I posted this elsewhere but did not receive a lot of responses so thought I’d repost here as it is a community college.
We are in VA. I have an average teen who will likely be looking at Community College/Gauranteed Transfer route or Radford, Longwood as options. I heard about Richard Bland College which would be a good in between option since it has on-campus housing. But it’s in Peterburg, VA and I know nothing about that area. Does anyone have any first hand opinion/experience/reviews of Richard Bland College? Thanks.
Richard Bland is similar to Virginia Community Colleges in that it has guaranteed transfer agreements in place. It is different in that it has residential options and is liberal arts focused. Community colleges also have missions in vocational/workforce training and adult retraining. As such, it may be a good option if transfer is the specific objective. Compared to many four year colleges, it does not have the highest retention or completion rates, but I think it is high compared to community colleges.
The RBC/Community college transfer path is actually a great, affordable option if the student is committed.
My recollection is that RBC is actually situated a bit south of Petersburg, so it does not really appear to be in the city. Petersburg has struggled economically in recent times. It is not too far south of Richmond.
We visited Richard Bland when my son was a senior in HS (two years ago). I liked the idea of a 2 year residential college. They seemed to be doing a lot of construction and the buildings were very nice. What was strange was that there seemed to be no students around. We were the only ones on our tour. We came across maybe 4 students during our tour of campus (including one student who was asleep at a table in the cafeteria). It kind of felt like a ghost town. We passed by one class that was in session. This was not during a break. My overall impression was that RBC is not worth the money because there did not seem to be much of a residential experience. I think community college is a much better option. My son will graduate from community college this summer and will transfer to Radford in the fall.
@gigislp - thanks. Did your son actually complete an AA or AS and then transfer to Radford?
He will complete his AS this summer and start RU in the fall. Radford will accept all of his community college credits, as well as CLEP and AP. We have visited Radford twice and it seems like a good fit for my son.
@gigislp - congrats to your son on transferring to RU!