I spent 11.5 years at VT, in Blacksburg. Loved it. Only NYC could make me leave. Some notes: (1) It's a young town. It's 25k students, almost all undergrad

I spent 11.5 years at VT, in Blacksburg. Loved it. Only NYC could make me leave. Some notes: (1) It's a young town. It's 25k students, almost all undergrad. 6k nonstudents. If you're single and younger than 30, it's a pretty good spot to be in. (2) It's cheap. My rent in 2008 for a small studio was $320/mon. Friends had roommates and kept their rent below $250/mon. You can go cheaper if you don't mind adding 5 min to your commute. Everything else (food, drinks, etc) was cheap. As a calibration point: $4 Guinness pints. (3) It's out in the country. Really, really out. But, it's also utterly gorgeous and there's plenty of outdoors to enjoy. The Corporate Research Center (CRC) described is also where the VT CS dept is, and it's on the other side of the VT airport from campus. Quick access to the highway and maybe 2 miles from the next town over, which has all the standard chains/amenities: Starbucks, Walmart (24hr), Staples, Panera, etc. It's also a nice little bicycle ride from main st to the CRC.