Virginia Commonwealth University Top Questions

Okay, one of the main things people need to know about VCU is the safety situation. It boils down to this: if you are not stupid, you will be perfectly fine. Your experience will obviously vary, but as long as you're not wandering around at 3am by yourself you will be okay. Just travel with a buddy or a group if you're going far from campus after dark, if you stick near the dorms you'll be fine on your own. Monroe Park will have a number of homeless people, they will not harm you aside from maybe asking you for change/food. This can be discouraged if, like many a VCU student, you walk around with headphones. The VCUPD is also very good at what it does and you will have a number of services available to you for getting around safely. For example, VCU offers a free ride service that you can use if A: you're too drunk to walk/drive yourself home after a party or B: are out after dark in an unfamiliar area and are scared to walk home alone (until you're used to the city there is no shame in this). Just be aware of your surroundings and don't go into sketchy areas after dark and you won't experience much worse than aforementioned hobos. As for security inside the dorm ,the situation is much the same. Keep your door closed if you don't want people around, lock it if you're going to sleep/going out or your stuff WILL vanish (I myself lost a CD player and a pair of headphones. Other have lost things up to laptops). You would do well to invest in a lock if you have a laptop. Final big thing to note about VCU is that it takes great pride in being a nearly paperless campus, meaning you'll be doing almost everything online. The plus side is that you can submit stuff like quizzes and assignments online without much hassle, and the online system they use for this, called Blackboard, is solid and pretty easy to use once you get use to it. Utilization of this varies by professor. The downside is that the mail server is changed almost every year and its replacement is invariably more unstable. You forward emails to a gmail or hotmail account, but even this can be problematic. I had no major problems but griping is widespread so be warned. This also applies to the system you will use to register for classes online. I haven't used the new system, but it seems to be even more complex than it's predecessor. Also due to the volume of people registering registration is staggered, so upperclassmen get first dibs, with freshman going last. This will result in massive slowdown. If you have morning classes the first day you can register, be prepared to skip them. The schedule of classes is also online so be sure to write down times and registration numbers beforehand. Also if you work out the perfect schedule beforehand be prepared to have backups for most classes as some do fill up quickly. Just consult your advisor extensively beforehand and you'll mostly be okay.

VCU is a good school but it has many flaws in its systems. It is a massive school that seems to work with a small to middle size faculty which doesn't add up if you do the math. With more housing, more concentration on accomodating high demands, and better services in place, it could be an even better school. There are also great parties around campus, but they've started a party patrol that looks on facebook and other places trying to find the parties and shut them down so there is no telling how long those great parties will last.

VCU has some of the friendliest people I have ever met. I visit other schools and am greeted no where near as kindly as I am here. Also, I have met probably the most intelligent people here. I have visited UVA, VT, and JMU, and found the intelligence level for people at VCU (at least social intelligence and rationality) to be FAR above any of these schools.

DID I MENTION HOW DIVERSE VCU IS AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!

The dining facilities are what I don't like the most about VCU. There is basically only two place to go eat with your dining plan. One of them is The Student Commons which has really weird hours, it closes at 7 at night and at 1:30 on Friday so if you don't eat early dinner then you miss it. It is also not all open on the weekends because everything pretty much shuts down then, i guess they think everyone goes home on the weekends. The other place to eat is Schafer and the food there is sometimes... less than satisfactory unless you can eat a cheeseburger and fries every day. The food service workers are not very polite, alert, or helpful either and this seems to carry through to all of the restaurants. You won't mind if you can eat fried food all the time but I wish there was more healthy eating encouraged.

vcu isn't meant for students not from virginia there isn't anything off campus to do without use of a car bus system sucks teachers are great housing is horrible will be transferring

Sorry I didn't answer every question!