University of Richmond
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Business Administration with concentrations in Accounting and Finance
Minor: Math
Student Self Identifies as: White Heterosexual Male
Summary
I’m involved in Greek life and I volunteer with Camp Kesem, which is a camp for children whose parents have cancer.
Background
Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
High School Experience: Private all-boys high school in Baltimore, Maryland with a graduating class of about 120 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Business Administration with concentrations in Accounting and Finance
Minor: Math
Extracurricular Activities: I’m involved in Greek life and I volunteer with Camp Kesem, which is a camp for children whose parents have cancer.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience? In what ways?
Camp Kesem has because my mom and my grandmother had breast cancer before so I wanted to get involved. I heard about the organization through some older friends who really enjoy it. You spend the whole year raising money so every camper can go for free and then at the end of August for five days it’s a sleepaway camp. It’s really awesome that it gives them time to get away from the sickness.
Academic Experience
Can you describe the weekly coursework for your major?
I’m much more of a math person and Richmond does a great job of letting me tailor my schedule towards that, so I have had minimal essays and minimal readings. Most of my readings come from textbooks and I’m not a very good textbook learner, so I usually take advantage of office hours and going to talk to the professors. In general, most of my work is problem sets and tests.
As a sophomore, have you been able to take classes in your concentrations yet?
I took a Finance course as a summer course and haven’t taken any during the semester because I messed up during registration. With Accounting, I’m currently in Intermediate Financial Accounting 1, which is my second Accounting class out of six. In terms of course load, concentrations and minors are the same.
Is there anything you feel your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
The classes are very small, which is great. It’s very similar to high school for me. But, the professors can be hit or miss. You always hear about certain professors who are really great and you try to get them, but their classes fill up. Then there are about five other professors that you don’t know much about and they can be hit or miss. Some of those professors I’ve had have not been as great as teaching in class, so I sometimes feel like going to class can be pointless, which I’m sure a lot of college students feel. For the most part, I wish the professors could teach better. [The average class size is 16 students per class.]
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I’d say it’s both and, even though those are opposites, I think they can go together. Everyone’s competing in a good way, and that’s more for career stuff like internships. The career center at Richmond is really good and they require you to turn in your resume to be approved pretty early, so everyone’s competing for internships early on. But, in terms of schoolwork, it’s mostly collaborative. You do a lot of your learning with your fellow classmates and friends.
How accessible are your professors?
They’re very accessible. They’re required to have office hours where you can go in without having an appointment. Then with almost all of them, you can still make an appointment if you can’t work their office hours into your schedule. A lot of students take advantage of that and I personally do as well. I think it’s a great way to learn more one-on-one and get your problems out of the way.
What has been your favorite class you’ve taken for your major?
Probably Calculus II.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I’m pretty happy with my choice. I took my first Accounting class last semester and I enjoyed it. I didn’t know much about Finance or Accounting, but I heard that accounting is good for people who are good with numbers so that’s what I’m focusing on. I’m not upset about my choice of major but I also don’t think it’s the best thing ever.
Reasons to Attend
1) If you’re interested in business, it’s a great business school. There are so many opportunities and the professors are willing to stick their neck out for you if you get to know them.
2) The campus is really small and walkable, which is awesome. It’s nice that you get to see all of your friends when you walk to class and get to live on campus with all of your friends.
3) Socially, it’s really fun. Besides school, I enjoy myself a lot.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) The amount of time and effort that goes into Greek life is annoying. There are [feuds] between fraternities which I think is pretty lame because we’re only here for four years. I think that happens because it’s such a small school and fraternities compete for members.
2) I wish we had more sports. We don’t have any good major sports teams here.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Lora Robins Court with one roommate
Sophomore: South Court with one roommate. I am on a floor with all guys in my fraternity and we have our own bathroom.
How was transitioning from Baltimore to Richmond, VA?
I have really enjoyed it. It’s really easy. I usually take the train home since I don’t have a car on campus and it’s super easy. The area is pretty similar to where I grew up because we’re in a small residential neighborhood about 15-20-minutes outside of the city. The city of Richmond is definitely smaller, but I haven’t been able to explore much outside of Richmond’s campus because I don’t have a car.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I’ve never felt unsafe or unsafe for anyone. Occasionally we get police warnings about things that have happened around campus, but I’ve never witnessed anything like that. On campus, I don’t have to worry about anything being stolen, and I’m grateful for that.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
For the most part, Richmond is very Greek life-oriented. I say that as a person in Greek life so I have a biased opinion, but I know a few people not in Greek life and they are pretty much always coming to our events. People go downtown to clubs or bars that fraternities rent out on Thursdays, on-campus parties on Fridays in the fraternity lodges, and then Saturdays are a free for all. You can do something at night or something during the day depending on when fraternities are having parties. All of the clubs we have events at downtown you can get into 18+ but you just can’t buy drinks, so freshmen and sophomore are always at the events downtown.
What is the impact of Greek life on nightlife?
Considering I am in Greek life, I’m not sure what it’s like to not be in Greek life. From what I’ve heard from my friends not in Greek life, it’s not as fun. The school is so small and there is such a high percentage of people in Greek life that it doesn’t leave much to do for the people that aren’t in it. They end up coming to the parties the fraternities have, but sometimes they don’t necessarily get to do what they want to all the time. Fraternities also rent out the clubs and bars downtown and the fraternities send out invites. [About 54% of women are involved in sororities. There are 7 organizations in the Interfraternity Council.]
What’s an alternative to going to a party or a bar that you like for a night out?
There’s a lot of stuff going on. I have a bunch of friends who love going to concerts that happen around Richmond. I’ve gone camping in West Virginia and Virginia with some older guys. There’s a lot to do besides just partying, but most of the time you just go with the flow.
How happy are you with the weekend options at Richmond? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’m very happy. Considering how many people are at the school, I don’t see there being many other options. I imagine that if we had maybe 6,000 students we’d have a few more options. If could change anything, I wish we didn’t have the same thing every night of the weekend and our sports were better. We don’t have the big school level of hype around our sporting events.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
My roommate was from Baltimore but I didn’t know him. We had mutual friends who matched us up together. We rushed the same fraternity, and that’s pretty much where I met all of my closest friends in the grades below me, my grade, and the grades above me. With girls, it was different because freshman year we had girls in our dorm so it was nice to hang out with them during the day.
How would you describe the social scene at Richmond?
I’d describe it as particularly dominated by Greek life. But, I think it’s very fun and very enjoyable. I think it’s pretty safe in terms of sexual assault, binge drinking, and misuse of drugs. Everybody just goes out to have a good time and are as conscious as they can be of what’s going on around them.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Not extremely well. In my experience, no one I know is against mixing races and sexual orientations and having those people come to our parties, but, unfortunately, the school should be more diverse than it is. I don’t know the answer to making the diversity better in the social scene, but I think people who like each other and are similar tend to stick together. With my fraternity, we have people of different races and never is that a topic of conversation of whether we give someone a bid. [9% of undergraduates are international students, 29% are students of color, and 20% of students come from Virginia.]
To what extent do people in Greek life and not in Greek life mix socially?
That’s hard to tell because I know the faces of a lot of people on campus but don’t know whether they’re in Greek life or not. I see them around campus and sometimes I see them at parties and sometimes I don’t. I think they mix for the most part.
How do you like the size of your school in terms of undergraduate enrollment? [The undergraduate population is about 3,000 students.]
I wish it was a little bigger, but I’m glad I went to a small school just based on the school work. I think it would be more fun if it were bigger, but it is school, so I’m glad that I get to have some very small classes and one-on-one attention from my professors. [The student to faculty ratio is 8:1.]
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
I have a few friends who graduated who work for the Big Four accounting firms and they don’t have the power to recruit me but have helped me with researching companies and seeing if it would be a good fit.
To what extent have you used the career office? How helpful are they?
The biggest help for career advice is through career services, which I think is really helpful. Everyone at Richmond gets started on looking for internships early in sophomore year, which to me seems early, but I guess that’s a good thing because we’re getting a head start. They have walk-in hours every day and you can go in there and talk to them about anything career-oriented.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
I know that Bloomberg Terminal is used in Finance classes but I haven’t taken that yet. They started requiring freshmen to take an Excel Competency Exam this year before they can get admitted to the business school, but I didn’t have to take that for my year. I like to think I’m pretty good at Excel from my classes.