<p>So we don't drive our kids crazy with our questions :) I suspect I will have many over the next several months! If you are a current UVA parent, it would be great to have you share your experience and insight...</p>
<p>Mom1113: What are some things you would like answers to, for and about? S is a first year engineering student. He is very happy but is working extremely hard this semester, much more than he did first semester. Part of the reason is that during first semester 3 of his 6 courses were subjects he took in HS. Not the case this semester, plus he was trying to gear himself to be able to chose between two engineering disciplines. That meant jumping up to 20 credits which is a lot by any standard. He also took on a job this semester which is 13 to 15 hours/week. Let me know what you want answers about and I will try to help you. S is very happy at UVA.</p>
<p>At the moment, I have fairly basic questions about the meal plan choices and housing assignments, as well as questions about course planning. </p>
<p>After reviewing the meal plans and feedback from one friend, it seems that the plan with more plus $ is the way to go. But, how far does $250/semester go? Is that realistically enough to get them through the semester (with care packages from home), or should we budget for more?</p>
<p>Will the housing selection be clarified more once we officially start the request? Are there choices/cost variations? Or will we simply go with luck of the draw?</p>
<p>For academics, I do have questions about the first semester load. In a perfect world, the first semester would be designed to allow adjustment, but how likely is that if my D is pursuing a degree in Astrophysics? She is ready to jump in with both feet, but we want her to enjoy life at the same time 
Recommendations?? The department website recommends early advising. Anyone know when she would have access to this guidance? Will all of this be available to her during orientation in July?</p>
<p>Wirefox, My D applied to engineering and she’s considering taking Calc III since she is currently in AP Calc BC and is trying for a 5 on the exam. Which Math did your son take first semester and what were his other courses. Trying to figure out if she should repeat some courses or move forward. </p>
<p>Thanks for any advice. I’m glad your son likes UVA.</p>
<p>Ditto the math question! While starting with Calc 3 is a great jumpstart, anyone recommend against it?</p>
<p>Mom1113:</p>
<p>I’m a student, not a parent, but I think I can answer some of your questions for you!</p>
<p>For most, $250 plus should be plenty for the semester! Most meals will probably be eaten at a dining hall, and the plus dollars are just for the occasional meal at Crossroads, the Castle, or the Pav, and snacks and drinks whenever. I (and most of my friends) had leftover plus dollars at the end of last semester, which rolled over to this semester.</p>
<p>As far as housing, there isn’t much choice available. Your daughter could apply to a residential college like Brown, which is known for having more of the “artsy” and “unique” types, or just go with regular first-year housing. You do not get to select a preference within first-year housing, so your daughter could be put in one of several areas, including old dorms (closest to central grounds, but no AC) and Gooch/Dillard (further away but close to the AFC, the stadium, and Runk, which some believe is the best dining hall, suite-style, single rooms, AC). They are tearing down a lot of the new dorms (which aren’t actually new, but comparatively to old dorms they are) after this school year and building nice new ones that are hall-style with AC.</p>
<p>Thanks Skipblue!</p>
<p>To answer your academic questions, there will be faculty members available to advise course selection during orientation, but they may or may not be extremely helpful as they are dispersed on a random basis so you never know what departments they will be from. I would not count on any significant advising being done at orientation.</p>
<p>Also, before your daughter begins taking many classes in her major she should focus on fulfilling requirements. She may be able to take care of some through AP credit, but unless she is an Echols scholar she will have to take care of a foreign language requirement, first writing requirement, second writing requirement, humanities requirement, non-Western perspectives, social sciences, historical studies, and math/science. That should be the main priority your first two years.</p>
<p>Calc II is widely regarded as a “weed-out” class here and is quite difficult, so if your daughter can start with Calc III that would probably be to her benefit!</p>
<p>Mom1113 and foreveramom: Well I actually had to call my son regarding some of your questions. As far as meal plans, his suggestion is less meals/more plus $. He is currently on a 15 meal/week $200 plus $/semester. He told me that he rarely uses 12 meals/week. He doesn’t spend down the $200 plus. He actually fed me in one of the cafeterias when I picked him up at the beginning of March for his spring break. He says the meal plans are a rip off. Interesting comment coming from a 19 yo male but in reality he is not a huge eater.
I also asked him about housing but because he is a Rodman scholar (like an Echols for Coll. of Arts & Sciences), his housing was predetermined. He is in a dorm called Webb which is suites with 5 bedrooms, a common room and is for 10 boys. Mixed girls/boys by floors and they are all Rodman or Echols. I do know that his dorm is being torn down this summer and there are new ones being built behind his dorm. Not sure if the new ones will be for Rodman/Echols. I vaguely remember on the tour I took my daughter on last year that students can request roommates and I think they can request dorms. I am not 100% sure on that but I think you could find that on the UVA website. FYI: My son has two friends from his high school that went to UVA…one a Rodman, the other not and they lived together. The non Rodman was placed into a Rodman/Echols dorm. The Rodman student was told he had to be in the honors dorm.</p>
<p>Mom1113: The advising/guidance does take place during the orientation over the summer. Also, I have to tell you to be prepared for your daughter not getting everything she may want as far as courses. Did not happen to my son but friends of mine have had to deal with that problem with their kids who are third years. However, I guess it works out in the end. Also, one thing I will say (I have a junior at W&M) I think kids in general find that first semester of college harder than they expect so not taking the hardest courses possible is probably a good idea.</p>
<p>4everamom: My son took AP Calc BC in 11th grade and then took a semester course in Linear Algebra and a semester course in Multivar as a senior. He could have attempted to test out of Linear Algebra and Calc III (which is Multivar) at UVA but he chose to take both courses his first semester. I believe if your daughter gets a 5 on the BC calc exam she can opt out of retaking calculus I and II. He retook the linear algebra and Calc III because he wanted some courses to be a little easier and he also figured that in retaking those two courses he would be helping himself as he moved into more difficult engineering courses. He also took Intro to Engineering which all engineering students take first semester and Computer Science which I believe is also required. He took Macroeconomics because he was/is considering a double major in economics. (I have no idea if this will really work out.) Finally he took Physiology I during fall semester and is now taking Physiology II because he wants to do Biomed. Eng. It was a total of 19 credits which I know sounds like way too many but the two math courses plus the physiology were basically repeats from high school courses.</p>
<p>Thank you Wirefox and Skipblue. I was able to locate the usual course sequence for each of the Physics Major tracks on the department website. Combined with your feedback, we can begin to map out a plan! The Astronomy/Physics sequence is a big load, so utilizing AP credit for Calc I and II as well as for all the A&S general requirements possible should help! I am going to encourage my D to try to make contact with one of the department advisors ahead of orientation.</p>
<p>More importantly, it doesn’t sound like she will go hungry As far as housing, we will just go with the flow!</p>
<p>Current student here – I’ll just echo what’s already been said about Calc 2. I’d highly recommend someone who places out of it just move on to Calc 3 (Multivar) – it’ll make a first semester much more manageable. Wirefox did a fantastic job of answering these questions, but I’ll also keep an eye on this thread, and I’d be happy to answer anything you guys might have to ask.</p>
<p>We couldn’t make it to Rodman tour last weekend. Does anyone know what dorm kids will be in that are Rodman? Will the new dorms be completed for them? Also, for Rodman other than the first year housing and seminars, are there any other perks? Are students happy there in engineering? Trying to decide between schools and we are out of state.</p>
<p>We live in San Diego and my daughter was admitted to the Class of 2015. She is concerned about feeling like an outsider at UVa because of the relatively large number of in-state students. I was wondering if any current OOS students or their parents might weigh in on how their adjustment was to UVa and if they felt like an outsider at all. Did it seem like in-state students already had established groups of friends? Any insight is appreciated!</p>
<p>^ I am an International student and have friends from all over the country. People will form groups based on interests or living areas. The vast majority of in-state students, as far as I can tell, make no real effort to stay with the random kids they went to high school with.</p>
<p>Most people initially bond with the people they live closest to first year, regardless of what state they are from. Also, Virginia is a very diverse state.</p>
<p>We were told at Scholars day that the new dorms would be finished for Echols/Rodman by Fall 2011 term…</p>
<p>Not sure where to post my recent experience with UVA:</p>
<p>My S was accepted and 3 days ago he received an email that said:</p>
<p>Dear S name,</p>
<p>It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been awarded scholarship assistance from the Paul Mellon Scholarship Fund for the 2011-12 academic year at the University of Virginia. Your selection for this University scholarship is based upon your academic achievement as well as your financial need.</p>
<p>The scholarship award of $17,237 is reflected on the Student Information System (SIS). This award will be disbursed to your student account in two equal payments. The fall portion will be disbursed in mid August, and the spring portion in January. Both disbursements will be applied prior to the term billing due date for each term. The funds from this scholarship are generated from an endowment, so each years award amount will vary by the number of eligible recipients and the yearly performance of the endowment. </p>
<p>I congratulate you on this high honor and extend my best wishes for continued academic success. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Scholarship group at <a href=“mailto:scholarships@virginia.edu”>scholarships@virginia.edu</a> or by phone at 434 982-6000.</p>
<p>Later that day he received a second email saying:</p>
<p>Dear S name,</p>
<p>We are writing to express our sincere apology for a recent mailing error that has occurred. Due to a mail merge error, you were inadvertently sent an email, dated 4-18-11, congratulating you on receiving a Paul Mellon Scholarship. This is an unfortunate mistake and we ask that you disregard that message. Should you be offered a scholarship from the University of Virginia, we will send the announcement to you in letter form. Please do not hesitate to contact the scholarship group, should you have any questions. Again, please disregard our previous email, as it was forwarded to you in error.</p>
<p>Kind regards,</p>
<p>Student Financial Services </p>
<p>Unbelievable, right? What a slap in the face and careless communication. Just needed to vent.</p>
<p>D is OOS 1st year. Had same concerns and learned unfounded. She is in old dorms and her hall has less than 1/2 in-state residents. Not sure if that was intentional by Housing. She did notice during sorority rush that certain sororities had large concentrations from certain schools and some were more heavily in-state and others OOS. She is a joiner and hit the ground running and immediately had a wide circle of friends. She probably has more OOS close friends but that is understandable given the large percentage of OOS on her hall. She had no difficulty fitting in, making friends and loves it there.</p>
<p>My son just got his 1st year housing assignment. He’s in Dillard in one of the suites with 5 other roommates (but in his own “room”, i.e. closet, lol!). I was hoping to have a name of his roommate today, so a bit disappointed that we don’t yet know names of any of the other suitemates (it just says “no assignment” under roommate). I am very impatient, lol! </p>
<p>S is very artsy (indie kid/hipster) and I encouraged him to apply to Brown, but he procrastinated on the application and had too many AP exams to study for that same week. So, he ultimately just applied to random housing. I think he may still apply to Brown for next year, but just wondering what he’s gotten himself into? Hoping someone will tell me it’s all going to be ok. We’re both very optimistic and can’t imagine that there would be a “bad housing assignment” at UVa, but want honesty here!</p>
<p>I’ve come to terms with his housing assignment and he’s looking forward to living in a suite! Just wanted to update. Sometimes it’s just a matter of processing information :). They did post all his suitemates names/contacts a couple days after assignment was given too. Time to start shopping for dorm essentials! Move in day, 8/19!</p>