Submitted by: Scott Pace and Carrie Pace
We attended an open house on February 15 and 16th at Virginia Intermont College (http://www.vic.edu/) in Bristol, VA. It was overcast and a long drive from Northern, Virginia – about 6 hours. The school has national championship equestrian team, one of the few four-year programs in equine studies and a well-regarded photography program. The first evening was a reception and talk by the director of the equestrian program who gave a long, but very comprehensive talk on what the equine studies program, it’s practical aspects, career paths, internships, course loads, etc. In particular, they encourage double majors, such as pre-Vet and business to ensure students have future options. The mayor of Bristol, TN made a welcome speech to highlight community support and the college president was on hand to answer questions.
We took a tour of the campus the morning and in the afternoon Carrie did an evaluation ride at their equestrian training center which is a few miles away. The school has been having financial difficulties and while this doesn’t seem to have affected the education, it does show in the building maintenance. The buildings are old with peeling paint and broken concrete in many parts. On the other hand, renovations of the main building look to be underway and they seem to be on a path to working this out. The photography program as a modern equipment and a full complement of Macintosh graphics computers. The evaluation ride portion included 18 girls and Carrie did well such that if a senior she would have qualified to be on the college team at an intermediate/advanced level. The barn facilities and training areas were good with a wide range of well-cared for horses.
If one is really focused on equine studies and top-level competitive riding, then Virginia Intermont is the place. On the other hand, the academic offerings in other areas are limited (e.g., not much in science, engineering, and mathematics). The small size gives it a good community feel and students would have a hard time getting lost. While a co-ed school, we saw only a few male applicants.
Filed under: Virginia Intermont College | Tagged: Virginia Intermont
The director of the equine studies program at Virginia Intermont did offer some brief comparisons to one of the other colleges we visited, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, in Laurienburg, NC, and said St. Andrews offers a similar, vocationally-oriented program but more focused on equine business administration. VI and St. Andrews are probably the top colleges for equine-related vocational studies, but there are also a number of other good small liberal arts colleges also with equestrian focuses.
One other school that we plan to follow up regarding is Hollins University, about an hour or so north from Virginia Intermont in Bristol, VA. We drove through the campus on the way home and it was very impressive with a beautiful, cohesive-looking campus. They also have an exceptional equestrian program and in fact were the only team to beat Virginia Intermont in the past 5 years. We will provide a writeup of any future visit we do.
While hunting down one of our alums, I ran across the mention of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in this thread and just couldn’t resist posting.
In addition to Equine Business major, we also offer Biology degrees with a Special Program of Equine Science, both the B.S. and B.A. In addition to courses required of all biology majors, students pursuing these specialized degrees take four to five courses in Equine Science, which are taught by the DVM on our faculty, Dr. Laura Kellam.
About half of the current majors are pre-vet students. In fact, the former student I was googling is now a DVM specializing in equine opthalmology. Hopefully, my post doesn’t come across as crass or opportunistic, but I did want to put the information out there and would be glad to answer any questions anyone has.