Congratulations on two great choices!
My son was part of the Galileo community in 2019-20. It was a great choice for him. He made most of his VT friends (3 that he still lives with off-campus) in Galileo. The best part of Galileo is the collaborative community during the first grueling year of engineering. All his new friends suffered together in the difficult first year classes. He always had a support group or study group to join during test and project time.
They had plenty of social activities, if you wanted to get involved. My son balanced Galileo activities with other campus activities - he never felt bored or restricted to Galileo. There’s SO MUCH going on at Tech that it’s hard to feel bored (unless you really want to).
You will still be able to find a group of engineers to work with even if you don’t join Galileo, but it just makes it much easier when you live among them - especially at 1am when you’re stuck on a problem.
The building (Hoge Hall) is, let’s just say, ready for renovation. No air conditioning, lousy elevators, and pretty old appointments (furniture, etc.) But most of the kids just dealt with it.
Aside from the old building I would say that you can’t go wrong with Galileo.
Having said all that, I just took a look at the new Creativity and Innovation District where you would live with Innovate - WOW! Absolutely amazing.
It would be impossible to match or beat that experience in the brand new facility. It looks really special and you are lucky to get invited to join - congratulations!
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind…
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As an Innovate member you need to take “MGT 1064 (3.0 credit hours) during the Fall semester and MGT 2064 (3.0 credit hours) during the Spring semester.” This may not seem like a big deal, but believe me, as an engineering student, EVERY credit is like gold. If those 6 credits don’t somehow get counted toward your engineering degree, you very well might need to take an additional semester to graduate. Engineers typically need 128 credits to graduate (vs 120 for other degrees).
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If you choose Innovate over Galileo, I would strongly suggest finding an engineering roommate to share the pain of first-year engineering. My son had a 4.3 GPA in high school, including plenty of AP math and physics and he still got crushed by college level math and science. Thankfully he and his group pulled each other through. Make sure you have support around you.
Again, you have two great choices and you should be proud.
Happy to try to help with any questions you have. Good luck!
Let’s Go Hokies!