No offense,

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Richmond
1

<p>But I'm getting kinda sick of seeing only Richmond Scholars posts on this forum! Maybe that's just because those don't apply to me...but I'm sure there are people other than Scholarship finalists on here who might want to have discussions!</p>

<p>So. . . .anyone have anything on their minds? hahah. Now that we (class of 2014 students, that is) have all applied and are now in the painful waiting period, is there anything you want to talk about? Where is Richmond on your list? Do you think you'll get in? Will you be visiting in April? What's your overall impression of Richmond after these months (maybe even years!) of research? Let's get something started! :P</p>

2

<p>I was kind of ****ed that Richmond doesn’t have coed dorms. That said, if it gives me the best offer, I will enroll.</p>

<p>Also, does it snow in Richmond?</p>

3

<p>Richmond does have co-ed dorms. Most of my friends (I’m a sophomore) live in the co-ed dorms, Gray and Lakeview.</p>

<p>Also, it’s snowing right now.</p>

4

<p>I mean, it doesn’t have co-ed dorms for freshman.</p>

5

<p>cheese, perhaps it’s personal preference and nothing more, but my freshman year, guys and girls were on opposite sides of the lake and needless to say, we didn’t have coed dorms. There was a lot to be said about being able to get “away” from drama associated with being so close to persons of the opposite sex. I think your freshman year living with the same sex is a good “transitional” year and then you can move onto coed living if you so desire. </p>

<p>I’m happy that there are now options for those than want to have coed living space, but I hope we don’t ever move the direction that some schools have and have coed bathrooms (most awkward college visit ever…).</p>

6

<p>Same-sex living is, I think, really good for freshmen. For most students, I think moving into a dorm and living so closely with so many different people is a huge adjustment. Getting used to guys living on my floor or in my building would have just been one more thing to learn to deal with. Plus, freshman dorms at Richmond are really good about building really close relationships on the floor that live you on. Many of my closest friends are girls that lived on my floor freshman year. I think that dynamic could change if the genders were mixed.</p>

<p>And Spiders05–my freshman year, frosh guys and girls lived on both sides of the lake. Girls are now definitely on both sides, and guys are now on the Richmond side because of dorm renovation, etc. But upperclassmen and women are now on both sides!</p>

7

<p>Anything else other than coed vs non coed? hahah. What about the students?? Has anyone visited? Is there anything characteristic of the students there? (nerdy, stuck-up, homogenous?)</p>

8

<p>2010, I’m aware of that – that change took place my sophomore year and I’m on campus about once a week :slight_smile: . It was always interesting on Sat./Sun. morning to see what guys were walking back from the girls side or what girls were walking back in the outfits they wore to the row the night before. True “walk of shame.” </p>

<p>mjh, it may help the discussion if you offer up your thoughts on the questions you posed. I too have always found it funny how Richmond Scholars dominates the topics of conversation at this point in the year.</p>

9

<p>@ Spiders05, I was trying to more or less hear what others have to say, but since I guess there’s not much action I’ll take your advice and try to start something:)</p>

<p>I think Richmond is a GREAT school. I absolutely love the size, I think the combination of a liberal arts education with professional programs (business school, etc.) is brilliant and just what I’m looking for, and I love what I’ve seen of the campus/area. It also appears to be rising in the rankings and earning more attention, which, though I don’t care much personally, may help me in the end when it comes to job placement, etc. Overall, I think Richmond is just right for me, and I would love to go there next year.</p>

<p>The academics are perfect for my needs anyways…the social scene/people may or may not be on the other hand. I know a lot of high school kids say they don’t plan on drinking in college, but end up doing so anyways…and while I don’t know what will happen with me once I enter school, I can firmly say that I don’t do illegal stuff right now, and have no immediate intentions of starting. With that said, I’ve kinda been looking at schools with a smaller “emphasis” on that (smaller presence of greek life, more to keep students entertained, etc). I guess that’s where my concern about Richmond comes from.</p>

<p>From what I hear on blogs and reviews and whatnot, it seems like Richmond students are pretty into Greek Life, partying, and (from what people have said anyways) sex. hahah. I know that you’ll find those things at almost any college you choose to attend, and that small LACs are especially known for “work hard play hard” kids. But it seems like Richmond is especially known for its party lifestyle, and the domination of greek life on the social scene.</p>

<p>I know everyone can find their niche in college, and that there are all sorts of people at any school you go to, and that “college is what you make of it.” I’m not saying Richmond is notorious for binge drinking and irresponsible, slutty Greek life brothers and sisters, or that my impression of its social scene will drive me away from the school. I was just wondering if this impression is fairly accurate, or whether I’m totally blowing this idea out of proportion and have nothing to worry about. Any input would be greatly appeciated:) Thanks!</p>

10

<p>It would be a great school if they awarded merit based aid to more students given the size of their endowment. They consider themselves to be on par with schools that also do not offer much in the form of merit aid (think ND GTOWN DUKE UVA W&M ) but in reality they are on par with schools that do offer significantly more merit aid. (Providence, Villanova,)
Having said that, its a beautiful school and I wish it were more affordable for a student that stats as 2140 SAT great exc, great essay, 3.7 UW avg varsity sports etc…</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you.</p>

<p>Richmond distributes its merit aid in huge chunks rather than small, mostly useless scholarships. Instead of giving, say, $2000-$5000 to hundreds of students, they give $25000-50000 to 70 or so students. In the end, the dollar amount of merit money given out is the same as other similar schools, it’s just given in larger sums to less students.</p>

<p>Since you mentioned Villanova - I’ll just say coming from personal experience, I recieved no merit money from UR, and a $2000 scholarship from Nova. Even with that scholarship included in my financial aid package, Nova still expected my family to pay EIGHT THOUSAND MORE DOLLARS a year than Richmond did. And considering Richmond is more difficult to get into, more academically rigorous, and more prestigious than Nova (and I’m not even sure where your comparison to Providence came from…) I obviously picked UR.</p>

<p>You seem to scoff at the idea that UR compares itself to the first schools you listed, when in reality, in terms of acceptance rate, academic rigor, etc. those ARE indeed its peer schools.
.</p>

12

<p>You make a great point Kelliebm! </p>

<p>Those are Richmond’s peer institutions, but that doesn’t mean that the majority of people actually see it that way. My experience (and this is MY experience and I claim it as MINE and will not generalize it to assume it is anyone else’s exprience…) has been that even though some people that have knowledge of Richmond recognize it as a peer institution to WM and UVA, the majority of people whenever I say I go to school in Richmond think VCU… and then when I tell them I go to UR, they immediately either 1) don’t know what school I’m talking about (and assume it is some low ranked school), or 2)know what school I’m talking about and immediately try to figure out if I attended because I couldn’t get into the ‘peer’ schools. So far I have met few people that actually think of Richmond along the same category of UVA, WM, Gtown, etc. Again, it is my experience that even though Richmond is a very nice up and coming school and probably deserves to be considered a peer school to UVA, WM, Gtown, etc, many times it isn’t by some people.</p>

13

<p>Geez, everyone here is writing a loooooong article…
so be general, is Richmond really a highly conservative school? If so it’s very different from most liberal arts colleges.
SO Would a student with some…errr, liberal mind be comfortable in the community?</p>

14

<p>plus, Richmond’s AP credit-transfer policy really matches my situation. A few 4s doesn’t bother me now! :=)</p>

15

<p>There are no highly conservative colleges, only less liberal ones.</p>

16

<p>UR is more in the middle than most schools but like 99% of US colleges, it has a liberal lean.</p>

17

<p>And that’s unfortunately the very reason why the US have such problems. Once the colleges will return to the right, the situation will get better. Problem is that right now, one party is socialistic and the other is way too much conservative, which means that there is no truly liberal party (=classic liberal, like in Europe…). Tha’s the problem.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, I heard that UR and Trinity C are among the most rightist. Is it right?</p>

18

<p>Kelli, your points are duly noted. However the point I was trying to get across is that Richmond has the ways and means to be more generous regarding merit aid based on the size of the endowment. While I agree that Providence does not enjoy as good of a reputation as Richmond, the point I was trying to make was that a student with 2150 SAT 3.7 unweighted GPA good EC’s etc… would get about $15,000 in merit aid from Providence. The SAT scores of the student body are about 80 points higher at Richmond. I could go back and forth on Villanova vs Richmond but I believe them both to be outstanding. </p>

<p>I know that Richmond puts financial packages together but I was just looking at Merit money. As I said I wish they gave more (read: we will not be getting any financial aid) so given the stats of the classes all I am saying is Richmond would like to think that they are on par with Duke, Gtown, UVA. W&M, ND, and I do not think they are there yet. </p>

<p>Academically I see it on par with Dickinson. Again, I think they are both great schools. I suspect you may be a spider, and I think its great you love the school. The new Science building (as well as all the buildings) are beautiful. I just dont think the school is there with the rest I mentioned. I will tell you however that if they awarded another 100 “presidential” scholarships of $10,000 to $15,000 that would bring the cost down to a (I cant believe I am saying this) reasonable $35,000 to $40,000 and I believe they would increase their yield, their SAT averages, and their image. </p>

<p>I think we can agree on this: College expense is way out of hand. IMO Richmond is not using its endowment effectively enough to lower the cost for students in the 94th percentile (as measured by SAT scores) As a result, they will lose top students to the aforementioned universities because the kids that make merit at Richmond are making merit there as well, and they are not getting a strong draw from no-need families that object to the 50,000 price tag. </p>

<p>I will also tell you from first hand experience that given the $50,000 price tag, a large endowment, and substantial need based aid given to many of the students, I cant help but object because I believe that those that are paying the $50,000 are clearly supporting the universities decision to limit merit based aid.</p>

19

<p>For international students, Richmond costs about 55000 per year. Thats really too much. I just thought I’d throw this out there.</p>

20

<p>Kelli,
I think I saw you say you had similar stats to where we are and you were named a semi finalist but received no merit aid. All I am saying is that I am sure Richmond lost another 100 students like you because of no merit money. 100 additional $10,000 scholarships would have amounted to another 1 million dollars in merit money. Given their endowment it is very doable. It does make a big difference to those that aren’t getting any financial aid.</p>