Hi. Im pondering between Villanova and Richmond to apply ED. Both schools have great business programs and wonderful job opportunities. Because of that I’m really unsure which school should I choose.
Some facts about me:
I am an Asian girl, thus I hope university’s environment can be friendly and easy for an Asian girl get involved in
I major in Business & want to be a consultant in the future
I prefer warm/dry weather
I prefer living in/close to city (which I believe Villanova is quite close to the major city)
Can you guys help me out and do I have to consider anything else? Thank you very much
Have you considered Tepper at CMU, Scheller at Georgia Tech and Herbert at UM? All are direct-admit and in cities. I can see those being quite a bit more multicultural than mostly Catholic/NE Villanova or traditional Southern URichmond… if that is an important factor for you. Emory also has a large Asian-American and Asian International student body, and is in a city, but is not direct admit.
You’ve picked 2 great schools for your interests. The Asian population is similar at both schools. Both have well developed business schools, attracting about 30% of the student body in each case. Finance is in fact the most popular major overall at Villanova.
Both schools are in suburban/residential locations with easy access to the core city. Richmond is a much smaller city than Philadelphia.
Personally I would favor Richmond because of its lower student:faculty ratio (8:1 vs 11:1 at Villanova). At Richmond 73% of the classes have fewer than 20 students while that same small class size is only 44% at Villanova. Richmond is known for excellent career services and is also the more attractive campus. The only red flag for Richmond is that when surveyed by Princeton Review, students reported little race/class interaction. That might be something to investigate further. The best way to do that is probably to ask current Asian students directly when you visit/tour the campus.
“Herbert at UM” = was unfamiliar to me. I really wish that folks would write out the university name being discussed.
OP: Based on your stated preference for warm,dry weather, Univ. of Miami would not be a good match. Plus, the career placement is not good. Univ. of Richmond as well as Villanova are much better choices to study business with respect to career opportunities than Univ. of Miami. (If interested in law school, Univ. of Miami has a terrible return on investment. Absolutely horrible. It actually is rated the worst law school in the nation for ROI.)
Based on your interests & preferences, SMU might be of interest to you.
P.S. If you get a full tuition scholarship to Miami & can tolerate hot, humid weather, than it may be worthwhile to investigate the Univ. of Miami business school. Univ. of Miami’s business school was recently named Herbert because the couple donated $100 million.
Not sure if you live near Villanova but we registered for their Fall Preview Day for the Business School on Sept. 12. I have family that attended both schools and did well in business. Cousin went to Nova and worked for a hedge fund in NYC. Brother-in-law met his wife at Richmond and has worked for Deloitte since college. They are close with many of their UR friends years later.
Your preference for warm, dry weather makes me think of CA.
It might be useful for folks interested in undergraduate business programs to review the Poets and Quants undergraduate business rankings. Not sure UMiami business should be judged by UMiami law as they are completely separate schools. Point taken re weather; missed that part. Miami is ridiculously hot and humid in the summer; it is actually quite wonderful October-April.
When S interviewed at Richmond, his alumni interviewer (Lawyer in Tampa) mentioned there were a lot of northeastern kids at Richmond. Many from NJ through MA. I mention that only to share that Richmond attracts kids from more than just the south. Great school in a close to a cool city. More suburban than anything.
I looked at P&Q rankings. Assuming that there is no confusion between Miami of Ohio & University of Miami, Univ. of Miami is ranked at #36 but falls to #73 in the ROI (return on investment) ranking. (Miami of Ohio is ranked #39, but jumps up to #10 for ROI.)
Hopefully, the Univ. of Miami will use some of the large donation for scholarship funding.
I am not here to defend UMiami and have no affiliation with them. I wonder how many of their students are from Miami. Their business network in Miami business circles is second to none, and the ROI largely reflects the lower geographic pay and the fact their graduates tend to go more into back-office business administration roles or real estate than higher paying Wall Street or consulting/accounting jobs. This is not to take away from your reference to scholarships; I am not familiar with scholarships there, and perhaps that is a big contributor to the ROI to which you point.
Good point about Northeasterners at Richmond. Here’s the breakdown on states from which UR draws its greatest number of students, keeping in mind that 11% of the student body is international students:
18% - Virginia
14% - New York
12% - New Jersey
10% - Pennsylvania
7% - Connecticut
5% - Maryland
5% - Illinois
5% - Massachusetts
In other words, 1/3 of the students come from the NY/NJ/CT tri-state area, and well over 1/2 come from the Boston-Washington I-95 corridor.
P&Q rankings, like any rankings, need to be taken with caution. The ROI rankings heavily favor public schools and use resident tuition as a basis for the ranking. In my opinion, average net cost should be used when calculating average ROI.
With respect to OP’s desires, my concerns with the University of Miami focus on weather & placement into consulting.
In reading your post, my assumption is that you are coming to the US for school, from Asia. You appear to have little knowledge of the regions/cities you’re looking at for school. I would expect both schools to be similar in the interactions you would have on campus, so I think there are some important differences in location that you should consider.
Richmond is a city, but much smaller than Philadelphia.
Richmond is 2 hours from DC, Villanova is 20 mins from Philadelphia. In 2 hours, you can be in NY from Villanova. It’s 2.5 hours to DC.
A big plus for Villanova is air travel. Not only is Philadelphia more of a major hub, but you can get to Newark airport in 2 hours, and from there fly non-stop to Asia (Impacted by COVID right now, but HK, Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, and even Singapore were available non-stop).
The weather is similar, but Richmond is warmer (and more humid…but the school year is the colder months).
Internships/work - Philadelphia has a very large consulting industry, with all of the Big 4 having very large offices, and the next tier firms having a significant presence. Villanova has a large and supportive network in the city (I’m sure Richmond does as well in Richmond).
-Villanova’s campus is on the “Main Line”, which is a very affluent suburban section of Philadelphia. There are nice shops and good restaurants nearby, as well as a pretty lively college scene with Bryn Mawr and Haverford just down the road.
Due to the reputation of the basketball team, Villanova is going to have a lot more brand recognition than Richmond. That can change…but it will take years to move significantly.
I think the educational opportunities are probably very similar, but if you’re looking to do consulting and would like access to a larger city, Villanova is probably a better fit.
Excellent post. I didn’t pick up on the fact that this is probably a girl from Asia. In this context, neither Villanova nor Richmond can be considered to be in warm, dry climate zones. If in fact this student is coming from Asia, then I would assume that the entire US is open for discussion? In that same, the American Southwest is where she’ll find a warm, dry climate.
So, hhhtub, how important is climate to your choice?
I don’t know that much about Villanova but I do know about Richmond and their Robin School of Business. Our S19 is a sophomore at Richmond doing a dual degree program in Business Management and Psychology. Richmond has a brand new President who was most recently the Dean of the SC Johnson School of Business at Cornell University. Also, there is a brand new multi-million dollar physical addition to the Robins School of Business that just opened this semester. It is very evident that the school is very focused on continuing to invest in its business program.
I agree that stats and rankings only tell part of the story. We could not be happier with our experience at Richmond. It really combines the benefits that come with the individual attention you get with a small college along with a world-class business program.
Just in response to the last post about access to airports. Richmond is a smaller airport than Philly but still has many direct domestic flights. In addition regarding the comment about the access to Newark, Richmond is about two hours from both Dulles and National which gives great access to international flights.
Prior posts all have good points to consider. Both are very strong schools and will prepare you well for a business career. Weather differences are pretty minimal, though Richmond might be a bit warmer, both will experience 4 seasons of weather.
One other point to note: Villanova is a private, Catholic University. It will have some required core, liberal arts courses. Which can pair well with the specific business and finance courses required. Gives students an opportunity to stretch beyond their major interest and be exposed to courses in art, science, philosophy, history, languages and theology/religious studies.