<p>We have gotten a lot of timely information from a couple of VT communications sources, The Hokie Parent Newsletter and the daily VT email. Here is the link to sign up for that if you would like to:
For the ENewsletter:</p>
<p>[Parent</a> E-Newsletter December 2012 | Parents & Families | DSA | Virginia Tech](<a href=“http://www.dsa.vt.edu/family/hokieparent/]Parent”>http://www.dsa.vt.edu/family/hokieparent/)</p>
<p>For the Daily Email (Mon. through Fri)</p>
<p>[Sign</a> up for email news | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech](<a href=“Sign up for email news | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech”>Sign up for email news | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech)</p>
<p>Please don’t hesitate to contact them with your concerns. We haven’t had to contact them much over the years, but when we have, we have found them to be very quick to respond to emailed questions about most things, and are always very kind and helpful (even when talking to a very naive, newbie parent like me a five years ago!).</p>
<p>Initially, the hard part for me was not knowing what my son received in his emails in terms of deadlines, etc. I wanted to be sure that he was doing what he needed to do and not screw up dates for when he needed to have things done. But I quickly came to realize that it was different than high school and he needed to “be on the stick”, not me. I think Tech tries to balance out what the parents need to know through the web and connections like those above and yet make the students take ownership of what they need to do by contacting them directly through their emails. I consider it a small miracle that my kid (who I love to death, but organized? on top of things? omg, nooooo) never had an issue with not finding out stuff he needed. Truly, that fact in itself should make somebody up there proud! 
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<p>This isn’t to say,the Hokie Nation machine isn’t without its missteps, fenwaysouth. Make sure you have your son stay on top of his scheduling and class selection for his major. Each semester. chuy (an engineering alum) has spoken on here before about some advisors not knowing what the sequencing should be and/or what needs to be taken. And if your guy goes abroad and wants to know about financial aid transfers or other study abroad type questions, they need some work in that area, too. A friend of mine added numerous grey hairs dealing with that office when her daughter wanted to spend a semester in Europe. </p>
<p>I really hope you all enjoy the next few months getting to know the school and what it has to offer. He is going to be so happy in the coming months and you will be thrilled to see how much he loves his school! Best of luck to you as his last semester of high school flies by!</p>