Any students with questions?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Richmond
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<p>If there are any HS students or potential transfers with questions (unrelated to stats and chances would be lovely :P ), I, and I'm sure some of my fellow UR students, would love to help you out! </p>

<p>A bit about me: I'm a sophomore (girl), an (undeclared) English major, a member of the UR Players. I went through the CORE course last year, so I can answer questions about that. I've also taken a few courses in the Classics department--Latin is my language of choice--as well as in the Theatre department, and the English department (of course!). I'm also considering a minor in Journalism, if that sparks interest. I live in a triple, currently, and have one roommate who is a potential English and Classics major, another who is creating her own ridiculously intense International Studies major (and that one also does Crew). </p>

<p>Sooo, if I can be of assistance, post here or PM me! I might not answer for a few days, what with classes and other obligations, but I'll check in somewhat frequently.</p>

<p>Have a great semester, everyone!</p>

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<p>How strong is the English department? How popular is English as a major at UR? Thanks.</p>

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<p>Compared to other schools, I honestly can't tell you, but my experiences with the department and the faculty have all been positive. The professors go on sabbatical every...seven years, I think it is, so they are actively pursuing their interests and publishing, but because they are given time to do it, it doesn't take away from their teaching time. I have had...four different professors so far, all are published, all are brilliant in their fields, all love teaching, and all are INCREDIBLY passionate and knowledgeable, and really friendly to boot. The English faculty is also the largest faculty in the entire College of Arts and Sciences. There are professors that teach just about everything.</p>

<p>English is fairly popular, I think. I don't know how many majors per year there are, though. Sorry for the imprecision of my answers! If you have anything else to ask, I will certainly do my best to answer.</p>

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<p>How would you describe the social scene there? Are the students happy, friendly,clique-y? How is the frat/sorority life? What do students do on the weekends? What do you think the impact of same sex dorms are? What do you think of the new chancellor?</p>

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<p>I would also like to know the answers to Bridie's questions. My s thought the campus seemed a bit too boring so he did not apply. Can you tell me different?</p>

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<p>URichmond2010, thank you for your response. I'm also interested in hearing about the social scene. From what we've heard (guidebooks, etc.) it seems like the campus is predominately "preppy"...? How diverse is the student body at UR?</p>

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<p>Straight from the horses mouth. The following link is to a Spring 2007 Quality of Life survey.
<a href="http://oir.richmond.edu/Surveys/StudentLife07/StudentLife07PreliminaryResultsReport.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://oir.richmond.edu/Surveys/StudentLife07/StudentLife07PreliminaryResultsReport.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>One should keep in mind that the administration questions were regarding a prior administration. The current administration seems to be 180 degree turnaround from the previous regime. </p>

<p>Diversity on campus is what you make it. At first glance, it does seem like very similar people, but if you take the time to go outside your comfort zone, there is plenty of diversity. Some of my friends came from broken homes in poor towns and some were from families who get to work via helicopters. Some of my friends were from NY, VA, FL, CA, WA, KS and several international students. Late night conversations about different viewpoints were a crucial part of my experience. My sophomore year during mayterm, I, a white, Catholic, upper middle class midwesterner, roomed with a Soviet born Eastern Orthodox from NY, a Sunni from Etriea whose parents did all the photography for the Saudi Royal family and an Angolian. My roomate my senior year is from Atlanta and his parents were Pakistani and Indian (a very rare combination). The student body is predominately middle/upper middle white, but that doesn't mean that it's not diverse. It's only as diverse as you like to make it.</p>

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<p>That is well said. Most places are so simplistic about describing and measuring this phenomenon. It's so often so narrow ... most are happy with checking skin tones and ancestorial family trees.</p>

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<p>"The current administration seems to be 180 degree turnaround from the previous regime."</p>

<p>can you explain what you mean by that..what observations have you made so far?</p>

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<p>Bridie, I'm not sure how much you know about UR, but when I was looking at schools in the late 90's/early 00's, UR was known to be a school that prided itself on campus life, the ease of which things got done on campus (via the administration) and the balance between play hard/party hard. </p>

<p>When Dr. Cooper took over in '98, he aimed to increase the academic stature of the school, which should be applauded, but he did so at the expense of the quality of life on campus. Social areas in the commons were turned into study lounges, financing for student groups never increased, even though student groups just about doubled in number in his tenure, traditions were discarded, study days for exams were done away with, etc. He alienated many alumni, so donations were reduced by a third. In my four years at the school, I could recall seeing him at orientation, for five minutes at a community service event for a photo-op, five minutes passing out lunches to students when a hurricane came through campus -- again for a photo-op, and at graduation. I was heavily involved in various campus activities and rarely saw the man. Couple this with a constant battle with faculty/staff that began at his arrival, and the school just stopped functioning the way it had before his arrival. </p>

<p>The new president has only been around since July 1, but I've seen him at more football games than I ever saw our previous president at. His tenure at UVA was, by all accounts, amazing. The alumni who had him at UVA that I've spoken with all lament the fact that he's left to come to UR, as they were hoping he'd be UVA's next president (that could always happen). He understands the need to balance the social and academic sides of the campus and values the traditions of UR. While he hasn't acted on much yet, since he is still obtaining an understanding of the university and its culture, everything he says is perfect. Apparently the largest donors like him as well, as he was able to secure a $9 million donation within two months of his tenure. </p>

<p>On a personal note, I emailed him to welcome him to the university just days after he was named the president. I received a personal, multiparagraph email back. I had emailed our former president several times about various items, and received canned responses, or a response from his secretary. That may seem like a small difference, but it tells you the difference between the two men.</p>

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<p>That's interesting, valuable insight. Thanks. It sounds as though Mr. Cooper was deluded to think that his job was something other than dealing day in day out with the campus community and alumni constituencies. It will be interesting to watch the new dude. Let's hope he doesn't try to transform this small college with a few good grad programs into UVA-Richmond branch campus. Your observations of signs so far, are encouraging. </p>

<p>I'm persuaded UR has potential to be one of those rare places rightly positioned with genuine potential for transformation to be among the really top liberal arts universities in the country. It's got all the possibilities. Clearly has lacked a visionary leadership.</p>

<p>While it was not a game breaker, we were really surprised at how poorly planned the admissions presentation was. There is so much to see and tell at UR.</p>

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<p>Whistle, don't get me wrong, Cooper had a nice vision, but it was too narrow and was going down the wrong path to reach his destination. I don't believe that UR will ever become UVA-East -- we have too much pride in being the best Richmond we can be. Cooper thought we should model ourselves after the top LAC's in the country. There was talk about getting rid of the B-school since LAC's don't typically have them. A school ranked in the top 25 in the country, a unique reason to attend UR, and he wants to get rid of them. (shudders)</p>

<p>I'm sorry to hear about the admissions presentation. We have some great people in the admissions office, but I know things are really being overhauled in the way they recruit students. I'm really encouraged by everything that's going on there now.</p>

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<p>I've heard freshmen dorms suck but after that they're great. Any truth?</p>

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<p>Well, I was in Lora Robins, which is fairly new, and it's a great dorm. Well-sized rooms (re: not prison cells), walls are not concrete, carpeted floors, decent bathrooms, AC and heat, wireless internet, windows, big closet. I haven't been in to all of the freshman dorms, but I do think that they are fairly nice. The guys dorms tend to smell a bit just because guys live there, and some dorms/floors are better/worse than others. Girls dorms are fine in my experience. And, Richmond is starting to renovate the dorms, so the freshman dorms are changing up next year, anyway.</p>

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<p>i'm not sure if collegeboard's stats are right, it looks like gpas are pretty evenly spread through the 3.7+, 3.5, 3.4 range...yet it only accepts about 38% of students who apply? i dunno i'm really nervous, my first two years averages sucked b/c of depression, so it dropped it down to a 3.5/3.65 also my SATs are not stellar (760, 690, 520 :( ) it's my first choice but i'm worried that its way too selective and i'll look ridiculous for even trying. advice?</p>

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<p>Just try! There is absolutely no harm in applying. What is your 520 SAT score in? You could try to pull it up. And a 3.5/3.65 GPA isn't bad at all! My best advice is just to fill out the application and see what happens. I think you'll feel worse in the end if you don't stick your neck out there and give it shot.</p>

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<p>math. i'm not too terrible at math when it comes to the class (I have a B+ in AP Statistics which i thought was pretty good.) sadly i can't retake it b/c the january test date is the one i'm using for my SAT IIs. </p>

<p>also, if i'm submitting the richmond web application i don't have to do the common application supplement as well do i? because there is already an essay on the web application.
(i have no problem with writing more than one essay, i just don't want to miss one!)</p>

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<p>If you use the UR web app, you do NOT need to do the Common App supplement. </p>

<p>UR Admissions</p>

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<p>Hey there!
My question is fairly simple:</p>

<p>When in the process of reviewing applications what grades to you guys look at, meaning, are ALL the grades of our high school career taken into consideration, or does the point of interest fall on the final grades drawn from 9th 10th and 11th?</p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

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<p>As for how we look at transcripts, it kind of depends on the way your high school formats their records. There are a million different formats of high school transcripts (that is only a slight exaggeration) so we end up having to look at them differently from school to school. IF your school gives a final, year end grade in every class, we will pay most attention to that grade. If they record semester grades but no final year end grade, we'll look at that. If you have a C in the first semester and a B in the second, we'll give you credit for having pulled up the grade, but they still both count equally in a GPA calculation. </p>

<p>As for what year's matter the most, they all matter equally in the GPA calculation, but we definetely are noting the general trend of your grades and whether they have tended to improve or decline over the years, if you've had uneven performance in certain disciplines or a mixed bag (or consistently strong performance), if your grades get better as your courses get harder or weaker as your courses get harder. There are lots of nuances to the evaluation and certainly the rigor of your curriculum is a very important factor. </p>

<p>When it all comes together, while your courses and grades are of crucial importance in our decisions, no single grade or course is likely to keep you out. If you have a poor grade (or a poor semester along the way) it can be helpful for you to write us a note to let us know what was going on that influenced your performance. I would think of this as offering explanations rather than making excuses and we really will read what you tell us and take it into consideration. </p>

<p>I hope that adequately answers your question. Best wishes--</p>

<p>UR Admissions</p>