<p>With all of the horror and chilling descriptions of what happend at Virginia Tech this week, how do you feel about sending your incoming freshman to that school?</p>
<p>Well, from a high schooler standpoint, I can say that I moment I heard about the shootings, the first thing I did was call up all my friends at Virginia Tech, then cross it off my list. A few hours later, I got an email from my mom saying to delete it from my list. This is happening for just about everyone I know who has VT as a low match or safety. A couple low achieving friends of mine now know that they can probably have a better chance of getting in there, as it still is a good school, due to the fact that the higher achievers are not applying.</p>
<p>What happened was horrible; it could have happened anywhere. The students who have been interviewed in TV in these last few dreadful days have been uniformly impressive in their articulateness and humanity. If Va Tech was the right school before the tragedy it still is. </p>
<p>Hopefully schools everywhere will be reviewing their security/warning procedures in times of danger and being alert to the mental health needs of their students, though I realize the latter is very difficult to do much about.</p>
<p>I wouldn't. Not for safety issues, but having lived through 9/11 in NYC, I know how wounded an entire community can be for a long time (as does my daughter) and I wouldn't want my daughter to go through that again.</p>
<p>Deleting VT form a list due to this is ridiculous. The VT community has shown nothing but character and strength. I think it should move up on lists as the odds of such a thing ever happening again there are lower than at any other school. There have been shootings at Washington, Iowa, Texas and a number of other schools. Are they off the lists too?</p>
<p>Yes-------</p>
<p>I can't imagine not "allowing" my son or daughter to go to a specific college, unless there was a compellingly valid academic or financial reason which made it out of the question ( can't afford it, etc.) I think that would show a lack of support for their capabilities to plan for their own futures.</p>
<p>This week, I have been nothing but impressed with everything I've seen and heard of the kind of education, fellow students, and faculty that VT offers.</p>
<p>I can identify with both sides here...I agree that an isolated incident doesn't reflect on the school itself and isn't a reason to reject a school...but I can definitely see too why a prospective student would not want to join the VTech community at this time...</p>
<p>I think the students who will enroll at VT this fall and in the next couple of years will be a very special breed -- the kind who refuse to be crushed by tragedy. Think of them as New Yorkers with nicer accents.</p>
<p>If my kid wanted to be one of them, I would not object.</p>
<p>Certainly-it will probably be the safest university campus going. Of course I felt the same way about flying after 9-11, figuring that security would be maxed out.</p>
<p>In light of the terrible recent events, it is hard to have three kids at college or in grad school way far away from home and to know that there is really no truly safe place in this world. But if one of my kids wanted to go to Virginia Tech, I would consider that a strength in my child, and would honor that desire. I remember that three days following 9/11 my daughter wanted to go to a long-awaited trip from Swarthmore to the Met in NYC, and my knee-jerk reaction was to say no. But as I thought about it, I was grateful that she was NOT going to give in to terror, and I let go of the desire to refuse. Still, I understand the point zoosermom is making in post #4, and pray for the healing of the VT community.</p>
<p>Absolutely. I agree with originaloog - if safety is a priority for you, you can be sure that Blacksburg - one of the safest college towns in America - is going to be even safer in the years ahead. The Va Tech community is always unusually tight-knit; over the next year, the atmosphere of bonding and looking out for one another will probably be amazing. The profile of the killer that is emerging is that of a profoundly disturbed and isolated sociopath. To give that person the power to bring down a great university would be a shame.</p>
<p>I agree that VT will be one of the safest campuses in the nation.</p>
<p>We flew 3 months after 9/11. I had mixed feelings, but ended up feeling very safe. Would not have a problem sending a child to VT.</p>
<p>Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor read this poem at yesterdays memorial service. </p>
<p>Anyone should be proud to be part of this community.</p>
<p>We are Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.</p>
<p>We are Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.</p>
<p>We are Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.</p>
<p>We are Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.</p>
<p>We are the Hokies.</p>
<p>We will prevail, we will prevail.</p>
<p>We are Virginia Tech. "</p>
<p>According to press reports: At the football stadium, her words inspired a standing ovation. Students cheered and clapped, then started a football chant from better days. Fists rose into the air. In time the chant sounded in both the basketball arena and the stadium: Let's go, Hokies! Let's go!''</p>
<p>In answer to your thread title question - yes.</p>
<p>YES!!!! The news is tragic, but that community is strong. We will prevail. WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH.</p>
<p>It was awesome how the student has really stepped forward during this travesty. I think every single parent should be proud of those kids. I would be honored if my son or daughter went there.</p>
<p>I would be very proud to be a parent of a Hokie student!!! I've been so impressed by each and every student that has spoken on behalf of their university. Blacksburg is such a beautiful community, and sadly this type of horrible event could happen almost anywhere. My oldest son is attending UVA, and it is very likely that my younger son will want to attend VT in a few years.</p>
<p>I admire and respect the entire community and all of you for being so open. I would strongly urge my daughter not to apply there, though. Maybe if we hadn't gone to so many funerals and seen many of the streets in our neighborhood renamed for victims of 9/11 and families torn apart. But for me, once is much more than enough. I pray for all of the present and future members of the Virginia community.</p>