<p>My son is a junior and we are planning to visit for the first time in April. I have a few questions and would appreciate your time.</p>
<p>We are planning to stay right in the hotel on campus for one night. Any thoughts? It looked very nice and would seem to be quite convenient.</p>
<p>Son might be interested in business. Thoughts on the Pamplin School and a marketing concentration in particular? Is it harder to get accepted for business than other subject areas?</p>
<p>My reservation about VT is centered around the size. I am concerned that it is too bog for my son - classes will be too big - and he will find things like registering for classes and housing more difficult to navigate than at a smaller school. Any validity to this or am I being overprotective.</p>
<p>Would appreciate any other comments on pros and cons of VT. Thanks.</p>
<p>Hi Rockvillemom… I can only comment on the hotel as my son and husband just return last night. We used priceline…bid $61.00 dollars 3 star in Blacksburg and got the Hilton Garden Inn…which is right near the Visitor Center… they said it worked out great. We have visited about 20 colleges and always use priceline and usually pay about 40 dollars and great Marriott Courtyards etc… We never pay full price for a room… just an FYI.</p>
<p>We did the same thing last year when I was a junior. We liked staying at the Inn at Virginia Tech. Had a positive experience. We are going up in April, we did the Priceline Name Your Own Price thing. We got a room at the Holiday Inn across the street from the Inn at VT for $100 total (about a $50 savings). I havent stayed in the Holiday Inn before, I will post how our experience at the Holiday Inn was. The amenities at the Inn are probably less than the Courtyard, but the convenience is great.</p>
<p>Connection with VT: I was just accepted into the Architecture School there. Its my #1 choice.</p>
<p>im from md and looking to visit VT. what would be the best way to get there? It looks to be a little too far to drive (6 hours). And paying 600 per person for a flight doesnt make sense, and there really arent any train stations close by.</p>
<p>If you really don’t want to drive, you could take a Greyhound bus from Maryland to Roanoke. There’s a bus in Roanoke that’ll take you to Blacksburg for $5. This is probably the cheapest option.</p>
<p>Trust me when I say don’t let the size frighten you, and take your son to visit. I was hesitant about the size, so I only applied to small liberal arts schools. Turns out, not what I like at all. So last fall I visited on a football weekend (which I would recommend to anyone wanting to apply) and realized it isn’t that big. Sure the class sizes are big, but people I know there are saying the education they are receiving is wonderful. So definitely visit, because your son might just fall in love with it too.</p>
<p>My husband and I shared some of the same concerns you had about the size of VT when our oldest son was applying a few years ago. Both of us went to small LACs and had no experience with a big state school. We’ve got a pretty shy, quiet guy. Our worries quickly went away after the first semester of his being there. He has never complained about the size of his classes (and he has been in a few with over a hundred kids). As he said early on, if you get to class a bit early and find a seat up front near the prof, it doesn’t matter if there are 20 or 120 in the room behind you Even with the larger classes, he has felt the professors to be very open to meeting with you and accessible if you need help. I think as you get into your major, the class sizes shrink in most of the fields. Hopefully someone with a business background will chime in regarding their experiences.</p>
<p>Mine loves the big school feel, the sense of community at VT and the fact that he is able to involve himself in many different academic disciplines and interaction with students from all over. I am glad you are getting a chance to visit. Once you see the campus and how it is laid out, I think you will feel that it “shrinks”. I don’t know if it is because the whole campus sits in the country away from everything or due to the layout of the buildings themselves, but I don’t feel its size being reflective of its size if you know what I mean. </p>
<p>It is a special place and its graduates have an almost idolization for it once they leave. I hope you both have a great visit and get as much information for your later decisions as you can. Based on the experiences my son has had at VT, if I could do it all over again, I would pick a larger school. I just think they offer, especially VT, so much of what college is all about. Good luck to you both!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for these posts - very helpful. KandKsmom - you completely get my concern. DH and I both attended smaller schools - and truth be told - neither of us loved our schools - yet we still seemed to think smallish would be good for our somewhat quiet, laidback son. Somehow - going away to a larger university seems more overwhelming to me - more to navigate. But I really appreciate the positive comments and am keeping an open mind and we’ll see what we all think in April. Thanks again.</p>
<p>I agree with KandKsmom in that the layout of the campus makes it “shrink.” It is physically very navigable, even for his directionally-challenged mother (ME). I have an OOS sophomore son there and he loves it!! S is the quiet, laid-back type … more of a follower, but VT has so many EC activities available that he has had do problem finding smaller groups of students within his areas of interest. Sorry that I cannot provide any info on the business program. Enjoy the college search.</p>
<p>So - we have made our hotel reservation and being the obsessive parent that I am - I have skimmed through many of the posts from the past year. I have to say - this is a great forum - loads of info. The comments were overwhelmingly positive - with a few exceptions - and that’s where I would again like to ask for your assistance.</p>
<p>The negatives that seemed to crop up repeatedly were regarding advising, the poor quality of some of the freshman classes and this frightening thing called math emporium. I have read various posts about the math emporium and I get the general idea - but it sounds awful. What are you paying for if you are basically teaching yourself the class? It worries me a bit that the negatives kept cropping up in academic areas. Would someone elaborate on these topics for me?</p>
<p>The math emporium produces a pretty divisive range of opinions. Some people absolutely hate it, some people think it’s the best way to teach mathematics, but most people probably are apathetic. Keep in mind that the math emporium is only applicable to early math courses, and there is a huge amount of support and tutoring available there (it’s not as if the computer is your only resource). A lot of the money saved by implementing the math emporium has gone to other things like more resources for upper-level courses.</p>
<p>Freshman classes can be hit-or-miss. Like any school, there are bad professors at Tech. Moreover, a lot of those bad professors can pop up in classes that you’re not really interested in. My advice here is to use a resource like kοοfers.com or ratevtteachers.com to identify which courses feature good professors before you enroll in a class. On the up side, if you do get stuck with a bad professor, at least you can turn it into a learning experience on how to deal with an undesirable situation.</p>
<p>Hi rockvillemom, As you go through this, feel free to ask any questions you have- believe me there will be many! Is your first one going off to college?</p>
<p>I think most of us on here are pretty honest with our answers and don’t try to “sugar coat” anything. There are always going to be negatives to go along with the positives at a school and Tech is no exception. </p>
<p>I was mortified when I heard about the math empo, too. It seemed absurd to me to have kids learning this way (and me paying for them to learn this way!), but in talking to several acquaintances who are professors at other colleges nearby us (one econ, one math), they thought it was fine to approach the entry level math classes with online/lab style teaching. As a matter of fact they said it is kind of becoming accepted as being the best way to teach a large number of students. </p>
<p>My son is not a great math student and he took two classes his freshman year at the empo. He did fine. The teachers offer a lot of support, (he went a few times and met them in during their office hours)and structure the grading so that you can retake some of the quizzes along the way. I actually heard more about his having to wait to eat at the West End during peak times than I ever did about the Math Empo!</p>
<p>What I have heard about the advising part, and I think they have worked to improve on this area, is that the student just needs to stay on top of what he/she needs to take and complete for their major. It isn’t like their HS guidance counselor where they spend a lot of time with each kid- my s gets 20 min. with his advisor each semester before signing up for classes. In the beginning I think it pushes them to think more like adults and take ownership of their education which is a good thing.</p>
<p>My kid has been lucky with the teaching/profs, and not just the ones in his major. Awesome ones thus far who seem to be very engaging, passionate about what they teach and are really, really supportive. </p>
<p>I have a second child who is starting to look at schools. She will most likely have the option of looking into many other schools because of her broader academic interests. I wouldn’t hesitate to let her go to Tech if she wanted. We haven’t found a lot to complain about regarding academics in our three years there. </p>
<p>Hope this helps some and don’t worry, it seems like yesterday I was in your shoes! :)</p>
<p>Hi - thank you so much for your help - I am getting more comfortable with the math emporium concept - once I got over my initial shock!</p>
<p>This is actually my 2nd son - but we have a family bias towards smaller schools. DH and I attended relatively small colleges (under 5000) back in the day - and our older son is a sophomore at Wake Forest. Younger son is looking at some smaller schools as well - Elon, College of Charleston - but he has recently expressed interest in VT - and while it is outside my comfort zone - willing to explore.</p>
<p>I will say VT has a great forum and I have read mostly positive things. I’m really looking forward to the visit and in the meantime - if I have more questions - I know where to turn. Thank you all so much.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind, let me know about what you think of CofC. That is one of the schools my D is interested in (but she would need to get some type of merit aid to be able to go there I think).</p>
<p>Happy to do so - we are doing a SC, NC, VA swing in April over spring break. It should actually be a very interesting experience to contrast Elon, CofC and VT in a short span of time. </p>
<p>CofC lacks a football team and a grassy campus - it is in the city of Charleston - so will be very different from VT. But - good basketball team (if you need to root for a team as part of your college experience) - close proximity to the beach - and of course - you have the city of Charleston with plenty to do there. So - CofC and VT - probably about as opposite as you can get - should be interesting to see which one appeals more.</p>
<p>Hi - back from our visit and I wanted to thank everyone for their input and let you know we had a great visit. We did stay at the Inn at VT - a little pricey - but very convenient. </p>
<p>We really liked the layout of the campus - with academic bldgs in one area and dorms in another - very sensible. I contrast it with JMU - bldgs are all over the place - completely random and much harder to figure out. So now I see what people were saying about VT not being that big - it is not as sprawling and that makes a difference. Overall - very attractive campus.</p>
<p>We had hoped to eat at West End Tuesday evening - not realizing it closed at 8pm - we arrived a few minutes after and it was closed. Ended up eating at Hokie Grill - which was ok - nothing special.</p>
<p>We did the info session/tour and then a Pamplin info session. The Pamplin session was very impressive - particularly on the topic of advising - they put my concerns to rest on that issue and job placement for Pamplin grads also sounded very promising. My son liked the idea that he could apply as business undecided.</p>
<p>It was very helpful to visit Elon, CofC and VT in a short period of time. My son still prefers Elon - but he did like VT. Elon has a sports mgmt program that interests him and he prefers the warmer climate. CofC - very urban. Very little green space. This would work for someone who is very interested in city life - cultural events, shopping, concerts, art and music festivals, etc. Not a good choice for a more typical boy who wants touch football or frisbee on the quad and football games. So - in order of preference, we ended with Elon, VT and CofC in last place.</p>
<p>I seriously considered elon, but I needed a big football team. Also VT gave me instate anD that pretty much sealed the deal. Elon was nice though.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that Elon’s weather is that much warmer than Blacksburg/Roanoke area. We live in NC (north of Durham & about the same latitude, about 1hr east of Elon) & our temps are almost the exact same as what is forecasted for Blacksburg/Roanoke area. And this past winter we had a lot of snow for our area. Now CofC would definitely be warmer :)</p>
<p>My sons both golf - older son is at Wake Forest - so golf weather is kind of a big deal. My impression is that VT is at a higher elevation - and that makes for more snow and winter weather.</p>
Even with the larger classes, he has felt the professors to be very open to meeting with you and accessible if you need help. I think as you get into your major, the class sizes shrink in most of the fields. Hopefully someone with a business background will chime in regarding their experiences.</p>