Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 15:40     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:Does she understand that there are tons of student groups/clubs and that they have activities? Many have house parties. Club sports.


+1
I always laugh a bit when people assume there’s nothing to do at these schools. Seriously? My DC says there are so many opportunities that she is never, ever bored. I have kids at JMU and VT and neither are Greek.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 15:39     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:What does she want to study? Will she be in large classes? Is the major guaranteed on acceptance or does it weed-out? Is she an organized self-starter? Can she double-check any info she’s given at a large school (think Penn State or VT)? Does she need a smaller world with less anonymity and smaller classes? Maybe JMU. At the big schools you can always find your people, but sometimes it takes longer. At the smaller schools, it feels claustrophobic sooner. What does she need to start college ?


JMU is over 20k students. I wouldn't call that small. I don't think any of these schools will differ when it comes to the dynamics of size.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 15:37     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
What does she want to study? Will she be in large classes? Is the major guaranteed on acceptance or does it weed-out? Is she an organized self-starter? Can she double-check any info she’s given at a large school (think Penn State or VT)? Does she need a smaller world with less anonymity and smaller classes? Maybe JMU. At the big schools you can always find your people, but sometimes it takes longer. At the smaller schools, it feels claustrophobic sooner. What does she need to start college ?
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 14:34     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP have you seen Blacksburg? I would not choose VT for that alone.


I have not, that's why I was hoping to get insights here.


You need to visit. The college is the town. Some kids really like that setting, some want a little bit more in terms of things to do and explore in their free time.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 14:30     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Mine currently has offers from all 3. We are full pay VA in-state and none offered merit. Cost of attendance is as follows:

VT: $42K
JMU: $33K
PSU: $56K


Where are you getting $42k for VT? Make sure you are comparing apples-to-apples vs the other schools. On the VT website, the current basic tuition, fees, housing, food is about $32K. They have IMO high estimates for everything else. Some colleges have an add on fee but even the highest (Business) just gets it up to $35k. Also, we've found housing costs significantly less once DD moves off campus, which almost everyone does after 1st year.


Same with JMU. It's $27K. Yes, there are additional expenses, but unless you're out of state and paying for long flights home, no way it's going to be $6000 more.


They are just using the generic COA on each college website.

https://www.jmu.edu/financialaid/learn/cost-of-attendance-undergrad.shtml

https://finaid.vt.edu/undergraduate/coa.html

The VT COA is $40,000 plus and extra $2000 or so for Engineering, Business, Architecture. So their DC is probably majoring in one of those fields.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 14:07     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Mine currently has offers from all 3. We are full pay VA in-state and none offered merit. Cost of attendance is as follows:

VT: $42K
JMU: $33K
PSU: $56K


Where are you getting $42k for VT? Make sure you are comparing apples-to-apples vs the other schools. On the VT website, the current basic tuition, fees, housing, food is about $32K. They have IMO high estimates for everything else. Some colleges have an add on fee but even the highest (Business) just gets it up to $35k. Also, we've found housing costs significantly less once DD moves off campus, which almost everyone does after 1st year.


Same with JMU. It's $27K. Yes, there are additional expenses, but unless you're out of state and paying for long flights home, no way it's going to be $6000 more.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 13:31     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:OP have you seen Blacksburg? I would not choose VT for that alone.


I have not, that's why I was hoping to get insights here.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 13:25     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
OP have you seen Blacksburg? I would not choose VT for that alone.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 13:22     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does she understand that there are tons of student groups/clubs and that they have activities? Many have house parties. Club sports.


Yes, she knows that. She's referring to the college town.


Since she jumped from “only frat parties and football games” it would be a good idea for her to look into other student activities on campus before focusing too much on the town.


She knows that there are tons of clubs and student activities in each of these schools. Maybe I shouldn't have said only frat parties and football games.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 13:17     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Mine currently has offers from all 3. We are full pay VA in-state and none offered merit. Cost of attendance is as follows:

VT: $42K
JMU: $33K
PSU: $56K


Where are you getting $42k for VT? Make sure you are comparing apples-to-apples vs the other schools. On the VT website, the current basic tuition, fees, housing, food is about $32K. They have IMO high estimates for everything else. Some colleges have an add on fee but even the highest (Business) just gets it up to $35k. Also, we've found housing costs significantly less once DD moves off campus, which almost everyone does after 1st year.


You're right. The extra !0K they list in the financial tab in the portal is for books, supplies, materials, living allowance, transportations, etc.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 12:58     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does she understand that there are tons of student groups/clubs and that they have activities? Many have house parties. Club sports.


Yes, she knows that. She's referring to the college town.


Since she jumped from “only frat parties and football games” it would be a good idea for her to look into other student activities on campus before focusing too much on the town.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 12:49     Subject: Re:VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:VT is the best, followed by Penn State, followed by JMU, which is far below the former two.


Really? How is VT better than Penn State? I've never been but I've always heard that Penn State was an amazing college town.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 12:16     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:Does she understand that there are tons of student groups/clubs and that they have activities? Many have house parties. Club sports.


Yes, she knows that. She's referring to the college town.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 12:11     Subject: Re:VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
VT is the best, followed by Penn State, followed by JMU, which is far below the former two.
Anonymous
Post 02/27/2025 12:08     Subject: VA Tech, JMU, Penn State
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I mean all of these schools have those things. JMU/Harrisonburg is considered pretty rural but there’s of course grocery stores, shops and a cute little downtown scene with lots of up and coming restaurants.

If she wants some more urban environment, she may want to consider something like Pitt or U South Carolina.


Have you been to Harrisonburg? it's rural, but the city has every chain restaurant known to man and every major chain store in the United States. It's also close to Shenandoah and Massanutten, so definitely a lovely area, and your kid will be comfortable there, and only about a 2.5 hour drive from DC to come home, however, in terms of academic strength, I would put Penn State the best, then Vtech, then JMU last. however if you are looking to save money and be in state especially for engineering vtech is probably the best option, however i will warn you its not been easy to get into any of these schools including jmu as there are too many kids going to college.


also Pittsburgh isnt' that more urban than Harrisonburg, everything shuts down after 12, if i was picking between UPItt (which isn't suggested) and the other 3 i would pick the va schools or pennstate.


….Says someone who has never been to Pittsburgh? Nothing shuts down after 12, and it’s Pitt. Not UPitt.