<p>Thank you for the VT feedback. My feeling is it is within driving range for us, plenty of Jewish kids, price is ok - so it can’t hurt to visit. Would not be my first choice for S2 - but I am happy to see him a little more engaged in the process instead of sitting back and letting me make all the decisions. And it should be an interesting month - Elon, CofC and VT - all within a 2-week span. Our hs Naviance seems to indicate he would be accepted - but who knows. The other interesting aspect of VT is that he would major in business there - which he has previously not been sure about doing - but we are going to attend a business school presentation in addition to the typical info session/tour and see how he feels about that.</p>
<p>In other news - remember my young cousin who joined the Air Force. Well, he’s been in basic training in Texas for about 3 weeks - hates it - but what did he expect? The funny part is that he quickly learned that attending religious services or requesting a meeting with the base Rabbi was one sure way to get a break - so he has become very observant!</p>
<p>The kids I know at VT all enjoy it and for all the traditional big state school reasons–big time sports; school spirit; frat parties; nice campus; nice people; moderate workload (the tech courses being the most rigorous and respected, not surprisingly); reasonable OOS pricing. None are Jewish, so no advice there. </p>
<p>If your son likes his visit, and you decide the difference between VT and your own flagship is worth the cost difference, you might want to check out Penn State as well.</p>
<p>yabe - we seem to be all over the place of late - but I can’t imagine him at Penn State - that really would be going from one extreme to another! He has never been interested in UMDCP - and I’m not a fan for a few reasons - so I think we are going to leave VT as the sole large university. I like the fact that we really are being pretty thorough - by the end of April - he will have visited 8 colleges - ranging in size from 2400 students to over 20,000 and from rural to suburban to urban. I’m just trying to relax and enjoy the journey and not stress too much about the twists and turns we seem to be taking.</p>
<p>rockvillemom, you said that yesterday your son was all about Virginia Tech but you didn’t know why.Any clue at all why he is now thinking of a much bigger school than places you/he had identified before like Elon or College of Charleston? He might get another school into his mind out of the blue so you never know where you might end up visiting! Have fun on your visits!</p>
<p>Rockvillemom, I think that your son has taken a very significant step. I am saying this because HE is the one who thought of Virginia Tech, and whether it is or is not an appropriate school, this means that he is starting to think about this on his own!
The question always becomes - when is the price differential for an out-of-state public worth it when you have a very good in-state public available?
In my opinion (and it is just my opinion! please share yours!), it is sometimes worth it IF a specific program at that school is very highly regarded by employers and grad schools. For business, the most highly regarded public universities are UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina, University of Texas, and Indiana University. Other state schools may not be worth the price differential if your in-state public is pretty good. Of course, there are caveats - for example, if you have to get admitted to the business school after a couple of years and you think you might not get in, if the location or size will not work, etc.</p>
<p>It is a rare boy who, during basketball March Madness, does think about the fun of attending a big time sports school, just as many kids, during Winter, start suggesting more Southern schools.</p>
<p>sevmom - the thought processes of a 16 1/2 year old boy are difficult - at best - to discern. He has not - to my knowledge - looked at info on their website and identified some specific program or feature that appeals to him. I think it more likely to be what a few other posters have suggested - his friends are starting to discuss this topic more - VT is perceived as a fun, rah-rah, sports-oriented school and one of his close Jewish friends has VT at the top of his own list. If I asked him to list 5 things he knows about VT - I don’t think I would get much of a response! But that’s what the visit is for.</p>
<p>levirm - I know - it is interesting to see what he comes up with. And he is going to apply to Towson as an in-state safety school. I just find that none of us care much for UMDCP - so while it might make sense financially - that’s about the only thing that does. I find the immediate area around the campus to be kind of sketchy, they do not offer a minor in business or a sports mgmt major - so it’s actually more limiting academically than most of the smaller schools on his list and from where we live - it is just too close to home.</p>
<p>“I LOVE MM”
Ouch…ouch…ouch! I was trying to REPRESS this after last night’s Pitt loss!
I’ve had the good fortune to go to a few Pitt basketball games this year - the student fans have a GREAT time in the “Oakland Zoo” as they call their section of the stands.
Lots of fun for us grown-ups, too!</p>
<p>levirm,That Pitt game was rough.I’m from Pittsburgh originally and went to graduate school at Pitt.Still get back to Pittsburgh regularly. I hated to see that game end in the way it did.
rockvillemom,You sure are right about 16 1/2 year old boys and their thought processes. I am in Virginia and older son graduated from UVa (applied ED when they still had it) but considered applying to Duke because he thought it would be fun to watch Duke basketball! I did not particularly want to pay over twice the price for college for him to watch basketball . Neither son thought about William and Mary(great school and great option for instate kids) because they wanted a bigger school and bigger school sports scene. That big time sports scene definitely is important to lots of boys as yabeyabe2 says. Have fun with the process!</p>
<p>“I was literally just thinking how RVM and family are probably rooting for BOTH UMich and Duke to lose…” </p>
<p>I just want UMich so #1 seeds keep going down…makes this so much for fun (sorry, levirm and sevmom) when there are teams that nobody thought would do it…</p>
<p>Doesn’t look like this will happen here though…oh well…</p>
<p>Rodney - I saw it! You captured my sentiments exactly - I’m just wondering about S1 - he is more forgiving.</p>
<p>sevmom - you are 100% right re boys and the appeal of sports. S1’s final decision came down to William & Mary vs. Wake Forest - he chose Wake - and the sports atmosphere was indeed the tipping factor.</p>
<p>One can minor in Jewish Studies and they also offer Hebrew. I really had no idea there was this large a Jewish presence at VT. It becomes more and more interesting.</p>
<p>RVM - Interesting S1 choices where William & Mary and Wake, I went to W & M and loved it, but there was very little (basically no) Jewish life in the late 80’s - early 90’s. My understanding is that hasn’t changed much. What did you learn with S1’s search - it wouldn’t fit my S1, but I can imagine S2 (8th grade) sitting in a window in the Wren building studying philosophy.</p>
<p>Mom24boys - between W & M and Wake - W & M actually came out ahead in terms of Jewish life. We felt they were fairly equivalent schools academically and financially for us they came out to about the same price. S1 loved the new rec enter at W & M - and he is a golfer - both were in great areas for that. But he loves sports - and Wake just fit his sports needs better. I happen to love Colonial Williamsburg and was kind of rooting for that choice to be the one - but he’s very happy at Wake - so I’m happy too.</p>
<p>The W & M Hillel website lists about 285 Jewish students - or about 2-4% of the student population.</p>
<p>For those interested–
HBO is having a show on the Triangle Fire tomorrow (Mon 3/21) at 9:00PM.</p>
<p>we visited W & M with d # 1 many years ago during the passover/easter school break. During the tour of the student dining hall, the tour guide pointed out the “passover food table”. I took note of the boxes of matzah, salads, eggs etc.<br>
I was impressed that the tour guides went out of their way to point it out to prospective students.<br>
If possible, passover week may be a good time to check out colleges and see if the make any accommodations in dining services to their Jewish students for passover.</p>
<p>gotta admit- I loved W & M- the campus just felt like being in summer camp. Which is an extremely high complement from my point of view.</p>
