Opinions about Ursinus College, Trinity University, and University of Richmond??

<p>I have heard good things about this 3 schools but I cant visit them and I would like to know if some of you have personal experience with them or any opinions about them?</p>

<p>I've always heard that Trinity has a lot of great parties.</p>

<p>haha good to know
anybody else please? (academics, life, city)?
thanks</p>

<p>Richmond is the best of the three. Despite its name, it is still a drive away from the city of Richmond. BEAUTIFUL campus with several different departments built around liberal arts. School is fairly small (around 3-4k undergrads) and has a large greek presence. School spirit isn't huge at the school, but there is plenty to do around campus.</p>

<p>25-72 SAT for entering Fall of 2007 for TU is 1210-138-, UR 1193-1378, Ursinus, 1110-1320.
TU has about 2500 UG, 200+GR, beautiful campus, IN Sa, a city of 1.2m, great academics, awesome study abroad, yes, parties, wonderful weather (80 today), wonderful D3 sports, if that's what you like (Msoccer #1, VB #11), competetive in virtually all sports, and $$$ less than either of the other two schools.</p>

<p>my sister goes to UR and it is indeed a really beautiful campus. she applied without ever having visited but ended up going after seeing it and being more impressed with the academics. I get the sense that the greek scene is pretty strong and the student body is somewhat homogeneous. it's notable for the business school and the leadership studies program. it's not in the real city, but in addition to all there is to do on campus it's not that far from a very nice area of Richmond where there are lot of restaurants/shops/etc.</p>

<p>Do not get Trinity College mixed up with Trinity University. Trinity University Tigers are in San Antonio, Texas while Trinity College Bantams is a party school in Hartford, Connecticut.</p>

<p>D1 is a freshman at Ursinus...I'll give you my impressions.</p>

<p>Academics: In HS D1 had a 4.1 gpa, 1350 SAT (M+V), AP / honors courses. She was probably in the top 20% of freshman at Ursinus (got a nice merit scholarship to help pay the bills), but still finds challenge in her college courses. She really likes the small class size...her four classes have 13, 16, 24, and 25 students. Already in her first semester she has been asked by the math professor to join the math team, and by the chemistry professor to help with a research project next semester.</p>

<p>Campus: Campus is relatively small (about seven blocks long); D1 can walk from her dorm on one end to class on the other in ~5 minutes. Buildings and grounds are well maintained, there's trees and benches and a lot of sculptures. D1 is in one of the oldest dorms and it's showing its' age, but the bathrooms were renovated last summer so there is a least an effort to spruce things up. The other dorms are nicer. The chemistry building is good. There is a relatively new fitness center and a field house that all students can use -- not just the athletes.</p>

<p>Life on campus: D is an athlete, so her experience is probably different from someone who doesn't have practices on the schedule. D1 is very busy during the week, and doesn't seem to do much socializing beyond sharing meals / study groups and occasionally joining friends to watch their favorite hour-long TV show. She isn't into partying, so on weekends she and her friends borrow DVDs from the library, go to Late Night at Wismer (board games, video games, cheap food), and catch up on sleep and studying. So far she has only spent about half of her weekends on campus, the others she came home to work or went to visit friends at other colleges. That will change once indoor track meets start in December--she'll stay on campus almost every weekend then. I can't comment much on the arts scene at Ursinus because that's not an interest to D1, but the Ursinus website has advertised a few dance and theater productions that students could attend real cheap.</p>

<p>Surrounding city: Collegeville is not very exciting. You can walk to the grocery store, a strip mall, and a couple of places to eat. There's a Target a few miles away and a large shopping center is being built a few miles away in the other direction. Freshmen can't have a car so they are at the mercy of scant public transportation unless they make friends with an upperclassman. But once you have access to a vehicle, there would be lots of places to go...Philadelphia and all that it offers, King of Prussia to shop in big malls, whatever you can find in typical suburbia.</p>

<p>Thanks, mrsref, for the info on Ursinus. S is a HS senior applying there, and your post confirms our opinion after a visit this fall. We're in California, so he definitely won't be coming home on the weekends if he's accepted and decides to attend. Is your D's experience that a lot of kids leave on the weekends?</p>

<p>cpeltz -- </p>

<p>I asked my daughter once how many kids went home on weekends, and her estimate was that on a typical weekend about 20 - 25% of the freshman went away. Not always the same people leaving, and not always going home -- sometimes to visit friends at other schools. I think D1 comes home more than the typical student; partly because she wants to log some work hours (she got a scholarship from her employer that will automatically renew if she works a certain number of hours in a 12-month period) and partly because she just likes being home.</p>

<p>It's very easy for D1 to come home because we live only 45 minutes away. Also, her roommate lives only 10 minutes from us (they didn't know each other before Ursinus -- just worked out that way) so they are able to share rides back and forth. </p>

<p>My D has two other good friends at school that live more than two hours away from Ursinus. One has spent all but one weekend on campus (she played a fall sport but managed to get home over Fall Break), the other went home over Fall Break and did other visiting two or three times -- once to our house.</p>

<p>If your S is someone who needs to have a lot of different social options or weekend nightlife, then Ursinus probably won't fit the bill. But if he's content with hanging out with a group of friends who share his interests, he'll probably find a niche there. And chances are that he'll meet someone who lives close enough to campus to go home with them occasionally so he gets a break from looking at the same four dorm walls!</p>

<p>mrsref - thanks for the feedback. It did seem like most of the students were from the northeast, so I'm not surprised. S spends most of social free time with a group of friends hanging out, playing video games, going to movies, so I think he'd be fine.</p>

<p>I hadn't thought of the advantage of most students being from nearby areas before! In addition to getting off of campus, he could go to somebody's HOME. We'll be so far away, and while he's anxious to be independent, I know he will also be homesick.</p>

<p>We'll see how the acceptances go. Who knew that a few months would make such a difference when we started making the college list, but merit offers are going to be more important than they were over the summer.</p>

<p>I live close to Trinity and (out of the three) have the lowest opinion of it
Although it is a good school and the campus itself is attractive, the surrounding city is not appealing and often actually dangerous</p>

<p>hester, are you talking about Trinity College because Hartford does suck and is dangerous.....but not Trinity University in San Antonio</p>

<p>Sorry. I live in Ct and we refer to Trinity College simply as Trinity so I mixed my advice up.</p>

<p>same here. i assumed it was the trinity on the same coast as richmond</p>

<p>My friend goes to Trinity in SA and loves it. Very small, intimate class settings. Good urban city, close to downtown. And yes, good parties. :)</p>

<p>thanks a lot</p>