So I’m going to be leaving the ultra-liberal bubble that is Santa Cruz, CA and moving to Blacksburg, VA for medical school… and having read the Wikipedia article on Blacksburg, checked out the official town website, and perused the restaurant listings on Yelp, I thought I’d see if any Dopers had any first-hand experiences with Blacksburg that they’d like to share.
Two things I’m wondering right off the bat:
1.) How much of a “progressive” presence is there?
2.) How are the attitudes toward GLBT people?
…but I’d like any thoughts you might have so I could get a better “flavor” of the place than I could get from Wikipedia and a weekend visit.
I got my first degree from Tech in the 80’s and still consider it my hometown – I lived in another town in Montgomery county which was no where near as nice.
Is it tolerant? It is much more so than other parts of Va and more than any other place that I have lived. When I came there in the early 80’s, there were leftover hippies and that kind of culture. They have probably all retired or moved to Floyd county by now.
It was also a pedestrian campus. At that time, there was not a bus service (good old BT) and there were three movie theaters within walking distance, in addition to Squires (Student Union). Since the town runs on students, there are a lot of restaurants and bars, some are still around from my days.
As for climate, it is about the windiest place in VA and it is frequently overcast. I was unfortunately there in Jan of 85, when the record low temperature for the Commonwealth was set (-30 degF). I must say that the record was at Mountain Lake, which is not in Blacksburg, but was visible from my dorm room (7th floor, Lee Hall). Like a fool, I went to my 8 o’clock class and lost skin on my left ear – remember the wind?
I guess that you will find it not as open as you are used to, but not too bad. As for GLBT, I had gay roommates (Hetero) and other friends, some of whom were closeted. They’re (were) there and quite friendly/open.
Someone with more recent experience can pipe up. Hopefully it is more open/liberal than it was.
Thanks a lot xiao_wenti, I appreciate the input. Interesting that you say it’s a pedestrian campus- I’ve gone six years without a car while living in Santa Cruz, and I was wondering if it’d be possible in Blacksburg. What do you think? Based on what I saw, it’d be hard… but maybe doable if the bus system is okay.
Moderators, if possible, I’m thinking this thread may fit better in IMHO than MPSIMS- so if you can make the move, I’d appreciate it!
I’d say it’s the windiest place in more than Virginia. I went to Chicago last June for my sister’s graduation and wedding. It was perhaps as windy as B’burg. It’s a pleasant town and campus, but bring a few different types of jacket and coat. It will be cold as balls, and the wind will cut through anything remotely thin.
As for the tolerance, yeah, I’d say so. I think the GLBT organization is strong, and I know the Young Dems are out there and working with them.
The food is very very good. Make sure to eat in each place on campus at least once.
William & Mary graduate here People from Virginia Tech seem SUPER into the Hokies (their sports team) maybe not to the Ohio State/Florida State/Univ of Texas level of fan intensity but in a way that is unusual for a Virginia school.
Tech is in an area which is stunningly beautiful, if you are into that - and also stunningly in the middle of nowhere, if you’re not into that. It’s 218 miles to Richmond, or 174 miles to Charlotte, NC, the nearest major cities – neither of which is exactly a bustling metropolis. And the drive over the Blue Ridge can be more lengthy and terrifying than the distance suggests (deep mists at night – driving over a twisty mountain road with 2ft visibility is a barrel of laughs.) So, start from the perspective that you are going to pretty much stay where you’re put and be ok with that.
That said, Virginia schools pretty much all have a very vibrant campus life, and Blacksburg, as others have said, is a consummate college town. So if you are into the idea of a university that is an academic, social, and cultural community, I think you will really enjoy it. If you view a university as a place to learn things a few hours a day, and then leave to go somewhere more exciting, it is probably not a good fit.
Despite the fact that Tech is considerably more progressive than western Virginia in general, you’ll probably find it relatively conservative compared to your experience. (bearing in mind most places are relatively conservative compared to Santa Cruz). I know I found W&M quite conservative, moving from Brooklyn to Williamsburg, VA; and in Virginia, W&M is widely regarded as a den of liberal hippie-dom, moreso than Tech, or at least it was at the time.
That’s a rather odd thing to say, considering the large number of colleges found up and down the Shenandoah Valley. Virginia Tech is the biggest school in the valley (JMU is the only other one that even comes close, and it’s still a distant second in size), but most of the cities in the valley are home to at least one college.
Many of the colleges are historically conservative, or have their origins as finishing schools for the white Virginia gentility and were segregated in their charters (not just in their policies). VMI, Liberty University, Sweet Briar College, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, just to name a handful.
VMI only admitted women in 1997 under court order to do so.
A quality education, they deliver. A progressive environment, not so much.
Okay, I’m good with that. Santa Cruz is the kind of place where you stay put, and I love it here- so I have a feeling that Blacksburg won’t be too different.
Great! I’m something of a foodie and am looking forward to it!
Thanks for all the help- I appreciate it. If anyone has any more thoughts, I’d be happy to hear 'em too.
VMI is the only one of those schools in the Shenandoah Valley, all the rest are in or just outside Lynchburg.
As an RMWC alumna myself I have to say I’m more than a little surprised to see my alma mater on a list of “conservative” Virginia schools along with a military school and a fundamentalist Christian school! There are plenty of schools in the country that are more liberal than RMWC was, but compared to Liberty it was practically Berkeley.
I was the black sheep in the family - My mom has an MS from UVa, My sister a PhD, my aunt, uncle, and father MDs. I went to Tech. That being said, I did go to UVa for 2 Summers and it was okay – too hot and humid for my tastes. The thing that I loved was to be asked by tourists how to get into the Rotunda, tell them, have them say how nice the students were and then tell them, “Thank you, but actually I am a Hokie.”
When I was there the Football was nothing to write home about and I am disturbed by the change in the administration’s attidude there. That being said, I went to one game the 7 years that I was there. West Virginia won.
It is an academic school not a party school. Sure we’d hit the bars at the beginning of a semester, but that’d die down and we’d study.
Holding hands…never saw it. Really depends on where you are whether that’d piss the rednecks off. Remember, Blacksburg is surrounded by rural-ish Virginia.
The food is good, but geared toward students.
You could live without a car. I used to walk to classes and back, but I didn’t live in Foxridge or one of the out-lying apartment complexes. At that time it was a necessity to walk – If I parked in the commuter lot (gravel), it was only half-way closer to my classes. Why not walk? But remember the weather. I decided to move South the day I had to scrape the windows of my car SEVEN TIMES!!
I’ve lived in Blacksburg and neighboring Christiansburg for 12 years now, and in the immediate area for 30. The answers to your questions for “inside Blacksburg itself” are going to be completely different from “just outside the town limit”. It’s like night and day.
The town completely revolves around the university. The population pretty much consists of students. The attitude is very tolerant - I haven’t really heard of much gay/lesbian/gender/race discrimination. I’m a straight white guy and it’s possible I might have just missed it. People don’t tend to ostracize you for your political leanings. I wouldn’t say that it’s actively “progressive” though.
Outside the town is a completely different story. Christiansburg and Radford are fine mostly, but any further away than that… Jerry Falwell was based in Lynchburg which is just a couple hours away. It really shows.
And do you think that’s because the valley is short on colleges? I didn’t say the Shenandoah Valley was the San Francisco of Virginia, I was just pointing out that even within the valley Blacksburg is hardly unique in being home to a college.
People from Virginia Tech seem SUPER into the Hokies (their sports team) maybe not to the Ohio State/Florida State/Univ of Texas level of fan intensity but in a way that is unusual for a Virginia school.