I saw that as well! VT is my top choice, so I hope that will work in my favor. I have seen students with lower GPAs and slightly higher SAT scores. Do you believe that I would have had a better chance if I applied EA? Last year the 1 acceptance had an 1120 SAT which is only 30 points higher than mine.
They did recommend most students apply EA. RD however in your case may be good as they will want to fill spots at that stage.
Hey, it’s a long walk to that Engineering Lab! LOL!
So what are my chances of getting a dorm of my choice? I signed the housing contract on the 28th of February since I paid my deposit fee the morning after I got my acceptance. I really want a specific dorm. According to Cb11 the popular ones were gone last year in an instant. One of the ones I want is extremely popular
My son did the same - accepted day he received EA decision … and his housing selection date was July 9th.
I noticed very few available in Prichard (but there were a few). I didn’t check any of the dorms with AC that had suites as my son had decided he wanted Eggleston (which was nearly empty at the time so he had his choice of rooms). I avoided New Hall West because I heard for last year 3 to a room so can’t tell you what availability there was either.
Lilmelo - there will be availability you should be in good shape.
I wouldn’t worry too much about dorm choices, unless you are very particular. Most of the dorms are pretty basic and students have a good experience. It’s funny to me that Pritchard is always sought after because it’s an old dorm with no A/C (but my son loved living there). I almost wish VT would assign people to dorms so it would be one less thing for people to stress over.
@HokieCrazy @ShenVal18 Oh no how bad is Lee Hall? LOL my DD just applied to Hypatia! I told her I read it had no AC but housing stated it was shady…she said shady or “shady” haha!
When I visited this past Spring, I actually thought it was pretty nice. Certainly upgraded quite considerably since I lived there. Engineering lab right in the building, nice study areas and common lounges. However, I will admit that I didn’t tour the other dorms, so I have no idea what they are like since I went there. As an example, Slusher was all-girls when I went there and heavily sought after. Sounds like its a dump, now. Times change.
The short of it was that after touring with my son, he wasn’t turned off by it and liked the thought of living there.
They actually remodeled the Slusher Wing last year
My son and his best friend want to room together. BF got in ED, son got deferred then waitlisted. Will his BF have to choose another roommate or can he pick a room and hope our son gets pulled off the waitlist?
What you will do is setup a Roommate group in StarRez portal with the friend who got in ED as the leader of the roommate group. Then your son can add himself to the roommate group. When the ED student gets his early time to choose a room he will then have the ability to pull your son into his room with him. So if your son does get in hopefully - he really has the selection time of the ED accepted student so doesn’t need to worry about selection time.
I get that, which will be great if it all works out. I’m just wondering how long his friend can wait before he has to select another roommate if it takes until late May or June to find out if my son gets pulled off the waitlist.
@scubamom17 All the old res halls have a certain “ambiance”. You’ll notice it mostly during the warmer weather months. 
Seriously though, don’t sweat (no pun intended) the res hall thing, My comment about special request was kind of a jab at the handwringing you’ll hear/read sometimes about no AC, shared bathrooms, etc. - either there’s a lot of parents who didn’t send their kids to summer camp, or they’ve forgotten they did. At orientation there was a parent that actually asked “what do we do with the res hall furniture that our child doesn’t want to use?”. Cue confused look by presenter. Turns out parent though they could bring their own stuff from home - as in desk, dresser, bed, etc. You can’t make this stuff up.
@HokieCrazy Slusher is slated to go the way of the dodo soon.
Technically his friend could wait until his assigned room selection window to select another roommate - provided he and that other person are prepared to create the roommate group on-the-fly. With no roommate group established, he will only be selecting a room. He should be looking at alternatives leading up to that. Maybe he can find another ED kid who is in a similar situation and they can agree to form a group on July 1 if their respective wait-listed friends don’t get pulled. (This is assuming that ED’s room selection doesn’t begin before July 1).
I thought we were squared away. My son was accepted ED in December and he immediately paid the deposit, got his ID, signed the housing contract, picked a meal plan, and applied (and got into) Galileo. He hasn’t been assigned a time slot yet for room/roommate selection but I’ve gathered it’ll be June/July. Also waiting for “mid March” for orientation dates/registration. I did see classes begin on August 24 but didn’t see anything on the “you’re in, now what” checklist about move in dates. However if you look at the calendar for housing/res life (not the academic calendar), it recently showed move in dates have been scheduled for Aug 20 and 21 (with 22nd a potential option without hokie helpers). I realize now I should’ve just assumed it would be around then. Went to make hotel arrangements and there is little to no availability. What few rooms are left are double the prices we’ve paid prior. I did make reservations in Christiansburg just to have something but is there a chance more rooms inBlacksburg hotels will become available when it gets closer? And are the rates always double (over $400 a night) on any date they expect parents to be coming (move in/parents weekend)? And finally, anything else we should be checking on rather than waiting for an email announcement? I’m assuming I’ll need to do that now for parents weekend (keep an eye on the calendar page rather than waiting for an email).
Thanks!
@jessandboys In order that you mentioned:
Room selection assignment will come in the June/July timeframe. Students should be able to create their roommate group before then though I think. Since he is in Galileo, he will automatically be in Lee Hall.
Move in has traditionally run Wed-Sat. but I guess it’s possible that they found over the last several years that new students are pretty well wrapped up in 2 days. Galileo activities may start earlier and may offer an earlier move-in though.
Where did you look for hotel rates? Short answer - yes, for all special event timeframes the hotel rates increase. Generally they end up around $100-130 above normal rates. $400 sounds excessive. Some of the closest hotels are going to show up as “sold out” right now on Expedia, etc. because it’s still too far away for those reservation dates to be released to 3rd party sites. Also, certain hotels (Hyatt, Inn at VT) hold blocks of rooms for parent club members and then release closer to summer.
This might be a controversial opinion, but we found fall family weekend to be a “meh” experience at best. 2 sessions were informative, but the balance was all pretty much stuff we could do with our child and their friends on a different weekend at 40-50% less for hotel. YMMV of course.
I’ll just add that staying in Christiansburg is no big deal. That’s where all of the shopping is anyway, so if you are going to make a target or walmart run during move-in you’ll be right there. People even stay in Salem during busy weekends if they want reasonable pricing.
Thanks @rbc2018 and @ShenVal18 for the great info! I tried third party hotel sites like Expedia but also actual sites like Marriott (over $400) and Inn at VT (we are a part of the parent club but move in dates are blocked out). I’ll look again as it gets closer but good to hear Christiansburg has its pros too.
Thanks again!
I didn’t see this mentioned, but I totally recommend Summer Academy to any student. Summer Academy is a 6w program from July - mid August. You go to classes (with credits), live in the dorms, eat at the dining hall, and go to Hokie Camp. The classes are based upon track specialties. My kid did the Engineering track. When fall semester starts, they already have the lay of the land and new college friends. An added bonus was being able to move my kid into their fall semester dorm before everyone else (the day before I think). Plus, Blacksburg is beautiful in the summer.
@jessandboys I’m trying to remember, but I’m pretty sure you will get an email from Inn re: move-in registration opening up for parent club members. We made registration there for orientation in March of 2018 right after dates were announced.