The University of Richmond

In order to truly profit from all of the opportunities the University of Richmond has to offer-- extracurricular, academic, and social--one has to be a very particular personality type. The school is very enclosed, small, and homogenous. This atmosphere is not conducive to intellectual or emotional growth. As a result, students become very closed off from the outside world, and days as well as nightlife experiences become repetitive and tedious. Also, this small, enclosed campus facilitates catty behavior and overall gossip. When I was there I referred to it as "my high school on steroids." Underlying this impression is that greek life is HUGE. Do not let anyone tell you that it does not dominate the social life at UR. The student body is essentially split up into greeks and non greeks. After that, your identity and social life is determined by what sorority/ fraternity that you are in. In high school, your clique/ social status was implicit and unspoken. At UR, an identity-- in the form of three greek letters-- is imposed onto you whether you like it or not. The ranking among sororities and fraternities is evident and students take their superficial and meaningless rankings very seriously. For the most part, students are upper/middle class, conservative and from the tri-state area. There is little to no diversity. If you are a liberal, free-spirit, and/or creative thinker, this is NOT the school for you. The University's only good program is business and in general, has a very pre-professional feel. I will say, however, that it is a nurturing environment and the professors and administration genuinely care about your well-being and want you to succeed. However, the administration treats their students like babies. The school is a glorified boarding school for rich kids NOT college. If you are thinking about coming here it is probably not what you think it is. Ensure that you are making the right choice.

1st Year Female -- Class 2017

Faculty Accessibility: A, Education Quality: F