University of Richmond Top Questions

Professors are good about getting to know you and being available outside of class.

The classes are fairly challenging. No matter what subject or class you take, prepare not to get much sleep and spent a lot of time sitting in the library. Students here are from the top of their class, so one can also come to expect a fair amount of competition--only because everyone here is an overachiever and wants to excel at everything they do. Also, if you are a fan of skipping class, Richmond should not be your top pick in colleges. Since the classes are so small, expect the professor to know your name--and also notice if you arent there. Class participation is a must. Group discussions are common so your opinion matters--and therefore your voice is required to be heard. I know a lot of students that have a very close and good relationship with their professors outside of class. It's not uncommon to see students and their teachers eating lunch together or office visits by students just for a chat. Academically, Richmond is very challenging. I know several people who sometimes spend the night in the library, and I myself am no exception. Most of the University is business oriented (Robins School of Business) so I would say Richmond is mostly geared toward preparing you for the workforce.

Academics are very challenging. There is A LOT of work. It gets pretty stressful at times. Classes are small and professors know your name which is nice. Education is very geared toward getting a job for the most part.

richmond prides itself on the relationships between students and professors. for me, that means that all of my teachers knew my name but the second week of class and were more than happy to help me out outside of class. i've heard from upperclassmen that they've just come back from going out to dinner with a professor, and my roommate's professor invited the whole class over after the final for a barbecue. the president teaches a class, so i have friends who know him pretty well too. richmond is definitely a school where the students study just as hard as they party- and they party hard. i've had classes where the debate has gotten so fierce that the teacher has had to ask us to break it up. the quality of students is outrageously high. that guy that you played beer pong with last weekend is probably on the dean's list as well. richmodn recently changed their requirements from credits to units. i'm not exactly sure what it means for me yet, but i know there are people who both love and hate the new system. basically, every class at richmond is going to be worth 1 unit as opposed to 3 to 5 credits. for some people, that means that a 4-credit spanish class that met 7 times a week is worth the same as a 3-credit that met twice a weeek, which is too bad. however, in the future, that means that the overall level of difficulty of classes should even out. it'll be harder to have an easy courseload, but hopefully also make ridiculously involved classes easier to manage.

Richmond's classes are challenging and most require attendance. This school does not offer the type of atmosphere you've seen at big state schools or in the movies with classes of hundreds of kids and people not showing up all the time. That said, if you're going to college because you at least have some type of intellectual interest and are curious about some major field of study, you'll do fine. Intellectual conversations outside of class are rare, but do happen. There are plenty of clubs, groups, meetings, forums, etc. that foster such dialogue. I know all of my professors well and have formed great relationships with many of them. This is one of the principal reasons I love the school. Students are generally helpful; group studying is common and the type of competitiveness you hear about at certain schools does not exist here.

Do professors know my name?: YES, this is great Students here study: pretty often during the week, not a lot over the weekends, a lot of the kids seem to be that kid that slacks off a lot but is pretty smart and can still get by I was a history major, secondary education minor -- I would definitely recommend history major, history classes; education -- I liked the program and I'm gonna be a teacher, but it requires more work than any other program on campus and is not for everybody

Professors always know you name because the classes are small. The classes can be hard and you definitely have to find your way around that and the school definitely weeds out all of the easy teachers over time so it becomes difficult to try and find a "GPA booster" class. Class participation depends on the type of class, most classes require it for part of the grade, which sucks, but some classes it doesn't matter. As far as intellectual convo's, I don't know because most of the time when me and my friend's are out of class, we try not to talk about class at all, because who wants to do that? Professors usually offer lots of outside of class time for extra help. Richmond's academic requirements absolutely sucksssssssssss. Core, which is a class all freshmen must take, everyone that takes it generally hates it, so have fun with that one. Also the amount of gen. ed's required can be ridiculous.

Professors know ur name. I liked my freshman chemestry class, and while the chemistry department has many very nice and fun professors, i never quite clicked with the more stringent biology department. One thing about richmond is you have to take 3 common sense wellness courses, while they are not bad, they can be a bit annoying. Do students have intellectual conversations? Sometimes, it depends who your talking to. Richmond claims that learning is for its own sake, and to pursue actual intellectual ability, but this is a blatant lie. Do not believe that weeding out does not occur in Richmond, it very much so does, making grades a focal point of education, instead of higher learning. Class participation is somewhat uncommon, but not completely unheard of. Overall the rigor is acceptable, but i feel too much of an emphasis is placed on weeding students out.

Surprisingly this is my favorite aspect of Richmond. The UR business school offers a top level education that prepares you so well for the working world. Most all of my teachers are very interesting, experienced and smart, and the best part is they know you by name because my classes had at most 25 students in them. The amount of time spent studying varies depending on personal strategy/intelligence, year, and major. As a undeclared freshman I studied about 3 hours a week and still managed a 3.3, however now as a Junior business-finance major I have to study maybe 5 hours per day on average to maintain about a 3.5. I can't speak for non-business majors and their workloads, but I think it is a little bit less, however still a good amount of work if you want a good gpa.

I have great relationships with all of my professors. They really take the time to get to know you and to help you succeed. The courses are challenging, but very rewarding, and the professors usually do all they can to help.