<p>I know this is a sort of odd question, but what are the cons of attending University of Richmond? Like what are the worst things about the school?</p>
<p>Personally, I felt the school started getting a little small my junior year because I thought I knew most every junior and senior on campus. I found out at graduation that there were a lot of people I had never seen in my four years. To this day it amazes me when I talk with friends about school, how many people I didn't know. </p>
<p>The dining options are somewhat limited. Not so much the selection of actual food, but the locations. I ate off campus a lot my junior and senior years. </p>
<p>Alumni relations (networking with alums) isn't as good as it should be. This is improving though, but still not as good as it should be. </p>
<p>Reputation of the school is about 10 years or so behind the actual quality of the school.</p>
<p>Some student apathy.</p>
<p>Career services aren't as good as they should be unless you're a business major. This is also improving (CDC is getting a new home in the Commons, reputation is continuing to improve, so the recruitment efforts are as well).</p>
<p>A lot of people talk about a lack of diversity, but that's code for lack of racial minorities on campus. The numbers have improved in the past few classes, but I personally think that ideological diversity and a diversity in experiences are the most important forms of diversity. If you have those two forms of diversity, you're pretty much assured to have any other forms you'd possibly desire. The diversity issue is also what you make of it. If you make an effort to go out and be open to people, you'll find the diversity.</p>
<p>Those are some of the negative aspects that I had with the university while I was there. I asked the same question as you did when I was looking at schools, and I appreciated getting honest answers in response, because every school has negatives about it. Fortunately, for me at least, the positives heavily outweighed the negatives and some of the negatives can be avoided, depending on what's important to you.</p>
<p>Yeah I'm only asking this because I love the school but need to consider my options fully before making a commitment. I personally found very little wrong with the school, but that is only based off two visits to the school as opposed to a student who recently attended there. Thanks for your insight, hopefully I can get some more honest answers.</p>
<p>Everything Spiders05 said is totally right. I'm a freshman and I'm already starting to feel the pain of limited dining options. Don't take that to mean the food at D-Hall isn't delicious, though - it's really good (we had tilapia the other day for pete's sake), it's just tiring to go to the same place all the time I suppose.</p>
<p>kellie, what other observations do you have? Do you love your dorm? the professors? The people in your freshman experience class (I think that is what it is called)......thanks!</p>
<p>Arent there a few other places to eat on campus though? </p>
<p>Also, yeah what 25 said, what is dormlife like (size, etc) and how much work do you get on an average day? Are tickets guaranteed to students for sports events? </p>
<p>Thanks... I'm very close to making the decision of applying ED to Richmond.</p>
<p>oh dear, let me see if I can hit everything:</p>
<p>As far as places to eat on campus - there is the Dining Hall, which closes at 8. Then you have the Pier (also known as Tyler's Grill) which has like, wraps, burgers and stuff. Those are really the only two options where you can use meal swipes. And the Pier closes at nine. The only real late food options are either ETC, the convenience/mini grocery store type thing, or 8:15, the coffee shop, which only has bagels as far as food goes. And both those places don't take meal swipes (unless you have the upgraded plan but the swipe there is only worth 3.50 so it's worthless and you only get two a week at all the places combined) so you have to use your dining dollars.. which run out eventually. Oh, and there's also the Cellar which is the on campus bar type restaurant. It opens at five every night. The food is pretty subpar however and expensive to use dning dollars. Most people stick to D-hall and the Pier. I know I kind of made it sound awful but the food at D-hall is really good and there's a huge variety. And the wraps at the Pier are absolutely delicious andn they have salads and stuff as well.</p>
<p>Who knew I had so much to say about food. Anyway, dorm life: there are two freshman girls dorms. I dunno if you guys are guys or girls but I can't provide much insight into guys dorm life. There are three freshman guys dorms I think. Anyway, the big girls dorm is Lora Robins which is where I live. There are four floors (basement, and three stories) the basement is substance free housing if you're interested in that. LoRo is very split up - each floor is broken into A, B, and C sections. It causes you to be very close to the girls in your section and facilitates friendships really well. Also, during orientation, your orientation group will be half of the girls (or guys) on your hall, which lets you get to know them from the get-go. But anyway, all the girls on my hall are really nice and we get along well. Most of my good friends live on my hall. Our rooms are not tiny, but they're not big either. I would say they're a little bigger than I was expecting, but I was expecting something miniscule - and all dorms are air conditioned.</p>
<p>If you're a student you don't need tickets for sporting events. As far as I know. Our first home football game is this weekend so I'll find out but I'm fairly positive. You also swipe your card for every event you go to and you earn points and get rewards for going to lots of games :) That's through the Richmond Rowdies, our little sports-school-spirit type organization.</p>
<p>Adjusting to the workload is definitely a huge deal... although I imagine it's like that at any good liberal arts school. Richmond just switched over to the units system this year, so I am taking 4.5 units this semester (with my classes, it's the equivalent of about 16 credits) however, the normal freshman load is 4 units (about 12-14 credits, depending.) </p>
<p>CORE is the freshman class you're speaking about. It's essentially a discussion based literature class. Kind of like a fancy English class, basically. It's nothing special but I think it's a good idea. It involves a lot of reading, as does my history class, so I spend a lot of time doing that. All the professors here are very nice and so accomodating and helpful. </p>
<p>I think I hit everything, but if you guys have questions about anything else feel free to ask. It feels nice to be able to give answers now, after last year spending so much time on here getting answers from everyone else :)</p>
<p>I'm just trying to decide basically between Villanova and Richmond... I'm evaluating pros and cons, but having a really tough time deciding between schools and seeing where I fit. And I got a rather strong message from a parent of a student who is basically his/her opinion off of the child and other students who disliked several things about the school including the dining options, school spirit, and social life.</p>
<p>One bit of advice from a parent, jckund. Don't take much from our opinions of schools where our children attend! We tend to get emotional, for the good and the bad. Of course we want the best but quite often, our opinions are vastly different from the sons or daughters attending. If we think the school has "wronged" our child, damn them to hell! If in our opinion, they are thriving, there is no better place for anyone to attend. Our thoughts are very biased!</p>
<p>Thanks, kellibum. Richmond is one of the top schools on my daughter's list. Her favorite teacher is an alumni and she's heard nothing but great things.</p>
<p>Thanks, Kelli, those were great insights. Our D loves UR and at least "for today" is applying ED. Of course that has changed in the past LOL let's see last spring it was Wake, and before that it was Furman. I am just along for the roller coaster ride. Seriously, though, she has thought it all through and really loves UR. We want her to go and spend a day in classes before committing. She is taking AP Eng/ AP Calc/ AP Enviro, Economics and a history elective this semester and feels this is the hardest workload ever. She goes to boarding school and it is very rigorous. I wonder if I am wrong in thinking that her transition into a school the calibre of UR will be fairly smooth, considering her current work load....??? How would you describe your high school and course load.....how do you find the transition? THNKS</p>
<p>Jckund, you are in luck, because guess where my final decision was between?? Yep... Nova and UR. To give you insight as to why I chose UR: I felt the academics were a lot better, the campus was much more beautiful, the little bit smaller size... I also didn't like how Nova's freshman dorms were like, on "South Campus" away from the rest of campus... also, Nova your senior year you are not allowed to live on campus. I did like Nova a lot but I felt UR was just a better fit. Also, UR was further away from home. There's also the fact that freshman can have cars here and you can't till you're a junior at Nova. And I hate cold weather. Okay, those are silly reasons but you get the point. Also, please don't be discouraged by what a parent says. They aren't the ones there. While the dining options are slightly restricted it's not a huge deal. I have seen no problems with school spirit or social life since I have been here. And this is coming from a person who does not regularly drink. You can still go out - there is no pressure to drink.</p>
<p>25, even the kids here who took all AP's are very overwhelmed I think. It's not that it's harder - it's just different. It's not even that it's a lot of work, it's just that the work is very time consuming. If that makes sense. Like, I usually don't have a million things to do, but the 3 or 4 things I have to do - like read a book, write a paper, do a project - are things that take up a lot of time. For example, with my class schedule... I am taking piano lessons for credit which requires one hour of practice a day. I have one calc quiz a week. My history class meets once a week and we have to read one book a week (usually long... not easy reads), and write a one-page paper on it. Computer science we have a weekly programming project that is assigned thursday and due mondays at midnight. Those projects are very time consuming and usually take hours. And then for Core we obviously have a lot of reading... there are nine books assigned for the course. We've been in class for two and a half weeks, and have started our third book.. it varies by class but we've already turned in one major paper. So, it's certainly a big workload, but it's manageable once you get used to it. Also it could vary based on your class schedule.</p>
<p>I apologize for the novels I've been writing but I know it's a huge decision so I want to be thorough! Overall, I've been here for three weeks today and I love it already. I've had no problems adjusting at all. I'm so glad I picked UR and I wouldn't change my decision if I could go back and do so.</p>
<p>Thank you kellie... im going to villanova again soon to further consider my options. I liked Richmond for the same reasons... weather, campus, etc. and spent a lot of time on campus. It's basically between those two schools, and the size is great for Richmond, but I don't think it will be a problem at Villanova. I also disliked the whole "south campus" thing, but it's something I could live with, and I'm a huge college basketball fan so i want a school with a lot of spirit, especially towards basketball. Richmond's team isn't bad, but not nearly as good as Nova.</p>
<p>kellie, thanks, great insights! Sounds like you have it all under control...good luck and thanks again</p>
<p>Sons have friends at both, and it is really a toss up. Nova is just a bigger school and has a lot of big school flavor for its size. Richmond is really more of a small LAC in flavor and has the benefits and drawbacks of such.</p>
<p>Anyone else? Every single post makes a difference (not that I judge my decision completely on what people here say, but getting opinions do help)</p>
<p>So I'm a freshman at U of R, and if any of you have questions feel free to PM me.
I have alot to say about UR, but I dont really want to get into it on the boards.</p>
<p>just curious nowayuva - on a scale of 1 to 10 how would you of R.</p>
<p>Richmond is an awful school. I'd rate it a zero.</p>
<p>URdefect, don't you think its time you moved on with your life. You spent one year at Richmond four years ago--get over it.</p>
<p>Richmond is a great school with fabulous facilities.</p>
<p>sunny2, do you currently attend there?</p>