<p>I haven’t posted on CC for awhile. I had started this thread about a year ago. I shudder when I read it now. S did pick UR over Duke. The decision seemed reasonable at the time but turned out to be a big mistake. </p>
<p>Although he did like UR academically, he had some bad experiences at UR and much frustration with the top administration while attempting to remedy the situation. He was left with no option but to transfer and is in a much better situation now.</p>
<p>To be fair there is a new president at UR as of this year who is revolutionizing the relationship between the students and the administration for the better.</p>
<p>To be clear, S, who was a Richmond President scholarship recipient, started at UR in August, 2007, the same time as the new president. S was successful academically, making the Deans List. However, he chose to leave at semester completion in December 2007 . Whether the administration / student relationship is improving under the new president is a matter of opinion. When visiting the campus make sure you find out about the infamous sidewalk chalk incident earlier this semester. Although S was not involved in that incident, the administrator and the pettiness of the situation are the same. </p>
<p>Im not saying, dont go to UR. The people I met in Admissions, Financial Aid, and some professors were absolutely super. As long as you can stay clear of certain administrators, you should be fine.</p>
<p>second, I think the admin realized they overreacted with that incident, and the forum is now being used for chalking regularly now (from my understanding). I think it will become a tradition on campus. Had it not been for the admin's overreaction, the students voicing their dissent with the admin's decision and the admin's reversal of their initial decision, it may not have had the same effect. Another example of vandalism on campus that turned into tradition is the Spider on Boatwright as you're coming down to campus. I hate to hear that people transfer after just a semester, because college in general can be tough on kids (it was on me; I left for a few days in October to sort out what I wanted and had transfer papers filled out in January, but I stuck it out and later realized that it was the transition, not just UR). The only thing that matters is that they're happy where they are now.</p>
<p>Here is the link to the Collegian article on the admin's final decision:
<a href="http://www.student.richmond.edu/publications/collegian/current/archives/06Mar2008/news2.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.student.richmond.edu/publications/collegian/current/archives/06Mar2008/news2.html</a></p>
<p>Here is the link to the facebook group that is mentioned in the article with pictures showing the forum being chalked:
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8437304790%5B/url%5D">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8437304790</a></p>
<p>Secondpick, I think you probably made the right choice.
As a Duke alumnus with a daughter hopefully going to UR next year I know I would feel more comfortable with her decision to go to UR than to Duke. In my opinion Duke has regressed some in the twenty-five years since I was there. But, I'm not here to slam Duke or to go into details about the alleged regression. Long story short is: if you were to have chosen Duke over UR it basically would have been for name recognition reasons (a fairly shallow reason I might add.) In my unprofessional take-it-for-what-its-worth opinion you will get an equal undergraduate education at UR as at Duke--maybe even better.</p>