut Prussim” that exists on the campus, and the strength and heart of a school that has known tragedy. The Prez might have said some of this in the beginning of the speech, but due to bad acoustics (?) we could not understand what he was saying. We were able to hear his story about an elementary student, but the relevance of the story was not obvious. The VP told a short story about a chance meeting with an alumni in an airport which touched on the power and the reach of the Hokie Nation. More emphasis on that kind of story would have helped sell the school.</p>
<p>Incidently, we went to the Physics session and it was fantastic. The undergraduate coordinator, the head of the department and two professors gave off a vibe of being a physics family that cared about the students success in the program. It really motivated my son and increased his enthusiasm for the program.</p>