<p>Im just wondering because the party scene is a big factor for me. I just want to make sure the kids at Virginia tech know how to have a good time.</p>
<p>Try University of Maryland if you want to party.</p>
<p>Im a freshman at tech, parties are dope if you roll with the right crew. Even if you dont you can still get in almost anywhere, youll just be partying with randoms</p>
<p>Here’s a giant post I made on the subject a while back, with typos from typing it on my phone intact:</p>
<p>Nightlife: I could write a book.</p>
<p>The party scene is fantastic. No, it isn’t as good as the professional party schools, (JMU) but VT still has a great party atmosphere. The unbalanced gender ratio is offset by the fact that a lot of Radford girls party at VT, so don’t worry about that. The buses run late on the weekends (till 130 or 230) am service campus, downtown, and the big apartment complexes so you don’t have to worry about driving anywhere. A few notes:</p>
<p>Frat parties are pretty cool, especially at the beginning of the year. If you’re a girl keep an eye on your drink. After a couple weeks they start going into hardcore pledge mode and that’s when they get a little less fun if you aren’t pledging (I never did,) but still, good times.</p>
<p>There are some bars where you can pull off drinking underage sometimes, but in my experience Blacksburg is one of the hardest places to do it. I didnt really get into the bar scene until I was 21 but it is very nice. There aren’t any dance clubs though. My favorite places were The Cellar (hammertime!) Champs (like Big Al’s but you have more than 20 square inches to yourself) and Rivermill. Also legally before they will give you a diploma you have to go to TOTs and get a rail. It actually isn’t that unpleasant (going down anyway) but… Don’t have anything to do the next day. And for gods sake don’t get 2.</p>
<p>Also anyone that claims that downtown isn’t walking distance from The Village is a liar.</p>
<p>Once you’re 21 if you’ve got some money and a DD check out Roanoke one Saturday night. The Market Square District is where all the good places are (punch Cornerstone into your gps and you’ll be in the right place.) They have some dance clubs (Metro is great if its packed, Cornerstone is good sometimes, 202 is alright but consistently packed. These three places are about 2 minutes walking distance from eachother.) Just stay away from the Roanoke College area. It’s boring and terrible and if you tell anyone you’re from VT they’ll wonder why you drove an hour to get somewhere boring and terrible.</p>
<p>Now, the party scene is a different animal. It IS a little bit cyclical in my experience, in that on average the bigger parties happen toward the beginning of the year, then it dies down a bit in the winter (finals + it’s cold), then comes back with a vengeance in the spring. Also mos parties cost a couple bucks to get a cup at. Don’t complain because the alternative is, well, obviously worse than being at a party since that’s what you decided to do tonight. Bring singles or fives; nobody wants to break your 20. Let me elaborate.</p>
<p>Everyone wants to throw parties at the beginning of the year. Most people just moved into their new place, they’ve been working some crappy job the last few months, classes don’t matter that much yet, it’s really the perfect storm. You can, if you are a reasonably socially literate person, go to a big apartment complex and just walk into a party. This is about 10x as effective if you bring your own booze, and 1000x as effective if you are a girl. If/when you’re invited to a party (people are generally friendly and the more you talk to them the more stuff you’ll find out about) and you plan on bringing your pack of lovable freshman compadres make sure you ask if you should invite more people. Don’t ask if you CAN, ask if you SHOULD. Also don’t bring a ton of guys unless you know the people throwing the party pretty well and you know it won’t be an issue, because nothing will get you put in the “don’t tell him about it” column faster than being That Guy that threw off the gender ratio with a bunch of freshman. But yeah, fall has the big parties then the football games (tailgating everywhere.)</p>
<p>Then winter hits. Winter in blacksburg is cold and windy, doubly so at night. Now is when all those people you made friends with earlier (you remembered to talk to someone other than the keg, right?) come in handy. There are still house parties, they’re just smaller on average since its cold and people are starting to realize that maybe studying sometimes is a good idea. There are still occasionally big parties, though, you just have to make sure you stay in the loop a bit. Downtown is actually nice in the winter because it’s less packed, and personal space at Big Al’s increases to a roomy 22 square inches per person. Don’t let what I’m saying scare you though, if you know people that threw a lot of parties earlier they still will now, and the cold weather keeps the less hardy roving packs of freshmen away, do I actually had a better time partying during the winter in some ways. And then Christmas break starts.</p>
<p>And then Christmas break ends. It’s still cold but the finals depression is over, it’s a solid month until you have to see grades that really matter and everyone is ready to do it all over again. Theres a flurry of activity at the very beginning, then it dies a bit, and then spring hits. It doesn’t get quite as wild as fall since people are more concerned with grades, but you start seeing some of the bigger parties again and downtown gets PACKED (why this is is pretty simple but I’ll leave as an exercise to the reader.) Its a pretty glorious couple months until finals hit and everything comes to a screeching halt, especially the weekend before finals when everyone wants to throw/go to one last party. </p>
<p>There is one exception to everything I just said, and that is Tuba Parties. Tuba Parties are… well… Tuba Parties. I can’t compare them to anything else. Like the ancient roman gods they exist in a world that is like ours, but on a different plane. If you happen to meet a Tuba player make sure to keep in touch. And no, I wasn’t a tuba player (or in band at all,) but I went to several of their parties and well… I don’t know if I’d say it’s better but my life certainly is different for it.</p>
<p>Saw this and thought I’d step in and elaborate on Chuy’s previous post, more specifically on the greek scene since he pretty much covered everything else well enough.</p>
<p>First off, I’m a senior graduating with honors in May, have been involved in greek life since freshman year, and am a sorority sweetheart, so clearly I may have been a little “too” greek in my time here.</p>
<p>Chuy is spot on about greek parties being huge the first few weeks. Rush starts the 3rd week of the year and most fraternities throw ragers to get freshman interested, these typically are the worst parties the good fraternities throw and the best the bad ones do. Which brings us to the divide however. On campus there are about 8-10 typical fraternal organizations (fratty, sorority exclusive, no GDI’s, etc) and 10-15 “freshman frats” which are what most of the campus sees on a weekly basis. This is because, after rush, the serious fraternities shut down all public activity to avoid the university, they have their pledges and it’s time to dump the independents that get you in trouble and drink your alcohol. Granted, for some of these, freshman girls can still get into parties, but it’s mostly sororities only. These are where the best parties on campus are, just think of the stereotypical movie. If you pledge one of these, get ready for the hardest 10-15 weeks of your life so far as a pledge.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you have the freshmen frats, or the organizations that non-greek students interact with the most. Freshmen tend to think these fraternities are the best if they don’t pledge. Obviously because they keep throwing decent parties throughout the semester and allow random people, aka freshmen, to come drink with them. These are also the sketchy houses that you’ll get sick of in favor of apt parties which are EVERYWHERE around campus. Which isn’t a bad thing, they are fun, but can get repetitive after a few months on campus.</p>
<p>In terms of other parties, football weekends are insane, best in the ACC (I’ve been to Clemson) and you can pretty much find your typical college party anywhere. Probably around 55-60 percent of the most attractive girls on campus go greek, so if that’s what you want I’d suggest pledging. On a cautionary note, being in a top fraternity generally means you’re going to be hanging out with sorority girls and frat guys all the time, if you have a lot of friends not interested in joining and you want to stay tight with them, don’t join as a freshman. They tend to get sucked in more than anyone and live and breath TFM’s.</p>
<p>Overall the party scene here is excellent, the ratio isn’t that noticeable because most of the guys that skew it are engineers or other “nerdy” majors who don’t find crowding around a keg, sweating, and yelling to be heard appealing. If you want to party, you’ll have no trouble doing it, and if you want to study, that’s a viable option as well.</p>
<p>Which frats are the “traditional frats”? </p>
<p>And are the frats at Oak Lane any different from the ones off campus?</p>
<p>There are over 30 fraternities on campus here, I use the term “traditional” to describe the organizations that are similar in operation to SEC schools. VT is by no means an SEC-style greek school, and as such, every organization has distinct differences from the others which is what makes our greek community so diverse.I won’t name the fraternities I consider traditional because the administration doesn’t really like that when it comes to recruitment before rush. Check out VT’s IFC and browse through the various organizations website’s to get an idea.</p>
<p>Oak Lane is just the on campus community, all sororities have to live there and the university wants to move all off-campus organization to Oak Lane through the new Phase IV project. The fraternities in oak lane aren’t any different than off campus, they just happen to live in the community. Most of the off-campus fraternities are only still off-campus because they’ve been at tech since the 70’s and own property in town.</p>
<p>who cares about the parties i just want to get in for my future</p>
<p>Then learn punctuation. If you like going to parties then partying is fun. If you don’t do things to have fun in college then you won’t do as well as you would even if you spent the time that I spent partying studying. The party scene isn’t for everybody; some people like getting together with friends and watching movies, or going to church, or going on campin trips, but it is very, very important that you take part in some sort of social activities while you’re in college.</p>