We live in Arlington. Other than our friends who are military themselves, we got a lot of incredulous responses when we said he was going to Parris Island. We actually had people ask of he got in trouble and had to enlist in the Marines. Mind you we are surrounded by people who consider Bucknell to be a "safety school". He did five years in the Marines and is a Junior at George Mason and has a pretty prestigious internship this Summer. None of my kids had any interest in going to VT, and I'm glad of that. Many of their friends actually went to uva and lived together for all four years then moved back home. Both VT and uva can be very much "Northern VA lite". All of my kids were ready to go elsewhere and meet different people. Middle kid went to school in PA and ended up in Wisconsin because he wanted to live somewhere he'd never lived before. I admire your son's independence and believe he will benefit from going out of his comfort zone.