<p>I have received the acceptance letter from Randolph College. Before making my final decision to enroll this school, I 'd like to ask several questions regarding its social and academic life.</p>
<li><p>Is the town in which this school is located “a buzzing college town with small-town charm”, as described in the official website? Is access to markets, airports, etc. easy? …</p></li>
<li><p>After studying here for 4 years, what is the chance of transfering to well-reputed graduate institutions? </p></li>
<li><p>As what I gather from US News, Economics is not a popular major at Randolph. So I wonder if Economics department here of good standard?</p></li>
<li><p>Randolph used to be a women’s college until 2007. How do the students view this change? And, do the males here feel comfortable with the campus facilities which were once altogether dedicated to their female counterparts?</p></li>
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<p>These are some biggest concerns of mine by now. If you guys have anything to share, please feel free to post it up here, or give me a PM if you can. I’ll highly appreciate WHATEVER you write. </p>
<p>I lived in Lynchburg for about a year not far from RC. The college is located in a nice neighborhood of older homes. There is a small retail district next to the college. Most shopping is farther away and a car would be handy as it’s a few miles away. The campus is quite nice and has been adding facilities for the men rapidly. There certainly was some resistance from a portion of the females when it went coed. I think that has moved into the past now with the third class of men coming this fall. RC is very good academically and the students are known to work hard. </p>
<p>With four colleges in the area there certainly is some college feel to the area and it is growing. It’s not Charlottesville or Madison but there are coffee shops where the kids tend to go and some bars too. The area around town is very pretty with mountains just to the west and farms to the east.</p>
<p>We’ll be looking at Randolph next year with my current hs junior. I’d love to hear some more from current students (particularly males) about how they’re finding it there. What do you hate/love?</p>
<p>I am currently enrolled at Randolph. I live off-campus; so dont have much to say about the social scene. But, academically, its an excellent place-far better than what the ranking suggest.
Because of the recent changes at the college, the enrollment has seen a decline. This has resulted in one of the lowest student-faculty ratios. You will find most of the upper level (Sophomore onwards) classes to be below 10 students. This allows for far more personalized educational experience than possible even at other LACs. Professors are also very approachable and are genuinely interested in helping students-inside and outside of the classroom.
As for the Econ department, its not one of the largest. Currently there are four professors. So, course offerings are limited to the basic assortment of Macro/Micro principles, theory, international econ, Econ History, Econometrics etc (Check the catalog for more details). Again, what you may lose in terms of course variety, you gain in terms of access to faculty. In terms of grad school, we had one of the seniors go to Uni of Chicago. Other have also done reasonably well. So, there are opportunities available if you are willing to put in the effort.
If you are looking for small personalized instruction, close-knit community and reasonably challenging courses, Randolph is the place.</p>
<p>I was at Randolph earlier this week for a leadership conference / recruitment day. I have already been accepted and been offered a good chunk of change in merit money.</p>
<p>There has been nothing about declining enrollment that I have seen anywhere. Do you have anything specific or anything that provideds annual enrollment figures?</p>
<p>I was aware of the coed controversy and thought it had settled down but declining enrollment for an already small school is a worry.</p>
<p>I would not worry about that. It has taken time to make the change and enrollment has dipped from over 700 to around 550. The school has plenty of money and will rebuild the enrollment–with nice aid offers like yours.</p>
<p>But, I would consider this to be a good thing. You get smaller classes and better access to faculty.
Anyway, I hope this info helps in your decision. And feel free to buzz me for any additional questions.</p>