My son has been admitted to all and is trying to decide between them. He plans to pursue computer science. Overall, he prefers the college town feel of VT.
The one question I have is about the ability to get into large, introductory CS and math classes at each of the schools. The reason I ask is that my nephew changed colleges because he had difficulty getting into the beginning CS classes that were prerequisites for upper level courses.
I’d appreciate hearing from anyone with personal, recent experience at any of the above schools. Thanks!
I’ve worked with a couple of VT kids and they are GOOD. Great school, but said kids were not all too excited about Blacksburg :). NC State is also pretty good, I don’t know CS there but we have an EE or two from there, excellent.
If he feels most comfortable at VT, I’d go with that. It is excellent in his chosen field and gut feel should not be discounted as part of the equation.
DS is a sophomore engineering at VT now. Loves the town and the college and the community. Has had no issues getting into his required classes, other than Chem Lab; but the lab is not directly tied to the course, so it is not unusual for people to take it the semester after they take chemistry. Be warned that freshman level chemistry, calculus, and physics classes all take “common” exams; meaning that while your actual class may be 50 people or so (chemistry will be 400…), everybody takes the same tests during the semester at a specified time/location in the evening; tests are not written by your particular teacher, so may emphasize material that your instructor did not. And all tests are multiple choice. That doesn’t mean they don’t include significantly involved problems … it just means no partial credit. Homework is done and submitted via online portals like WebAssign; programming classes use WebCat for program submission/testing/grading. I doubt any of this would be different at any large engineering or CS school like NC State or UGA (especially given that WebAssign originated at NC State and has its office there…); just giving you/him a heads up about what to expect.
Or even at smaller schools. My daughter’s Calc classes all had school wide exams on Thurs at 7 pm. Chemistry was similar with quizzes on Fridays during the year but exams given to all sections at the same time. Her school is much smaller, with maybe 1000 freshmen, but a good half of those are in STEM so taking those core courses.
Thanks so much…that’s a relief and very helpful to know! I’m so glad to hear that getting into introductory classes is not an issue.
Since your son is a current student, I can’t resist asking if you have any thoughts about the on and off campus residential possibilities. Although this might change, my son would prefer to remain on campus beyond the mandatory freshman year. Are students more likely to be able to stay on campus if they’re in one of the Living-Learning Communities?
He’s strongly leaning towards VT and any other advice that comes to mind would be appreciated.
My DS did not get on campus housing for his sophomore year. There are ~ 9000 students on campus; last year, the freshman class was ~ 6000. So, not much housing left for sophomores and above. At least one of the LLC’s involves a 2-year commitment (I can’t remember which one … it isn’t major-specific, though; I believe it is in West AJ), so being in that one would have you on-campus for 2 years. My DS did the Galileo engineering LLC his freshman year. It was okay, but he did not want to continue there his sophomore year. Staying in is not automatic; you have to reapply and be chosen, because being a sophomore in that LLC involves commitment to being a mentor and involvement in the leadership of the community. He did not get on-campus for this year; he is in an apartment literally on the edge of campus. It has worked out well – he has an individual lease in a fully furnished apartment with his own room and own bathroom, so it is sort like just living in a quad; doesn’t matter so much whether you’re friends with your room-mates or not. He gets along okay with his, but they don’t hang out, and it isn’t an issue. He still eats most of his meals on campus, but has stuff on hand in the apartment for breakfast and snacks.
That’s really helpful to know. I didn’t realize the on campus housing capacity was that limited. Thanks for the information and I’m so glad to hear that your son is enjoying his time at VT.
Sorry, @benjd , I mis-typed. THIS year the freshman class was ~ 6000. It was a big deal because they ended up with about 1000 more freshmen accepting the offer of admission last spring than they aim for (their target is around 5000). Between the bigger # of people accepting admission and one of the dorms they were rebuilding not being complete on time, they had a housing crunch this past fall. They were offering non-freshmen students who had been offered on-campus housing for this year like $2500 to volunteer to give up their housing contracts last spring; this fall, there were many freshmen in triples, and they had to turn a few study lounges in to dorm rooms, as well as moving some of the “on campus” upper classmen actually off campus to an apartment complex (complete with RAs to run the place, though). The dorm (cadet housing) was completed by Christmas, and then housing reshuffled – moved the displaced cadets into the new dorm and reshuffled everyone else out of triples/lounges/etc… They are planning to continue to replace the dorms on Upper Quad in the coming years, and I believe they’re also talking about wanting to grow the university population. So I would expect housing to continue to be more crunched than in the past; hopefully they’ll plan better in the future.
I can’t speak to UGA, but NCSU and VT are very very very similar schools with respect to programs. Really comes down to geography. S1 of mine got accepted to both (I am a VT alum) and he chose NSCU and has been happy. With regard to the town/city feel, I don’t think that made as much difference as S1 thought it would. Since he was on foot, his whole world consisted of campus and a few blocks off campus - about the same area of VT and downtown blacksburg.
Thanks for the VT/NCSU comparison. It’s good to know he’ll have a solid and similar education either way. He’s leaning towards VT at this point based on his visit.
I am surprised to hear that a student does not like Blacksburg unless the student is a diehard city kid. It is an entire town designed expressly for college students. And there is tons of outdoorsy things to do in the area. But if you are used to a big city, then I can certainly see how it might not be as desirable. It’s subshops and other college-ey kinds of enterprises-not big city lights or theatre.
Cost is a factor, but we can afford it. We started a 529 when he was born. Our younger son really wants to attend the university where my husband teaches and is a strong, hard-working student so will likely (hopefully) be accepted, which he could attend tuition-free.