Roanoke College, a small liberal arts college in Salem, Virginia, is 15 minutes from the small city of Roanoke. It's a beautiful campus. There are under 1800 students here, but the new president who came to Roanoke in 2022 is hoping to grow the college to 2250 students by 2030. To that end, there are immediate plans to add a football team, a marching band, a competitive cheer team and a women's golf team.

Academically, Business is the most popular major, with Biology, Chemistry, and Computer Science close behind them. There are some exciting changes as well. An MBA program was added last year, and a masters program in Education is being added this year. There's a new Cannabis Studies major - you read that right - with either a Chemistry/Biology track or a Criminal Justice track, and Digital Art, Finance and Marketing and Screen Studies are all growing from a minor to a major. There's an Engineering Science major in its third year, and they're currently looking to add faculty to grow this program with pathways or tracks. Stay tuned! The Music and Music Education majors are now gone, however, with Music Studies remaining as a minor. There will still be 2 choirs, private music lessons, and classes in theory and history. I did ask if faculty had been laid off with this change, as that could possibly be a sign of fiscal instability, but was told they were not. And they are hiring a new marching band director, of course.

50% of the students here come from Virginia, and the other half come largely from the east coast. But a third of the students are athletes, and they come from all over, including 41 states and 45 countries.

The Appalachian Trail is 5 minutes away, there's a $35 million athletic center that was built in 2016, and there's also Greek life, which 25% of students participate in. We asked our tour guide what surprised him most about life at Roanoke, and he said, "I didn't realize it would be so much fun!" So don't rule out those liberal arts colleges, folks! The campus experience can be really fabulous!