I have one (going into Pamplin COB). You have some concerned parents on facebook - actually the mods there shutdown the negative posts as they were getting rediculous. I personally think VT is doing everything they can to mitigate any issues for students. Your going to have some people 3 to a room in larger rooms and some people 3-5 in converted study lounges (which I hear in past when this done the kids loved it).
I think the kids are fine and will be fine … the parents are just doing parent type worrying.
3% more students on campus this year isn’t going to create havoc. Plus they are doing a lot of things to improve services to make that even less noticeable. I’m sure freshman engineering classes are going to be pretty full this year though (believe that is the student body most impacted).
I think the people that need to worry are seniors in high school where VT is their top choice. They are obviously going to bring down admission numbers next year and you may see something like a 50% acceptance rate (even much worse in those overfilled this year like biology and engineering).
Numbers as I see them is, with some of the new dorm renovations having come on line in past year, they can most likely comfortably accommodate about 6800 freshman … they are starting at 8000 but normal melt would bring that down to probably 7600. They are probably going to get about 100 students max volunteer for off campus …. and probably then get that up to about 200 with the offers that went out to take a gap year for money. So they are probably still going to be at about 7400 kids coming in (putting them about 600 kids more then they comfortably want). With 34,000 undergrads this year your talking actually 1.7% more students on campus than they were ready for. As you can see this isn’t the end of the world. Your probably going to have 250 of them in study lounges and the other 350 in triple bunked rooms. My only suggestion from complaints I hear about the academic side, Turner, being overcrowded at lunch time …. add 2 more food trucks (they already have 2) to park outside class.
Same kind of situation happened in 2017 (it was 6800 incoming but one dorm wasn’t finished and another was closed for renovation - so less beds)…. I’m sure you had the same parent reaction. From what I have seen online the kids loved some of the converted study lounges and didn’t leave after they were offered other rooms.