University of Richmond Top Questions

Social life is Richmond's largest downfall. Greek life is huge but everyone can find a place through club sports teams or one of the many other clubs on campus. The party scene is being heavily regulated by the adminstration and it puts a huge damper on the weekends. Students still find a way to party plenty. The enviroment is very play very hard work very hard.

I know in my hall, at least, when people are in them the doors are always open. It's been like that since the first week which is nice because Richmond does a great job of pairing up halls with people who have similar interests. All of my best friends live on my hall. At 2am on Tuesday, if I'm up which is unlikely, I'm probably doing work. Tuesday night is not a party night. Traditions: Pig Roast... The party schedule is on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday basis for the most part. Thursday's are a lot of socials (like dances) and then Friday and Saturday is when the frats open up their lodges. Fraternities host most of the big parties (like the lodges) but if you're not in a frat you can still get in and have fun. I'm not in a frat but I've got pretty much a friend in each one so it's fine.

Greek life is an important aspect of campus life. But our greek system here is very different than at most other schools. You do not need to be in a fraternity or sorority to enjoy many of the things that Greek societies offer. You also can be an independent and still have many, many friends. Greek life is just another opportunity to get involved and is an outlet for students who are interested in it. There are 3 reasons why I think our Greek system is great: 1. We have second semester rush, which means that when you come in as a freshman, you have an entire semester to figure out if Greek life is for you. You can also rush as a sophomore. 2. We have no Greek housing on campus, which really allows all students to be integrated all over campus. It is not as though the people in fraternities are segregated from everyone else. 3. We do have what are known as the Fraternity lodges. Each fraternity has its own lodge, which serves as a meeting room for the brothers and can also be a party room on the weekends. Lodge parties are where many of the weekend social activity takes place. At these parties, everyone at Richmond can attend if they would like to. It is not as though only certain people are invited to go to them; anyone can get in with their spidercard. Social life revolves around being on campus, which reflects the fact that 92{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students live on campus all four years.

The greek organizations at Richmond are great--prominent, but not over-whelming. I am in a sorority, but my three best friends are not. It's is totally 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} your choice. Most of the parties that exist on campus are held by fraternities, but you definitely don't need to be a member of a greek organization to go...it's a small school, so everyone's invited! Sororities are great. Very active and involved and just an awesome thing to be a part of. The majority of people that I know would not be scared to leave their doors unlocked. Everyone feels pretty safe at the University of Richmond. Huge party days are: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Yes, Thursday. However, pretty much any night of the week, you can find something going on. As a southern school, we have a lot of traditions. The girls have an event called "Proclamation Night" where we all dress in white, light candles, sign the honor code, and write letters to ourselves as seniors. The guys have "Investiture" which I guess is like the male version of Proclamation Night. They get all dressed up and sign the honor code. I love the southern traditions here.

social life is amazing, obviously... greek life is huge but not necessary to join

There are a good amount of different clubs and organizations on campus and its really fun to be apart of differnent ones to interact with different people. I suggest: international club, international business student's association, greek life, etc. Expect to do a lot of work during the week. If you are a procrastinator, expect a lot of all-nighters. If you want to be partying every night, join a sorority/fraternity. Richmond is a very safe campus, students are trusting and trustworthy. During nice days, downtown at the river is the place to be. They have concerts downtown and live music with drinks and just a lot of fun social events. Carrytown, shockhoe bottom, the fan, all fun places.

Fraternities and sororities run this school. Being an athlete I am unable to join a Frat but you are able to make friends with people within the Frats and Sororities and go to all their events. The athletic events aren't very popular because our basketball team isn't very good.

Lots of stuff to do, good sports teams generally, football is really good. Lots of parties, lots of activites provided by the administrations. Dorms and apartments are where most college life goes on, but all the facilities are great, especially new gym. Fraternities really carry the load of social life on campus as noone else throws parties, and they also get tons of crap from the administration, making their job harder and harder, but we find a way.

football games are well attended and kind of a big deal. attendance for every other sport is a joke. if you're not big into boozing you'd probably want to stay away. not uncommon for people to drink more than three nights a week.

Greek life is about 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the student body, but we do not have houses on campus. There is a lot of Greek pride, both for individual fraternities and sororities, but also collectively. We have six sororities and six fraternities now, as well as two historically black sororities. There are a lot of semi-formal socials, socials with themes that are invite only. But on a general Friday night, the fraternities have lodges on campus - which essentially is like a large club house. They are open to everyone. There are usually parties off campus at fraternity houses, as well. We do not leave our doors open in dorms. Our athletic events are very poorly attended. Our football games are tailgated - we dress up in sun dresses and nice khakis and collared shirts for the men, but when the game starts only half of those people go in and the other half that do go in rarely stay past half time. The dating scene is very slim! The boys really don't "date" until junior/senior year, if they choose to date at all. Most of my friends went all four years without a boyfriend on campus. Most of my closest friends and I met through living situations (being on the same hall in dorms) or through fraternity/sorority events. If I am awake at 2AM on Tuesday it is because I decided to go out to a bar or a party on campus. I would only be up that late due to academics if it's during Midterms or Finals, otherwise it is definitely a social reason. Every year we have Pig Roast (or Festivus -- it's new name). It occurs in late March. The fraternities open up at 11AM so we are usually up drinking by 9AM. The girls wear sundresses and the boys are in cute preppy clothes. We have it catered by a local BBQ place. All of the lodges open up with live music, good food, and lots of beer. We used to meet the apartments on campus and everyone would be in the parking lots hanging out but the police and administration got rid of that aspect this year for liability reasons. The lodges close around 4PM, people pass out for a nap and meet up downtown, again if they can rally. People party 3 times a week on average. It is usually Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night - but depending on class schedules and the semesters it can vary. There are the occasional Tuesday night Pong tournaments or whatever but they are definitely smaller parties contained to 30 people or less. Fraternities and sororities do not have to be important at all. Only half of our campus is involved. I am involved in a sorority, though, so I don't really know what the other half does. Last weekend went like this: Thursday night I went out to a bar with some friends. Friday afternoon we had a picnic at The River (a river with big rocks on it that you can tan on) and drank. That night we went out to dinner and drank a little more but went to bed around midnight. Saturday I studied a little, Saturday afternoon my friends threw me a surprise birthday party around 3:30. We drank, grilled food, hung out until late and went to a bar. Sunday we had brunch and watched Friends in bed all afternoon.