University of Richmond Top Questions

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