@stones3 - VCU has more than 24,000 undergraduate students and a less than 6,300 residence hall capacity. The math clearly supports what we have consistently heard from people who attend there or who are considering the school. Simply by default, even if living off campus nearby, the large majority of undergrads do not live on campus and I am quite certain that the large majority of these probably commute to school. This is also the very nature of a community college. In our town, the overwhelming majority of students at our community college work in the morning and attend classes in the evenings or the reverse. Many of these are “full-time” students but it does not mean they are living on campus. The thing with the rankings is that they are tricky depending on the criteria used for ranking and rankings are not cookie cutters that fit all students. There are schools at which my D2 looked and very much liked that were not highly ranked but were particularly strong in particular majors. @Mamelot has very astutely pointed out that what makes RISD unique, with VCU close behind, is its strength across many, many disciplines. While each student comes in perhaps thinking they need only one or two prospective majors, art school is an arena of the creative evolution.and most students change majors. I would think the more high-level majors available the better for our little works in progress. I personally love Richmond, have been there many times and, in fact, will visit again in a couple of weeks. Great restaurants! I can’t speak for merit scholarships, but I know for financial aid that many schools wait until early to mid-April after they know at least their prospective class pool, but giving prospectives lead time prior to the May 1st commitment deadline. Lol - Brooklyn is nothing like it was a year ago. It is one of the fastest evolving metro areas in the US. But seedy areas of Brooklyn remain as with any metro area city. The negatives of being at a city school anywhere…
Many of the largest universities would have numbers that show about 1/4 of the students live on campus, because often only freshmen do and the rest live in surrounding neighborhoods. NOT commuter colleges at all.
My daughter is currently at VCU. There are a very large number of off campus student housing complexes and apartments for students that are walking distance to the school. These are cheaper than the dorms with a meal plan, so many, many students live in these apartments. My daughter is currently in a 4 bed/4 bath apartment with a full kitchen with dishwasher and a washer and dryer in the unit. The complex has a gym, study areas, computer rooms with free printing, outdoor patio areas with grills, a movie room, game rooms with video games and pool table, etc. Most of her friends either live in off campus student apartments or other apartments that they found on their own. I don’t think she knows a single person in a dorm.
VCU just bought several more buildings around the school to turn into student housing apartments, not dorms, so there is not a real correlation here between the number of dorms and the number of students commuting.
Brooklynrye@ . There are not 24,000 VCUarts students. In fact there are aprox 3,000(VCUarts)
students including Qatar.You are looking at VCU which has a total of 31,000 students. The school(vcuarts) offers 16 major programs and based on all of their programs they were just ranked #2 fine arts just behind yale and ahead of RISD. It is based on a ranking by peers
Most of the VCUarts students live on or off campus housing not commuters. Further , VCUarts bares zero resembalance to a community college. Very selective admission and 4 year programs .
whitechoc-- would you recommend a freshman stay at the dorms or go off campus?
ArtAngst sorry referring to VCUarts
another thought, they have a very extensive meal plan which is not at all like a community college or commuter college either.
We heard about the VCU scholarship at the very beginning of March. We haven’t received the full financial package yet. We are attending the Accepted Students Preview on Saturday at VCU and the Accepted Students and Scholarship Finalists at MICA on Sunday. I am hoping we can narrow it down and make our decision in the next week or two. I think it is mainly between Pratt, MICA, VCUarts and maybe SAIC. I am unsure how she will pick, she is also thinking of Fine Arts in Painting or Illustration but is open to other majors and is really looking forward to a foundation year. Any advice on any of these schools is greatly appreciated!
I think that may be up to the individual. My daughter is very mature and independent and didn’t like the idea of being in a cramped, shared dorm room with shared bathroom. She likes her space when needed, and she liked the idea of the kitchen and laundry in the unit, as well as a private full bath, so this was the best arrangement for us. The apartments have a roommate matching service, and you can have roommates paired up as a double, triple, or quad, so there is plenty of opportunity to meet other students and get close with your roommates. What is nice about the student apartments, the ones we visited anyway, is that each person is signed a separate lease agreement, so if one person does not pay the rent, it will not reflect poorly on the others. Where my daughter is, furnishings (bed and desk in the rooms, living room furniture, table and chairs, washer and dryer and other appliances, but not general kitchen dishes,etc), utilities, cable and wi-fi are all included.
I think you should visit the dorms and some of the apartments and see what type of housing your freshman feels most comfortable with.
thanks