Virginia Tech welcomes the Class of 2008
Virginia Tech’s freshman class begins rolling into Blacksburg this week as the university prepares for the start of a new academic year. Virginia Tech’s 132nd academic year officially begins when classes start Monday, Aug. 23.
Some 4,991 freshmen and 689 transfer students are expected to arrive on campus this week. The incoming class comes from 43 states and 28 countries, and has an average high school grade point average of 3.68 and an average SAT score of 1,198 — the highest averages in the history of the university. More than 17,780 students applied for admission to Virginia Tech last spring.
In addition, approximately 2,100 master’s, Ph.D., and veterinary degree students are expected to enroll at Virginia Tech this fall. As in past years, the Virginia Tech student body will be comprised of approximately 4,500 graduate and professional students and 22,000 undergraduate students.
To assist new students moving into campus residence halls, more than 300 students, or "Team Hokies," will volunteer and help students move into their rooms Friday, Aug. 20, and Saturday, Aug. 21. The team will locate itself on Washington Street and will be recognized by their white sun visors and T-shirts. Virginia Tech residence halls will open Wednesday, Aug 18 for early arrivals. When classes begin on Aug. 23, Virginia Tech will have some 8,925 students living in on campus university housing.
Virginia Tech will roll out the red carpet for returning students at the Welcome Back Picnic at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 22, in Lane Stadium. Students get to walk through the tunnel into Lane stadium, touch the Hokie stone, enjoy a dinner severed to them by university faculty and staff, and join in a pep rally with Virginia Tech coaches, including football head coach Frank Beamer.
Returning students will see plenty of changes on campus this school year. This spring and summer alone, Virginia Tech has opened a new livestock teaching arena, a dairy complex, a new bioinformatics building, and a 21,000-square-foot career services building as well as completed a $6.5 million renovation to its Deitrick dining hall.
A renovated Dietrick will open for its first meal on Aug. 23 and will be referred to as "D2" instead of "The Depot at Dietrick." College officials expect D2 to be an extremely popular venue as it has a bistro-feel to it and will still have an all-you-can-eat dining option.
For the first time, students will be able to obtain a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing through the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and offered through the Department of English. Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources also will greet students with some new study options this fall -- natural resources education and natural resources science -- because of increasing student interest and the state's need for environmental and earth science teachers. Natural resources education is geared for elementary education and the second for middle and high school environmental education. For further information, visit the web site at www.cnr.vt.edu.
Virginia Tech will welcome a new dean, J. Michael Kelly, who will head the College of Natural Resources. Gerhardt Schurig will start his first full year as the dean of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
For a complete list of orientation activities during the first week of classes, see http://www.orientation.vt.edu/hokiehi/. For complete information on students moving in, please visit, http://www.studentprograms.vt.edu/movein/.
