I am currently trying to decide between UF(cheaper because I am a resident) and Richmond? Any thoughts on which school is better? Looking for a school that would give me the best chance to get into med school.
I think it depends if your priority is finances. If you plan to go to medical school, then I would 100% consider your financial situation. Either one of those schools can provide you a solid foundation to be an excellent candidate for medical schools. However, since I don’t know much about UF, I can only speak about UR’s pre-med resources and my opinion since I am a pre-med student.
First of all, the class sizes at UR are very small. Your organic chemistry or biology class will have no more than 24 kids in it. Your professors know your name and are there to make relationships with you. Many students participate in undergraduate research, so sometimes having a certain professor one semester can open doors. I’m sure you know about the classes needed for the MCAT and medical school admission, and if you would like to go to the UR website and look the equivalents are BIO 199, BIO 200, CHEM 141, CHEM 205, CHEM 206, CHEM 317, CHEM 326, PHY 131, PHY 132, MATH 211 and MATH 212 - not required but are prereqs for PHY, SOC 100, and PSYC 100. In addition pre-med students are also encouraged to take upper-level science classes that interest them and to complete a major or minor in healthcare studies. Our healthcare studies major is an integrative major combining various academic departments such as biology, business, political science, psychology, etc. I would also suggest looking into that.
As for advising, it really does not start to matter until your junior year. You are given a document with all the items you need for medical school. There are group meetings by class year, however, if you want to meet with Dr. Vaughan (our pre-med advisor) his job is fully dedicated to advising so he is more than happy to meet with students. The career services department also does a great job of hosting healthcare related events such as bringing alumni back who are now in clinical practice, arranging medical school open house days, internships, etc.
Two of the things I think are fantastic about UR is #1, the Richmond Guarantee. You can be funded up to $4000 to create your own research project and travel with the money or stay on campus to research. We’ve had pre-med students complete internships/research at Johns Hopkins, UVA, Duke, etc. Second of all, we also have a summer MCAT prep class that the university pays for, which is amazing! We also have a high medical school acceptance rate, including many top 20 schools. Last year we had someone graduate who is now at Harvard Medical School!
Sorry for the long message! You can truly be pre-med anywhere you want, but I definitely wanted to tell you why I’m proud to be a spider! If you have any questions feel free to message me. Best of luck wherever you decide to go! 
I appreciate the reply, never been to richmond but am visiting next week. Hopefully the tour can help me determine if richmond is the best fit for me. Sounds like you passionately love your school, do you mind listing some HONEST pros and cons to the school? Just want to make sure I have fully done my research.
@rpsee3 one of the biggest differences, obviously, is size. U of R and UF are vastly different animals, though you can get a fantastic education at either.
Let us know what you think after your visit.
What is the cost difference ?
Aside from the cost, these two schools are about as different as you can get. If you really love one, you probably won’t care for the other. Totally different feel. Large impersonal school with a very spread out campus vs. small LAC with personal service and attention. Massive classes (and online classes) for the first 2+ yrs vs. very small, professor led intimate classes.
One is not better than the other, just completely different. I would also consider where you want to end up. If you go the business route, Richmond places quite well up and down the east coast. FL places very well in FL. They certainly have alums everywhere but the vast majority of their grads stay in state. Last yr’s destination report showed the number to be 75%.Very popular school with the NE crowd, so there’s a built in network.
my son is a junior and his top 2 choices are: UF and U of Richmond. He wants premed also. Very difficult decision.
I know some premeds at UF that did not get to know professors well enough to get great LOR.
Money aside, I think Univ of Richmond would be the best choice. Smaller classes, Research expected. Class to help with MCAT.
Florida: at a larger school you need more of a “go getter” personality to compete with the numbers to make you stand out.
Is the difference worth $150,000?
URichmond if you can afford it. Smaller classes, more resources.
If you have $150,000 yes it is a sound investment, if you don’t then don’t borrow and ztrne the other University.
@rpsee3 : what did you think after your visit?
Great post from rvalover!
The cost differential - and how you will pay for it - is going to be a large determining factor. There’s a difference between the gap being $4K a year and the gap being $20K a year. There’s also a difference between your family being able to afford the entire difference in cash and you having to borrow large amounts of money to cover it.
University of Richmond does have that great healthcare studies program, and the Richmond Guarantee as rvalover describes it sounds like an excellent way to get involved in research. UF is also a great place to be pre-med; it has a ton of majors like health education & behavior (where you can get a combined BS/MS), nutritional sciences, and health science (in it’s very good school of public health) in addition to more traditional majors. Really, there’s no bad choice here; I think it’s about which environment/atmosphere you prefer and the cost differential.
I don’t necessarily agree with this. It’s very possible for the same student to be happy at both a large university campus and a small liberal arts college. There may be different things that they like about each atmosphere; even people who really love LACs don’t love every single thing about their LAC, usually (and the same is true for large universities).
Both are great schools. As everyone mentioned, they differ greatly in price and size.
You should consider the location as well. I’m also a Florida resident, but decided against applying to UF primarily because of its location. If you’re used to living in a big city (such as Miami) Gainesville will feel completely different. Richmond is a bigger city, with possibly more internship and work opportunities.
But overall UF is a great university. I have several friends who go there, and absolutely love it.
Thank you everyone for the very helpful advice and information. The tour at richmond was very well set up and impressive. My talk with the admission’s director was personable and my guide(who was a student) was extremely passionate about being a spider and had multiple great job opportunities already as a junior. The campus is beautiful and the school defiantly doesn’t mind spoiling its students with massage chairs, and unlimited food. My mom is really pushing me to go to richmond even though there is such a huge tuition difference. You defiantly get what you pay for, the percent of richmond premed applicants that get into med school is 85% (at florida it hovers just above the national average at 55%). I think florida is a great school and it will be tough choosing a different path from my friends but I think richmond is the best fit for me.