The first two responses sum it up. Based on their websites, and anecdotally speaking to a lot of parents, VT options after freshman year are extremely limited to the point that families are already looking for apartments for sophomore year during the fall of freshman year.

W&M requires students on campus the first two years, and while they don’t guarantee it for the last two, there is space for at least some upperclassmen who want to stay.

In our family this is a consideration in exploring state schools. YMMV.

Anonymous wrote:No idea. Everyone has such different experiences. There is no way to tell. Most folks here do not have one kid in tech and one in w&m. You are honestly getting bs answers here.

Why are people’s personal experiences bs?

No idea. Everyone has such different experiences. There is no way to tell. Most folks here do not have one kid in tech and one in w&m. You are honestly getting bs answers here.

Anonymous wrote:VT students who want to stay on campus for a second year can join an LLC; my older Hokie spent her first two years on campus, and my younger will be back on for sophomore year. That said, the board of visitors was looking to eliminate the LLCs this week because they’re a bunch of idiots, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

That second year for an LLC at VT may be changing. There's an article that talked about doing away with LLCs after this coming school year.

Anonymous wrote:VT students who want to stay on campus for a second year can join an LLC; my older Hokie spent her first two years on campus, and my younger will be back on for sophomore year. That said, the board of visitors was looking to eliminate the LLCs this week because they’re a bunch of idiots, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

+1
We have an incoming freshman and were very disappointed to hear about this (after committing of course). Understand that most kids choose to move off sophomore year, but think they should leave an option available.

The Board seems to be looking to eliminate essentially all upperclassmen living on campus to house more freshmen, so to the OP's question, avoid VT if you think you might want to live on campus more than one year (We have heard there are enough decent off campus options - we'll see - but that may become squeezed as well if the college insists on pushing out all non-freshmen)

W&M has on campus capacity for a significantly higher percentage of students than VT. But there is also the demand side and someone else might have mor current information.

Sorry, was referring to VT ^^

As others have said, it's possible to live on campus after freshman year, and my DC really thought they would want to. However, she did a 180 after meeting a group of friends and deciding to move off campus with them. Most people do move off campus by sophomore year. There are a lot of really cute neighborhoods available.

At W&M in the later years, many students also choose to live in on campus specialty housing like the Language Houses (for French, Arabic, German, etc.).

At W&M you're required to live on campus sophomore year so that's very easy of course - after sophomore year most students move off campus. It's a lot easier to find a group of students to live off campus with when you don't have to rush to do it your freshman fall so that's a big advantage. Pretty decent availability off campus between apartments and houses but you'll want to start the search early (Sept of sophomore year) for the best options

Several brand new dorms at W&M so more housing availability. Students are required to live on campus for first and second year.

VT students who want to stay on campus for a second year can join an LLC; my older Hokie spent her first two years on campus, and my younger will be back on for sophomore year. That said, the board of visitors was looking to eliminate the LLCs this week because they’re a bunch of idiots, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

VT is a lottery for 2nd year and it’s pretty limited. But most kids want to move off campus and that’s plentiful at a range of price points. A big change from 7 years ago.

W&M requires on campus housing for 2 years.

Which is easier to get on campus housing after your first year? How difficult is it to get off campus housing?