Daughter starting at Marymount-Arlington (credit card, dorms, safe area)

[addfellow]

Greetings everyone. My daughter will be a freshman at Marymount next month, and not being familiar with the area at all, I'd greatly appreciate any and all opinions or advice. She'll be on campus, by the way. Thanks!

[JimGriffith]

What sort of opinions and advice would you like?

Good school, good location, hope she likes it.

[mikeyo321]

That's true about it being a good area and school. Marymount's campus has always seemed cozy and adorable to me and everyone I've known who's gone there has really enjoyed it there.

Marymount University is a young but strong, small Catholic college with an emerging academic reputation. As such the size, scope and tenor of the school seems to complement the neighborhood nicely. Its location in North Arlington is an older, wealthy, well-maintained, close-in residential suburb (sort of akin to Chevy Chase in Maryland). Its closest metro stop is the Ballston/MU stop (where the Ballston Center part of the campus is) which is a couple miles away but right off of Glebe Road so you don't even need to change streets and I believe there's a shuttle bus from the campus to the Metro and Ballston Center. It's a very safe area and close to many office complexes, shopping, restaurants and mass transit (especially in the neighborhoods of Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse and Rosslyn) so your daughter will have the opportunity to freely explore and get to know Arlington and D.C. well if she chooses.

The only potential minor drawback I see is that because of the wealth and layout of the area she might have some trouble finding affordable walkable off-campus housing if she chooses to live outside the dorms and she doesn't have a car. I know at least until recently Marymount was primarily a commuter school so I don't know where students go to look for off-campus housing around the school.

[saganista]

The main campus comprises a small and almost pastoral setting plopped into the middle of an established, quite upscale, and quite safe area of North Arlington. With the Ballston Corridor only a few miles off in one direction, and Tysons Corner only a few more miles off in the other direction, your biggest concern may lie in trying to be sure that her credit card doesn't get maxed out within the first few weeks of school. Bottom line: Very nice school in a very nice area. What's not to like...

[addfellow]

Thanks for the reassuring info...you've confirmed my impressions from our brief campus visit, and all the dry statistics about the area. We live in Westchester county, NY, so believe me that she's aware of how quickly mom & dad will cut up a credit card if she goes nuts in Nordstroms

Anyone aware of a good Thai restaurant in the area?

Thanks again.

[JimGriffith]

Not all that close, but Thai Shirlington is among the best thai places in Northern Virginia.

It's in "Shirlington Village" off 395 just down from the Glebe Road exit.

[saganista]

There are at least several dozen Thai restaurants in the area, some of which will suit almost anyone's tastes. Thai is generally not one of my favorite cuisines, but I would still recommend that maybe once gas prices come down a little, one think up some reason for making the roughly 45-minute trip out to Herndon, then walk into Thai Luang and order any of the Crispy Duck. That stuff is really good!

[PenguinSix]

Tons of Thai but I would say Northern Virginia is actually better known for Vietnamese food. There are a bunch of good Pho restaurants she should give a try while down there.

[saganista]

There are relatively few Thai expatriates in NoVa, but lots and lots of Vietnamese. Originally, they were clustered in and around Clarendon, and they still have a very considerable presence there, but they have spread out into the NoVa suburbs generally in more recent years. Vietnamese is one of five languages that the Fairfax County Public Schools system supports for instance. It's all a little odd to me, given that almost 100% of Vietnamese immigrants originally came from a distinctly urban environment. Anyway, the food is more that I think best taken in smallish doses, but one of my long-time friends grew up in Vietnam, and she swears by The Queen Bee in Clarendon, and that comes from someone whose parents ran a Vietnamese restaurant for many years. Me, I'm not much of a judge, but the Nam Viet (also in Clarendon) seems to be highly regarded as well...

[MacUser85]

Tara Thai in Ballston gets good reviews - 5 minutes from campus.