U of Richmond vs. Davidson

havenoidea
Thu, 02 Apr 2020 16:46:23 +0000

Richmond is not primarily a business school, though it does have a top b-school, which gives kids a major additional option, given that so many kids change majors. Take our S18, he chose Richmond intending to major in ppel and leadership. He’s now majoring in a business area. Had they not had the b-school, he could have majored in Econ, but there are so many other interesting classes he wouldn’t have had access to (you can major in Econ through the b-school, with doing the business core, or through A &S). But, most of his friends are not B majors. That being said, I do hear that Richmond has a pre-professional vibe compared to many LACs (several of his friends are pre-Med, though some are religious studies, philosophy, etc).

We’ve been very impressed at the amount/level of research going on at Richmond, in all fields. Richmond is consistently among the top Fulbright producers for baccalaureate institutions as well.

We didn’t look at Davidson as my impression was that it was too conservative (from what I read) for us. There is a difference in geographic diversity between the 2, with Davidson drawing more heavily from the south. Richmond draws more from the midatlantic/NE and also leans slightly more left (though to me, very center). There is also more diversity in general at Richmond, with a larger percent of international students.

Greek life is big at Richmond. There is getting to be more school spirit around sports. The school has a great relationship with the city and lots of kids do internships/community service in well established partnerships. In some of the majors this is built into the curriculum (like leadership).

The administration is 100% on top of things and very nice to work with.

It’s hard to compare when we didn’t visit Davidson.