Looking for suggestions on which one is better Franklin & Marshall. or U. Richmond
Asian student with a biochemistry major. Hoping to have a welcoming student body, and a lot of opportunities for internships and research with professors and outside companies.
COA is the same for both.
As one favorable aspect of Richmond that may be of interest, its students rate it very highly for classroom experience, which includes consideration of its science lab facilities:
Richmond is better known but doesn’t make it better.
Visit both - talk to students and see if they are welcoming.
All schools have placement offices to help you get internships - but ultimately it’s on you. Profs at both schools will have research opportunities.
Best of luck.
For Biochemistry in particular, I would suggest these are pretty much just peer colleges, meaning neither is “better” for that major. Both are going to be great for undergrads interested in research. Both will do an excellent job supporting internships–I guess F&M is closer to Philly which is a big Health and Life Sciences city, but I am sure Richmond will help you find suitable opportunities too.
So personally I would suggest choosing whatever school feels like the best bet for you to be happy.
As usual, if possible visits would be good, but it is late in the process if you are comparing actual offers. So for what it is worth, although similar sorts of colleges at a high level, my sense is Richmond and F&M appeal to somewhat different sorts of students at our HS. I would not describe Richmond as not welcoming, but I have gotten the impression more of the students attracted to Richmond are toward the ambitious/pre-professional end of things, whereas F&M students, while smart and motivated, tend to be perhaps a little more chill.
Either college will be fine for you.
Congrats on the acceptances. Both would be just fine. Your post-graduation success will be more dependent on what you accomplish during college rather than which one of these fine schools you choose to attend.
When I looked at LACs with my D she felt that fit was important. Have you visited the two options? Do you prefer the overall vibe of one school?
thank you, visited richmond already, really liked the science lab facilities. However felt the social vibe not as diverse/inclusive as we would want to see. Did not get a chance to check out F & M yet since we just heard about getting off from waitlist yesterday.
thank you…great point… felt the richmond campus vibe to be a bit less diverse/not so inclusive. Did not visit F&M yet, but hoping to check to see if its more diverse or not. Would you consider the academics are equally challenging at both schools? DD thinks that F&M may be not having as much funding for research as Richmond/has Grade deflation issues from some social media posts.
ahhh - it was a wait list.
One thing about Richmond, as noted before, business is the big major so there will be a diversity of interests that are different at F&M.
I think they are both schools of wealthy NE kids - I do believe F&M has things “closer” to campus - as it’s in Lancaster vs Richmond - while technically in Richmond isn’t close to action.
F&M shows 1108 of 1904 as caucasian with 327 international, 193 Hispanic, and just under 100 AA and Asian students. 1166 of 1961 get some level of need aid. So a higher % than Richmond.
Richmond shows 1323 of 2169 as caucasian with 228 international, 212 hispanic, 137 and 134 Asian and AA - so very similar racial wise to F&M. About 1/3 get need aid.
What’s odd is Richmond ethnicity is 2221 but the school size shows 3054. So not sure the discrepancy in the CDS.
Geographically, I can’t find info but 3rd party College Factual shows PA, NY, NJ, MD, MA and CT as the top states for F&M followed by California, Florida, Virginia and Texas - all with 10+ students.
RIchmond shows VA, NY, NJ, PA, CT, MD, MA, IL, FL, CA, NC, OH, TX, and GA as 10+.
So similarly regional in the NE/Mid Atlantic mostly.
Hope you can get to F&M - I imagine without a main business program (they do have a limited space major), the overall student vibe will be different - which may or may not be good for your student. Visiting is always key - if somehow possible.
Best of luck.
So F&M in my circles has a reputation for being strong in natural sciences, and empirically that seems to be supported by this PhD feeders study:
F&M made the Top 50 per capita, which includes both research universities and LACs, for Bio (#46), Chemistry (#33), and Physics (#26) (also Poli Sci at #29). Richmond only made the Chemistry list (#36), but I think this needs to be understood in the context of so many kids at Richmond being more interested in business and such than academia.
I don’t know about investment levels per se, and for sure Richmond is a much wealthier college than F&M in general. However, to me at least, things like those PhD numbers suggest F&M is at least investing enough in sciences to support high end student research opportunities.
Congratulations OP!! You are another example of a wait list not being a rejection but the deferred final decision it really is.
I toured F&M a few years ago with my D. She liked it just fine, and it was toward the top-end of her personal rankings but not the top two. There was nothing that she specifically did NOT like so much as she liked the others more. I think she would have been fine there. I can’t speak to the academics in your department, so I won’t attempt that. One thing I will say is that the town of Lancaster seems a little more accessible to walk/ bike to if you don’t have a car than U Richmond, which, as you know, is in a beautiful residential neighborhood but is very cut off from the kinds of little eateries, shops, and even practical kinds of places ( like CVS) that students generally like to have nearby. URicmond, of course, is drop-dead gorgeous (some might say TOO perfect) and yet my D and I felt that it could feel claustrophobic…too much an unreal,?upscale bubble away from things. Some love that very thing about it so it depends on the person. F&M has a very attractive campus but it feels real, in a nice enough but bit grittier part of town. If you happen to like dogs, ( yes, dogs 
) there is a state-of the-art dog park in a large city park next to campus and it’s fun to watch all the canine action (or ask to pet someone’s dog if you need a little pick- me-up). Another bonus is that Lancaster is well-known as a foodie paradise, with every possible kind of restaurant, for being a small city. There’s also an Amtrak station on the line to Pittsburg to the west and NYC to the north east, should that interest you.
Very insightful…felt kind of simialr about our visit to Richmond campus… yet to visit F&M campus …these are very helpful points about the city itself to consider.
One QQ though… while visiting F&M how did you feel about the student population vibe ?.. daughter somehow felt Richmond had a quiet vibe that didn’t seem very welcoming to her…especially being an immigrant student looking for some welcoming diversity (She felt SUNY BING to be really diverse and welcoming if we are looking for a comparison)
Thank you. Yes. F&M was in her one of the top five choices when we applied.
Excellent point… never thought about this before… will definitely consider!
Thank you, yes i had a feeling that F&M had more Asians than Richmond, but I am feeling these numbers are probably slightly off. Would you know if these were 2022 stats by any chance?
I pulled all the ethnicity data from section B2 of the common data set - both dated 2023/24. I assume Fall 2023 but perhaps it is a year old. I wouldn’t think it would matter much.
So to my knowledge the only significant difference between F&M and Richmond in terms of ethnicity is that F&M has a significantly higher percentage of International students–something like 19% to 9% according to their self-reported student facts. But that could probably be sufficient to explain your impression about Asian students as of course these days many International students at US colleges are Asian (about 75% across the US):
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.