<p>I'd be lying if I said I wasn't "apprehensive" about attending Tech. After the shooting, and then some other kidnappings and stuff, it seems a bit dangerous. I want to go to Tech, I visited and it's beautiful, but I can't get over the feeling that I'd be in "danger" while I'm there. I know it probably sounds stupid, but still. How's the campus security? Do current students feel safe there?</p>
<p>The kidnapping happened at UVA. It is extremely safe here.</p>
<p>The reality is people are concerned because of the Tech shooting in 07.</p>
<p>I will say that can happen at any campus around the world. That was not a reflection of Tech, but a child who had emotional/mental issues. Don’t select a college because you think it will never happen or that there is no history of it happening… selected Tech in 06 and you learned that fallacy of security issues was a fallacy come April 07.</p>
<p>Tech has across the entire campus, like other campuses, emergency stations, and the police can get to you quickly. Tech boasts that it is a 2 minute response call. For safety fears that is pretty darn good. That open knowledge reduces risks immediately because the perpetrator has very little time to commit a crime before being caught. </p>
<p>Tech has a full time police force, not campus, but true police officers. That makes it a safer campus. The best deterrent is police.</p>
<p>I do have a safety issue with Tech TO A POINT. Most colleges make you swipe your id card to enter and then again to take the elevator, in some like UMD or JHU you must swipe again to get into your wing (both have co-ed floors—id card for a girl will not work to get into the guys side and vise a verse). Tech only has the swipe to get into the building, eception is their new “hotel living dorm”. In other words once in you are free to roam the building, because you can get in the stairwells or the elevators without swiping.</p>
<p>That being said here is the reality…I have been let in our DS’s dorm by kids exiting and entering. I have gotten on the elevator the same way and on the floor too. Yes, I am a Mom, but the fact is they could be letting in a 20 yo male thinking they are a student. The student allows them in because they have a false sense of belief that everyone is good and kind with no ulterior motive. That is something you should place in the back of your brain, the next time you let someone into the dorm that you don’t know, maybe you let in the wrong person. Not trying to make you paranoid, just trying to make you understand that security can only go so far, if you let a stranger in without swiping out of kindness then you hurt the system that was created to protect you and your dorm mate. </p>
<p>In the end of the day you can’t expect the college to keep you safe, a lot has to do with you. There is no true safety net for security reasons. They can do everything they can, but there is no guarantee. The only way to guarantee safety is to be smart. Don’t walk across campus at night by yourself. Don’t hold the door open at the dorm for a stranger. It really comes down to how you protect yourself that makes a campus safe or risky.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t know anyone who feels uncomfortable walking across campus at night. Blacksburg is a very safe town (as long as you steer clear of the infamous Mall Deer 
) and the campus is even safer.</p>
<p>April 16th was a terrible thing, but like you said it could happen anywhere. It was not indicative of an overall problem at VT in my opinion. </p>
<p>Also, we do have Safe Ride, where you can call the VT police and they’ll drive you wherever you need to go on campus. The only reason I know of people using that is to get back from the Cage (parking lot,) and that’s usually as much because they don’t feel like walking as it is a safety thing.</p>
<p>Chuy, I am not trying to safe that the campus is unsafe at night. Honestly, after seeing the campus, compared to other campuses, I would say for a female it is the SAFEST. Our DD is tiny, but I can guarantee you she could run fast enough to hit one of those blue light emergency posts which would make the attacker disappear.</p>
<p>The next thing I would say is that based on how the campus is sit up, Academic on one side and residential on the other, it is highly unlikely you would be walking across campus at night by yourself. Other colleges have dorms spread all across so you maybe studying with a friend at their dorm and have to trek across the campus to your housing. Tech, they are all together.</p>
<p>The ambassadors that gave the accepted student 14 open house this weekend all had the same “SELLING POINT/SCRIPT”</p>
<p>The Science department did a study to see if every BLUE LIGHT EMERGENCY button was hit simultaneously what would be the avg response time. They did it multiple times and all of them had less than 2 minutes.</p>
<p>You may worry security, but I would say flip it. Wouldn’t you feel safer there because of the pain and loss the school suffered. To them they have it etched in their minds and are doing everything to lose that illusion. IMHO they are safer than any other school. They unfortunately lived reality, the others are living theoretically. You are actually safer there than at UVA.</p>
<p>UVA is walking around with blinders saying NOT US, NEVER US. TECH said that too. TECH now has safety nets, UVA still has blinders! For me if I was concerned about security I would choose the one that removed the blinders and faced the facts.</p>
<p>Ferozi, I am actually glad you are apprehensive. You sense of keeping safe will help in keeping you safe no matter where you go. But you don’t have to be more worried about Virginia Tech than any other university. I will give you this personal example that hopefully says a bit about how safe my son feels there. He has a younger sister that he adores and has been so protective of since they were little. She is starting to put together schools she is interested in. Her brother is like a walking VT recruiter with her. He wants her to join him there so badly. Wouldn’t happen if he didn’t think she would be safe. You would have to know him, but not in a million years.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, I do feel a little better about going there.</p>
<p>It’s just all those kidnappings and stuff that you hear about…creeps me out!</p>
<p>Again, the kidnapping didn’t even happen here.</p>
<p>Blacksburg is extremely safe. Look, when you study statistics, you look at something called an outlier; the 4/16 massacre was an outlier. It isn’t a reflection of crime in Blacksburg because if it was, then you would have to record a 3200% increase from 2006 in the murder rate which just isn’t reflective of this school. </p>
<p>2001 1
2002 2
2003 0
2004 1
2005 0<br>
2006 1
2007 0
2008 0
2009 1</p>
<p>These are the murders/manslaughters this decade. It honestly just isn’t unsafe. Now truth be told, but there is a very large problem of petty theft. Leaving laptops on the desk at the library, your dorm room unlocked, etc.</p>