<p>You'll understand my being slightly skeptical..
I thought you chose the name because you were a fan, GL
Do you think you can beat Syr if you win?</p>
<p>No, I'm literally going to Miami. No, we won't beat Cuse.</p>
<p>This is a very important thread for us. My S got into VCU BME and got a full tuition scholarship for all 4 years. We are thinking that he may make VT too - there is no BME per se in VT but some pre-med track may be. </p>
<p>VCU has a guranteed 8 year med program for freshmen but my S didn't make it. That is a tough one to get into and they take about 45 children I think. </p>
<p>Good to know about the dorm situation in VT. Food is great but dorms are not - understood.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your thoughts on VCU!</p>
<p>Well, about the dorms. The newer dorms are very nice. Carpeted, air conditioned, suite style, etc. As time goes on more of the dorms on campus are going to be like that, especially when they finally get around to closing/renovating AJ. So some of the dorms on campus are very nice. But some of them are also very 'old fashioned.' No AC, no carpet, two people in one room, etc.</p>
<p>Our daughter is in her second year at VCU and loves it. The concerns expressed on this board about safety are clearly overblown. Yes, VCU is in an urban neighborhood, but it's hardly in a ghetto and the area is getting better every day. Students exercising a minimum amount of common sense are just fine, and in return they benefit from being exposed to a highly diverse population and plenty of interesting stuff to do. </p>
<p>Our daughter's roommate and best friend is a Honduran immigrant who first came to the states for high school. She was accepted at both Tech and VCU but decided on VCU after visiting both because she found Tech too homogenous and too much in the middle of nowhere. </p>
<p>Overall, Tech's academic reputation is clearly better, but any student who is seriously interested in medical school, seriously cares about diversity, and is not too much of a football nut would be wise to consider VCU over Tech. In the final analysis, other than both being large the schools couldn't be more different.</p>
<p>VT is the way to go. (: Best food in the nation, as well. Definitely stronger academically.</p>
<p>And VT may be way out there, but living in the mountains definitely has its advantages over the city. As in, actual fresh air, gorgeous in the fall, and completely awesome hiking/scenery. And really, I don’t know about other college kids, but I’m really looking forward to being able to get away from it all for a few hours and get some fresh air.</p>
<p>I’m surprised to see no one has mentioned the horrors of food at VCU.</p>
<p>Here’s my simplistic breakdown:
VT has MUCH better food, dorms are of a bit lesser quality.
VCU has horrible food, it’s not even worth comparing them to anyone - it’s just horrible - and their dorms are slightly better.</p>
<p>Everyone at VCU knows about the horrors of Shafer’s (everyone* who eats at Shafer’s develops diarrhea). </p>
<p>*Everyone is obviously an exaggeration.</p>
<p>As a kid who has lived in Richmond for all of my life I pretty much know as much, but probably more, about richmond than anyone here. However, I am going to VT. So, my thoughts:</p>
<p>-As stated VT has outstanding food. Princeton review ranks them as 1 in the nation. Nuff said. So food goes hands down to VT.</p>
<p>-Dorms are hit or miss at VT. Chuy explained it. So maybe this one goes to VCU.</p>
<p>-VCU has an unparalled med program. I have many people in my church here who, from the west coast, turned down the likes of Kentucky, Michigan-ann arbor, U of Florida, and U of Utah all for VCU. Many of these guys go on to own there own practices and some even millionares. VCU and MCV are increasingly working together to pump out some of the best work on the east coast. If you are doing ANYTHING medically related you should choose VCU.</p>
<p>-Alternatively, I think VT has got every other major on lockdown. With the exception of the artistic majors VT pretty much squashes VCU academically IMO in other majors. Especially engineering (which is why I chose VT). VCU is building all sorts of new stuff for engineering but they are simply a brand spanking new program (ABET accredited in '04) which naturally has limited national appeal yet. </p>
<p>-VT campus and VCU campus TOTALLY different! Classic city vs country argument. I personally hate cities (horrible traffic, conrete everywhere you look, smaller living/working environments, loud, and simply a faster lifestyle) so VT appeals more to me. Now Richmond in particular… 10 years ago I would have NEVER reccomended the city. I don’t remember exactly when but Richmond was the murder capital of the nation. Unless you were ON the campus (not even across the street) or were in richville it was pretty much thugville. Now I am glad to say that many of the rougher parts of the city are changing. Theres a lot of renovating and building going on. I think VCU has a lot to do with it. The old richmond culture is slowly dying. You still need to remember your dos and donts or you can get really messed up though. You know the typical ‘no late night walks’ kind of thing. I still personally hate richmond. Maybe its because I remember what it was like years ago or maybe because I hate cities in general. Maybe both. But either way, as a local, I still don’t like Richmond. I’ve seen a lot of what Richmond has to offer: I would venture to say Richmond is the most historic city in the nation(confederate capital and major colonial landmark), we have the james river you can swing/kyac/canoe/swim in, bars/clubs, quality museums like tredegar iron works and the holocaust, big buisnesses, centrally located for all of VAs offerrings like the mountains and beach and D.C., and Saint Johns Church where Patrick Henry gave his speech. There’s plenty Richmond can offer someone but I STILL don’t like it… My take on Richmond.</p>
<p>I second everything GoOakland has said. My ex-gf goes to VCU and you’re smack on about the dangers at night - real talk.</p>
<p>The story I remember most was when a pizza boy got shot for 17 bucks. Talk about some serious ****.</p>
<p>I’ll get flogged for this, but it’s clearly Virginia Tech and it’s not even close.</p>
<p>1) Diversity: is more than skin deep and at that, VT is still like 70% white if it’s that big of a deal.</p>
<p>2) Homogeneous: It’s not called homogeneity, it’s called community.</p>
<p>3) Football: It’s not just team pride, it’s school pride. Everyone cheers our architecture program to #1 in the country, winning the Lumenhaus competition, or one of our fraternity’s on America’s Got Talent as much as our football team. VCU has absolutely 0 school pride, and yes I am painfully familiar with VCU. It’s a commuter school.</p>
<p>4) In the middle of nowhere: It’s called Southwest Virginia and it’s beautiful and clean and all the students love it and all the middle aged alums are taking pay cuts and coming back in droves because they missed it so much. Do alumni come back like that to VCU…no.</p>
<p>5) Consider asking totally unbiased parties because it will overwhelmingly be VT.</p>
<p>I love how a person named GoTechGo states that Virginia Tech is clearly better and it’s not even close…
I will counter that with my name:)</p>
<p>Look, Virginia Tech and VCU are almost completely different schools. Virginia Tech has football and in my opinion this is the main reason that anyone knows anything about Virginia Tech. Sure Virginia Tech has a good engineering program and in fact helped build VCU’s engineering program. But let me tell you this, VCU is on the upswing and moving up the ladder fast in every area of academics. Our Art program is #1 among all public schools. Our Medical school is getting a new 180 million dollar building for the school of medicine downtown. Our Engineering has grown tremendously over just 10+ years and has a goal of being a top 20 program in the next fifteen years and our business school has a huge new state of the art building with a beautiful view of the Richmond skyline. </p>
<p>I found VCU because of it’s art program. When I arrived at VCU, I started as a commuter but over the course of my four years I fell in love with both the University and the city. Most people who attend VCU were never interested in attending Virginia Tech. They are completely two different student bodies. VCU has more students from lower income families and has more students working to pay their way through college. Sure Virginia Tech has a higher GPA for incoming students which I believe is 3.9 while VCU’s is 3.4, but that doesn’t mean they have better academics. They may have a .5 better GPA student but VCU students are taught University principals while experiencing the real world something students at an enclosed University cannot say.</p>
<p>I agree with the previous poster about 10 years ago, where VCU would never have been mentioned as a high quality University pick. Today though and throughout the upcoming years, VCU will continue to rise in rank and prestige. What is so exciting about VCU is that we are just at the beginning of our full potential. Our basketball team is top notch…(I would love to play Virginia Tech but they won’t schedule us) and in the upcoming years we will be getting Football because of the success of ODU. As an alumni, I sense the desire for football building.</p>
<p>Alumni do come back to VCU… we’ve only been around since 1968 and really have only been a “University” in the traditional sense for around 10 years. Every year VCU get’s better. Come visit and learn in the excitement of VCU.</p>
<p>Speaking of ODU, they also have a great biology department, and an agreement for guaranteed admission to medical school at Eastern Va. Medical School (right down the street from campus) for graduates. You may want to consider them as well. Similar to VCU in size, academics, demographics and environment, but a better campus and close to the beach.</p>
<p>Our Engineering has grown tremendously over just 10+ years and has a goal of being a top 20 program in the next fifteen years</p>
<p>A goal is not always realistic. Top 20? VT isn’t even top 20. If it has taken VCU 10+ years to get “this” far, how realistic is it that within 15 years it will be in the ranks among MIT, CalTech, etc. Think about it: it has to beat UVa in engineering first (UVa isn’t even ranked).</p>
<p>VTs undergraduate engineering program, overall, is ranked 14th.</p>
<p>Last time I checked, VT’s overall engineering program is ranked #25 by USNWR. I may be mistaken and I don’t care to double check.</p>
<p>[‘U.S</a>. News’ gives high marks to Virginia Tech’s undergraduate engineering, business programs | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech](<a href=“http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2010/08/081710-eng-usnewsrankings.html]'U.S”>'U.S. News' gives high marks to Virginia Tech's undergraduate engineering, business programs | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech)</p>
<p>Apparently we are ranked #13 for the 2011 rankings.</p>
<p>Well I was FAR off!</p>