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

I am seriously considering transferring from UR. I was expecting to be somewhat challenged at Richmond, but I feel surrounded by people who do not care about academics (except for the professors). Also, the only thing the students talk about is how they can't wait to go out and drink. I would say 99% of all conversations are centered around what happened last weekend, what is happening this weekend, or when their next chance to get wasted is. I do not feel like it is worth the price, and I am not happy with the environment or the feel of the students. It may be the right school for some, and I do love the faculty, but I am not happy here. Also, this is not the school to go to for a math major- people will laugh at you and ask what you are doing.

1st Year Female -- Class 2015

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Social Life: C-

The campus is beautiful and the financial aid program is phenomenal, but other than that, this school has nothing going for it. It's competitive to the point where you can't get into the classes you need to graduate, faculty members treat you like a child, which isn't surprising since msot of the students are children who drink too much, and all they hand out is busywork. I am going into teaching and I could have gotten the exact same credentials from another school, paid half the tuition,and done half the busywork. Student housing is disgusting. I had to take cold showers for 6 months because the hot water never worked. If you want descent housing you have to apply to be in a special program and take an extra class, and it costs the same as the crappy housing. I have also had legitamite complaints on several occasions regarding staff members who don't do thier jobs as well as one who kept a barking dog in the dorms. Each time I complained I was told I was being rude and in one instance, I was forced to appologize to someone for being "rude" to them because they made a mistake that almost cost me my entire degree. They think that just because they are staff members that I should be required to show them respect regardless of whether they are doing thier job or not. I don't pay them for that. I transferred from a large community college and never had any major administrative problems. Here I had them at least once every semester, if not more. Even if I went out of my way to send emails, fill out paperwork, and communicate with people I always had problems getting into classes, dealing with housing problems, financial aid and everything else you can think of. I can't figure out why such a small school can't communicate with one another and make things run more smoothly. The social life is very cliquy and I had a hard time making friends with students because I am a few years older and could not relate to a bunch of 18-22 year olds. I missed having more people my age as classmates. My health also got bad because I was so stressed out all the time. The workload is just insane. Overall, I would not recommend this school to anyone. The University of Richmond doesn't offer anything that another school can't give you for less money and less stress. I feel my time here was a waste.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2011

Surrounding City: A, Education Quality: F