@OctoberKate - I was a little bored, and as a parent of a VT freshman, thought I’d come over to this forum, and searched “building construction”…
It’s been 6 months, and things change, but if your son is still interested in VT BC, I have some insight…
I have a freshman daughter at VT that is taking the intro to BC class over winter term. She’s actually a finance major, but literally her first day of class, she attended her “careers in finance” class and called me (I’m a VT finance alum…) and said “nope, that’s not it.” We have some ties to the construction industry (DH works for a national wholesaler for construction materials), and she took drafting as her elective all 4 years of high school (her senior year she even helped design a new addition to the HS). She started talking about building construction. Long story short, she talked to the daughter of a friend that is a BC major, and made an appt with the BC advisor, Shelton Norwood. He’s incredible. He explained the differences between BC & Construction Mgmt at VT. BC is their Proj Mgmt degree, which is more skewed more towards business classes. Construction Mgmt is in the engineering school and they get “the stamp”. At least for our daughter, she’s more interested in the business/personal side (long term, maybe she wants to be a custom home builder). In talking to others in the industry, sky is the limit with Proj Mgmt, where as the engineer folks sort of hit a ceiling. On the BC side, they have 100% job placement (I don’t know enough about the Const Mgmt side), and are ranked the #1 program on the east coast (behind I think Cal Poly, nationally). For the “Building Construction” degree, they don’t apply to the College of Engineering, even though it’s under their umbrella.
In Oct, she went to the construction job fair (as a freshman finance major). She had an in person internship interview the next day, and several more virtually. She had multiple summer internship offers and has accepted one locally (we’re in NC) with a firm that was at the fair. Her only previous work experience has been working at Chick-Fil-A. She will be paid $20/hr (she received an offer for $31/hr but that opportunity was in Raleigh, and would have required her to pay for housing) for a 10 weeks (40 hr/wk), and the company has indicated there could scholarship opportunities. When she spoke with Norwood, he told her stories of a few grads - making easily over 6 figures. Alot of these contractors are offering scholarships with acceptance of a post grad offer. It’s a bit crazy…
Again, she’s taking the Intro to BC class right now over break, because the subsequent course is only offered in the spring. She hasn’t officially declared BC as her major because we don’t want her to give up her spot in Pamplin (business school). She’s continuing to take the core business classes, which will count towards BC (BC requires lower level Accounting, Econ, etc. than business degrees requires, but hers will count, and her Bus Calc class will count for their Calc). She’s going to talk to her advisors in spring, but her plan is to double major in Real Estate (which is currently in Pamplin), along with BC. If they double major with BC, RE seems the easy/most complimentary option. Another BC parent suggested she take the 2 intro classes, work the internship, and then change her major. That seems like a logical pathway.
But so far, our experience is that it is a very well thought of program, and job opportunities are plentiful, and other parents rave about the professors & advising. Hitt Contracting from NOVA has donated a ton of money - they just opened Hitt Hall this fall that houses the construction programs as well as a new dining hall. They’ve also pledged $2M endowment for scholarships and they said “that’s just the start”.
Another factor is, while it’s early, where does your son want to end up post grad? There will be lots of recruiters on campus for job fairs…most of the ones at VT are in VA (definitely heavy NOVA but RIC & Hampton Roads too) but some from NC and other states. Clemson is probably attracting alot of ATL contractors…I’m not sure about UTK. Speaking of the job fair, VT had a waiting list of contractors…literally they don’t have enough room to house everyone that wants to come meet VT students. We were talking to a mechanical contractor a few years ago that really likes Clemson & NCSU kids…I can’t speak to Clemson but the NCSU only offers an engineering degree, for instance they can specialize in HVAC. So it’s a bit of apples & oranges when comparing these programs.
RE: Honors College…our daughter was accepted last year. We went to the info session, and frankly, the only advantage to her was earlier class selection. But otherwise, she didn’t feel like there were benefits, and they required additional classes and projects. I find at VT, alot of kids opt out that are accepted.
I know that’s alot of info, but since you didn’t get any specific info for BC…if you have any other questions, I’ll be glad to help. Or if your DS has moved on from BC and/or VT, just ignore. But long story short, if he’s interested in BC, it’s a smaller major at VT, everyone has great things to say about it, and again, they’re producing highly sought after grads.
. NCSU was her 
).