Perceptions of VCU?

[Anonymous]

My daughter was offered a very generous merit scholarship to VCU for engineering so we are considering it. But my daughter said one of her friends’ moms won’t let her go there because it is “ghetto” and I have also heard measured responses from other adults when I mention it as part of my daughter’s list. One mom said her older daughter went there and it was “the right school for HER.” Another mom said, “I have heard that is very good for the arts.”

Eeek? Is it a well-known thing that VCU is “ghetto” and therefore we should steer away? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

VCU is located in a city and the undergrad enrollment is over 15% Black. That’s what your friends mean when they call the school “ghetto.” They mean your child might meet a Black person there.

[Anonymous]

Incredible design and arts school, yes. I do not know much about the engineering program, but the people I know who have attended VCU all really seemed to enjoy it and love Richmond.

[Anonymous]

Ridiculous. Ridiculous that it's so close but you'd rather post these thoughts.

[Anonymous]

My PT (who is fabulous) graduated from VCU. The school is doing something right.

[Anonymous]

Have you visited? It's in the middle of the city, which some people will never feel comfortable with. My kid is too young to be seriously thinking about college, but I'd totally let them go there. However, I love cities and Richmond in particular.

We stopped in the VCU visitor center a few years ago, and the people were very friendly. We've also walked around many areas of Richmond and been fine.

[Anonymous]

I'm from Virginia and my sister and BIL live in Richmond so I'm there a lot.

Are you asking if VCU is IN the "ghetto" or if VCU itself IS "ghetto"?

Because parts of campus brush up against sketch neighborhoods, but the school and students aren't "ghetto." It's mostly artsy kids. The kids from my graduating class who went there went for visual arts and were quirky/artsy. Zohran Mamdani's wife went there for visual arts. I don't know anything about engineering there bc most kids went to Tech for that.

Why don't you take a tour and see what you and your DD *actually* think before you take the word of adult women who still describe things as ghetto.

[Anonymous]

A relative transferred from NC State to VCU engineering to be closer to home and he was used to a more diverse environment being from NOVA. He has a tech related role at a startup after being employed in government adjacent roles. His career has been paying him well enough to start a family and buy a home in the area in his 30s. Take that as you wish.

[Anonymous]

I would discount the opinion of a person who refers to any place as ghetto. VCU is a solid choice. Visit/attend admitted students day to help decide if VCU good fit. (As a parent, I am hoping my senior can shut out the noise/opinions of classmates on what colleges are “best” when deciding). Congratulations to your student.

[Anonymous]

Go visit. Then we can talk. Lazy not to visit first

[Anonymous]

Our daughter got accepted into the Arts program at VCU we are OOS (Nebraska) and have a visit planned in February. She received Merit to bring the cost down to in state tuition. Also curious about the culture, do they have a large percent of students OOS or is it mostly in state students.

[Anonymous]

VCU is a great school, and we know several friends’ kids who are there or graduated in the last few years. We toured, but DC really wants a more enclosed campus feel rather than one integrated into the urban setting like VCU (or GW, for that matter). We all loved Richmond.

The school is particularly strong for the arts and premed and I’ve heard good things about engineering as well. Definitely worth a visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter got accepted into the Arts program at VCU we are OOS (Nebraska) and have a visit planned in February. She received Merit to bring the cost down to in state tuition. Also curious about the culture, do they have a large percent of students OOS or is it mostly in state students.

It's pretty heavily in-state because it doesn't have the academic reputation of, say, a UVA or Tech. It's a solid upper-middle-tier school in VA, like JMU or GMU.

[Anonymous]

^^^ Will add Richmond is such a great city for the arts. I went to school a couple hours away but majored in art history and what I would've given for a VMFA internship!

[Anonymous]

So, all who are telling us to visit:

We have visited. We visited last Fall when my DD was a junior. We did find it urban as others have described, but we were just there for a day and found it fine, on that one visitation day. I was wondering if there was more to the story that we did not pick up on: that others may already know. EG is it considered “ghetto?” In whatever explanation of this word as someone may take it? Were we the naive dumb-dumbs who did not pick up on something everybody else already knows?

And lastly, the mom who used this word would not really be considered MAGA to me. She is quirky, kind of artsy and creative, divorced mom of two, cute, fun. Posts anti-Trump things on her FB page. So, yeah, I couldn’t easily place where this mom was getting “ghetto” from, as the one-word descriptor of the whole school, like I could have easily write it off if it were from an obviously MAGA type mom. It made me wonder if we had missed something that was a well-known, yet unwritten social understanding of the school: “Oh, VCU, that’s ghetto and artsy. The end.”

Thanks for everyone’s responses.