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| Virginia Tech |
Arrived in Blacksburg the night before our 3/16 info session and tour. Expecting a very rural setting, we were pleasantly surprised by a cute little downtown area with shops and restaurants. The Main Street Inn owned by a VT grad is right in the middle of town--a very nice small boutique hotel (highly recommend it). We drove around campus that night and immediately fell in love with the physical campus. The buildings are all stone with a castle-like feel to them. There was lots of activity with students having just arrived back on campus after their own spring break (population of about 30,000 students --including 950 cadet corps--with 9,500 living on campus). Apparently, VT has a very successful $1 billion fund raising campaign going on--major construction project happening at the front of campus as well as an influx of scholarship money available too.
The 9am info session in Burruss Hall (another gorgeous building) was excellent. The admissions rep was a '04 VT grad from DC. He was extremely well prepared. He spoke on many topics with a focus on the application process. Our 45 min. info session group (mostly out of state students) was divided in two for a 90 minute tour. VT is a very large campus--wear comfortable walking shoes! Our tour guide was also very good--a senior from Northern Va. She was prepared to answer all kinds of questions from meal plans to football tickets to the normally cold windy weather. We managed to see several classrooms, the library, the older athletic facility, the student center and one dorm room. The dorm room was very typical--average size, cinder block walls. For the most part, 5,000 freshman live in hall style dorms. Upperclassmen, who do not move off campus, live in suite style dorms. The tour did not include the newer athletic facilities, Greek village, football stadium, golf course etc. We might have looked at some of those on our own if we did not have a departmental meeting scheduled after our tour.
About a week in advance, we made an appointment to visit the School of Visual Arts (part of the College of Architecture). Everyone there was extremely helpful and generous with their time. After getting an overview of the (extremely small & therefore very selective) department, we were given a personal tour of their small gallery, studio and classroom building. The department maintains their own commercial graphic design firm: Four Design. We met the director who talked to us at length about their award winning firm. Each semester the top 10 student designers are invited to join the firm for credit only. 100% of their students complete at least one internship and 95% graduate with job offers!
The five hour drive back to Annapolis gave us plenty of time to absorb all we had seen. Overall, we thought Virgina Tech was great!
Parent (2012)
The 9am info session in Burruss Hall (another gorgeous building) was excellent. The admissions rep was a '04 VT grad from DC. He was extremely well prepared. He spoke on many topics with a focus on the application process. Our 45 min. info session group (mostly out of state students) was divided in two for a 90 minute tour. VT is a very large campus--wear comfortable walking shoes! Our tour guide was also very good--a senior from Northern Va. She was prepared to answer all kinds of questions from meal plans to football tickets to the normally cold windy weather. We managed to see several classrooms, the library, the older athletic facility, the student center and one dorm room. The dorm room was very typical--average size, cinder block walls. For the most part, 5,000 freshman live in hall style dorms. Upperclassmen, who do not move off campus, live in suite style dorms. The tour did not include the newer athletic facilities, Greek village, football stadium, golf course etc. We might have looked at some of those on our own if we did not have a departmental meeting scheduled after our tour.
About a week in advance, we made an appointment to visit the School of Visual Arts (part of the College of Architecture). Everyone there was extremely helpful and generous with their time. After getting an overview of the (extremely small & therefore very selective) department, we were given a personal tour of their small gallery, studio and classroom building. The department maintains their own commercial graphic design firm: Four Design. We met the director who talked to us at length about their award winning firm. Each semester the top 10 student designers are invited to join the firm for credit only. 100% of their students complete at least one internship and 95% graduate with job offers!
The five hour drive back to Annapolis gave us plenty of time to absorb all we had seen. Overall, we thought Virgina Tech was great!
Parent (2012)
