Too small?

<p>I love everything about Richmond except that I feel 3,000 undergrads might be too small for me. As a student, do you feel like you know everyone else there?</p>

<p>To put your question in perspective, how many students attended your high school? Did you know everyone there?</p>

<p>There are about 1,000 kids in my school and I’m not friendly with everyone, but I do basically know “of” everyone.</p>

<p>seriously?</p>

<p>What’s wrong with 3,000 students? You will get smaller class sizes and much more attention from professors than at a much bigger school than, say, UVA or VA. Tech. Also, there are a lot of great schools in the 3,000 range (Wesleyan and Oberlin come to mind), plus other top academic schools such as Wiliams, Amherst and Swarthmore are way below 3,000. With 750 kids in your year (and some of them probably commuting or going home on weekends) you will not know everyone in your year, much less the other 3 years. Londondad</p>

<p>There’s nothing wrong with small schools, but I’ve always wanted to go to a larger school. That being said, I really like the school, so the size might not be a big deal.</p>

<p>I recommend you visit colleges of different sizes before you make any final decisions.</p>

<p>^ Good point. Many of the top private colleges (Georgetown, Northwestern, Vanderbilt) have between 6,000 and 8,000 students with some a bit larger (BC has around 9,000, I think). Some of these schools might offer more of what you are looking for, for example, big conference college sports, and might be preferable to Richmond. Also, can you talk to any UR students/alumni to get their views on size of campus and student life?</p>

<p>AH, short answer is that I wish the school was a tad bit larger (maybe 5,000?) but it never felt so small that it was a negative. My HS was 1,600 guys. </p>

<p>I was actually surprised by the number of people at graduation that I had never heard of, let alone seen in my four years at UR.</p>

<p>Spiders05</p>

<p>Even though it’s a small school, is the sports there still a big deal? I know it’s not the most important thing at school, but I want to go to a school where there’s a big following for the sports teams on campus which gives a sense of community.</p>

<p>^Have you checked out William & Mary? They seem to have a lot of school spirit and Div 1 sports following for a 3,000 student school.</p>

<p>The basketball team plays in Division I and reached the Sweet 16 in 1988 and 2011. </p>

<p>The football team plays in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, and won the national championship in 2008. They play on campus in the beautiful new Robins Stadium.</p>

<p>AH, when I started in 2001, athletics weren’t a huge deal. Coming from a very successful high school (we averaged 4 state championships a year out of 10 possible and played a football game in front of 37,500 people on an annual basis) this was disappointing. So I did something about it. I took over the student section my sophomore year. Going to a smaller school allowed me to have that kind of involvement from the get-go. We grew the organization from less than 50 to over 500 and by the time I graduated, it was the largest student group on campus. </p>

<p>Since that time, we have won a national championship in football, made consecutive trips to the NCAA tourney, made the sweet sixteen, built a new on-campus stadium and have had numerous football players get drafted, along with one NBA draft pick. It’s a great time to be a Spider.</p>

<p>We had about 2,000 or so fans go down to the Duke game last weekend when we beat them, we play in the toughest FCS conference in the country and play in a very competitive conference in the A-10 for basketball (best non-BCS conference).</p>

<p>Hey, I’m currently a freshman at UR, and as far as the sports goes, whoever was trying to say W&M is better for the sports atmosphere is completely wrong. As already stated, we have an amazing basketball team with a very nice stadium. Yes you won’t get the same sports experience as at a Penn State or some other big state school, but I feel the other positives of the school outweigh this difference enough to make it not that big of a deal. The sports here is actually one of the main reasons I chose the school believe it or not. Top notch academics with top notch facilities and a fast rising athletic department.</p>