134 Christendom Drive
Front Royal, VA 22630
800-877-5456
• Web site
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402 E. College St.
Bridgewater, VA 22812
540-828-5375 or 800-759-8328
• Web site
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3000 College Drive
Bluefield, VA 24605
276-326-4217 or 800-872-0175
• Web site
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420 W. Main St.
Danville, Virginia 24541
    434-791-4996 ·  800-283-7388
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Forget all those high-tech gadgets that beep to remind you of things. What a college student really needs – and wants – is a good old planner, on paper.

One school boosting Virginia’s numbers in higher education is Jefferson College of Health Sciences.

People sometimes joke about the fact that in today’s world students should start thinking about college when they enter kindergarten. That may be a stretch, but the college application process often does begin early in a student’s high school years.

Mary Nguyen has $10,000 (and growing) in college debt. Does she regret it? Not a bit. Does she worry about paying it back? Yes. She taught herself the college financial aid process.

Each school has unique attributes to offer prospective students. Virginia is home to more than 40 residential colleges and universities, including some of the most historic institutions in the country.

Area campuses generate news all the time, with new programs, construction, awards and initiatives. Here is a roundup of news items submitted by the schools profiled in this section:

Granted, this is college, not first grade. But somehow, all the rules and bits of advice seem to be the same: Pay attention to the teacher. Share the toys and don’t fight. Don’t lose your lunch money. Admit when you need help.

Students, schools finding more funding, cutting costs to cope with financial woes.

The largest freshman class in more than a decade began arriving at Averett University on Friday, with parents and classmates helping them tote their belongings to their new dormitory rooms.

Lynchburg’s population is growing by thousands this week as Liberty students return from near and far and prepare to start classes Monday.

Two girls make their way up a stairwell and toward their second stop for the night, this time on Liberty University’s campus east. Nineties music thumps through the dormitory halls as Danyelle Hudgens and Lindsey Frye hesitate at the door. Typically, the room would be for males only. But not tonight. It’s open dorms night - the one evening each semester in which girls are allowed to enter the boys’ rooms, and vice versa.