University of Richmond Top Questions

students are usually from the north. either pennsylvania new york new jersey etc...

Students that are not upper-middle class white people will feel out of place initially. If you give it time, you can discover people like you though. Students dress well for class. Girls wear sundresses to football games, and guys wear khakis and ties. The campus is predominately wealthy. Students are not politically active.

The down side of Richmond is the student body; it is very close-minded for the most part. I come from a very diverse high school which makes it hard for me to adjust here. Even though everyone is nice to your face I feel like they are fake and two-faced. This year there were two incidents of racial discrimination, but our school is trying very hard to prevent that in the future. Since it is a private school, lots of the students here are very wealthy, but there are many who receive great amounts of financial aid as well. Lots of guys here wear their polo shirts tucked into their multi-colored shorts which personally I think looks pretty gay, and the girls go crazy with wearing sundresses pretty much every single day. Most students come from Northern states such as New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, but there are plenty of people who come from all over the country. Politically the students here are surprisingly diverse there is probably an even amount of Republicans as well as Democrats. The school is trying to head in the direction of including more diveristy on campus. They want to break the stereotype of rich, close-minded white kids, so please if you don't fit that category come here and save me!

Student body is not that diverse, but they try to be.

Some racism does occur and it is offensive as hell. Although the student body has responded very much against such acts which is encouraging. As I've said there are tons of preppies. However, there is still a great community of non-preppy cool kids. Even some preppies are cool and open to different types of kids but they seem to be few and far between.

Mainly white kids

Most Richmond students tend to be from the northeast, but the dynamics are slightly changing. Being from the south, I felt somewhat out-numbered, but it's a great experience to get to know people who are different from you. Richmond also has a large percentage of international students. In 2007, Richmond was voted "hottest school for international studies," since Richmond sends so many students abroad and allows so many to study here. Unfortunately, the student body is predominately white. I know that the school is working on increasing the diversity on campus, and that any form of racism is not tolerated. Because of the large tuition payment, it seems like everyone at Richmond has to be rich. While some are, without question, many students are only attending because they are receiving so much money in financial aid. I don't feel like students talk about which category they fall into, and it's never an issue.

I think the campus could always strive to be more diverse in terms of racal, religious and socio-economic categories. One of our new president's top initiative is diversity, so I think that this will improve in the years to come. Many people say that the students are very homogenous, but I think that is not really true.

Students are all pretty much white and somewhat dress up although it really depends. Polo shirts and dresses/skirts are not uncommon to wear to class everyday, but sweats and stuff are also well represented, especially in the colder months. There is often a disconnect between students and the general athlete population, and fraternities often stick together. Students are a mix of political views and political awareness is somewhat a part of campus, but at the same time students are so busy actual action is stunted by general apathy.

Richmond is often described as the University of Richmen. But I'm not a rich man. I suspect it gets this reputation partially b/c after I graduate, I'll have the opportunity to become a rich man. I've been very pleased with the religious life on campus with numerous opportunities for involvement. There is also a large number of students involved in community service which is coordinated by the Center for Civic Engagement. You can wear what you want to class or around campus and people don't really care, there's a kind of motto of "Do You" do what you want and what you like, we can look deeper than skin color or clothing and realize that people are more than they seem. People aren't big on protests or anything and seem to stay neutral with political issues, but there are definately a few vocal minorities on each side.

I have experienced numerous amoung of racial issues from being called a nigger to the hanging of a black doll. I am the type of person who will not crack under these circumstance, quite frankly it makes me stronger. A minority student would feel out of place at Richmond. Most students wear prep type clothing, meaning polos, colorful sundresses, and northface. Different types of students interact, but it is not an everyday thing unless it is the same people. You will not see campus-wide interactions between different types of students. One table you have the athletes which generally is integrated, one is the frats which are all white, one the sororites which are mostly all white, and the last one can be either an all black or an all white table, take your pick. You rarely see a mixed table other than the football and basketball tables. The majority are rich financial backgrounds. I am really not sure how politically active they are.

While you will find some preppy boys and girls on campus wearing polos, madras shorts, sun dresses, and Rainbow sandals, most students wear jeans a a T-shirt to class or gym clothes. Most students work out on a regular basis because our gym is so nice. It has really convenient hours (6am-12 midnight), and tons of machines. There is also racquet courts, basketball courts, a swimming pool, tons of cardio classes, an indoor track, and a co-ed sauna. Most Richmond students come from the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York area. But you can find students from all over the United States and from other parts of the world too.

At first glance Richmond seems to have a very homogenous student body. But once you get past the very visible preppy crowds, you can find people of every kind. You can get away with wearing just about anything to class short of all-black goth attire, which is just about the only kind of person that would truly feel out of place at Richmond. Students definitely have their own groups of friends who they hang out with primarily, but most people here are very friendly, and its very easy to make new friends and to hang out with groups of people you probably wouldn't have in high school. Unfortunately there is very little race interaction on campus. There is no animosty between any racial groups, but everyone seems to be more comfortable hanging out with people they can easily identify with. Everyone here is very intelligent and in depth discussions on complex topics are not uncommon.

Politically speaking, most of the campus seems pretty apathetic. If forced to choose, they would probably choose a moderate-to-conservative stance. Political students do exist here (I'm one of them), though it can be a frustrating climate for activists sometimes. The LGBT scene is scant. There's two gay bars in the city and they definitely have their regulars. There's more gay men on campus than there are lesbians, and all of the queer kids band together. The racial divide can be quite evident, and a few incidents that happened on campus during hte 07-08 school year proved how ignorant, and possibly hateful, some people can be. On Halloween, a student dressed in blackface; in the spring, someone hanged a black doll in the theatre department with the message, "Art is dead! Long live art!" These incidents were handled well by the administration; President Ayers issued statements explaining why these were offensive, since those who did it didn't seem to understand the history that follows those acts. The student body also pulled together; a new group called "UR Concerned: Spiders for a More Inclusive Campus" started and has been working towards creating awareness around the racial issues on our campus.

The campus is extremely homogenous. Generally students are white, well-off, and wear polo on a daily basis. Anyone who is a "hippie" type or an intellectual will probably feel out of place at Richmond. Girls generally dress up for class, in the warmer weather, they typically wear dresses around campus. In the winter, UGGS, the latest expensive designer, and JCrew are staples. Boys can generally get away with deisel jeans, or polo pants, with a t-shirt or lacoste/polo shirt. Students at Richmond generally stick to their own social groups and do not really intermingle. Like the movie Mean Girls, certain social groups have their typical place in dhall. Even though Richmond is located in the capital of the Confederacy, most students are from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, basically anywhere up North. Most students here are rather conservative, though they do not actively support any causes whatsoever.

There is diversity on campus despite the rumors. I feel that Richmond has a place for everyone. Many students wear "preppy" clothes to class. Many students are wealthy and from the northeast although this is changing. The students are politically aware and lean slightly to the right.

At Richmond the white, upper class portion of the socio-economic scale is definately the most prominent. I think that, for many minority students, it's a little disconcerting during the first few weeks. However, I've got many friends who aren't white or upper class. My friend, who happens to be African American, told me that during orientation he thought he would hate it here because he felt out of place. After the first week, however, he felt comfortable and happy. Different types of students deffinately interact on campus. It's not a matter of excluding people based on looks or anything, I think groups here are formed on interests and personalities.

The best word to use to describe Richmond students is involved. We all take part in numerous activites and extracurriculars and love to have lots to do. There are at least 250 student organizations on campus, and the average student is involved in at least 3 of these at any one time. Students at Richmond are generally preppy and dress nicely to class. A fair amount of us are from the Northeast and come from predominately middle to upper-middle class familes. We are more conservative than the average college campus, but very moderate on the political spectrum.

The student body is not the most diverse I've ever seen, but also not the least. The majority of people that you will see when walking around campus are preppy, white, upper-middle class kids. This is not to say that there is no diversity what-so-ever...there is. The racial percentages are not much worse than any of the other colleges that I looked at as a high school senior. There is definitely an LGBT community on campus. One of the things that took me a little getting used to was what people wear to class. It would be completely normal to wear a sundress, high heels, and pearls to class. A t-shirt and jeans...not as much. Most of the boys here wear button down shirts and nice pants or shorts--khakis, vineyard vines, etc. However, the more I got used to campus, the more I started wearing jeans and t-shirts to class. It's not like you'll be judged or ridiculed for not wearing a sundress, everyone just likes to look their best for class. It's actually kind of nice.

preppy and most come from fortunate backgrounds, but so easy to get along with and find your crowd