I second pretty much everything @mon824 said, especially about the lumped classes. I’m known for having a particularly challenging schedule, both academic-wise and extracurricular-wise (I’m a math/CS double major, with music/dance minors, involved heavily in music ensembles, theater, and also on exec for 4 honor societies, among other things). It’s usually fine and I have plenty of time to hang out with friends, see performances, watch tv (lol, I watch so much tv), etc. Sometimes everything lines up one week and that’s not so fun; my delayed response here (at least compared to my normal rate) is actually due to me having such a week. There’s really nothing quite like finishing a theater tech rehearsal at 11:30 pm, then finishing your midterm essay at 5 am, followed by a midterm at 10 am. Those weeks, however, are few and far between. Last semester, I took Real Analysis (aka the death class of math majors), and Wednesday nights were rough since our hw’s were due Thursdays; I’d basically finish eating dinner after choir at like 6 pm, and then work till like 3-4 in the morning on that hw. But like @MON824 said, students don’t take many courses like that over the course of their time at UR- there’s max about 2 courses like that per major.
@guineagirl96 @MON824 @rvalover7 THANK YOU by the way, for always jumping in to add to the discussions here and help us discern fact from rumor. @havenoidea @homerdog I highly recommend keeping/putting Richmond on your list especially if you are considering Wm & Mary (they are only like an hour apart - D18 applied to both!) I was just in your shoes a year ago, looking at medium size, out-of-state schools with mostly academic focus (is that the same as LAC? I don’t know what that means). My D18 is still deciding but UR is definitely in her top 3. Reading that she has social options really makes me happy. She is a current non-drinker (everything can change in college) and not into the party scene; she’s on a swim team 8 months out of the year coupled with being in the IB program and A LOT of volunteer activity… there just isn’t much time to get out there. She plans to study chemistry and psychology with an education minor with plans to get a MEd. She is interested in sorority for sisterhood as well as continuing her volunteer activities and being involved on campus in leadership. We have visited UR twice and both times she just loved it and got the best ‘vibe’ there. I asked the DHall staff (it’s one of our tour questions - ask someone not paid to promote the University) what they thought of the students and the 3 different people that I asked all said they kids were so friendly, everyone seemed extremely considerate of each other, never saw anyone eating alone. D18 likes the collaborative vs competitive feel, class size another plus. Her Jr year spring break we visited 10 schools in 6 days, we’ve seen a LOT of schools. My recommendation is to visit yourself - everyone has a different opinion regarding party vs academic vs Greek vs good food vs nice dorms… if the academics seem right go visit, ask your own questions. Good luck with your selection process!
Any feedback on clubs? Are they well attended and are students very involved?
How about the on-campus social events? Besides the pig roast, what are some of the more popular events?
Personally, I’m only in 2 clubs (Players, the theater group, and ACM, a CS club), since the majority of my extracurricular activities are music department ensembles and honor societies (I’m on exec for 4 of them, and in 8 total, so they take up a significant amount of time). Both are well attended and students are quite involved. Many of my friends are in multiple clubs and really enjoy them and participate actively.
A lot of social events are not campus-wide, but attract certain groups of people (although they are almost always open to everyone). For example, Spidernights events such as open mic night are usually well attended, but they are substance-free events as an alternative to Greek parties. Ring Dance is very well attended, but that is off campus, and then Proclamation and Investiture. A capella concerts are always well attended, and so are events put on by other performance groups. A lot of clubs will have social events for their members as well, and those are usually pretty popular with the members.
This thread got long and I really appreciate everyone’s input. I have an update and a question. We just got back from doing some visits and one of the schools he really loved was William and Mary. I know Richmond is smaller but is anyone out there considering these two schools?
I also applied to William and Mary back in 2014, and know many people there, as a lot of people from my high school go there. UR and W&M are quite different. One thing I would watch out for with W&M is that, as any Virginian can tell you, they have a reputation for being a “pressure cooker”, and it’s one that’s warranted. Students that are struggling can have trouble getting psychological help, and there have been several high profile cases of what happens when they don’t. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great school though, and I know that they are working hard to address these issues. I’ve known several people that have transferred out of out W&M, but for what it’s worth, I also know a student who transferred from UR to W&M and loves it. I should mention that CAPS (counseling office at UR) is fantastic here, and relatively easy to get an appointment with.
@homerdog I know you have already heard our UR perspective… my D18 was accepted there EA and then also to Wm&M RD 2 weeks ago. However we visited Wm&M twice - for a basic tour and then for official admissions interview and Tribe Day - where she followed a student around, ate on campus and had a student run tour vs the admissions tour. She felt like Wm&M and UR had similar academic vibes - collaborative not competitive. In hind sight she thinks that although Wm&M has a new state of the art Sciences bldg, UR might have the edge on them in the STEM area (esp her major Chemistry) because of certain research opportunities and a highly acclaimed UR Chem professor making the news!. She knew that Wm&M is about twice as big but she didn’t ‘feel’ that on the campus. She LOVED the historical vibe… hard not to when you really stop and think about the amazing great minds and founding fathers who walked those same grounds and sat in that same space! But the UR campus also ‘feels old’ even though many of the academic blgds are new - and the UR student recreation facility is fantastic!! Fortunately I have a sorority sister who lives in Wmsburg so we were able to stay the weekend with her and her family and really get a feel for the town, and attend the Wm&M football game that Saturday to really get a feel for the school spirit and student/alumni social interactions at events. Note: my D18 is NOT a person who cares ANYTHING about sports (on the other hand I graduated from The University of Alabama so … Roll Tide!) but she is way more low key; probably attended 5 games her whole high school career and that was mainly to watch her band friends perform. She surprised herself by really enjoying the tailgate and the game itself (even though we left after 1/2 time so my friend and I could get to the TV to watch the Tide!) but she actually loved the low key sports environment. Through our friends that live there, she met several freshman and sophomores and really loved everyone she met - all of the Wm&M students were friendly and out-going and asked about her with genuine interest. We hear the Greek life is there but not much different than Richmond - join or don’t join, no one really judging or getting left out, plenty to be involved in. More girls pledge than boys (which is typical at even the largest big Greek Universities - like Alabama!) So the short version is … in her opinion there were very few differences (she though the food and Dhall were better at UR). Both schools offered similar academics (her main focus), had great friendly students that seemed to truly value their academics over anything else (tops for her), but on that note some good social ‘non-party’ activities in addition to traditional but open ‘Greek’ parties and formals (if she decides to go that route), both great historic towns (Williamsburg has a slight edge there and UR may be the smaller school but Richmond as a city is larger and a lot more vibrant) and both have a program that works for her career planning. The BIGGEST difference for us were the financial aid packages - UR offered A LOT more that Wm&M (which was a shock for us with WM being public and pulling in federal funding and considering we got 3x as much from Vandy, Richmond and UVa.) So sadly Wm&M is off the table unless when I talk to FinAid on Monday they realize they didn’t get all of our paperwork or have an extra $20K laying around. But in all honesty, a blessing as she is having a REALLY hard time narrowing down. We needed an outlier … and money talks! (ps-sorry so wordy; just lots of thoughts as we start narrowing this process down to a decision this week!!)
@ASKMother that is hugely helpful. Thank you.
Itt seems pretty clear that you want the highest rigor and since Fiske gives it a 5, there’s your decision. Only negative thing I’ve heard is oos kids sometimes find lots of kids already know each other, but don’t know if that’s true. A good friend loved law school there (many years ago!) if that helps.
@openskies123 it’s William and Mary that has the five stars for academics. I just looked and Richmond has three and a half. I think that actually sums up my concern.
That’s what I was saying. The comments were directed to W&M (oos, i.e. State school). If she likes it, sees herself there, and it’s one of the schools where everyone is always studying and that’s what she/you want, you’ve got your answer.
I think you’ve made your mind up if a 5 is what you want. You seem to think UR is beneath W&M so looks like you’re done.
Both W&M are and UR are excellent schools. My current UR senior loved and was also accepted to W&M. She preferred the slightly larger size of W&M, but liked the locations and feel of both. Having an older sister at UR definitely gave her a more detailed insight into day to day student life at UR, as well as academic opportunities, and she had stayed on campus with her sister several times before she applied.
For our family, the finances were a big factor in her decision. Our 3 kids are close in age and we are in our last year of 4 years having 2 in college st the same time.
UR offered our current UR senior a full tuition Richmond Scholar merit scholarship. W&M offered her a generous need based aid package, which met her efc, as well as inviting her to be a Monroe Scholar, W&M’s equivalent of an honors program. Unfortunately, she was not invited to compete for their big merit scholarships. W&M generally does not meet need for OOS students (usually only meets 25% of need for OOS, from W&M website), with rare exceptions for high stats students like my D, which is largely why 70% of W&M students come from Virginia. It is too expensive for most OOS students.
With a younger sister who would overlapping for 2 years of college, and not being able to predict her merit opportunities, we had to really think about the full financial picture going forward, so we felt that we could not turn down the full tuition merit at UR. Luckily, our D also really liked UR, so it worked out for us.
I can definitely say, after helping launch 3 kids into college, that it is difficult to assess the true feel of a campus through the typical college tour, spending perhaps 3-4 hours assessing a campus. After acceptances were in, we all found that attending accepted students days, and/ or visiting again and spending time sitting in on classes, talking with students and professors, eating in the dining hall, etc.was much more helpful in making choices about fit and feel. Each of my kids revisited their top 2-3 choices before making their final decisions.
I can only offer my personal experience with my 2 UR students. My 2016 UR graduate was admitted to PhD programs at UVA, UNC Chapel Hill, and Duke. She had multiple opportunities for research at UR, and truly wonderful professors and mentors. My soon to be UR 2018 gtaduate published her research in a national science journal last year and had multiple job offers. She has accepted a great job in Boston.
My kids had great experiences at UR, both academic and otherwise. They both had high HS stats, both NMF, and they were both stretched and challenged at UR. It is easy to get caught up in rankings, but they do not show the whole picture.
@mamag2855 thank you for this detailed ‘after the fact’ post!! We are trying to narrow down D18 choices and she has absolutely fallen in love with UR but has another ‘top’ school as a choice - cost is the same. I am curious … what are your girls majoring in at UR?
I’m curious too about what Richmond is like for the undecided liberal arts student leaning towards history or politics or even math or English. No business for sure. Most of the posts here talk about the hard sciences or business. Thanks to anyone with info!
@homerdog I figured I might as well chime in again. A lot of my friends are political science or PPEL- which a lot of pre-law students choose as a major. It stands for Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law. You take some required classes such as seminars and intro classes for the major and then pick different electives to satisfy your track. I’ve heard many positive things about it, and the department prepares you well in regards to law school prep, Mock Trial, etc.
Another interdisciplinary program we have here at Richmond that I am a part of is the Healthcare Studies program. People pair this major or minor with a variety of fields such as the sciences, business, political science, etc. It integrates the departments of biology, business, psychology, philosophy, political science, etc. and also has some unique topics classes the department teaches such as Introduction to Healthcare Studies, Health Law, etc.
I’ve taken my general education history class here and a political science class. I enjoyed them both very much. I have quite a few friends in the arts too, specifically dance and studio art. They love their curriculum and professors. I feel like I’ve received a true liberal arts education here. My classes have challenged me to think, to become a better writer, develop confidence within myself in regards to public speaking and presentations, etc.
UR’s degree programs a really flexible and they promote exploring and studying what you’re interested in! You’ll see many students with multiple majors and or minors (I myself am a double major in CS and math, double minor in music and dance), but it’s also good for those who are undecided, because they can explore without worrying about not graduating on time. The humanities and social sciences are really good here! I have friends that are history and political science majors, and also know many that are English majors (it’s common at UR for theater majors to also major in English, and I’m involved in theater, especially since dance and theater are in the same department here). They all are really happy with their respective programs!
@guineagirl96 thanks again!! On a completely different note, do you know any dancers? If so, do you know if they can double major in something in the liberal arts? Or can they take dance class and audition for shows if they aren’t majors?
@homerdog Yes! I know all the dancers in the department since I’m a minor.
All dance classes at UR are open to anyone with the requisite skill level can take the technique classes. For example, DANC 266 Ballet II is not a prereq for DANC 366 Advanced Ballet, rather previous intermediate ballet technique is, and that’s self-determined (there’s no hold to prevent you from registering). University Dancers, our main dance company on campus (it also bears academic credit), is open for anyone to audition for regardless of major or minor (they hold auditions in the fall), and they have their own technique classes in the evening, but are welcome to also register for technique courses that are part of the academic program. UD is a 10-20 hr per week time commitment though, and that increases drastically as dance show nears. There are also extracurricular dance groups for African, Indian, Ballroom (both standard and Latin, and Hip Hop dance styles.
The vast majority of dance students (especially those in UD) are double majors, some with minors as well, in a wide variety of subjects. I actually couldn’t think of a single person that is “just” a dance major, and I pulled out the program from this year’s dance show, and the combos really are varied: business major, dance minor; political science major, history minor; International Studies major, French and Dance minors; Leadership and Journalism majors, dance minor; dance and biology w/ and w/o neuroscience concentration majors; psychology major, dance minor w/ and w/out add’tl healthcare studies minor; Communications major, dance and anthropology minors; dance and communications majors w/ and w/o business minor; major in dance, minor in art history; Marketing and Studio Art majors, dance minor; Business and Spanish majors, journalism minor.
@guineagirl96 I think I hit the jackpot for our D21! She’s a ballerina but takes modern and contemporary class as well. Dances for a preprofessional company that’s very time intensive, around 22 hours a week and more during Nutcracker season. She’s a very good student, though, and doesn’t want to be a professional dancer. She cannot imagine stopping dance at age 18 though.
Did you audition for your application to the school? Or just audition for the dance troupe after you got on campus?