<p>i visited bucknell and was immediately turned off by the small quiet campus. would someone who is generally interested in state schools like richmond even though it's 3,000 students? or is it similar to the atmosphere at smaller schools like bucknell and lafayette?</p>
<p>I was wondering that too. My son is convinced that there would be nothing to do at Richmond</p>
<p>Richmond is not a "state" school.</p>
<p>Social opportunities for undergrads at Bucknell and URichmond are similar: </p>
<p>(i) both have D1 athletics- Bucknell in the Patriot League, URichmond in the Alantic 10 Conference, </p>
<p>(ii) both have new student athletic facilities (Bucknell's is a bit larger but URichmond has televisions on some exercise machines), </p>
<p>(iii) both Bucknell and URichmond (like most other responsible colleges) offer numerous organized weekend activities as an alternative to alchol consumption.</p>
<p>otis, can you make a more detailed analysis between Bucknell and Richmond?
if choos one of them to apply, which one is better, from all aspects?</p>
<p>We've been to both numerous times, and would not concur completely with otis' comparison. </p>
<p>Lewisburg and Richmond are worlds apart in many respects, aside from both being on a river. The Susquehanna's a little closer than the James to its campus.</p>
<p>Bucknell is Patriot League ... not Atlantic 10. There is a definite difference in terms of stature. Both are fine, but definitely different.</p>
<p>Bucknell has engineering influence.</p>
<p>The major deal, imo, is campus culture. Both are pretty preppy but one is definitely Southern in flavor vs. NE prep. </p>
<p>Bucknell probably has the better "reputation" which with a buck and a half might buy you a coke.</p>
<p>Richmond has a far superior campus, facilities.</p>
<p>Richmond is, imo, an up-and-coming place. Bucknell is where Richmond hopes (and I believe will) be. The real dynamic here is that one gets the definite notion that Bucknell is fat and happy, and Richmond is hungry. Which would you prefer?</p>
<p>Richmond has far superior monetary resources (endowment, cash) and imo, because of location, far more potential. Bucknell will never be more than it is, which isn't at all bad. Richmond is a far different place than it was 25 years ago, and I project, will continue on that path, with the right leadership.</p>
<p>I'm really encouraged about the admin leadership at Richmond, although it's all "potential" at this point. I'm not at all impressed with the leadership I observe at Bucknell. Aloof, arrogant, sorely satisfied, sore to be sucking on the hind teat with its competition with the Ivies and places like Holy Cross, Lehigh, Colgate. And while they deny it, there's trouble in the ranks. The Provost resigned ... and left ... suddenly. That means trouble.</p>
<p>The presentations at each school reflect a lot of attitude. The Bucknell presentation was dull, poorly presented by an admissions officer who'd been there 6 mos. and confessed to not knowing a lot of answers. It was quite pathetic for a group of50 or so candidates. UR's presentation was equally poor for another reason ... a temporary staffer made it and was dying to tell the audience virtually everything he'd experienced there. He obviously loved the place, though.</p>
<p>The major pluses of each place: UR - location, campus, cultural diversity, single sex dorms, new and fresh leadership coming with a great rap, facilities that are nothing short of spectacular, law school and a few other decent grad programs, public access to get there (trains, planes and automobiles), spring and fall are great, long, come early, stay late, winter is warmer, AC in dorms.</p>
<p>BU - good (not great) engineering program, idyllic Norm Rockwell location, longer time reputation as being a fine place, beautiful student body, nice campus, a lot cooler than Richmond in the summer a lot!, tremendous athletic facilities. Close, but not real, to major centers of commerce ... Philly, NYC, Boston, Harrisburg (jk).</p>
<p>Now for my negatives:
UR - HOTTERN H*** in the summer and some in fall and spring, a bit isolated despite being in an urban/suburban area, lagging in reputation (actually a BETTER place than is perceived and enroute to being even more so), not enough athletic teams, lacks focus for academic programmatic reputation, really strange vehicular approach to campus (so what), current football stadium off campus (to be reconciled), pretty homogeneous in many ways with more potential to mix it up though, need to get a lot more focused on selling the place ... I'm suspiscious a lot of potential prospects drive right by it.</p>
<p>BU-an idyllic Norm Rockwell community that's a pain in the rear to get to and from unless you live in Selinsgrove or State College especially in winter when students are in school, snow and sometimes floods, NE arrogance and thinking they're better than they really are, being satisfied, not much diversity of skin color and very little potential of changing that, way too much Greek goo, current problems administratively some of which trickle down to students, poorly handled situation with the rowing hazing ... very poor, lots of good ol' boy stuff here. The campus is spread out way too much. One gets the impression that the campus planners were given the info that, "You boys need to plan a campus that will one day accommodate 40K students. Give us room, lots of room to grow." They got it confused with Penn State 50 miles to the west.</p>
<p>Bottomline: I'd be delighted if my student ended up either place. Both are fine places, with BU getting the momentary nod on reputation. I speculate that UR will not too far down the road,be recognized as the superior place. But in the end, it really depends upon the student, at least right now. But I believe they are VERY different places in feel, focus, ambition, etc. Again, just my opinion, worth precisely what you're paying for it.</p>
<p>Whistle, nice post. Some of the things that make UR unique when compared to other LACs is location (we're in a decent sized city, with the beach 1 1/2 hours away, skiing 1 1/2 hours away and the Nation's capital 1 1/2 hours away), the undergraduate B-school ranked in the Top 25 in the country, the Leadership school, which was the first of its kind in the country and the athletics. The A-10 is considered one of, if not the top non-BCS conference in basketball. In football, we're in the CAA, which is considered the strongest FCS (I-AA) conference. Our secondary sports have also been very competitive. My time at UR was great because it was a traditional LAC with unique twists.</p>
<p>I'm not sure why all the complaints about the heat in summer though. Typically students go back home for summer. I didn't have AC in my dorm the first two years at UR (all dorms have AC now) and only used a fan the first two weeks of school and the last two weeks of school.</p>
<p>Spider ... would welcome your insight on this "leadership school/program." It's talked about a lot in literature, presentations, but I'm wondering what it really is? Can you lend some insight on this one? I confess to wondering if it's one of those notions ... sort of like "entrepreneurship" or "peace studies" that have lots of sexy sizzle but when one really looks at them ... well they're a little esoteric in my mind. Welcome your help on knowing "where's the beef."</p>
<p>You're right on the heat thing. It's just memorable ... was about 120 deg F one day when we were there. I was sweating in places I didn't even know I had anymore. Not the norm, for sure. To the UR good, the groundsmen were STILL hard at it as we slugged around the compost.</p>
<p>Whistle, to be honest, the Leadership school is something that attracted me to the University in the first place. I only ended up taking two courses in the school and really got a lot out of both. The intro course, which I would strongly recommend anyone at UR taking, was focused on learning about different styles of leadership and exploring the question of what makes a good leader? One of the foundations of the course is community service. Twice a week for a semester, myself and two classmates went to a local alternative learning school to help teach. We had to keep a journal of our observations on demonstrated leadership at our site. </p>
<p>My second course was very practical for corporate management. A team of students essentially shadowed executives at a very well known company in Richmond for eight weeks, interviewing them on corporate interactions, effectiveness of meetings, their views on leadership, etc. After the shadowing process (shadowed 3 days a week), we analyzed areas we thought the company could improve upon and presented our findings in a report and a presentation, which was performed in front of the executives we followed, in addition to our class. The second half of the semester was spent on building a company from scratch and outlining the structure involved.</p>
<p>I got a lot out of the courses I took in the school, but I'm not sure how much more could be learned through a minor or major. If you do elect to major in the leadership school, they require you to at least minor in another field. A lot of the majors I know also majored in something else, rather than just picking up a minor. The school is very socially aware and I think it's a positive, but I wonder if some of the kids are just practicing to become a social worker. </p>
<p>Most of the leadership school grads I know are doing very well and a lot of them have gone on to grad school. I think it's a nice foundation for most and would encourage every UR student to take at least the intro course but I don't think many would find a minor or major very useful by itself.</p>