I believe everyone here will respect whatever decision your D makes eventually.
2 Likes
We visited 5 campuses over the past week and met students on all of the campuses. We also saw students eating, so they were without masks at that time. UR was the coldest of all. The cliques were very obvious. WL was the friendliest. They have a ”speaking tradition” where students are encouraged to greet others. If a student catches the president rushing across campus distracted by his phone, they can bring it to his attention; the president then donates $200 to the charity of the student’s choice.
Regarding negotiating for merit, UR should probably get over itself. #22 is very good but not excellent.
is WL Washington and Lee? Where else did you visit? We live in VA and am curious to hear opinions for D23’s search.
Get over itself? So should Colgate (#20) get over itself? No merit there at all. For anyone. How about Davidson (#15). They give only a very select handful of kids some merit. Way fewer than Richmond.
I understand you didn’t have a great visit. I just think it’s really hard to judge campuses right now. D has gone to a lot of student panels for UR and thought all of the kids were great. Our tour guide was super friendly. I just want those reading this to know that your opinion seems based on one visit.
Editing to add that we have a friend whose D is there and we asked her to describe the kids there and she thought for a minute and then said “friendly and preppy”.
2 Likes
I think it’s hard too b/c everyone is looking for something different.
My son interacts with people all the time everywhere…he needed a campus where people were engaging with both friends and strangers (who would become friends)…
But some people don’t need that and don’t even want that…
1 Like
Del.
2 Likes
I have no doubt that UR is a great school, academically, but we took it off the list after hearing several accounts of the “coldness” and clique culture, which seems to be directed toward those who aren’t from upper class Virginia, including the children of 2 friends - one of whom, a recruited athlete, came home after 2 weeks at UR (she is thriving at one of our In-state schools now).
Covid or not, the feeling you get during a campus visit is very important - don’t discount it.
3 Likes
It is! We thoroughly enjoyed most of our visit. I like to drive the perimeter of campus before parking and exploring. You can do that at W&L, but you must cross a small bridge to do so. We were convinced it was for pedestrians only. It wasn’t. 
We made it, though!
ETA: The scary driving experience was the only thing we did not enjoy at WL. We do not hold it against the school that I had zero idea how to drive up and down hills.
I don’t know where you are in your decision process, but I saw you mentioned Emory. It is my husband’s alma mater, and I love it there. Emory is a physically beautiful school with an impressive faculty. Many students from the northeast attend.
I have not heard of any racial incidents. This could mean ”nothing” was significant enough to make the news.There was an antisemitic dean in the dentistry school decades ago. His impact on a generation of men is heartbreaking. Emory has handled the realization of this damage with great sensitivity and responsiveness. This reveals a lot about the institution’s character.
2 Likes
@Mom2124
Thank you so much! I have heard wonderful things about Emory; I have also heard about student’s antisemitism there. Though I am not Jewish, any discrimination is upsetting to me. Still, I would love to go to Emory. I applied RD, so my decision is supposed to come out on March 24th at 6pm EST… very nervous! If not though, I have other great options, including Richmond! The incidents mentioned above are not dealbreakers; I just want to be aware of the vibes at my possible new home!
4 Likes
Now my fingers and toes are crossed until 3/24. I want you to have all of the options. Best of luck
Can you share a picture please?
1 Like
you’re so sweet! thank you so much. Emory is definitely a reach for me, but I would love to have the opportunity to attend.
@Mom2124
Update on Emory: I was rejected. I’m bummed, but I am excited to see where I end up. I guess it wasn’t the right fit. Maybe I’ll apply for grad school. Thank you again for your support!!
3 Likes
I echo what you said about UR being a fantastic college, and a friendly one, having a junior there now. And, I’m incredibly critical!
As for merit, very few colleges of its caliber give merit aid. While I’m not a fan of rankings, if you move down a bit, you’ll find much better aid. I was just bemoaning to my D, who really wants to get into Barnard - ranked the same as Richmond- that it gives no aid (and being in NYC would be so expensive), but Smith, at 15, gives out at least some to selected scholars. I think it boils down to whether a college feels they need to give the $ to attract the higher stats/stellar kids.
Hey, just wanted to drop in and talk about some things as a current student (graduating senior). Mostly want to respond to some points that have been brought up recently.
I noticed some talk about students being cold to visitors. That’s probably reasonable; as a student, I’ve only ever chatted with visitors in a few cases (mostly because they were walking around looking lost) and nowadays there’s a lot less incentive to try to chat with off-campus strangers given COVID. Visitors are very common and there are never any guarantees that they’ll end up attending, so I don’t know why a student would take the initiative? In the future, you could try to say hi and ask questions if somebody looks welcoming and not in a hurry, but maybe this year’s not the best one to do that. I would generally smile at visitors, but we all wear masks everywhere so now I just give a confirming nod.
On the nature of cliques, I feel like that’s a problem for somebody who hasn’t developed a friend group. At the moment, I don’t think there is any greek life going on, and many of the clubs aren’t thriving in this COVID environment (even before all of the disaffiliation ‘-_-’), so a lot of friend groups are prevalent in public. They’re all encouraged to keep their distance, but they still end up grouping up. I don’t really care as a student; I have my own friends, and they have theirs. No need to intermingle especially given the current state of the pandemic. New students generally don’t face that problem, since there’s a whole entering class in the same boat. I think it’s more of an outsider-looking-in issue. It’s really only a problem when a student doesn’t take any initiatives to follow their leads and get friends (which can happen).
Also, UR is very much in a COVID-repellent bubble where students are encouraged to stay on campus. The observation that you’d need a car or Uber to get off campus is correct at the moment, and that’s intentional. In general, UR is always a bubble away from Richmond, but you can get off campus quite easily in other years. The UR bubble is a pro or a con depending on how you look at it; I like it, but some might not.
On the topic of merit aid, I know very few students who have any. Most of my friends and I have really nice financial aid packages, which a lot of my friends in stem joke as the reason why we were reeled in (it turned out to be a great decision, of course). I have a few friends who are Richmond Scholars and full-merit riders, and it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with high scores on the metric of ACT/SAT/GPA. It usually has something to do with extreme achievement in high school or extreme diversity components. Things I’ve seen include impressive prior research involvement, extreme over-preparation (i.e. 300-level special topics math courses in 1st year), inspirational activism, unique ethnicity, or otherwise very unique interests/backgrounds. I don’t think they’ll ever budge from that, and I think that’s ok based on what I have seen. I have friends that pay anywhere from nothing to full-price, and it never really comes up in conversation.
Anyways, just thought I’d throw my two cents in while I’m waiting on something. Overall, I’ve liked the school so far (as a senior lol) and would greatly recommend it. Never did greek life/sports/“rich kid” stuff, and had a great time doing a lot of research in the hard sciences. (Last year’s been kinda sucky, but that’s expected). Hopefully somebody else likes it as much as I have (hopefully more so because post-COVID).
If you @ me, I might answer some questions if I notice any. I know it’s not technically the correct threat, but this is also in response to some of the points brought up.
PS: Try to visit Richmond on a sunny day if you can. Rainy campus is just sad.
8 Likes
Picture to follow post-pandemic. I am a year overdue for a pedicure!
1 Like
Your attitude will make you successful anywhere. Check back in when you make a decision!
So my family just returned from a visit to Richmond this past weekend (and I hadn’t read any of the above comments before the visit). We are from the midwest, so I like to think we’re from a friendly area of the country. Anyhow, we attended the information session at the admissions office and did the tour. We also met with the head of the department to which my daughter would like to major (this person met us personally, outside, and gave us a personal tour/update on her department for almost an hour).
With respect to students being unfriendly/not speaking to us/not making eye contact . . . I honestly didn’t notice a thing. I thought every student we passed was just as courteous as I would expect at any college campus. If I didn’t read the comments above, I would have never thought to even consider whether their demeanor was anything less than friendly. I also didn’t notice any cliques or anything like that . . . just regular college students outside doing regular college student things. What I did notice - lots of students wearing “Richmond” gear. I work for a large, public university endowment association currently, so I have a lot of experience being on a college campus. I didn’t notice a thing out of the ordinary with respect to student demeanor.
As others have said, the campus is beautiful, and I think it would be a great place to go to school. That said, my daughter is leaning another direction right now (another school we visited last week).
Feel free to ask any questions.
7 Likes
I really appreciate it! I am pretty set on Elon, but I’m waiting to hear from UMich before I commit. I’ll update you soon. Thanks for having faith in me.
2 Likes