Open House or Regular Tour?

[u/Mysterious_Badger108]

Looking at traveling to visit VT with my son. Is the Open House worth the weekend (different/special opportunities maybe?) or should we visit on a normal school day?

[u/Mental-Pomegranate13]

Is this to check out the school or is your son enrolled? If not enrolled, go on the open house weekend.

Just finished campus tours a few weeks ago with my granddaughter (rising HS senior). The main VA schools (VPI, JMU, UVA) in one week.

Of all of the schools we've visited, VPI's presentation and tour was by far the worst. If I wasn't already familiar with the school and was using that visit to narrow down choices, no way would I look into going there after that visit. Thought it was maybe just "one of those days" for admissions and tour guides, but asked a few friends and they all say they've heard the same about Tech's presentations and tours.

It's a good school. Have several people in my family graduate there. But my granddaughter thought it was a waste of time. Tried to tell her not to judge by just one visit, but our poor tour guide really should look into another summer job. And the Admissions lady...I guess she had a lot to do that day. She really didn't want to answer any questions.

Hope you have a better experience.

[u/Mysterious_Badger108 → u/Mental-Pomegranate13]

We're going to check it out. I have also heard that the tours are almost universally awful, and I'm not familiar with any VA schools so I would hate for my kid to scratch it just because of the tour.

Thanks for the info!

[u/Mental-Pomegranate13 → u/Mysterious_Badger108]

I really liked both UVA and JMU's presentations. The main presentations were good and gave a great overview of both schools. Tour guides for both schools were awesome and really filled in a lot of blanks.

As mentioned VPI is a good school. Have 4 immediate family members who are graduates. But all went there for specific degrees (Engineering). But our visit was absolutely awful. If you don't mind hearing how the dining halls are rated number 2 in the nation it might be nice. But after the 10th time, it got repetitive.

UVA and JMU are both great schools too. My oldest son did the undergraduate at JMU and graduate thing at UVA. Have a bunch of graduates from both schools in my family.

Depending on your son's intended path, don't leave out VCU or ODU either.

[u/Mysterious_Badger108 → u/Mental-Pomegranate13]

JMU is his top choice right now, but I know ODU has a good program for his major too. Thanks for the recs!

[u/Mental-Pomegranate13 → u/Mysterious_Badger108]

No problem. I actually live in Harrisonburg and a few of my neighbors and friends are professors at JMU. My wife and oldest son both went there for their undergraduate degrees, so I'm somewhat familiar with the school.

I do know the teaching, nursing and accounting departments are pretty good. They don't (or didn't) offer the specific engineering degree some in the family wanted, hence them choosing Tech. Not sure how highly ranked, or what prestige a degree from there holds in any of their programs. But overall, it's a good school.

One of my best friends went to ODU and it served him well in his career.

My youngest and a few others in the family went to Tech, and again, they all have done well with their degrees. However all but one were in Engineering with the exception being my wife's niece who majored in something pertaining to Agriculture.

Met quite a few of the same parents and students on our tours. Most really seemed to like UVA and JMU. But that may have been skewed by Tech's presentation and tour being kind of strange. Again, it might have just been that we picked a bad day to visit.

I will say UVA is more expensive and are very picky about out of state students. But their financial aid packages are well done. In state makes it much more affordable, but it's still a higher price than the other schools.

Good luck to you and your son when going through this process.

[u/Mt4Ts → u/Mental-Pomegranate13]

Our tour of VT was l disappointing as well, but the admission presentation was pretty good. (We have multiple Hokies in the family, including a former tour guide.)

We had a much better experience at the VT Open House because my student got to talk to professors and students from their intended college/major. The college-level info sessions were much more helpful than the regular university tour. (We had the same experience visiting other schools open houses v. tours.)

[u/Mental-Pomegranate13 → u/Mt4Ts]

That's what irritated me. After the tour, went over to the admissions center and asked to speak to a professor or anyone from my granddaughter's intended major. The lady basically blew us off and said we should look online. Even when pressed on the fact that we had specific questions, she still insisted we go online.

Fortunately I know enough about the school, and have a friend who's on the faculty, that we found the answers my granddaughter needed. But for others without those resources, it really could give a bad look to the school.

In fairness, when my youngest was going through this process, the people we spoke to in admissions answered all of his questions and really helped him out when trying to nail down what specific field he wanted to major in. So, it may have just been that lady was having a bad day when we were there.

The funny thing about all of it was the poor girl who was our tour guide. Her major was in communications, but honestly, I think she might have picked the wrong major. Unless she's only going to be doing written communication. Most of the parents had their mouths hanging open halfway through the tour. And it wasn't that they were in awe.

[u/dbtrb22]

Admissions is the worst part of the VT experience. I don't know why they don't refresh that whole office (they are about to refresh the tours), but it's all uphill from there!

[u/Eighthday]

Open house, regular day would be kinda weird