Good evening everyone! So glad to be here.
So happy to have you all here. My name is
Dr. Charmaine Troy, I'm the program director
for first generation student support. I am
really happy to have you all here. If you
are watching this video, then you have been
accepted to VT and congratulations on that
wonderful accomplishment and we are definitely
glad to welcome you here and just being a
first-generation student is a great thing
and we just want to welcome you here to VT
and make this transition a little bit easier
for you. So I'd like to welcome you this evening
to our first generation student panel. I'd
like to go around and introduce everyone here
that's on the panel. First I'd like to start
with Luisa which is the Assistant Director
for the University Admissions, Luisa.
Hi everyone welcome and thank you for having me. I'm excited. I want to first say congratulations to you
all for being accepted to Virginia Tech. If
you haven't already accepted I hope this panel
really helps you get some of your questions
answered. Im here just mostly for support
but Charmaine, Dr. Troy will be running this
show but I'll be here if anything else comes
up. But welcome again and I hope this helps
you decide to attend Virginia Tech.
Next if we could have Elizabeth introduce herself.
Hi everyone. My name is Elizabeth. I'm majoring
in political science and sociology and I'm also a rising junior.
Next if we could have
Kana introduce herself.
Hi everyone I'm Kana. I am a rising senior in biochemistry.
Elysia if you can introduce yourself next.
Hi everyone my name's Elysia. I'm a graduating senior
getting degrees in history and political science.
And finally Aniyah if you can introduce yourself.
Hi everyone I'm Aniyah. I'm a rising sophomore
and my major is animal and poultry science.
And Christina.
Hi everyone my name is Christina
and I'm a rising senior majoring in psychology
and minoring in sociology.
Awesome. So we're
going to go ahead and jump right into questions.
Before we get started there is a chat box
on the side there on YouTube. So if you have
any questions during the time that we are
doing our panel please put those in the box
and then we can see if we can answer those
during this time here.
So our first question it's going to be for
Luisa. If you could talk about, we've gotten
a number of questions about scholarships. So
if you could talk about generally about what
scholarships are available here at Virginia
Tech and the process of applying for scholarships.
Yeah. So in general after you apply you should
have all received an email to complete the
general scholarship application. With your
guest account you should have access to do
this. This scholarship will pull both for your merit and need-based scholarships. So based
on your financial need and your academics
and scholarships are handled all through the
office of financial aid and scholarships. So
usually the process is comprehensive and it
goes above to pull everything that you may
qualify based on all your characteristics
right. Outside of that I would say there's
a lot of resources on their website for other
scholarships as well but. It's very unique
to every student. When it comes to specifically
first-generation scholarships I would say
we don't have one that is named toward specifically
for that group yet but everything will go
through the financial aid office for the most part.
Thank you Luisa and for, we also
got a question regarding ROTC scholarships
and the ROTC program and the student wanted
to know if the Corps cadets had any aid for
tuition and board? So Kana if you could
speak to that and talk about your experience
in the Corps cadets.
Yeah I'd love to. So there are a couple scholarships. There's ROTC scholarship which is kind of covered by
each specific branch. I'm in the Navy program
personally and all four branches or
all three, the fourth one's kind of in Navy but
they're all giving opportunities to earn a
scholarship even during their time here. So
even though you don't come in with a scholarship
does not mean you can't get the rest of your
time at Tech paid for and then the Corps also
has some scholarships. The one that's the biggest
one is the emerging leader scholarship. Which
is given out I forget the exact numbers but
there's, it's like a yearly scholarship. So once
you get it as a freshman you'll keep getting
it in increasing amounts as you go through
your time in the Corps and then just generally
from my like my experience in the Corps it's
been a really awesome experience. I've really
enjoyed you know just learning and living
so closely with these people like all these
people who want to be in the military wanna
even just like have a leadership opportunity
and kind of a different experience from
college and it's really cool to see how,
I'm involved in like things off campus as
well and things that aren't really like corps
activities but to be able to kind of like
be part of both and kind of get the best of
both worlds has been really awesome. So if
anyone has any questions about that I'd love
to answer any specific questions about
the Corps.
Wonderful thank you Kana. So now
we're gonna start with our questions that
we have received from students that are for
our students. So the first question is, "How
was it being the first to attend college in
your first semester?" So I'm gonna ask Christina
and Aniyah and Elysia to answer that question
first. So Christina if you will start first.
So being the first in my family to go to college
and going to college in my first semester
as a first-generation student was really exciting
but at the same time it was a little bit confusing.
I didn't really understand how orientation
or things coming into college really worked.
But thankfully Virginia Tech had some great
resources that I was able to utilize and I
was also able to speak to some of my friends
who already attended Virginia Tech or were
also coming in in the fall to get some advice
from them. I would say that it's a very big
change from living at home to going to live
on campus in a dorm with a roommate but overall
it was a really great experience.
Aniyah the same question. How was it being the first from your family to attend college in the first semester?
For me it was it was like Christina
said it was a big jump from like high school
going to college and being the first person
in my family to go. Like my parents, they didn't
really know exactly how to apply for colleges,
scholarships and stuff like that. So I really
had to do a lot of the work myself and like
asking the people at my school. We had a
future center and they helped with applying
to scholarships and making sure you did your
FAFSA and stuff like that. So that was, it
was a lot and being on campus, being away from
home for the first time like for months, it's a
lot. So but I had fun and I did a lot of new things.
Awesome Thank You Aniyah. Elysia same
question. How was it being the first from
your family to attend college?
It was kind of exciting
for me. I did summer academies so I started
my freshman year in the summer. So like I think
July 2nd we moved onto campus, which was
about two weeks after I had graduated from
high school. So it was kind of a big shock
to all of a sudden I was out of high school
and I immediately jumped into college but I would
have not had it any other way. Because I only
had two classes over the summer so it was
a nice GPA boost. But at the same time like I was
able to kind of figure out what I did and didn't
like about campus, figure out the bus system
way before everyone else did. So it was very
interesting but I kind of relied on like my
friends I had immediately made that first week that
I moved onto campus to kind of understand
what college life was like. Because a lot of them had
previous experiences or had gone to VT
and I really relied on my mentor as
well and then going into fall semester I was
much more adapt to VT and walking around
campus. So I kind of already knew my way around
which was really nice. So I definitely suggest,
I know Summer Academy I think it's online
this year but if you have the opportunity
to do it I definitely say go for it.
It makes a very big difference and you
already get acclimated to your major and
professors that you can go back to and talk
to.
Thank you Elysia. So we had a ROTC follow up
question. Kana if you can respond to this
for me. The question was, "How difficult or competitive
is it to get an ROTC scholarship during college?"
Yeah so that's a really hard question
to answer just because each branch looks for
very different things. But basically it really
depends on one like the biggest priority for
each branch is your academic like success.
So really just working on your grades whether
you're in high school still or you're
about to graduate and like you're applying
within your freshman year, which is what I did
to apply from my scholarship. Really just
making sure your grades and GPA is good is
like the first priority. Next is like the PT.
So making sure your physical fitness is good,
your PT test score was good and then outside of
that depending on which branch, the other
things that you get involved in. But those
first two are super super important. It's not, I wouldn't say it's impossible, even if
you don't get it out of high school I see
so many of my friends who have gotten a scholarship
in each like grade level and they really really
do try to especially like with the Corps being
a senior military college it gives us kind
of a like kind of like a leg up
on how we can like I don't know it's just
that we have more like a military experience
versus an ROTC school at another school. So
I think that you know there's a pretty good
success rate. I don't know any specific numbers
but there's a pretty good success rate of
getting a scholarship and like I said
there's so many different factors there within
your branch but academics and PT are like
the two most important things to make sure
you really like maximize your chances at getting a scholarship.
Thank You Kana. So the
next question that we got was about adjusting
to life on campus. So I want to pose that question
about, "How adjusting to life on campus for
you and is there any specific thing that I
should know to make my transition easier?" If
I could have Elizabeth answer that question first.
Yeah so adjusting to life on campus is
really important. I think one of the things
that are so important for freshmen to do, since
freshmen are there a couple a week or a couple
days earlier, is to go around campus with your
class schedule and walk where you
know your classes are going to be so you make
sure you know where every building is. That
way on the first day you're not rushing to
class or late because you got lost. I would
also say go to every welcome or try to go
to Welcome Week events. Because those are the events
that they really try and get freshmen in and
get them better acclimated to campus and meet
new people and I can say for me I met the
friends who I'm still friends with now two
years later through going to welcome week events.
So I would say doing those two things are
really important to really adjusting into
life on campus. And also don't be afraid if it's not,
if it doesn't feel like home within the first
week because eventually as you get into a
routine and start finding a group of people
in your organization's your part of it will
start to become like home to you.
Thank you
Elizabeth. Christina could you answer that
question as well? How was adjusting to life on
campus and do you have any advice?
Yeah so I completely agree with Elizabeth in that
you know it might not be an immediate click
into feeling like home. It definitely took
me a little bit of time but it's really important
I think personally to get the whole college
experience and to acclimating to life on campus
is to find an organization or Club that's
really important to you and that you feel
like you belong in and so for me that was
a cappella. You know to go off of Elizabeth's
point in participating in Welcome Week events
that was one of the Welcome Week events. Where
a cappella groups performed outside of Deet's
and so I went with my roommate and it was
really fun and I learned about all the a cappella
groups there and so I ended up auditioning
for one and got in and now those people are
my closest friends at Virginia Tech. So I would
say definitely make sure that you just take
advantage of those Welcome Week events and
Gobbler fest too to find clubs and organizations that you might be interested in joining.
Thank you Christina. So we're going to move to the next
question because I want all of you to have
the opportunity to answer this question. So
different clubs or activities that you're
involved in. What are some of the clubs and activities
that you're involved in? Specifically I was
asked if there are any for first-generation
students and Latino students? So if each of
you could talk about what clubs that you're
involved in and any suggestions for clubs.
So I'm going to start with Aniyah first.
Okay I'm in a number of organizations. I am
in Black Student Alliance. It's just a herd
of African-American students. Textures
is a hair care Club. I'm on the dance team
called cultural dance crew with Elysia.
And what else? The NAACP. Yep I recommend all
of them. If you wanna join dance join cultural
dance crew.
Awesome. Elysia if you can talk
about what clubs you're in and any suggestions
that you have.
Over the four years I've been
in so many organizations. So going from my
freshman year to my senior year I was a part
of the marching band for two years. Through
them I met my, I joined my first sorority Tau Beta Sigma
which is a band service sorority. I'm a part
of National Collegiate honors society for
scholars which is a service and educational
group. I joined I'm a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority
Incorporated which is one of the divine nine
or Black Greek fraternities and sororities.
Both Aniyah and I are part of each Society which basically allows us to go talk to people in our community
about our experiences as black students and
about as first-generation students and we
get paid for it which is really nice because
it allows us to buy textbooks and stuff. I
am the president of Phi Alpha Theta which
is the honor history Club. I'm an ambassador
for the history department. So I get to speak
with students about why I love being a history
major. I think and I'm also part of the cultural
dance crew and then through being on my sororities
I've been a part of to commissioning boards.
So it's kind of more like the backbone of
stuff. So I was able to like kind of delegate
money to organizations and some organizations.
But I definitely say like out of all of them Zeta
and CDC have definitely been my top favorite
two. Just because of the big diversity and
also just the service aspect. I think service
is very important but also like dancing like
it's the one time, I don't like going to the
gym, so it's like the one time I get to like
dance and be active and being around like
a small group of like black people that we
all get along with.
Awesome. Thank You Elysia. Kana
if you could talk about organizations that
you're involved in and any organizations for students to join.
Okay yeah so obviously I'm in the
Corps and Navy ROTC which I've mentioned before.
I'm also in Alpha Chi Omega which is a social
sorority and the Panhellenic Council. I'm in
a bunch of different organizations in the
Corps. So I'm not really going to get into that unless
people are specifically interested in it. I'm
also in FIMRC. Which is Foundation of International
Medical Relief for Children. I used to be a
part of volunteers around the world which
is around that's like the same kind of lines
as FIMRC and then I'm also on the Christiansburg
rescue squad which is not technically on campus. But it's something you can get involved in here as a student
as an EMT and a driver, ambulance driver.
Thank you Kana. Elizabeth if you could
answer that question and talk about what you're involved in.
yeah so I'm part of her campus
Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech chapter. So with
her campus it's an online women's publication.
Which basically focuses on articles or you
can write whatever you want focused on and centered on
empowering women college students. I'm also
going to be the vice president for the sociology
and criminology Club and that Club is
focused on connecting people in those majors
any of the majors outside of that with careers
in the fields with criminology and sociology. So
if you need more information about that I'll
be the vice president. And then I'm also a
Soar Inclusive VT Intern and what Soar does
is just serve students and just make sure
they're connected to the right resources and
right people on campus and serve as more of like
a mentoring for them. And then for the question
about first-generation students I am going
to be a Hokie first peer mentor with Dr. Troy
and that's focused on mentoring first generation students.
Awesome. Thank you so much and Christina the organization that you're involved in.
So like I mentioned
in the last question that I answered I am
involved in Mixed Emotions which is a co-ed
a cappella group on campus where I'm a member
and also the music director. So I lead rehearsals
every week, arrange music and just guide the
group musically. I'm also a College of Science
Ambassador. So I volunteer about 10 hours per
semester at various College of Science events
and I just talk about my experience with the
College of Science and starting next semester
I will also be a Hokies first peer mentor
with Dr. Troy and Elizabeth where I'll help mentor first generation students.
Wonderful. Thank you so much Christina. Aniyah you wanted to add something?
Yes I forgot to
mention the organization that my friends and
I started. It's called transmute and if
you would like to like to know more about
it it's on Gobbler Connect T R A N S mute. Thank you.
Elysia did you want to add something about BCI?
Oh I forgot. I believe Aniyah did BCI while you're in high
school and then I've been a mentor for it
for the past two years. So we're actually still
going to be able to continue it this year.
But BCI is the black college institute. So
as high school juniors and seniors you can
come to VT for three days to about five days
to kind of understand what college is like
and then on the other side of it as college
students anywhere from your freshman year
through being a grad student you can come
back and kind of be a mentor towards the students
and I know I've continued to reach out to
my students that have not only intended VT
but have gone to other colleges. I'm excited
that we're still able to do it even though it'll
be online. But I also agree for students that
are coming in you can apply to be a mentor
and we do get paid for it so that's a nice way to
also continue to pay your way through college.
Thank You Elysia. to speak
To first-generation student organizations
we also have an organization on VT's campus
called 1G at VT. It's specifically for first gen
students. We have a very robust great schedule
planned for the academic year coming up. So
please feel free to start coming to our meetings.
They start in August and we were also gonna
have a first gen welcome week that one G at VT
will be sponsoring and Luisa if you could
speak to the Latin X organizations on campus.
Yeah I'm actually the advisor for one of them
called Latin link. We have a good amount I
probably can't name all of them on top of
my head but I'm just naming a few LASO which
is like the umbrella organization for all
Latin X organizations on campus. So they
usually anything you want from advocacy to
partnering in events, social events as well.
They're kind of overseeing everything and
then out of that there's different academic
ones. There's I believe it's called SHPE  it's engineer for Hispanic students. There's
also SalsaTech which is a dance crew. There
is Latin link the one I mentioned where
they do a lot of social events and overall
outside of that we have a cultural center
called El Centro and there are other cultural
centers I'm sure other students here can talk
about a little bit later. But we have six of
them. But just know that place for us El
Centro we usually also have a lot of events there
where we do Comida y Comunidad which is for
faculty and staff. So I come in as a professional
to kind of mentor with or you know just network
with students as well as all faculty members,
professors and what not everyone as well as
community members. We sometimes invite like
business owners and stuff like that that we
partner with. But for the most part it's faculty
and staff and the caucus and the students
on campus. So again there must be a lot that I don't know on top of my head but there's more than that.
Thank you Luisa. So the next question that we
have is, "What is your advice to students who
feel overwhelmed being first generation?"
I'm gonna ask if Elizabeth and Kana could
speak to that question. So Elizabeth you answer
that first.
Well one of my advice is that don't
feel like it's an uncommon feeling because
it definitely, I know for me personally
I had two other sisters. So for me I feel overwhelmed
leaving home because I was like their lives
are gonna change dramatically and my life's,
it's almost like we feel the extra pressure
as being first gen. So over being or feeling
overwhelmed is definitely normal. But one of
the things that I would say is to one make
sure you find your community on campus. Because
your community are gonna be the people who
you go to, who you can talk to about those feelings
of being overwhelmed or get involved in certain
things that can make you an easier
schedule and I would also say to plan a balanced
schedule. That way you come on campus and you're
doing some stuff for you, some stuff for your
education and even some stuff like doing with
extracurriculars and internships
for your future. So creating a balanced schedule
and just finding your community on campus.
Thank you Elizabeth. Kana if you can answer
the same question. What is your advice to students
who feel overwhelmed being first gen?
Yeah so I agree first of all with
everything Elizabeth said. Like find your
group, find like even one person if that's
your roommate or whoever, a friend from home. Like whatever
it is just to like have someone you know and
like get yourself involved and you know go
to gobbler fest and go to see like even things
you're like even slightly interested in definitely
go and explore those options. Because those are
where you're gonna find like your people
or people that you get along with like and
possibly like lifelong friends. The other
thing on the academic side for me I know like
I'm sure like a lot of students relate to
this but like in high school I didn't like
I wasn't as organized as I am now. Like I kinda
just like remembered all of my assignments. I just think that like having a planner or just like figuring out
a way you're like first semester to just
stay organized so you can stay on top of the
academic part will help a lot. Because that takes like one extra thing off your plate of stressors and then just like really
helps you feel like you're like on top of
the things like your responsibilities.
I think like those two things are super important.
Thank you so much Kana. So now we're gonna
go into dorm life. So I'm gonna have about
two to three of you guys answer this question.
So the question was, "How is dorm life and
having a roommate and what are communal bathrooms
like?" So I'm gonna have if Elysia could answer that question first and then followed by Christina.
So I lived on campus for two
years and I've also worked for housing over
the summer. So I've lived in I've lived in
six, seven, six or seven different residence
halls over like the past four years. So I definitely
say as far as like roommates go don't
room with your best friend. I love my best friend.
The two of us have had this conversation. Going
into our freshman year we're like we're gonna room
together everything's going to be great. Not
everything wasn't great it was that I was
a morning person she was not. I would talk
to her in the morning and it just didn't end
well for us and mainly our relationship has
mended from there but I suggest either going
with someone that you kind of know from high
school or your hometown or go with someone
random that has a similar schedule to you
or has similar interests. That way you can
bond and get along well together but you're
not annoying to each other and when problems
do occur it's okay to talk it out and if that
doesn't work your RA's are there and they're
also there to help you make sure that you
keep a good relationship with your roommate.
As far as the bathrooms go you just find a
good schedule to go. There's student residence
halls where it takes a while for the water
to heat up. So you kind of claim your stall,
you let it run for like a good 10-15 minutes
and then you go back and shower and there's
some where you turn it on and instantly the
waters hot and you're ready to go. So like
things are definitely different and then there are some
that have suites. So like you have two shower
stalls and you have two toilets. So
you kind of you have to clean up after yourself.
So just kind of be mindful of that. But like
it's doable, it's part of life. I find every
experience that I have was enjoyable. I've
lived in O'Shaug, Vawter, Pritchard, East AJ West AJ and
Peddrew-Yates. So I've kind of lived in Newhall
West for a little bit, so I've kind of lived
in all the different types of residence halls.
But it's part of the experience and it's great
and I would not trade it for anything.
Thank you so much Elysia. Christina if you can answer
that question as well and then also a student
asks about, "if any of you struggle with a roommate
how'd you deal with that?" So if you can address
that in your answer as well Christina.
Yeah
so I lived on campus during my freshman year
and on the opposite end of Elysia I lived
with my best friend from like since the fourth
grade. We roomed together and I would say that
it went really well because we're still living
with each other now. Definitely there were
times where we would do like little things
that might get on each other's nerves but
how we handled that was that we just decided
from the get-go that we would have open communication with each other. So at anytime if we were
ever frustrated with something or just annoyed
out a little thing we would just let each
other know openly and honestly and then it
didn't really seem to be a problem after that.
But like Elysia touched on if you ever have
any issues with your roommate your RA is there
to help you and they want to help you. They
want to be there to listen to anything that
you have to speak to them about. As for like
general things to bring to your dorm definitely
all the basics like a microwave and a mini
fridge and you can always communicate with
your roommate about who's bringing what
since those are larger items. I would say also
bring comfortable bedding, your toiletries,
snacks so you don't have to walk to the dining
hall every time you want to eat something. But I'd
also really recommend bringing storage, that's
something that I forgot the first time around,
to keep yourself organized and you can keep
that under your bed and definitely a mattress
topper to make your bed extra comfy. As for
bathrooms I lived in Pritchard which is the
largest residence hall on campus. I'm gonna
be honest they're not super great. But I never
found it difficult to find a time to shower
since everyone in my hall showered at different
times and there's also a ton of showers in each
bathroom. I would say definitely definitely remember to bring shower shoes and a shower caddy though.
Thank You Christina.
So Elizabeth if you could talk about your
experience next and also answer the question
about what are some great things to remember
to bring to your room.
Okay so I went completely
opposite of Christina, I didn't roommate with
my best friend. Actually I didn't know anyone
who was coming to Tech. I knew a few people
but they had already got roommates. But I went
random well it wasn't random. I found my roommate through an app through Facebook and we
communicated and we got our schedules together and we talked for a few weeks before we decided to room
together. Our schedules were the complete opposite.
I would be in bed by 10:00 or 11:00 after
I was done doing my homework and she would be coming in a little later than me cause she would stay
up later, she's more like a night owl. So I'm
a heavy sleeper so it didn't bother me but if
you know you're not gonna like that try not
to room with somebody who has an opposite schedule
than you or communicate about how you can how
your schedules will go in your sleeping schedules.
As far as residence halls I lived in Pritchard
for two years and I also have opposite experience
than Christina. For me since last year it was a
little different because there were a lot
of new incoming freshmen into Tech. So the
roommate situation was different. So as far
as showers go in community bathrooms for Pritchard
specifically I would say that everyone showered
around 9:00 p.m. So if you wanted to get like
a hot shower go around 8:50 and claim your
spot before and then if you wanted to like
shower a little bit earlier just make sure
you, once you get there once you're there for a week
you'll have an idea what time everyones gonna
shower so you'll know how your schedule
works and there's some, in Pritchard there's
some bathrooms where you turn on the water and
it's cool for a little bit. So I would say
the tip for that is to turn on every shower in
there and eventually they'll get warmed up and
then like Christina said definitely bring
shower shoes, definitely bring a caddy and
I would say also bring a robe cause you're gonna
be walking from the shower to your residence
or to back to your dorm. So make sure you bring
a robe and then some good things to bring. I
would definitely say bring a printer if you
can. I got a pretty affordable printer. It was
an HP it's a really small desk printer. I think
I got it at Walmart for about twenty dollars
and I would say bring a printer because you're
gonna save a lot of money doing that instead
of going to the library every time you need to print
something and although it costs money and
then also kind of not wastes your time
but kind of inconvenient for you if you want
to print something like in the middle of the night.
So I would definitely say try and bring a printer.
And Kana if you could answer that question
as well and talk about your experience and
what's some great things to bring.
Yeah so since I am in the Corps I'm still on campus as
a junior, blessing and a curse because like
I said I'm still on campus but at the same
time like I'm living with some of like my
best friends which is really fun. I would say as
far as like the roommate situation I've had
I think six different roommates to date and some
of them have been my friends some of them haven't
and the biggest thing is like open communication
and like telling them straight up. Like so
I am the kind of person where like I like
I'm like always running around like doing
stuff. Like I run in my room grab something
leave and like my roommates kind of like hung
out in my room and like studied and stuff. So just
like being open and being like" hey like I
won't be here a lot. Like I'm always running
in and out" like just like having that
open line of communication so they know
what they're working with and then if you have
an issue just bringing it up is super
super important. Whether you are friends with
your roommate or not, I know my first two roommates
were random and then my last two roommates
that I've had most recently were random.
So just like being able to like kind
of communicate about that and find something
that you guys have in common or like bond
over as well. Kind of build a friendship because
your roommates versus like instead of vice
versa if it's someone you don't know really helps
a lot too. In terms of bringing stuff. I've
acquired a lot of different things in my past
three years living on campus. But definitely
like was previously mentioned a fridge,
a microwave and storage is like a huge thing. Like you want to have, I'm the kind of person who
wants to have like everything that I might
possibly need in my room. So just having that
storage so it doesn't get super messy or anything
like super crazy is really important and
then also what I've learned is just like
bring things back and forth as you need them.
So if you don't need your winter clothes until
like November or October then don't like, wait
till you go home for Thanksgiving to bring
them and then take them back home for Spring
Break or you know just like even little
random things. Like if you know you're going
home for a weekend and you might need something
grab it and as soon as you know you're not going to
need it any more go take it home. That way it kind
of like reduces the clutter. Because dorm rooms
are pretty small depending on which room and
which building you're in. So like that kind
of thing is really really important.
Thanks Kana. So
Aniyah if you could also talk about your experience
and some suggestions on things to bring.
Okay
for me I live in Peddrew-Yates which is suites. It's
three rooms. So two people to a room, so there's
six girls. A bathroom, two like stalls and
two showers. So and they don't they don't give
you like soap or like paper towels anything
like that so you have to bring your own. They
do give you two like recycling bins so that
was helpful and my advice for like living
in a suite is to like make a schedule for who
like cleans up what or like cause there will
be times where like the bathroom doesn't look
too good. Well not me personally but I've walked
into other suites like that and like make sure
I guess make it like presentable and
make sure that everyone has the schedule, sticks
to that schedule. And for the roommate thing
I didn't know any of my suite-mates beforehand.
But like we were in the we were in a group
chat and like and that's how we chose who
we wanted to be our roommate or suite-mate.
We did have a room where we didn't, oh
my god, there was a room that were
the sophomores lived and they didn't really,
we weren't friends with them. So it was kind
of like awkward when they would walk in the
room and they see all our friends there. But
if it was if it's open communication it should
be fine and sometimes our friends would stay
like longer be there like all night and they
would have a problem. But I say just open community,
tell them that your friends would be there
awhile. If you have an issue with the group
of friends being there to long speak up. You
know so it doesn't have to be like a
huge issue where the RA has to come in and say
anything like that and I feel like everyone
touched on what to bring. Yeah.
Thank You Aniyah.
Elysia if you could circle back around and
answer some questions we got about the size
of the beds in the residence halls typically
and also when do assignments about learning
your assignments or your dorm assignments
or when can you choose your dorms, when does
that typically take place?
Okay so to touch on the first
question all beds, with few exceptions in the
Graduate Life Center which most freshmen don't
typically live in they really do push for
graduate and higher upperclassmen to live in but
there are very few queen-size beds in the
GLC and those are noted on Star Rez. For everyone
else everyone else's bed in all the residence
halls are twin extra-large. Twin sheets will
still fit but you gotta stretch it better
and then as far as picking your assignment.
They typically open about two weeks into orientation.
It's online. It goes by sports have first
pick, behind them students with disabilities
that have pre noted certain things on their
contract get next pick and then those in LLC's
or live learn communities they also get top
choice and then slowly there's a time slot
that everyone signs up. If your roommate gets
their time slot before you they can go ahead
and place you in the room as well and then
you're locked in. Housing is a great people
to speak to. They're, if you go to the website
and look up housing they are more than willing
to talk to students and make sure that you're
in a room when you're comfortable. There
are a few all female. There's one all-female
and two all-male or it might be reversed, residence
halls and I noticed that something came up
about transfer housing. There is a transfer
housing building on campus. It actually is
with the sorority and fraternities housed on Oak
Lane. I don't know how much it cost. But it's a
little bit more on the expensive side. But they
do have more resources for transfer students.
But you can also live off campus. I've lived
off campus for about two years. Most people, I say
90% of us live within a mile of campus. The
buses come every 10 to 15 minutes and then
I say 99% of people live within two miles
of campus and their buses come a little bit
later. Probably almost every 15 to 30 minutes.
So don't, not don't worry about housing but
you definitely will have a spot to live in.
I know last year there was the big scare of
there not being a quote/unquote enough rooms.
But every student lived in rooms. Some students
lived in a hotel and really loved the experience.
So just remember twin extra large all the sheets
will fit you're good.
Okay wonderful thanks.
So a comment came up about campus transfer housing.
All I remember is that there's it's like the
probably nicest building for the fraternity
and sorority life on Oak Lane. They have their
own building just specifically for transfer housing.
Thank You Elysia. Really
quickly I had a student ask about the difference
in pricing between an LLC and a regular dorm
and just to answer that question all LLC's
have a 100 dollar programming fee. Which is
$50 per semester and that's the fee that
is charged and directly funds the programs
and activities designed by the LLC throughout
the year. And second specific to housing there
are variable housing rates across campus. You
can find the housing rates on housing.vt.edu
and also rates have not been approved yet
for next year. But on this site you can see
the current year's rates and the LLC's are
located in buildings with various price points
which is low mid and high. So the LLC's have
different price ranges depending on which
building they're located in. Alright so we're
gonna go to transfer housing and if we could
have Christina talk about transfer housing
off-campus for transfer students.
Yeah so I
have a few friends who transferred from different
schools to Virginia Tech this year and I have
a few coming in next year as well and if you're
looking for off-campus housing as a transfer
student that's really easy because you can
join so many Facebook groups. Some are just
like Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech class of and
then whatever year you're in. I know that there's
also a specific Facebook group for just housing
in general and I see tons of people post every
day that they're transferring to Tech in the
fall and that they're looking for people to
room with and they'll usually mention like
their price range, what type of kind of like
their personality is like if they like to
go out or stay in and I find that most people
find roommates and housing situations that
way. So I would say if you're transferring
and you want to live off-campus I would say
definitely join some Facebook groups and start
making some posts.
Thank you Christina. If we
could circle back around to the acronym LLC. What LLC stands for is Living Learning
Communities. Elizabeth if you could talk more
about what are Living Learning Communities
and what was your experience in being in an
LLC.
So a Living Learning Community is basically
where you and a bunch of other students live
in one residence hall. Whether for me we're
all on the same floor and it's a community of people
that come together based on either like your
major. Mine was very broad. There's some
about entrepreneurship, there's some about
art and what you do is you come together and
you do activities together. Whether it's like
a weekly meeting or just stuff throughout.
There's also leadership positions within them. You know
just a good place for you to meet people as
well as because when you're in an
LLC you're with those people a lot like consistently.
It's just a place where you can come and kind
of have your own community in your residence
hall. So my experience with one I was in an
LLC I really liked it. It was definitely,
that's where I met my friends I'm still friends
with now and there were a lot of leadership
opportunities and just great opportunities that
I wouldn't have gotten if I wasn't in an LLC. So I would... and if you are a transfer student
and you do join an LLC you do get housing
in that place where the LLC is housed and also
if you join LLC freshman year and you want
to live off campus from my understanding you can
still be part of your LLC and live off campus.
But if you're in your LLC as a freshman
and sophomore year you want to move to a different
residence hall you cannot do that if you're
in an LLC. You have to figure out if you want
to be in your LLC or move to a different residence hall.
Aniyah if you could also speak to
your experience in living in a living learning community.
Yes so my living learning community
is called Ujima and it is a principle of
Kwanzaa and it means collective work in community.
I honestly love it. It was the best decision that
I've made because I'm not one of those people
that just go out all the time and living in
an LLC let me meet a lot of people and I can't
explain it like I just love it. I honestly
like I could walk through the halls and somebody
would wave to me and I was like "hey". You
don't even, sometimes you don't even know
who they are and people that live in other
dorms are always there. It's located in Peddrew-Yates and if you're an introvert like
me I say join a LLC. You'll meet so many people.
Thank you Aniyah. We're gonna move on to another
question about majors and declaring majors
and the difficulty of changing majors. So if
we could talk about how to declare your major
and is it hard to change majors after you
declare a major? So Kana if you could speak
about that first.
Yeah so I actually came in as
undecided. It's called university studies here
at Tech. I had no idea what I wanted to study
and there are a lot of programs that help
you kind of figure out, whether you're a declared
major or not, what you want to like study. The
major change process for the most part is
pretty simple. You just apply for it when
the email comes out and unless you're in a
restricted major they'll process your
request and you'll be put in that major. Which
is what happened with me with biochemistry.
There are a few restricted majors. I believe
biochem, sorry engineering, some business majors
as well might be restricted. In those cases,
there's like a very specific process that they
want. They want to see classes and specific
grades for those things and you can speak
to your advisor about that. But otherwise like
it's a really really simple process. Minors
as well. Minors you literally submit a form that
says I would like to declare this minor and these
are the classes that I need to take for it and
it's a pretty straightforward process. I did it
the winter of my fresh year got into it a
few weeks later and I've been the same major ever since. So it's been a good experience, pretty streamline,
simple experience.
Luisa if you can add something to that
about the timeline.
Yeah for those wondering
incoming freshmen or transfer students, usually
you have to wait until the end of your first
semester here to start looking into changing
your major. My first advise will be talking
to your academic advisor, making sure that
you know what prerequisites you may need.
As Kana mentioned some could be very straightforward if it's within your college or similar fields
but others may be a little bit more restricted.
Which means you still have to meet prerequisites
as well as applying to even switch to that
major. So depending on the major it can be
very straightforward or tricky. So just make sure you
talk to your advisor.
They can guide you through the process and everything.
Thank You Luisa and also to address two
other questions that we received before in
the registration. When would they be able
to choose classes for fall semester? Classes
for fall 2020 are assigned by your academic
advisor prior to summer orientation. During summer
orientation and into the fall semester students
are able to edit their schedules and that
information was from an academic advisor. Also
we had a question about when will you be assigned
an advisor? And each college assigns advisors
differently. However, students will at least
meet an academic advisor during summer orientation.
That might be a one-on-one meeting or
it could be a group advising session depending
on the college and at some point it's probably
too soon right now but students will
be able to view their assigned advisor on
Hokie spa under general student information.
Your advisors name will be in red. So we're
going to go to our next question about homework
and, "How much work do you typically have per
night?" So if I can get two students to answer
that. I'm going to start with Elysia. How much
how much work do you typically have per
night? What's your work load like?
So I'm getting dual degrees. So I'm getting two, so I have to hit 150 credit hours.
Which means most semesters I take at
the minimum of 15 credits and at the max I
was at 22 credits this semester. So being a
liberal arts major it's a lot of reading and
writing. I say probably around 6 to 10 but
that's also I have a ton of reading and typically
2 to 3, 5-ish page papers especially in
my upper-level classes. But going in your freshman
year I probably maybe had if even 5 hours
of homework. It really wasn't that much. It
really just depends on your major and how
well you plan out things. So it's a lot of
give-and-take. But I do say after you get more
involved in your major and as you get into
higher upper-level classes your homework does
get a lot more. Plan on making sure you
get getting it all done and how you schedule
your classes also will depend on how much
homework you have. So if you heavy load Monday
Wednesday or Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes
you might have less homework over on the weekend
versus if you heavy load your Tuesday/Thursday classes.
Thank You Elysia. We had a question about, "How
accessible are internships and co-op for undergraduate
students?" So Kana if you can answer this question
about internship opportunities.
Yeah so there's so many different internship
opportunities both on and off campus. Tech
has a really really great networking and alumni
like network. So it's super easy to you know
go on LinkedIn and just like talk to another
Hokie and you just be like "Hey I'm a current
student I'm studying this and I'm kind of
interested in you know interning your company
or whatever. We have different applications
such as handshake. Which kind of, I get emails
all the time about internships that have been
offered or applications that are open for
different jobs and experiences. In addition
within both your college and different organizations
you might be a part of there are also advising
opportunities for those kinds of things. We
have a Career Center. I talk to my career
advisor all the time even though I'm joining
the military after I graduate I still like talk
to them and email them all the time about my experiences
and how that can be applied to a certain internship
or a certain experience and things like that.
So it's definitely not difficult to find something.
Even during school if you want to get into research,
there's so many professors here who are
looking for undergraduate students to kind
of get involved with the research or different
job opportunities and things like that. So
it's really as long as you're like going out
for and looking for those opportunities you're
not going to be finding a hard time finding
those opportunities at all.
Thank You Kana. We've
got some questions about financing, "What are
some ways you can help finance your tuition
while being on campus and how can we manage
tuition particularly for out-of-state students?"
So Christina I'm gonna let you address that
question first and then I'm going to come
to you Elysia.
Yeah so although I personally
wouldn't recommend doing so during your first
semester just so that you are able to transition
really well during your first semester. I would
say that a way to help finance your tuition
and something that I'm currently doing is
to get a part-time job. Personally I found
myself to have so much more free time in college
than I did in high school. So it was just a
lot easier to work on time management and
so I'm able to work between like 10 to 15
hours a week when I'm at school and there
are just a variety of so many different jobs
on and off campus and since Blacksburg is
a college town a lot of employers know that
you might need to be like very flexible with
your schedule and they're very understanding
about that. I work at Moe's Southwest Grill
downtown and they've been like very understanding
of my schedule and about days where I need
or weeks where I need to work less or work
more and then there are also a lot of on-campus
jobs. I know the largest employer there is
VT dining and if you also have an on-campus
job and I know that VT dining does apply
to this you are also eligible for the work-study
grant. So that is also another way to help
finance your tuition.
Thank you Christina. Elysia if you can answer that question as well.
So I also have work-study. I think on my FAFSA
I just marked off. So my freshman year I didn't
work at all but come my sophomore, junior and
senior year I did get it. I know it changes.
There have been other work studies that have
come through. I work for the history department
they have a set rate and I just whatever amount
of money that the government says I can work
up to once I hit that max limit if I go over
it's up to my department if they're gonna
continue to pay me or not. Sometimes I've gone over
and I had to reduce my hours and there have been times where I haven't hit that mark.
Another way to help finance is becoming an RA your tuition is free. I'm sorry not your tuition sorry your room
and board is free. So being an RA you can apply
going into your freshmen going into
your sophomore year and they're always looking
for RA's and then you can also reapply
if you don't get it right off the bat and
then also over the summer I've worked for
housing through conference and guest services.
So basically we start with commencement and
that's graduation. So that's another great way. We're
here the entire summer. We're still able to
take summer classes and go on vacation but
a lot of us have made a decent bit of money
to help put towards our upcoming school year
as far as tuition goes. So there's a lot of
people who want to do research that also will count
not only towards classes but also towards
some money in your pocket that you can also put 
towards tuition. So just looking for things like that.
Thank you Elysia. We're gonna circle back to
a corps of cadets question that was asked,
"As a cadet do we apply for housing or are
we automatically placed in the dorms?" Kana
if you could respond to that question.
Yeah
so you are automatically placed in housing
just because the housing assignments really
depend on the company that you're assigned
to and then your roommates as a freshman are
automatically assign. So you really don't have
to worry about that or like finding a roommate. I got really lucky and I got along with my roommate
and still one of them is in my new company and
the other one I still speak to pretty often. But
I think it's honestly even though it's like very
very random and you can't even choose based
on like habits or interests or anything like that it's
a really really good experience. Because I
really learned to like interact and live with
people that I've like, who lived very different
lives than me and very different experiences
and still living in a dorm. I think it's really
really fun because all of my friends are literally
right across the hallway or right down the hallway
and it's gotten me open to living in much more
closed space. It's gotten me like exposed to different
experiences, different organizations I ended
up joining and it's just been really cool
way.. I'm super extraverted so that's just like
what I like to do. I love talking to people.
But it's been a really good experience. It's
not something, I was kind of worried going
in like what if I hated my roommate this and
that but like honestly if end of the day like
it's a really really good experience and there's
still RA's as well. So if you're having
an issue, if there's something that's going on
you can still talk to your RA and kind of
know express your concerns or whatever that's going on just like any other dorm building.
Thank You Kana. I appreciate
you answering that question. So we are just
about out of time it's 8:01. I want to thank
my panelists for being on here tonight and
answering the questions that we had. I know
that a lot of you still have a lot of questions.
If we weren't able to get to your questions
please feel free to reach out to the students.
Their email addresses will be shared in the
chat and you can email them and ask them any
further questions that you have. You can also
email me at firstgen@vt.edu if you also
have any additional questions. If you have
any questions about work-study or financing
your tuition please reach out to financial
aid and their email address is finaid, F I N A I D @vt.edu. If you have any questions
about the Corps of cadets please feel free to
email Kana and get that information as well
and we just want to thank you
all again for watching our panel and please
stay safe and be well. We hope that if you
have not already accepted your offer we hope
that you will accept your offer by tomorrow
and join us here at VT in the fall. Thank you so much.
Have a good night.
