What is the parent club you speak of? Sounds like I might be interested. Thx!
@aschultz It’s a program that the Inn at Virginia Tech has. The Hyatt also has something similar I believe (and maybe some others do as well - I’ve only stayed at those two hotels).
Spotted today that Fall Family Weekend has been scheduled for Sept 18-20.
Very last sentence at the bottom of this page:
https://students.vt.edu/families/family_weekend.html
Does anyone know if it is possible for me to switch majors as an incoming freshman?
@Snrstudent20 Admissions and advising can better answer your question, but all indications are that you cannot apply to change your major until the major change application dates open up (which are after your advising session @ orientation). Applying into restricted majors require completion of certain coursework and minimum GPA - so in those cases you can’t apply until you have at least completed your first semester, possibly first year of school.
If you are certain that you wish to pursue a different major than what you indicated on your admissions app, do your prep now:
- Review the checksheet for the major you are interested in to see what courses are commonly taken 1st and 2nd semester that are major-specific.
- Review the Pathways gen ed requirements (all majors have to satisfy these for graduation).
- At your advising session, communicate that you want to pursue that different major and see if they can adjust your courses to line up with those major specific courses. If full and you can't be force added, then go heavy on Pathways courses (vs. taking any major specific courses for the major you originally applied for).
It might be worth a call to advising within your applied-for major and see if they can coordinate for you to have a conversation with advising within your new desired major either before or at orientation.
You normally can’t change your major as I coming freshman until December after first semester. But as above you can make sure your taking classes the first semester to support that change.
DS trying to decide between PSU (we live in PA) and VT. My husband and I both prefer VT and he did get a small amount of merit. DS feels the pull to go where all his friends are going (PSU and he got no merit there). I noticed that VT is well known for its Quality of Life, Happiest Students, and best Campus Food. Any other accolades that any of you can mention? He got into Pamplin.
@pghmom72 I think those category rankings pretty much speak for themselves. 
A couple other things to consider:
- VT has great job recruiting fairs for business students.
- Depending on his major, he could be involved with Prism which is Pamplin's student run design agency.
- Proximity to lots of outdoor things to do (hiking, tubing, fishing).
@ShenVal18 Thank you! I appreciate your comments!
My daughter will be going to Pamplin in the fall.
One thing we looked at was where she wanted to end up after school. Being she wanted to be in the Virginia/DC area VT makes a logical choice.
If your son see’s himself in PA after college then maybe Penn State is better choice.
US News ranks Penn State 22 in business vs. VT 43. So for business if I wanted to stay in PA area after graduation I would certainly look toward Penn State.
@cbl1 Thanks! This is extremely helpful!
We’re in PA and very familiar with PSU. My strong opinion would be VT - we sent our daughter there and she had the best experience possible. She had several friends from HS go to PSU and there were “mixed” reviews of their experiences there. VT is a special place.
I guess you don’t get ranked as one of best in student life without those kind of sentiments from about everyone at VT.
Has anyone gotten an update on the Virtual Tour they were going to offer in place of the Hokie Focus?
No update yet
My daughter will be submitting her housing contract this week, but she doesn’t have a roommate yet. When she finds a roommate, will she be able to go back into the housing contract and edit it to add the roommates name to it or would she have to email/call housing with the name?
Also what dining plan would be best to get? I’m thinking the middle one, but I just don’t know how much she’ll eat. Is the dining plan just for the on campus dining halls and food places, not off campus restaurants?
Thanks!!
Good questions joporuss.
Yes once you do the whole contract and singed - you have your spot reserved. You can go back into the contract any time and create a roommate group or join a roommate group. You will most likely have a date in early July to pick a room so this can be done at any point up until that day. The roommate who signed the agreement first should be the one to create the roommate group - therefore insuring the earliest selection time.
As far as dining plans go - yes it is just for on campus dining - which there is a lot. If she wanders off campus or into downtown the dining plan funds can’t be used (however, Hokie passport dollars will work most places - which think of Hokie passport dollars as an ATM account on their Hokie Passport ID).
My son isn’t a big eater and I got him the middle option (Mega) first semester and he didn’t use it all. I lowered him to the lowest option (Major) for second semester and that was about right for him (but he was going to end up having the roll over from first semester still that he was going to have to spend before semester over).
My opinion - you save nothing by going to larger plans. There is no cost savings. Your paying the difference directly in the amount of extra money on their plan. The only reason I got the middle plan first semester is because I know my son is cheap and I wanted him to splurge a bit (seeing extra funds). He still didn’t.
As far as I’m concerned the only reason for the 3 identified plans is for budgeting purposes. So the student sees on the cards at the register if they are trending over budget or not. I didn’t want to go in with the Major plan as I knew my son would see he was over budget and stop buying. Others may treat it as more of a guideline - hey Mom/Dad I see from the card that I’m half way through the semester and I’m about $50 below the average … can you add $100 in to dining plan so I even up by end of semester (that is how it should really work).
Anyhow - long answer … but I would get the Major and add dollars later as needed unless you have a kid like mine that will over budget themselves. … or if you have a kid that eats a lot of breakfast or will be going to the coffee shop a lot … those will probably add up to needing the Mega to start.
@cbl1 Thank you for your informative answers. When does she sign up for a Hokie Passport? Would you add money to her dining account and hokie passport dollars through that one-campus student portal? Once she created her VT email, it seems she has access to that, but can parents have access to that as well to check dining dollars balances and add money to account. It seems confusing. I’m also trying to accept the financial aid package, but don’t know how to go about doing it.
Yes, my daughter is cheap when she has to buy food herself, but will maybe eat more if she has the funds available. I’m sure she will be frequenting coffee shops. If we are able to add money to the dining plan at any time the balance seems to get low, then it does seem like a no brainier to go with the smallest plan first and just add to it instead of trying up money in it initially.
Thanks!!
@joporuss She will get her HokieP at orientation (that’s when they take the photo that appears on it).
Yes, you (parent) can deposit funds directly into two account allocations via HokieSpa after the dining plan has been selected - a.) Dining Dollars (flex addition) and b.) HokiePassport. A flex addition is what would supplement the meal plan once the balance runs low, and those roll over into upcoming semesters/years without limitation (meal plans expire at end of spring and do not roll over to the following academic year - that’s why lowest meal plan is the way to go). HokiePassport funds function like an ATM card for bookstore, on campus vending machines, etc. and is also accepted (with some limitations) at off-campus restaurants, grocery, etc.
You need to ask your daughter to set you up with a Guest Account (that’s where you access meal plan balance info), and also setup Payer access (that’s how you can deposit funds and pay tuition bills).
https://finaid.vt.edu/parent/hokiespa-guest-access.html
https://wallet.vt.edu/pay_tuition_fees/authorized-payers.html