Sigh. I loved our VT trip. The one negative was the info session for your college - S25 is majoring in Building Construction which is in the College of Engineering. S25 and I had a bet as to if there would be reference to his major - the bet was 1.5 sentence of reference and I took the over. I claim I won because two slides during the presentation said “this does not include building construction” - which is two sentences of reference. S25 says negative reference doesn’t count, so he won.
Point being, we sat through an hour in really uncomfortable seats for a presentation that had zero relevance. So that’s the downside.
But the opening welcome presentation was lovely. Really informative and the presenters felt like real people sharing information. Maybe because it was a smaller crowd than Clemson, but it felt more like a conversation and less like a pep rally. But it was also much less rah rah - and S25 is very interested in the rah rah. Clemson had a DJ and a marching band and baton twirler and cheerleaders. VT brought the therapy dogs.
And the food really did kick butt. We went to the all you can eat cafeteria - I just made a salad, but first I had a half dozen steamed shrimp and I had crème brûlée for desert. We did a lot of walking and the campus looked beautiful and we saw a fair number of students today…. Especially at the dorm that had a fire alarm pulled (we heard it go off walking towards it and by the time we were passing it the fire department was there with a truck - speedy response). We did the dorm tour after that - which was fine. Nothing special. Some have A/C, some don’t. I suspect if S25 went there he would not get A/C because he’d have a late lottery number.
The information fair was pretty robust, we talked with folks from the disabilities office and the health center, both were helpful. Then we spent some time just sitting outside in the shade (it was hot today) watching students hanging out.
We had to kill time until 4:00 when the School of Construction had an info session. But I am So Glad we did. It was great - there were just two prospective students (counting us). This was NOT well publicized. Like we only knew because Zack emailed directly. Someone even asked during the engineering info session if there were any major specific sessions and the guy said no.
Anyway, it was a great presentation, super interesting and useful information. In addition to the faculty person leading it, they had three students who participated and they had good insights. But more than that, you could see how comfortable they were with the professor. We heard a lot about the program and the philosophy behind it, career preparedness, project opportunities and other good info. Then they took us on a tour of the two construction buildings and took us into the cool big tool rooms and showed us projects people were working on. It was a really good presentation.
S25 couldn’t help but be impressed.
Despite that, though, I think he’s still leaning Clemson. He kept saying things like “I’m sure Clemson is like this too, we just couldn’t see it”. Or “I wish there was a presentation like this at Clemson.” And “I mean sure, the food is better here, but Clemson food is fine, it wasn’t bad.”
On the program side I wanted to tell him - we did register for something like this! We did what was supposed to be about the college that includes three schools, and they only talked about the other two. We did a tour a year ago that was supposed to be about three, they only talked about two. We did a virtual presentation that was supposed to be about all three - they did have a 20 minute breakout session specific to construction, but there was no presentation, just an opportunity to ask questions. We’ve been trying to learn more and they really don’t have much to say. It might be awesome, but it’s a major of about 30 students a year, at VT it’s more like 100. At Clemson they have a hallway; at VT they have a whole brand new building, and half of another.
All that said, the Clemson program isn’t bad,
Not at all. It’s just that the VT program is probably better resourced.
And yet, I’m nearly certain he’s going to choose Clemson.
Why?
While walking around today we also saw three people that he knows. It’s a huge school, but of course we saw people. And that’s the real problem for him. It doesn’t feel special or unique. Clemson captures the imagination and feels more bragworthy. I get the feeling that he’s almost embarrassed about VT.
Sigh.
, it sounds like exactly what I’m hoping for out of our Hokie Focus visit starting tonight.
!)
I guess we shall see. Just thinking happy thoughts for now.