Notes from Virginia Tech

I'm visiting Virginia Tech right now.

My dad and I are staying in the Best Western in Radford. It's a tiny little town. Virginia Tech and Blacksburg are a lot more interesting, but they're not far (it was just cheaper to get a hotel in Radford.)

So. My mom said I should write down what I'm learning about Tech. She suggested email or a blog entry. I'll just blog it, just in case anyone wants my opinion on Tech. Hey, why not?

Anyway. Blacksburg's streets are a bit confusing, especially since I was the lucky one to drive the almost five hours to get to VT and I was tired. But I'm sure I'd figure it out pretty quickly as a freshman.

I went on a campus tour and to a general information session. I got a few questions answered and learned some interesting tidbits about VT.

First, for everyone's peace of mind and safety, they've put up new safeguards to help prevent a new April 16th. That sort of tragedy could happen anywhere, but knowing that Virginia Tech is devoted to security is comforting.

One of the buildings is named ChemPhys. Er— the Chemical and Physics building. They don't have an awesome name for it because no one has donated $15ish million to that department. Unfortunately, as a probable engineering major, I will more than likely have several classes in there. Poor building.

VT does have air conditioning—in upperclassmen suite dorms, which are assigned by lottery. About 9000 people can live on campus, and about 5000 are freshmen. Some are international students. Freshmen get unairconditioned dorms, but the weather in the mountains is not usually as hot as it is here now. Everyone we have met says that this hot weather is very abnormal for Blacksburg. And when I did CTech^2 at VT last summer (camp for teenage girls interested in Engineering), we survived for two weeks in unairconditioned dorms by running four fans 24/7. It was actually fairly comfortable.

Several VT departments, such as Architecture, Interior Design, and Industrial Design are very competitive because the major size is so small. For one department, 90 people are accepted to fill a total of fourty slots.

Engineering is just competitive in general. VT is an excellent engineering school. The only school I might want to go to more (within a reasonable distance—I don't want to move too far off the East Coast just yet) is MIT. Yes, I know it's in Massachussetts. I would have to take Amtrak up there. And it's cold. I haven't seen the campus yet, though, because I think if I fall in love with MIT and get rejected, I'll be incredibly depressed. Visitation can wait until the highly unlikely time after I get into MIT. But I'll probably go to VT. It's great.

Everyone I've met here seems to love Blacksburg and Tech. The convenient bus system makes sure that, if the little town of Blacksburg gets boring, that one can visit other nearby litle towns, Target, Wal*Mart, the mall (actually a pretty nice mall!), etc. The food here is rated second best in the nation. The only college with better food is a school in New England that gets fresh lobster. Lobster is not a deciding factor in my college search, but good food is a plus.

General List of Facts:

-Around 20,000 apply. About 12,000 get in, hopefully to yield a class of 5,000. There's a 60% acceptance rate.
-One is more likely to graduate in five years if one does co-ops, internships, or study abroad trips. Seeing as I could make money doing a co-op or internship, that wouldn't be so bad. But would I still have to pay college tuition for the time I was working?
-The bike shop here is called Hokie Spokes. L. O. L. Cute.
-I might actually want to bring my bike, if I have a good bike lock. (I have to actually relearn how to ride it first, though. Things aren't close together in N.VA. People usually use cars.) The campus isn't tiny, and buses usually come every fifteen minutes. And there is generally a fifteen-minute passing period between classes. And though some buildings have parking lots, I would have to leave my dorm early to take the bus to the parking garage to get my car to drive myself to class and barely get there on time. Phew. (Dorms don't have parking lots. But freshmen can bring cars!)
-If someone gets scared to walk from a night class to her dorm room, she can call the police and have a police officer escort her. (or him.) Apparently, some girls like to jog at night but don't feel safe, so they get a police escort who—what else?—jogs with them. I'm not a jogger, and I don't like walking around at night. But it's good to know.
-The Department/Office/Whatever of Off Campus Housing can help students find good deals on apartments. There are a good number of apartments really close to campus for non-exorbitant rates. Our tour guide, a senior majoring in Sociology, said he shares a three-bedroom apartment with two buddies. Their total rent is $1000 per month. Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me, but I've never rented an apartment. But I know the prices in Northern VA are much higher, so this is at least better in comparison.
-Gas prices are lower here than in N.VA.
-In-state students: 70%. Out of state: 30%. No quotas. That's just how the applications come in.
-In the bridge that connects Torgerson Hall and another building, there is a nice little study area. It's pretty cool. And somewhere there are two computer labs; one is for Dells (Windoze) and another is for Macs. Because they… have to be apart. Seriously. You don't want those two labs to be too close. There'd be too many geeky shouting matches. It could get ugly.
-But Engineering majors apparently have to have a Windoze tablet. That's right: a tablet. The computers with which one can write on the screen. Doodle. Take notes on top of Powerpoints. Etc. I'll probably find out more at the Electrical and Computer Engineering info session tomorrow. I just found that little tidbit on the website. But I plan to bring a Mac to college as well. My poor Powerbook G4 is starting to slow down. I got it almost five years ago. So I might invest in a nice 15-inch MacBook Pro with a LED-lit screen and four times as much hard drive space as I have now. (Now: 40 GB. I have about 5 GB unused. Time to dump some files onto an external hard drive so I can actually use my computer this year.)

Okay, it's late. I'm tired. Hope you weren't too bored with my VT-information session. There might be more tomorrow. Along with the ECE Information Session, I hope to ask some questions at the Co-Op/Internship office. We'll see.


I steel hav noe speel checckre. Wondulful.