Experience NC State and Engineering Open House Review

fflmaster
Sun, 20 Mar 2016 02:59:43 +0000

I thought I would post a review of our trip this weekend and if anyone has any questions I will try to answer.

General conditions:
I originally didn’t have the highest opinion of the facilities at NC State via watching the online pictures and virtual tours. However, I was very pleasantly surprised after our visit this weekend. I had heard the main campus was a bit run down and the only nice area was Centennial Campus. I will say I disagree with those reviews. I found both the main campus and Centennial Campus to be in good condition.

Food:
I found the food to be VERY good in Tally (ate here both days). My boys loved all the options.

Campus Feel:
Everyone we talked to both days were very helpful and offered a honest opinion of their time at State. One student said the bus system is just horrible and another said campus security is not very good in the dorms. Those were the only bad things from the many students we spoke with.

The campus has a small college feel, even though there are 35,000 students. It is a bit spread out.

I will say from our quick visit it seems a very low key campus. Looking around on Friday and Saturday night, not many students were out and about. We drove around and I don’t see the party atmosphere we saw in other college visits.

Campus Programs:
My twin sons are admitted into the Exploratory and First Year Engineering.

My one son in Exploring was very impressed with how much advising the students received in finding a major. My second son in Engineering was equally impressed with all the opportunities available (co-op, internships, and research).

Housing:
The dorms have very little security and I can see some issues arising. However, the rooms we saw are plenty fine and you have multiple options (suite style, hotel style, and double style). Although Freshman are not required to stay on campus, both my boys agreed they thought it was best to stay on campus to get acclimated to college life. The apartment style on Centennial Campus was VERY nice.

Hunt Library:
I have visited no less then 10 colleges and the Hunt Library was easily the most impressive. You have a library with space to actually work vs a normal looking books and desks setup. There were many cubicles with white boards, a 21 foot tv/game room, computer space everywhere, too many conference rooms to mention, and even many music rooms to work on instruments if you like.

I think Ohio State (our next stop on Monday and Tuesday) will have some big shoes to fill to beat NC State.

I kept this very general, so if anyone has any specific questions please ask and I will try to answer.

For example, financial aid spoke and said they expect to get the financial packages out by the first week in April. Trying for April 1 and/or 2nd, but said should definitely be completed by that week.