Looking Ahead 

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In March, Susan, Barb and Joy were back on the road visiting colleges and universities in Central and Western Virginia. Day one of our trip was spent at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. If you are looking for a big school with a small town environment VT is definitely worth investigating. As its name would suggest, its best programs are in the technical fields, but there are plenty of programs to suit everyone.

A few miles up the road is Roanoke College; a small private college with a traditional picturesque campus that is striving to be more selective. The school prides itself in giving personal attention to students.

Our third stop was Hollins University , a well-respected, small women’s college outside of the town of Roanoke. Hollins’ campus has a genuine historic sense about it, having served as a hospital during the Civil War.  

Day two of our journey began at Lynchburg College. Lynchburg has just completed a new complex that houses their student center and their state-of-the-art business and communications departments.

In the same town of Lynchburg, we visited Randolph Macon Woman’s College. This historic campus is home to an ethnically diverse, academically challenging liberal arts college.

Traveling north we moved on to another beautiful women’s college in Virginia –
Sweet Briar College, a beautiful, relatively remote college of 600 students. Despite its small size, Sweet Briar is one of two women’s colleges in the US with its own engineering program. It should be noted that Hollins, RMWC, Sweet Briar and Lynchburg all have extensive equestrian programs with stables.

The trip from Sweet Briar to Lexington was an exciting twilight drive over the Blue Ridge Mountains. The next morning we visited Washington and Lee. Highly selective, academically reputable and Greek dominated; W & L has the feeling of old-line southern gentility.

Our last visit was to VMI – Virginia Military Institute, situated absolutely next-door to W & L. Its campus has the look and feel of a military instillation. While it is clearly a military school, only 40% accept commission in the armed services. VMI is an impressive institution that will appeal to the young man or woman who wants structure, discipline and to become part of a singular loyal core of cadets.

April found Joy and Barb in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. The LVIAC tour included visits to DeSales University, Moravian College, Lehigh University, Lafayette College, Cedar Crest College, and  Muhlenberg College.

DeSales University is a Catholic university with banner programs for Physician Assistants and Film/Cinema majors. The campus is spread out, with 88% of students living on campus.

Moravian College is located in downtown historic Bethlehem. MC has two campuses that are about one mile apart. The smaller, historic campus is home to Moravian’s highly-rated Art and Music schools. Moravian’s friendly atmosphere and personal attention was very obvious.

Lehigh University is noted as having strong sciences and engineering. You will not gain the “freshmen 15,” as the hilly contour of the land truly gives everyone a workout.

Lafayette College is a liberal arts college with a good engineering program. This more -selective school is very Greek dominated and the physical campus consists of many different styles of architecture.

Cedar Crest College is an all women’s college with a student population of 1700. Science is big at Cedar Crest, where they have Forensics, Nursing, Genetic Engineering and Conservation Biology.  The school is very generous when it comes to awarding financial assistance.

Muhlenberg College is unique in that the student population is 1/3 Catholic, 1/3 Jewish and 1/3 Protestant. The college boasts many strong programs, inluding Pre-Med/ Biology, Theatre Arts, Business and Accounting. Small and personal (2400 students), this school is somewhat selective having mid-range SAT expectations of 1120-1320, but SAT scores are not required for admission.