Best college town in Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

I mean this does prove their point about autocentric-ness

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

I mean this does prove their point about autocentric-ness

What VA school is not autocentric outside of a campus?
You can easily get out to a civilization with a little bit of effort for GMU at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

DP. I don’t doubt she had a great experience. But I don’t consider proximity to many chain restaurants to be the mark of a great college town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

Maybe the Old Fairfax Town Square has cobblestones? That’s a 40 minute walk from GMU and across the street from a TJ Maxx but that’s all I can think of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

I mean this does prove their point about autocentric-ness

What VA school is not autocentric outside of a campus?
You can easily get out to a civilization with a little bit of effort for GMU at least.

For such a large state, it's impressive that there isn't one decent college town. Maybe that's why my kids are focusing on OOS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ashland/Randolph-Macon.

The college has a smaller enrollment than even our HS but they’ve got an Amtrak station right on-campus! The town itself has a quintessential and quirky Main St with a handful of festivals and parades every year. Only one “big” grocery store and Walmart is banished to the outskirts of town. Fall Football Saturdays are picturesque and the team has had some success of late.

But it’ll cost ya. Rack rate is close to 70K but they’ve been known to be generous with aid to VA students.

+1 on Ashland. You have Scott’s Addition, the Fan, and Lake Anna.

That would be Richmond, VA.

They're making fun of the Cville booster

No one is boosting C'Ville. This was the original post at 1243 on the 8th... "My middle in Blacksburg goes to C'Ville to ski, hike, party etc. with the oldest. So this household says C'Ville. The preferred vibe is in the eye of the beholder and it really is futile to argue about it. Notice the bold, it is you weirdos that took it to a different level arguing about Wintergreen. Take Wintergreen out of the mix and the kid, an actual Tech student still prefers C'Ville, alway has... that includes The Corner, Downtown Mall, Rugby Road etc. Why does this get peoples panties in a wad? It wasn't boostering in anyway, in fact the bolded states the opposite. Damn this place has some strange people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ashland/Randolph-Macon.

The college has a smaller enrollment than even our HS but they’ve got an Amtrak station right on-campus! The town itself has a quintessential and quirky Main St with a handful of festivals and parades every year. Only one “big” grocery store and Walmart is banished to the outskirts of town. Fall Football Saturdays are picturesque and the team has had some success of late.

But it’ll cost ya. Rack rate is close to 70K but they’ve been known to be generous with aid to VA students.

Most of the privates in VA offer great scholarships, save W&L and Richmond.

Don’t forget the VTAG money.

It definitely made several of the colleges we explored more reasonable.

Randolph would have been $20k all in, and that was with the lowest level of merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ashland/Randolph-Macon.

The college has a smaller enrollment than even our HS but they’ve got an Amtrak station right on-campus! The town itself has a quintessential and quirky Main St with a handful of festivals and parades every year. Only one “big” grocery store and Walmart is banished to the outskirts of town. Fall Football Saturdays are picturesque and the team has had some success of late.

But it’ll cost ya. Rack rate is close to 70K but they’ve been known to be generous with aid to VA students.

Most of the privates in VA offer great scholarships, save W&L and Richmond.

Don’t forget the VTAG money.

It definitely made several of the colleges we explored more reasonable.

Randolph would have been $20k all in, and that was with the lowest level of merit.

Are you talking about RMC in Ashland or Randolph in Lynchburg? In the good old days, RMC was all male and Randolph Macon’s Women’s College (now Randolph) was all female but now they are both coed and confusion has increased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

I mean this does prove their point about autocentric-ness

NP. I live near GMU and you can ABSOLUTELY not need or use a car if you're living on or near campus. Have you ever actually been to the campus? We walk around the shopping, bars, and restaurants all the time and we live a couple miles away (park near there and walk).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

Umm...I live in Fairfax. Where are these cobbled streets you speak of? Nothing against GMU but Fairfax is not a college "town." I have a kid at W&M and as much as I like Williamsburg, it is a tourist city not a college town.

I live in Fairfax and disagree. When I first moved here 30 years ago, I may have agreed with you but not any more. GMU area of Fairfax and Old town Fairfax def has a college vibe to it and the school has done a lot to change from a commuter school to a college campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynchburg. Liberty University, University of Lynchburg, and Randolph College are all there, and Sweet Briar is just outside of the city.

I agree with the PP. Before I had ever been to Lynchburg, I had a view of what I thought it was. Come to find out it is actually wonderful.

Several universities nearby and lots of things to do through that (sports, theater, etc.). But also, you have the river and lots of trails and parks for hiking, SUPing, running, kayaks, etc. And lots of people take advantage of that so there is a thriving outdoor community there.

The downtown area has also gone through a sort of revitalization with lots of the old mills and factory buildings redone into very cute (and expensive) lofts, condos, townhomes. There are lots of restaurants, bars, ice cream places, summer activities. There's an art scene. It's actually really great. And if you're thinking you'll get in and out cheaply, it's not that cheap to stay and play there (relative to here, sure).

Having said that, there is A TON for college kids to do there. A ton. But if you're only college goal is to puke your way through a Hokie or Cavs game, then I guess maybe the "shocked eyes" emoji is appropriate for you.

You know, I was nodding along with you in agreement until your last sentence. What was the point of that? So uncalled for and totally diminishes the rest of your post.
NP

I really care, honestly. Who are you anyway, the poster police?

It's accurate in response to the other posters who think you need to have a D1 football drunkfest every Saturday to be a college down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax and GMU! The Smithsonian museums, Sequoias, Tony and Joes, Ski Liberty, Great Falls.

It seems autocentric and not very walkable. When you step off campus, do you feel like you're in a town?

Such ignorance here about GMU. DD lived in the dorms four years and gad the time if her life. Here's what she did: walked across the street to dine and shop. Shuttled to the wonderful retaurabts and bars at Grand Commons Square (Coastal Flats, Ozzi's, etc) Shuttled to Old Fairfax for art scene, walkabout the cobbled streets and eat at very cool Vietnamese retaurants and other ethoc restaurants. Breakfast scene at First Watch and the best authentic Chinese restaurant I've eaten out of China. Weekly events at tge Eagle Bank Center. On camous cinma. Great gyns. Good on-campus food at name chain restaurants. Great school spirit over basketball. Away games. Shuttled to DC and everyhing it has to offer. Shuttled to the high tech canpus at Manassas for internships. GMU Arlington has loads going on. Spent a term at Mason Korea. And met her husband there

I mean this does prove their point about autocentric-ness

I mean, lots of schools are "autocentric" in many ways. I look at GMU as more of a college town than CNU (which many people love and, while it's a great school imo, Newport News is yuck and a car is needed to do a lot there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynchburg. Liberty University, University of Lynchburg, and Randolph College are all there, and Sweet Briar is just outside of the city.

I agree with the PP. Before I had ever been to Lynchburg, I had a view of what I thought it was. Come to find out it is actually wonderful.

Several universities nearby and lots of things to do through that (sports, theater, etc.). But also, you have the river and lots of trails and parks for hiking, SUPing, running, kayaks, etc. And lots of people take advantage of that so there is a thriving outdoor community there.

The downtown area has also gone through a sort of revitalization with lots of the old mills and factory buildings redone into very cute (and expensive) lofts, condos, townhomes. There are lots of restaurants, bars, ice cream places, summer activities. There's an art scene. It's actually really great. And if you're thinking you'll get in and out cheaply, it's not that cheap to stay and play there (relative to here, sure).

Having said that, there is A TON for college kids to do there. A ton. But if you're only college goal is to puke your way through a Hokie or Cavs game, then I guess maybe the "shocked eyes" emoji is appropriate for you.

You know, I was nodding along with you in agreement until your last sentence. What was the point of that? So uncalled for and totally diminishes the rest of your post.
NP

I really care, honestly. Who are you anyway, the poster police?

It's accurate in response to the other posters who think you need to have a D1 football drunkfest every Saturday to be a college down.

NP- Tech and UVA have 6 home football games a year. Your hyperbolic ranting is odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynchburg. Liberty University, University of Lynchburg, and Randolph College are all there, and Sweet Briar is just outside of the city.

I agree with the PP. Before I had ever been to Lynchburg, I had a view of what I thought it was. Come to find out it is actually wonderful.

Several universities nearby and lots of things to do through that (sports, theater, etc.). But also, you have the river and lots of trails and parks for hiking, SUPing, running, kayaks, etc. And lots of people take advantage of that so there is a thriving outdoor community there.

The downtown area has also gone through a sort of revitalization with lots of the old mills and factory buildings redone into very cute (and expensive) lofts, condos, townhomes. There are lots of restaurants, bars, ice cream places, summer activities. There's an art scene. It's actually really great. And if you're thinking you'll get in and out cheaply, it's not that cheap to stay and play there (relative to here, sure).

Having said that, there is A TON for college kids to do there. A ton. But if you're only college goal is to puke your way through a Hokie or Cavs game, then I guess maybe the "shocked eyes" emoji is appropriate for you.

You know, I was nodding along with you in agreement until your last sentence. What was the point of that? So uncalled for and totally diminishes the rest of your post.
NP

I really care, honestly. Who are you anyway, the poster police?

It's accurate in response to the other posters who think you need to have a D1 football drunkfest every Saturday to be a college down.

NP- Tech and UVA have 6 home football games a year. Your hyperbolic ranting is odd.

It’s a liberty/lynchburg booster explaining that liberty/lynchburg doesn’t have a drinking culture. Which is cool - to each his own. But you can’t stumble down Center Street in Blacksburg on a game weekend without hitting multiple Liberty students who are there to party.