<p>Hey guys
I've just received an email from the residential college at Umich. I've read (yes I actually went to barnes and noble to read about Umich after I was admitted) that it has a smaller community of students and the classrooms are smaller. So do many students choose RC(residential college)? What are the advantages/disadvantages of it?</p>
<p>The RC is basically a living learning community (meaning you live in a dorm with other RC students), you all take the same types of classes and have a more concentrated distribution. The RC focuses heavily on the liberal arts education and you will have RC sections for some of your classes. If you’re exploring the liberal arts this is a good community choice. The RC has a reputation for housing the campus hippies, and you can take that as good or bad however you look at it. As far as numbers are concerned I can’t give you how many people exactly are in it, although I’m pretty sure it’s one of the bigger learning communities on campus.</p>
<p>There are other living learning communities at Michigan that could meet your other interests as well if the RC isn’t what you’re looking for, and you want a small community of people to start off with instead of being thrown into the sea of thousands of people at U of M. There’s the honors college which offers a live in learning option with their own classes, LHSP (artsy people) and HSSP (pre health people) split up Alice Lloyd on the hill and they have some of their own classes as well. Theres also the research community and there’s a few others which I’m currently blanking on. If you have any other questions on the RC or learning communities message me. (I’m currently in the HSSP learning community and we interact quite a bit with the other MLCs).</p>
<p>My D is a freshman in the RC this year and I don’t think we could say enough about what a great experience it has been for her. She’s had small classes with professors who have really inspiried her. The RC offers interesting freshman seminars and other liberal arts courses. There is a foreign language requirement that is more intensive than the LSA requirements, but my D is enjoying the opportunity for language immersion. It’s also very nice living in the same building where you attend classes, especially in the winter.</p>
<p>The RC also has lots of other activities such as concerts, forums and service projects. It’s a wonderful program for students with a broad range of interests. RC students can still have LSA majors, be in the honors program and participate in UROP.</p>
<p>im sorry to be blunt, but if that is the case and RC is so really great shouldn’t more people want to join ? I mean, I know most students have trouble dealing with the HUGE classrooms and not being able to receive the amount of attention from profs as they would have hoped. so. why aren’t alot of people in RC?</p>
<p>^^^ There is a limit to the size of the Residential Collge. It used to be 1200 students; I don’t think it has changed much.</p>
<p>RC alum here, from ages ago. Some things have not changed since then. Yes it is great for many, and I do not know why more students do not apply, though one reason may be the foreign language emphasis. [Basic</a> FAQs - University of Michigan Residential College](<a href=“Residential College | U-M LSA”>Residential College | U-M LSA)</p>
<p>The RC is a wonderful way to moderate the enormous size of UM. Every course in LSA is available to RC students, so no loss there. But other, smaller classes are there primarily for the RC students. The first term at UM, all my classes were within the RC. If I hadn’t wanted to, I never would have needed to leave East Quad. I did, of course, and frequently. I think the RC is a wonderful best of all worlds: a small college within and with all the resources of a very large world-class research university.</p>
<p>hey that’s very helpful thanks! but are there any restrictions to the RC? just wonderinggg.</p>
<p>Not all students will want to do the following:</p>
<p>In addition to meeting all LSA degree-requirements, in order to graduate from the RC, students are required to:</p>
<p>Live in East Quad for their first and second years
Complete an RC First-Year Seminar [RC freshman English]
Complete one of the six RC intensive foreign language sequences (pass proficiency plus complete one advanced “Readings” course); or meet an equivalent competency in a LSA foreign language that is not offered in the RC
Complete a 2-credit arts practicum experience among the many different options available in the RC Creative Arts
Complete four additional RC courses, if they’re not concentrating in the RC</p>