My oldest daughter moves into Slusher the end of this month. 1st year Interior Design major.
My wife and I never attended VT as FT students. We live in Roanoke.
I am aware Slusher does not have A/C.
What advice can you guys give?
What did you wish you brought or are glad you did?
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Slusher alum here! If she's on the upper floors in Slusher the heat is actually worse than the lack of AC. We actually broke (and then fixed before move out) our thermostat to turn the heat off. In my time, Slusher got quite a few fire alarms tripped. Have some warm gear ready and swipe into Smyth Hall if you can to wait it out.
One of my wife's best friends is an interior design grad if she has any questions about that.
Yeah. she's on the top floor of Slusher. So, that is excellent advice. May need to make up a swamp cooler.
Pillowcase that is cooling material might be a good idea.
It might be different now, global weirding and all, but by the end of September it'll be nice until the heat turns on and then, being on 12, it'll be hot most of Spring. Crack the window and get a fan.
Congrats to her, that's a fun dorm and a great major.
One box fan pointed in and one box fan pointed out is almost as good as ac. My roommate and I did this year round and it stayed livable.
I have a rising fourth year interior design student as an intern. I'll ask her about program specific things next week.
Well, this week has come and I haven't seen my intern yet. I'll do my best at some point.
ty
In the meantime, I'll weigh in with a few.
Get a good set of xacto knives, and plenty of replacement blades.
Self healing cutting mat. Xacto and a few other companies make these.
Get a metal cutting straight edge, and tell her not to cut against plastic scales or triangles.
Good colored pencils and markers. Prismacolor are a solid choice.
I'd get a sampling of paper media so she can figure out what she likes to work on. I'd start with some standard bond, rag vellum, Bristol, and watercolor paper.
Whatever she feels like she is comfortable using as a medium, keep her well stocked. What ever she isn't comfortable with, get a nice starter kit, and tell her to be open to giving it a try. Ultimately, she is going to have to get her ideas out, and not every medium can do it completely.
She won't have any choices for first year professors. After that, make sure she tries to get people she gets along with.
I don't recommend doing all nighters. She needs to figure out what her workflow is, and what her pace is. And then evaluate that workflow to see if she can make it more efficient, if she finds herself having to pull ridiculously long days.
Leave studio. Go eat somewhere else when possible.
Talk to the upper year students in her studio. Each one of the studio professors typically has a few thesis students, at minimum. Sometimes they'll have some fourth year students as well. These people have a pretty good insight into the professor and what they'll like and dislike.
Be open to critique, and be able to give critique that is reasonable. Slaying someone's work to make yourself look better isn't actually a good look. Sometimes it feels good to do it. But everyone knows it isn't about the other person's work. It's about the person giving the critique.
She's going to see the same couple hundred people every day for the next four years. Try to get along with them. Make friends. Share. Be helpful. It will go a long way.
If she's not familiar with a wood shop or metal shop, it will be helpful for her to get some understanding. There are tools in there that can even make a chipboard model go faster (metal shear for making strips of consistent width is a game changer)
Take the side classes like pottery, silk screen, or others that are of interest. I should have taken more of those. I was put off by a few professors, and didn't take classes that I really wish I had.
Excellent. Thank you.
I just copied that verbatim and emailed it to her.
From the intern:
She said that the list of materials the school sends out is nice, but she might not use it all. It's usually dependent on the student.
Materials
Bristol Pad – 19" x 24"
Architectural Scale Ruler
Sketch Book (no spiral)
Colored pencils, pens, markers
Tacky Glue
Black Micron Fineliner Pens (get the pack with a variety of sizes)
Safety Glasses for MAD Lab
Tracing Paper
Foamboard
Chipboard
Trunk or something to store all the supplies
T-square
Drafting Tape
Scotch Tape
Hot Glue Gun
Protractor
Geometry Compass
Cutting Mat
Advice
Expect to have to buy different supplies each week
Foundation Lab is very different, but it will expand your creativity
Be prepared to present and be critiqued
Don't be afraid to ask questions
Become familiar with West End, it's a close dinning option, and had the best option when I was there, but things have changed and there is a new dining hall opening this year. It has all day breakfast, so ..... I want dinning hall in adult life now!
To add-on - be sure to absolutely understand the dining plans and what those do or do not include. When I was there West End had just completed and it was not part of the standard dining plan and only accepted the flex plan (I think). I'm certain things have changed, but just knowing what the plan includes can save some early frustration.
She's decided she likes D2, the one with various different small restaurants in it.
She's been given the hint that if she goes in during breakfast and camps at a table to study, she won't have to pay again for lunch.
D2 (the downstairs portion) is COMPLETELY different than it was when I was in school (2006-2010). I went to the Purdue game (I know, I know..) and we took shelter there after leaving the stadium for the long break (ended up watching the rest of the game from TOTS). It was kind of shocking to me to walk in and see it completely different. And Much nicer.
Yeah when I was in school (late 90's) the downstairs had a convenience store in it if I recall correctly.
Yeah that's essentially what it was when I was there. Now it's a legitimate dining hall
A few keystones, DX, and spectating LARPing was a bi-weekly tradition of my Slusher pod-mates and mine. Good times.
Early 80's you could buy beer there........
early-mid 2000's it was a convenience store, crappy fast food (DX) and coffee/ice cream shop (Deet's place). Freshman year, upstairs was still the old style dining hall then they renovated by sophomore year into D2 (thank God they didn't go through with renaming it "Windows on Washington").
They used to sell nachos in the DX, but they put the chili and cheese in the small eating area. The idea was you bought the chips and tray in the little checkout line, then added the other stuff once you got out. We would run diversion and then have someone unload every bit of the chili and cheese into bowls to take back to the dorm. In hindsight I'm not proud of it, but that was some good snack material in New Res East.
I shudder to imagine the state of your shared bathroom after such snacking.
They used to do a chili challenge in that dining hall, and my freshman year in 95 one of my friends did all 5 days of the chili challenge and on the 5th day he was literally in a 3 point stance in the shower in O'Shag spraying cold water on his butthole because it was burning so bad. Good thing for him there were no cell phone cameras in those days or I'm sure we would have a picture of that lol.
We call that the spicy twiceys!
Edit: My mom grew up in New Mexico so I have quite the appetite for spicy food. No matter how much you train your brain, mouth, and stomach to handle the heat, you'll never beat the above named affliction.
STING RING!
Obtaining a chili challenge T-Shirt was quite the feat, but a spectacular trophy to prove you could endure the pain.
I have one. But the chili was disgusting on the last day. The heat wasn't the issue. It just didn't taste good enough to offset the excess pepper.
This affects recruiting too. Baylor- all sports, every aspect, Kentucky Women's hoops, all SEC schools have 5 star restaurants in each dining hall- or something similar for ballers. I think I saw a leaflet from Whit in the mail begging for money to upgrade all dining on campus so we aren't so far behind Baylor.
They have fixed a lot of the dinning plans. There is only 1 plan with 3 options as to how much money to put on. Basically everything is flex. But it is good to note that they didn't work at the BK in GNJ or Sabarros in Squires and places like that.
It is my understanding the way it is this year, you can use the scrip anywhere on campus, and some places off campus, the variance is in how much of a discount off the listed price applies.
For instance, D2 has the highest discount at about 65% IIRC, for an all you can eat type of thing. This is why there is some advantage to be able to go and park your butt in a seat and study all day with unlimited snacks and coffee and meals for the price of the admission 65% off.
Not sure what the rooms look like these days, but I would avoid the loft beds. While they are great at saving space, you are also sleeping on the hottest part of the room.
Are you allowed to bring a portable A/C unit in your dorm room? You can buy a good one for around $140-200....
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tacool-8-000-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner-with-Remote-Control-3-in-1-AC-Unit-Cool-Rooms-up-to-250-sq-ft/6209061457?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101617079&adid=222222222286209061457_101617079_14069003552_202077872&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=42423897272&wl4=aud-430887228898:pla-295289030566&wl5=9003932&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=5356938777&wl11=online&wl12=6209061457_101617079&veh=sem&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwqre1BhAqEiwA7g9QhuZLaU_Lt9Cl92a7TcpeYpnUHMYkTdgOxsr-XhzRHNwYBfr5dRRlgBoCAlIQAvD_BwE
Nope. Not allowed. I asked but, thanks for the idea.
That's fucked up. How is it different from a fan or a TV or a damn hair dryer or anything else that uses electricity? I can see maybe banning electric space heaters, but an AC unit? WTF?
Fireman- are portable AC units generally considered to be any kind of fire hazard? I'd have to imagine hair dryers are much worse.....
In the tower, the windows can only open 4". Had a student fall out of a dorm back in the early 2000's. I'm pretty sure everything has been restricted since.
This is probably closer to the real reason, but the reason we were given was that slusher's breaker box couldn't handle everyone hooking up an ac unit.
It's also not as big a deal as most people make it out to be. Plenty of people live their lives without AC.
Small window units will run off of a single 110v circuit. Any fixture up to around 1800 watts can run on a dedicated 20 amp circuit. The issue is probably that there aren't multiple dedicated circuits in the room. The load from the units, coupled with other load in the room probably trips breakers all the time. And that's something that the student can't just walk out and fix. It was probably a total nuisance to deal with.
An average hair dryer uses between 1200 and 1875 watts. An average 8000 btu portable AC unit (suitable for a 15'x15' room) uses between 900 and 1100 watts. If that's the universities argument, it doesn't hold water.
There's also the problem of window A/C units potentially falling out of windows and striking people below.
See below....I'm not talking about a window unit. I'm talking about a portable AC unit. Self contained and sits on the floor with basically a dryer vent hose to the window to expel warm air.
There's a hole in every solution here. The school can't exercise control over the condensate.
You have a sink just put the house in the sink
Fair, but they usually have a built-in condensate bucket with a switch built in that shuts the unit down when it gets full, just like a dehumidifier.
How many rooms share a circuit? I would guess multiple rooms if not entire sections all share a circuit. Then factor that across the entire building.
Also, what's the AC unit's start up draw? Most have a start up surge when they kick on that's significant.
It wouldn't surprise me if 20% of the rooms had an AC unit running it'd be enough to overload the building's ability to supply power.
4" is all you need for a portable AC unit- it's not a window unit......it sits on the floor - about 14 inches square x 3 feet tall, and a flexible exhaust
pipe like a dryer flex vent goes out the window to exhaust the warm air coming off the coil out. You can make a cardboard cutout to fill the rest of the window opening and seal with painters tape.
In the later 1980s my roommates and I tripped the breaker for a few rooms in our hallway in O'Shag by running about 3 hot air popcorn poppers to prep for watching NCAA basketball. Dorm rooms are not equal to little houses so you shouldn't expect the electrical system to be the same or reasonable. You're living in a pretty nice slum/ghetto as a freshman on campus. Making memories all the while. It will be ok.
I always likened it to a pretty nice prison cell.
Unsupervised work releases were spent at The Balcony (Tots) and Arnold's most nights
I was in Slusher myself. Would definitely echo Max and Cheese about the heat during the winter. I remember it being 0 degrees outside and having to crack a window for air because it felt like a sweat box.
My advice would be to keep her door open because it's such a natural way to meet everyone on the floor and most people are eager and open to making friends at that time. Folks just passing through can poke their heads in and chit chat. Many of my best friends to this day were my hallmates in slusher.
Any idea when slusher became co-ed? When I was on campus 86-87 and 87-88 I remember it being all girls. Conversely, my dorm Lee Hall was co-ed by floor.
The wing has been coed since at least 2004. Tower was all female back then. Not sure about now.
Tower probably became co ed not long after 2004 then. It was co ed in 2013 when I was there and i don't remember people discussing it as a new development
I was in the wing in 2001 and it was co-ed.
Slasher beach was a thing back in the early 80s. It wasn't a bad walk through at all....
I knew a couple dorm mates that built a slingshot w water balloons that they'd launch over an adjacent dorm onto the beach, it was pretty hilarious.
I'm sure there are those here that disagree w that, but it was funny.
"Slasher beach was a thing back in the early 80s."
What, you mean it's not anymore? Well that's a bummer.
LOL-great typo(I assume)- SLASHER beach sounds like Friday the 13th part 500; SLUSHER beach was amazing especially cause when I was there on campus we were still on quarters so lots more warm days in mid May-mid June to enjoy the view.
When I was on campus (83-84 and 84-85) Lee was still all guys(well.....based on me at the time...lol)
This was the same with Pritchard Hall (living on the pit) in the 1980s. We had our window wide open all winter as they had the heat cranked up so high you would broil. And there was no way to turn down the heat.
Are any of the dorms any different regarding the heat? I remember sleeping with the window open in Rasche in January.
I can vouch for the need to have the window open year round on the 4th floor of O'Shag the two years I lived there (95 to 97).
I remember sleeping with the window open in Femoyer and Montieth in 1967 and 1968. So nothing much has changed in 50 years.
I know our apartment in Terrace View was "heat included" so most f the winter we were shirtless and wearing shorts in it no matter the outdoor temp.
I do however remember the coldest day Monday, January 21, 1985. On Sunday morning it was 10 F and dropped all day reaching 0F by 6pm and -18F (with -70F wind chill) Monday morning. The folks on the lower floors had the steam heat cranked up so little to none reached us on 5th floor. the temp in our room was 45Fn with a 1/4" of frost on the INSIDE of the windows. I had an 8am class and on the walk to McBryde wore two pairs of long johns, three pairs of sweats, scarf, mittens over gloves, two hats, and a heavy parka and was still cold. VT canceled classes for the day at ten am cause they determined that for folks waiting for BT buses , any exposed skin would freeze in less than 30 seconds.
Far fewer routes then than now for BT(the two Toms creek loops, north/south Main ; and hethwood. That Sunday night they only parked three of their small buses inside; the others left outside froze solid. So instead of an average of 3-4 buses on each route (with the trippers) they only had one on each. According to friends off campus, those were jammed to double close to triple capacity(couldn't have fallen down even if you picked both feet up off the floor. Most were stuck standing at the stop as the packed bus just passed them by.
Coldest day I've ever experienced. (hottest day ever experienced was a day at Va Beach in the mid 2010s when it was 105F with dew point of 80F -heat index of 126F(could only last 5 minutes on the beach before having to be in the ocean to cool off)- so the range from hottest to coldest for me was 196 degrees!)
Echo this- we always had our door open in the two years I was on 5th floor Lee Hall and became great friends wth all the folks near our end of the main hallway.
I hate to say for all you Slusher Alum. They are planning on ripping it down and replacing it. Our firm went after the site work.
I'm surprised it's still standing. I feel like Tech announced the plan to tear it down like 3 years ago.
I loved Slusher because it was just so damn weird, but the campus will be nicer without it.
I just met a new work colleague who is class of 2024 and he didn't realize Logan Thomas had ever been anything but a tight end, so any advice I'd have is probably dated to this incoming class haha
You won't need AC in blacksburg save perhaps the first 2-3 weeks of the school year generally.
Eh, my son will probably stay there next summer and take a class or two. He's elected to stay on-campus as well so i'm sure it'll be miserable for him with the summer heat. But then again, that's a little ways out so we don't even know what hall he'll be in when that time comes
I've done that before. They don't let you stay in the same dorm. You're consolidated with all the other summer students into one (or more) dorm(s).
I kinda figured they would shuffle the summer students around. Good info to have
I did a summer session. I moved some of my stuff from AJ to Harper (with AC) after exams where it stayed for a week or two until the first summer session started. Super nice to not have to lug some of that stuff home and then take it right back.
I did a few summers - VT switched from quarters to semesters and I needed classes to get the round up credit, and then my parents moved to KC so had nowhere to go back to. I subleased from students that were not staying for almost nothing, got to meet a lot of new people and try out different apartment complexes.
That sounds like fun. I noticed that people who stayed during the summers are more inviting and welcoming and willing to hang out and really talk more. Probably why my VT hot take is that Blacksburg summers are better than when school is in. Except when there's a high temp of 54 and drizzling rain in June.
Now in my thirties, I think any college town is better in the summer when most students are gone. Lol.
I stayed in Blacksburg the summers of 98 and 99 working as the assistant manager at Blockbuster. Always loved finishing closing shift at around 1:00am on those June and July nights and it would be just warm and humid enough that it felt like the beach. That was the best worst job I ever had.
I spent the summer of 99 in Blacksburg and it's one of the best summers of my life.
It was the first year they tried the Maymester. A semester crammed into four weeks. Class was 2.5-3hrs each day with a test every Friday. I actually enjoyed it. As long as I paid attention, the info was so fresh I didn't need all that much out of class studying/prep.
Ugh, i took my Intensive Writing class during Maymester. It was fun and a lot of work but looking back on it, that was a brave move
Those classes were the best ways to get some classes out of the way. Advanced linear algebra, ordinary differential equations.
Very true, the Maymester class I took was an international studies course. Nothing complex where you legitimately need a longer period of time to develop a project or anything, just a lot of reading crammed into 20 days.
In the summer between 9th and 10th grade, I took two semesters of Chemistry at University of Richmond- same thing -4 week "semesters; class 8am-noon five days a week with exams every Friday. Actually my dad would drop me off on his way to work and pick me up on way home. Spent all afternoon in the Robin's Center gym playing basketball, racquetball, and swimming. The next summer I did Physics (the 'non-calculus' version. (Physics at VT was so much easier with calculus).
Both classes were great cause only about 25 students in each and great lab equipment.
Right on. Summer of 2000 I was completely done with my CS degree... except for public speaking. That class in summer was fantastic. I think there were 20 of us and the TA who taught the class was great. One of the few As I got at Tech and probably the most fun I had, especially with all the CS projects pressure off my shoulders and a job lined up and waiting when I finished.
I spent 4 summers in Blacksburg and they were all amazing, way better than when school was in session. I actually attended more summer sessions than semesters
Blacksburg was awesome in the summer. Spent 5 summers there. After all 4 years of school as I got a job at Montgomery Regional Hospital and then I spent another year there working as a lab tech. Ostensibly, the reason for that was to get more lab experience before graduate school. And that was a side-effect style benefit. But the real reason I stayed was because I just did not want to leave. Cycling, running, volleyball, hiking ... was just awesome.
I guess technically I have been in Blacksburg for every summer since 95. But working has put a damper on my enjoyment since 97.
Have you thought about taking summers off?
Hard to do as a civil engineer. Most of my construction projects are going on.
Hell yeah - summers were awesome. I stayed in 90 & 91. Had a whole crowd of friends that worked at all the bars and restaurants in town (I worked at BOJO's), and we would all get together for all night poker games after we closed up around 1am. weekends on the New River. Good times.
If you were there the summers of 90 and 91, we were both there over the summers. And we never met until the VT-Rutgers game this past year! Was there summer 87, 88, 90, 91 and 92. As noted above, first 4 summers were working at the hospital. Last one working in biochemistry (got laid off when the grant was not renewed) and organic chemistry labs.
Lived in the house at the corner of Otey and Washington (now a law office) summer of 90'. Took a break between graduating and starting graduate school. Worked at the Sycamore Deli. Spent a lot of afternoons having quarter beers at Steve's Hot Dogs, and the month of July chasing the Grateful Dead around the country. That was an awesome summer....
Oh my gosh, I was frequently at the Newman Community on Otey Street half a block from you. Used to play volleyball there pretty much every weekend and have the social dinner they have. Cooked it a few times.
I worked at Steve's (which became BOJO's in 89). I probably served you and Frosty. I was part of the greateful dead crowd in blacksburg. I'm sure the 3 of us must have had some common friends. Used to hang out at parties at the TEX house around the corner from you. I also have an Otey street sign that we stole one night.
Yeah, I remember meeting you there.
Please forgive me, but what is BOJOs short for something? I don't remember anything like that and, at first, that that was Bogan's.
The guy that owned Steve's Hot Dogs was named Bob Craven. he decided he didn't want to pay the franchise fee for Steve's anymore. He changed the name to BOJO's which came from the first two letters in his name (Bob) and his wife's name (Joanne). The place got shut down one random day in spring 1992 when the IRS showed up, threw us out, and told us to leave as they were going to be locking the place up. Apparently he hadn't paid taxes in quite some time. I grabbed my personal stuff (i.e. my weed stash in the stockroom and my CD's), and took all the beer I could stuff in my backpack and my pockets when they weren't looking and walked out the back door.
*edit* - We told the guy since his last name was Craven that he should rename the place "Craven Dogs" or "Cravin' Dogs", but he picked stupid BOJO's instead.
Mental note: don't hire Hokietopher to run the register
But become friends with him because he always has the hook up.
Had....had the hookup. Not anymore...
Oh they weren't letting us near the register that day. They took everything in that right off the bat. I think they let me take the beer cause they knew I was losing my job....
Thank you. I'm pretty sure I was never in there.
I am sure we do. I had the nickname Eddie at the time, Jesus style hair and beard. Wore a tie-dye or dead concert shirt about half the time. Knew a lot of folks that partied at TEX. Was at Macado's every Wednesday for the Kind.
That house eventually became the chi alpha (a Christian fellowship) house, then was the law office when the fellowship moved across the street to the house at the T of the intersection on washington st, and now the law office is the fellowship house again
Great discussions. TY.
For you, not her..
Join a VT parents FB group for some great laughs and tips on what not to do.....
If you meet neighboring/roomate parents on move in, exchange numbers, and give the RA yours. We mainly used the first to coordinate so that birthdays were not forgotten or planning group tailgates, but a friend may have had their son's life saved when the RA called to say he seemed depressed. He was, and the RA may not have reached out if they had not provided the number and asked him to let them know if there were any issues.
Really good advice. TY.
Best advice, which I assume is still valid these days:
Go to class - it does wonders for your GPA!
o/ I can attest to that. dcwilson40 can also confirm that I can attest to that.
The most impressive GPA I've seen was my brother-in-law's 0.0 at George Mason his first freshman semester. Like, dude, you had to TRY to ignore that many classes.
His Spring semester was at Thomas Nelson CC.
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Solid advice. Also know that you will likely have to greatly alter your study habits and time allocation, as college level courses are not like high school. It was certainly a wakeup call for me coming from a small town HS.
Big time wake up call for me. HS came easy, College courses did not.
same story, but I also coasted through college too with minimal effort -- but being a big fish small pond curvewrecker at PUI going to a big boy PHD program at VT where everyone else was just as bright and already knew how to study nearly ruined me 😇
It took me about until my senior year of college to figure out, you can't JUST go to class. You can't JUST do the work. You can't JUST do the readings.
If you want to excel you have to do ALL of them. Imagine that, follow the syllabus and be an engaged student and you get results.
Shoot even in my second Masters program excelling is hard. It sucks looking at the students at the top of the class getting A's thinking to yourself that you should be there too with the effort you've put in. But you can guarantee you will comfortably pass by doing all of these things
I never even attempted that route. Recognized it wasn't for me quickly lol.
It was a huge wakeup call for me, even coming from a private college-prep HS. I never really had to crack a book in HS. Big change.
Trying to go off-meds for ADD didn't help either. =^/
Same in regard to high school coming easy. I don't think I took a book home my senior year of HS. EF1015 brought me back to the real world. Best to know that going in, because the transition was difficult.
Also, be careful overloading yourself with classes. 18 hours as a first semester freshman in a tough curriculum can be overwhelming.