"Swamped with a surge of incoming freshmen it hadn’t foreseen, Virginia Tech this summer tried all kinds of dorm-maximizing tricks to squeeze in its largest class ever. Singles morphed into doubles, doubles into triples. Lounges became pop-up bedrooms for three or more.
And it shunted more than 500 students into a pair of hotels, including a Holiday Inn Express, here in the hills of Southwest Virginia." …
1.) Paywall.
2.) This is very old news.
3.) “Shunted” is hardly accurate, but sells subscriptions I guess. Again - paywall - not sure if the balance of the story leans the same way or not. As a student, if you found the Inn or the HIE as your only options for housing then you should have completed your housing contract right after you accepted the admissions offer.
4.) HIE’s rooms are pretty nice and remain as doubles, but tough location for dining halls though. Inn rooms even as triples have good space and nice location for academic side of campus. A/C in both. Private baths in both. 20% housing credit per student if in triples at Inn. Not sure if those details are mentioned, because, well… paywall.
5.) Other universities in Virginia and other states have had similar situations occur in the past.
6.) VT students are resilient. The hotel stories they will have to share will be the stuff of legend, and it’s doubtful they’ll use “shunted” when they describe their first year experience.
7.) Paywall.
This is happening this year at local college. Combination of some dorms off line for renovations and large freshman class. And it happened my freshman year at same school over 35 years ago. Wouldn’t want my kids there because I value traditional dorm experience but some kids really don’t care.
Tech’s setup for the hotels is about as close to a traditional dorm experience as you can get. Multiple RA’s on each floor, student programming and events that mirror those in the residence halls, etc.
Living a mile from campus in HIE doesn’t sound optimal to me for someone’s freshman year. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out over the next 8 months. The Roanoke Times will most likely run stories throughout the year addressing any issues. I’m sure out-of-state parents aware of this year’s over enrollment will think twice before letting their student commit to VT at close to $50,000 COA for engineering. In-state at $30,000 probably won’t be effected that much.
FYI, I don’t subscribe to WaPo and I was able to read the entire story. Try clearing your cache or using Google’s incognito mode.
Here is a nice new (non-hit piece) from Today Show discussing what colleges (Virginia Tech specifically) face when acceptances go above forecast.
https://www.today.com/video/colleges-find-creative-ways-to-house-overflow-of-students-67539525815
By the way - all the kids in hotels weren’t stuck there. Many chose the hotels because of the amenities vs. a standard dorm.
When I was at JMU in 1989 the Howard Johnson’s was rented out in the same manner off campus. Students loved the space they had at HoJo.
Per the video - student saying being placed in hotel at VT “a blessing”. As a matter of fact I haven’t seen a student complaint - just a bunch of parents who aren’t there.
As I expressed before - I have a real issue with parents who complain that too many kids got accepted. That is the equivalent of saying my kid was good enough to be in but your kid isn’t and they shouldn’t have let them in. Fact of the matter is more kids got into their dream school and accepted the offer than VT planned (still trying to figure out why that is so bad).
I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to access the WaPo story that wth the exception of the first paragraph (“shunted”), it was a balanced story that included comments from W&M’s administration about the uncertainty of the admissions process. The quote from the parent who said it was “scary” that their student would be living in a hotel pretty much tells you everything you need to know about who actually had the big issue with things and who didn’t (hint - it’s not the kids).
I was in town last week and saw move-in, etc. at both hotel locations and things were as smooth if not smoother than on campus. If HIE is indeed running hotel shuttles as the article seemed to indicate then that goes a long way to mitigating the inconvenience factor for dining when not already on campus.
@cbl1 @ShenVal18 I appreciate your eternal optimism, you’re both excellent advocates for Hokie Nation.
I’m not so sure the other articles have been “hit pieces” and I’m not particularly convinced the Today segment wasn’t just a PR move facilitated by the show’s very active Hokie alum co-host.
Today highlighted the housing at The Inn at Virginia Tech but didn’t venture the mile+ necessary to speak with freshman at the HIE facility. If my student lived at the I@VT I wouldn’t be that concerned about their integration into the Hokie campus community. The kids at HIE are much more isolated despite the shuttle. Starting over in unfamiliar surroundings as an 18 year old, away from home for the first time, is difficult for most and overwhelming for some. Getting started on the right foot is of the utmost importance. The students in HIE weren’t afforded the same opportunity as the rest of the freshman, and that’s really unfortunate.
As I’ve stated before, I’m approaching VT with cautious optimism going forward rather than the implicit trust I previously operated under. I need to see how things play out for this class as they advance. I’ll pay keen attention to admission numbers and freshman retention. If either @cbl1 of @ShenVal18 have access to the Class of 2023 parent’s Facebook page I’d love a pulse check on their attitude every few months. I know someone stated in the past that discussions about the over enrollment got out of control and had to be shut down by the Facebook moderators. Is there still a great deal of exasperation?
Seems like VT administration has handled the situation fairly well. My primary concerns would focus on cafeteria overcrowding & class sizes.
Dorm beds are only part of the troubling puzzle. It’s going to effect overall experience, parking, dinning, class size, administration response time etc etc
When Purdue overshot last year they added sections for courses, brought food trucks that took meal swipes, and worked out with local restaurants to take swipes. It all worked out. Of course this year they admitted less students and hit the forecasted yield on the nose. I bet next year will be more competitive for VT too.
I LOL’d about the mile away from campus. That’s a regular thing on many large campuses even when you live in the dorms.
There were large shuttle pickup signs at top hill from holiday inn when I drove by.
The parents Facebook page - they had some parents complain regarding lack of furnishings but otherwise no complaints on location etc.
The inn at Virginia Tech is on campus and closer to some academic buildings then a lot of dorms. Way closer to everything than the Greek houses.
I watched the Today Show story and they did interview a student who said dining is more crowded but ok. Hoda Kotb is a proud VT alumnus. I can’t remember the other schools but I believe it was four other colleges with record incoming freshman also. The freshman they interviewed was funny, he knew he would attend as soon as he got accepted (not sure if VA resident). Probably affects the Blacksburg area residents.
Why not permit freshmen to seek off campus housing when something like this happens? I would love for DD to have her own bedroom. She loves to cook and she would MUCH prefer to take care of her own meals. Plus we could leave her stuff there in the summer, AirBnB it maybe. I know I’m in the minority on this, but the way I see it is it’s one less headache for the college. I lived in a triple in college one year and it just sucked.
They did that. Freshman did not have to live on campus. I believe they only had like 50 kids elect to live off.
Add’l sections of many required 1st year courses were added. Class size was also restricted in many cases to same levels as in prior years. Dining hall crowds have and will always be a potential issue. All kids need to do is adjust their eating schedule slightly, and when they do course request try and get a bigger gap between classes so they can eat on the residential side of campus. Turner has never been fun between 11-2. You see a lot of comments about parking… my student lives off campus and has a relatively normal class schedule time-wise and has had zero issue with parking.
Both hotels would normally be full of guests who would be traveling by car around Blacksburg. Kids at the Inn are walking to class and dining, and probably 50% or more of the kids at HIE are shuttling. You could argue that there’s a net decrease in impact in some ways. And the residential areas closest to HIE are either dedicated student housing or private homes that are rented by students.
I don’t do Facebook so I can’t comment on what level of outrage/whining is taking place. Seeing that it is Facebook, my guess is the % is high and in many cases uninformed.
I’m not really trying to be an advocate of/for anything, just providing the point of view of a current student/parent who also knows families from the class of 2023, and adding some clarification to the occassional drive-by. (FYI - I am not a VT alum).