Thoughts on U Richmond

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a little surprised they don’t give better merit. They have a fairly substantial endowment.

I suspect that UR uses its merit aid to increase URM on campus (other small schools in the South do this as well). Everyone we know who has gotten merit from UR is an URM.

Nonsense.

The URM population is miniscule to begin with. Wrong path to go down in terms of your baseless suspicion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a little surprised they don’t give better merit. They have a fairly substantial endowment.

I suspect that UR uses its merit aid to increase URM on campus (other small schools in the South do this as well). Everyone we know who has gotten merit from UR is an URM.

Nonsense.

I mean, you do know that universities use merit scholarships to recruit students that they would otherwise have a hard time getting? And that prior to the Supreme Court decision 2 or 3 years ago, merit scholarships limited exclusively to minorities were really common? If the University of Richmond has a really small minority population, using merit money as a recruitment tool to increase its minority population would actually be a smart move - a move that many other universities have used in the past. To do so explicitly would probably now be illegal, but it’s not nonsense to think that URM status is still considered in one way or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a little surprised they don’t give better merit. They have a fairly substantial endowment.

I suspect that UR uses its merit aid to increase URM on campus (other small schools in the South do this as well). Everyone we know who has gotten merit from UR is an URM.

Nonsense.

I mean, you do know that universities use merit scholarships to recruit students that they would otherwise have a hard time getting? And that prior to the Supreme Court decision 2 or 3 years ago, merit scholarships limited exclusively to minorities were really common? If the University of Richmond has a really small minority population, using merit money as a recruitment tool to increase its minority population would actually be a smart move - a move that many other universities have used in the past. To do so explicitly would probably now be illegal, but it’s not nonsense to think that URM status is still considered in one way or the other.

Colleges use merit money for all sorts of things - to recruit high stats kids, to lure kids from certain desirable regions, or to recruit from schools they want to break into. Recruiting for race is illegal now so I don’t think that practice will be happening.

[Anonymous]

In terms of rankings, Richmond places a notable 48th in this national ranking, which includes colleges and universities together:

College & University Rankings in 2025 https://wallethub.com/edu/e/college-rankings/40750

[Anonymous]

Nobody looks at wallethub…it is clickbait.

[Anonymous]

How does it compare with Washington & Lee?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does it compare with Washington & Lee?

In terms of what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it compare with Washington & Lee?

In terms of what?

Washington and Lee traditionally has been seen as the stronger school. I think it was always ranked as one of the top 10 national liberal art schools until US News redid its ranking system to reflect social justice issues. W&L has a much lower acceptance rate.

University of Richmond draws more students from northern states than Washington and Lee does.

The Greek system is stronger at Washington and Lee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it compare with Washington & Lee?

In terms of what?

Washington and Lee traditionally has been seen as the stronger school. I think it was always ranked as one of the top 10 national liberal art schools until US News redid its ranking system to reflect social justice issues. W&L has a much lower acceptance rate.

University of Richmond draws more students from northern states than Washington and Lee does.

The Greek system is stronger at Washington and Lee.

The Greek system is stronger at W&L than any school in the country. Go Greek or go home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it compare with Washington & Lee?

In terms of what?

Washington and Lee traditionally has been seen as the stronger school. I think it was always ranked as one of the top 10 national liberal art schools until US News redid its ranking system to reflect social justice issues. W&L has a much lower acceptance rate.

University of Richmond draws more students from northern states than Washington and Lee does.

The Greek system is stronger at Washington and Lee.

OK let’s pump the breaks here. This post both overvalues W&L and undervalues UR. 17ish percent v. 23ish percent is not some cavernous gap in selectivity. They are both strong top 20ish LACs with different cultures and different student bodies. Lots of people can’t seem to resist the urge to get on the board and sh*t on Richmond. Not sure why it’s worthy of so much attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:U of R is a wonderful school! We know many there. They are bright active down to earth students. Campus is beautiful and outcomes are comparable to WM, Wake, BC.

I asked this in another thread: how come I never met any graduate from U of R even though I lived in NoVA all my life? Is it that small of a population? I feel like it's a different circle than mine. Where do students come from? where do they go? what's the circle that brags that their DC is going to U of R?

It's a hard school to get into and I'm definitely missing something. The WASP people I know but still don't get but I meet them and talk to them just don't get them. You can tell - I'm a State school guy. Just trying to understand.

What don't you get about people choosing to go to top liberal arts colleges with excellent outcomes?

[Anonymous]

I don’t have a student at either so have no personal experience.

That being said, I thought Richmond was a very pleasant campus with nice normal students. W&L very much wanted to impress upon everyone that it was an “elite” institution and it kept putting itself in the company of top universities which I thought was amusing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a student at either so have no personal experience.

That being said, I thought Richmond was a very pleasant campus with nice normal students. W&L very much wanted to impress upon everyone that it was an “elite” institution and it kept putting itself in the company of top universities which I thought was amusing.

Do people at W&M actually think its elite? It isn't even the state flagship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a student at either so have no personal experience.

That being said, I thought Richmond was a very pleasant campus with nice normal students. W&L very much wanted to impress upon everyone that it was an “elite” institution and it kept putting itself in the company of top universities which I thought was amusing.

Do people at W&M actually think its elite? It isn't even the state flagship.

You either don’t know how to read or are baiting the William and Mary people. PP was about the LAC Washington and Lee. Let’s not invite the NoVa moms into a fight about the relative prestige of UVA, W&M, and VT.

[Anonymous]

UVA is clearly better than all the schools mentioned on this thread…