Construction continues on a future residence hall at the corner of Washington Street and West Campus Drive.
As most upperclassmen at Virginia Tech can see, the number of students on campus is increasing. The dining halls seem to be a little more crowded, the football lottery system seems more and more futile and if you want to park in the commuter lot, plan on arriving at least 20 minutes early. The growing student body has also affected university housing and residential life, which could potentially lead to greater problems.
"Admissions are very much a predicting challenge since the admissions staff must make a prediction as to how many freshman applicants will accept VT's offer of admission," said Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Edward Spencer.
"Based upon previous years' experience in what this acceptance rate (known as "yield") has been, and with over 20,700 applications from freshmen, the admissions office offered admission to about 13,000 of these applicants," Spencer said.
The university projected that about 5,000 of those would accept admission and become the new freshman class.
"What happened is that the popularity of Virginia Tech evidently increased even further than the university had projected and the number of applicants who accepted (admission) was about 400 beyond what the admissions staff predicted and expected," Spencer said.
The university still makes the claim that all freshmen from the incoming class are required, and will be guaranteed, on-campus housing. There are, however, a few exceptions: if the freshman student is residing with his or her parents or close relatives who are established residents of the community; if the student is married and lives with his or her spouse; if the student is a military veteran of at least six months active duty; or if the student is at least 21 years of age.
Regardless of these exceptions, from a housing perspective, something still has to change in order for the university to accommodate and house the overflowing number of freshmen.
Residential life, said Spencer, is instituting a few innovative methods to allow more availability for the freshman class to be guaranteed on-campus housing.
One new plan will offer returning students and transfer students a "buy out" deal. This will allow the students to cancel their on-campus housing contracts, which have been binding and non-breakable in the past. Residential life hopes this would encourage upperclassmen to move off campus to open up more housing for freshmen. Students who are interested should e-mail housing@vt.edu with name and student identification number.
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Housing is really messed up. I received a HAP number in the top 10, and did not get ANY of my 3 choices. How does this happen? The CT needs to investigate how housing actually places students in halls (by pure chance) or if this "magical" program places students based on their HAP. They should also answer how do freshmen end up being placed in Harper & New Res East when those are the #1 requested halls by upperclassmen returning to live on campus. It appears the students have no say. Housing - WAKE UP!
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I've been in Harper and New Res since I was a freshman because I have asthma and require air conditioning. Most freshman I knew that were placed in those residence halls had similar situations.
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I lived on campus at NC State for a year, and at VT for 2. I think the Freshman should be required to live in the older dorms that don't have A/C or Suites, while the upperclassman wanting to return to campus should get first dibs on the nicer dorms, if that's what they choose. Of course, since Freshman are required to live on campus, some of them might get luck and get a nicer dorm in that kind of setup...but it would ast least give a better preference to returning students. All of that is why I decided not to live on campus for my last 2 years and got an apartment nearby...at least the say in where I lived was my own choosing.
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