We are considering this junior college for my HS daughter mainly because it has on-campus housing and she and I both want her to have experience of living on campus. She will likely NOT have car on campus her first year. Just wondering if anyone has any positive/negative reviews to share? Especially of on-campus safety? Thanks.
Have you visited? Looks to be pretty rural so not having a car may be a problem. Only about 400 of the 2500 students live on campus.
https://www.rbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-RBC-Clery-Act-Report-PDF-version1.pdf
Hi!
Let me tell you a little about Bland. I myself was there for a semester/two semesters and gained some knowledge and experience behind it.
First the campus. Campus safety is for the most part good. You have your typical drama, outbreaks (students getting caught smoking or with alcohol) etc. Although, I can say this current year has been the most “dryest” so they say. The previous year, was the most problematic. Kids had been kicked off of the campus, always fights and so on. So to be honest, each year varies and it really depends who’s coming in, freshmen wise. There has been a decent amount of issues in the dorm but nothing to serious i would say. Just typical college problems, but since the dorm size is small it just makes it seem like a bigger deal. I came from a four year Inst. and the problems at Bland are really over dramatic.
Your daughter not having a car her first year can be a con though. It’s really dry on campus, and there isn’t much to do unless there are student activities planned for the week. It’s a drive to get to anywhere she’ll need to go. The shuttle are available but usually only TWICE/THREE times a week. On certain days it goes to certain places. Sometimes on the weekends they will have the shuttle available but I would not rely on it.
The classes/academics: To me, they’re very easy. I can get away with lacking in my work for days and still manage to pull A’s. I’m a very academically challenged type of student, which is why I will not be staying further and graduating. But most of the kids here have atleast under a 3.0 and a big number of kids who have under a 2.5. It is not that common for you to meet students who have higher than a 3.0/3.5 unless you meet most of them in the honors program! Honors program does not give you that much funding but it’s still a good experience. She will get involved in volunteering, and have connections for when she’s ready to transfer to a 4 year :).
Professors: I have taken classes in each department for the most part. They’re pretty good. Some are harder than others, and some do not care. For the most part though I think they all have their flaws as any professors would.
Staff: BEWARE the staff at RBC can be terrible. They are very late on a lot of things, and you will find yourself calling/emailing them more than once. This is my experience and others as well though. It could be different for you and your daughter!
Final thoughts: it is a great college for someone who needs to still get that training for an actual college. Often I feel like this is a high school more than a college because of how the students can act and how we are treated. If your daughter stays on top of her work and really works hard, do not let anyone tell you or her she NEEDS to finish her two years to graduate IN ORDER to transfer. That is this schools biggest thing. A lot of the time they are not trying to here that a student wants to transfer early without even graduating. Yes it is there job but they should still be in open arms in helping. A lot of faculty where shocked when I got into W&M without the guaranteed admissions process. They told me I need to stay longer if I even wanted to even consider going to such a prestigious school. Your daughter should also get involved to help her out on building her application up when it comes time to transfer!
I think I have covered everything but let me know if there’s anything more specific 
@medfulofmind - thank you this is most helpful and the best advice/comments as it comes from someone who actually attended. We are keeping Richard Bland on the table as her safety net. Congrats on getting into W&M as a transfer after only 2 semesters at Richard Bland. I think the benefit to transferring after 2 yrs is mostly because they do not look at your HS stats. When you transfered after 1 yr to W&M I assume they looked at your HS stats? Were you in the Honors program at Richard Bland? Thanks again for your insight.
Also - did you live on campus or commute from home?
No problem!
To answer your questions:
- Yes I did live on campus. I live 4 hours away from Richard Bland. I have a single dorm but share with 5 other suitemates. I highly recommend that your daufhter labels her belongings, and has cleaning supplies. It’s easier to have just one roommate so you know who does what. When your dealing with more than one though it can be tricky!
- I believe they looked at my high school stats, but I feel like they went off of my college stats though being that I had one year of college already completed. My last two years of high school where not that strong let alone to get into W&M. I’ve proven other wise though that I can surely handle the work load based off of my college stats and my letter to admissions about myself.
3.yes I was in the honors program at the school! I was actually the student coordinator of the program. The director of the program is very great! A bit hard core and isn’t afraid to tell you the truth but she has a lot of good connections (especially if your daughter wants to transfer over to William and Mary). We also have the bridge program which you have to get interview for via the honorable director. It’s a great opportunity to possible even transfer over to W&M early! The bridge program is a part time student at both Richard Bland and William and Mary and is another route for the guaranteed admissions. The school is also starting up a new program happening this upcoming semester where if you have atleast a 3.5 you’ll get a huge tuition assistant for both Richard Bland and when you transfer over to William and Mary. Your daughter could possible go to W&M for free!
Also to add: I would get the second lowest meal plan if she did attend the school. First semester I got the biggest meal plan and stil has a lot of swipes left over because the food was gross and I ate the food I brought from the grocery store more. Even my second semester I got the second lowest meal plan and still had a bunch of swipes that I just gave them away. They repeat the same food meals every week so it starts to get boring. On the weekends they don’t serve breakfast just only burgers, fries pizza chicken and sandwiches
@medfulofmind thanks! Just curious…did you go to RBC because your end goal was W&M? If my daughter is accepted to say, Radford, Longwood or ODU…go to one of these schools or do RBC and transfer to say W&M, UVA, etc.?
Well I picked RBC because it was my last option. I had just got waitlisted from Tech and rejected from UVA when I applied for my sophomore year. It was the summer and I had no other options until my mom told me about RBC and they where the only school that has rollin admissions. That and Liberty. I choose RBC over liberty because of the bridge program (which I ended up not doing since I got into the school) but if I could go back I’d pick liberty. Liberty If your daughter where to get accepted into those schools and wanted to transfer out to UVA or W&M, that works fine! I would honestly recommend that way or liberty which is an even better school than RBC and provides just as much as Bland does. I say that because atleast with those colleges even liberty she would really get that college experience and enjoy herself. I don’t think RBC has that college experience most kids need to gain before transfering to a big university.
Even those campuses are bigger and Liberty is a D1 school so the games/sporting events must be fun! The way RBC is set up is like a high school (even the cafeteria and library) just with dorms.