<p>89wahoo, I live in Virginia too. We have access to a reciprocal tuition agreement with private schools making it much cheaper than publics for us, so we did not really look at Virginia’s excellent state schools. If we had gone that route I would have encouraged D to look at George Mason, Mary Washington, and Christopher Newport. I think all are solid choices!</p>
<p>I like a lot about JMU, but it is a bit of a party school according to D’s friends who are there. It wouldn’t appeal to her anyway because a very large percentage of her school goes to JMU, with the other majority going to Tech. JMU is probably also becoming a bit more of a reach than the others listed above (and Tech definitely is).</p>
<p>bkbmom - we visited Rochester in the midst of an August heat wave - it was much hotter in Rochester than at our home 11 hours south!</p>
<p>Someone was telling me that Rochester gets less snow than Chicago, Buffalo, Syracuse. Is there really an appreciable difference? The gray is what always gets me. However, the duckling adores cold and snow - then again, she doesn’t pay the heating bill.</p>
<p>I know two people from Rochester, and they both say they’d move back in a minute.</p>
<p>Congrats Mamaduck and Duckling! This is great news and the event is well deserved.
In many ways I feel that this thread is hosted by you, Mamaduck, and I appreciate your support, interest and attention. Well Done!</p>
<p>mamaduck - I can’t say about Chicago but I’d guess we get more. Syracuse gets the most snow on the I-90 corridor between Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. Second place can go to either Rochester or Buffalo depending on the year. Today it’s going to be in the 60’s! Feel free to PM me with any questions.</p>
<p>@Mamaduck- thank you! GMU is in my list but we are in NOVA so not sure it’s on his… CNU is also there. Will look at Mary Washington. The other thing is he wants football and basketball… Lately Pitt has been on his radar. I need to finish with D13 because S24 is clearly in need of attention here!</p>
<p>In Virginia, I don’t know how one could avoid that.
A large number of Virginia HS students are naturally going to go to Virginia state schools.
But even so, there are 20,000 students on campus.
Even if your D’s entire senior class went to JMU, it would still be pretty easy to get “lost in the crowd” if she wanted to.</p>
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<p>I don’t think there is any question that JMU and Tech are a step or two above C-N and UMW.</p>
<p>Hello, long-time lurker here, just coming out of the closet (so to speak) to say that I’ve enjoyed this thread. It’s a breath of fresh air on CC. My S13 fits neatly into this demographic. I’ve been happy to read of your children’s acceptances and can now add two of my own!! :)</p>
<p>Son received acceptances from both Siena & Roanoke. (Roanoke even added some decent merit $$.) I know you will appreciate how excited & relieved we are at my house.</p>
<p>@GolfFather - Welcome to the thread. Undoubtedly a student could separate themselves at a large school. However, D wants to be away from SW Virginia, just because it is too close to home. It’s a valid way to narrow down a list. I grew up very close to UNC and NC State, and felt the same way. I think 89wahoo’s NOVA kid feels the same about George Mason. </p>
<p>As parents of B students, we are typically interested in schools with good fit and solid academics, not necessarily striving for the highest rankings. And, in our personal case, the private schools are more affordable. If we did not have such a generous benefit, she would apply to JMU along with the other three. Tech is just too huge for her (proving your point that it would indeed be easy to meet a whole new set of friends).</p>
<p>We are indeed blessed in Virginia with a great system - there are only a few schools out of 15 I would not want her to attend (and several she would have no chance of getting in).</p>
<p>@ELY - Congratulations, and welcome! I have strong ties to Roanoke. PM me if you have questions.</p>
<p>@wahoo, shoot, I typed out a long response and just lost it. D13 looked at Christopher Newport, U of Mary Washington, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth, and George Mason. There are good qualities to all of these schools! I think in our case, we were most impressed with UMW, but my daughter likes the smaller sized schools. My older son ('11) really liked JMU and if you look up the Common Data set, there are still a very small percentage that do get into JMU with under a 3.4 (worth a shot in other words). It depends on your son’s test scores, and the entire application (and when applying since EA at JMU helps). I say, start the visits :). It really helped my D13 get a better sense of what she was looking for in a school. I wish I had been able to get my son to go on more visits --he now wants to transfer from UVA to VT, but that’s a whole other story!</p>
<p>It’s been a while since I’ve been on here, but since the topic is currently on Virginia schools, I thought I’d ask if anyone has any experience with or opinions of Emory and Henry? DS was accepted there, but we haven’t visited!</p>
<p>Catpb–i wanted my S to apply to Emory and Henry, it seems like a great school…but in the end DS is sticking with mostly large universities. Wish I could tell ya’ more; I am curious what others know about it.</p>
<p>ELY-- welcome and congrats on the acceptances! Feels good to have a couple tucked away, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>DD has been accepted at Winthrop and Coastal Carolina in South Carolina and Warren Wilson. Waiting to hear from Guilford and App State. She is a C/B student in an IB program. She wants challenging classes but is not a star student. I think she will do well at a school where she will be part of a community of learners. </p>
<p>Love some feedback, especially about WW. Visited last month. Seems like a great school to prepare a person for a world we’d like to live in but not necessarily the world we do live in. Guilford seems to have a similar intent but more connected to the “real” world. So hard to judge, spending only one day at WW. </p>
<p>@catpb–I think Emory & Henry sounds like a great school for the right kid ([Emory</a> & Henry College | Colleges That Change Lives](<a href=“http://ctcl.org/colleges/emory-henry]Emory”>Emory & Henry College – Colleges That Change Lives)). I brought it up with DS’s GC and he said the one down side is most of the kids there are from that area–not a great geographic mix. As of now, DS is not planning on applying.</p>
<p>@nadine–pardon my bad memory, but I believe there’s a parent upthread whose D (?) is going to WW and is very excited about it. I’ve heard very good things about it too, but it’s not the right place for my kid. Please no one take offense if I call it a hippie college. I believe you’re right re: WW vs. Guilford. I know of several kids who’ve had <em>wonderful</em> experiences at Guilford. DS did apply there, although I think it is a little weeds-n-seeds for him. (Again–please no flames!) And have you visited Appy State? It’s high on DH’s and my list for DS and he did apply. Several people from our area (central VA) have sent kids there and have good things to say about it, but we haven’t visited yet. (In terms of other schools, UNC-W?)</p>
<p>mylb…just so you know…nobody in NC or anybody who attends ASU would refer to ASU as Appy State. It’s either Appalachian or App. </p>
<p>One of s1’s friends (from NC) went to Emory&Henry. He played football there. He liked it but did complain that there wasn’t much to do there in such a tiny town. He wasn’t a great h.s. student but grad. from E&H in four years and met his wife there. He came back to our town.started his own business,got maried,bought a house and is doing well.</p>
<p>Oooo–thanks, PackMom! Not sure how that started in my house–might be because I’ve called appetizers “appies” for years. That word kind of rolls out of my mouth! </p>
<p>While I have you, any thoughts about it? How would you describe the students? My older kids based a lot of opinions of different schools on the students they saw walking around.</p>
<p>Mylb, we have visit App State many times. It’s a difficult admit for OOS because NC limits OOS students (when my DS applied it was about 12%.) It’s also bigger and seems more impersonal but she loves the location. Very oudoorsy.</p>
<p>What does weeds n seeds mean re: Guilford? Never heard that one.</p>
<p>I’m an App grad (class of 89) and again for grad school (93). I loved it! It appeals to many outdoorsy people - beautiful country. Many new buildings since my time! </p>
<p>Back then, we would occasionally refer to ourselves as “Happy Appies”, but I never heard the actual school called “Appy”. Pet peeve for all who attend: people who say “appa LAY tion” instead of “app ah laaah chun”. Drop the long A, folks! I think the pronunciation of “Appalachian” changes in Ohio and points north.</p>
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