Virginia Commonwealth University

This place is a piece of shit. If you'd like to live among homeless people, with crime down the street, monroe park in the center of campus is a hang out spot for homeless. THe homeless feel comfortable on campus, if you leave the circle, you might as well consider handing over your wallet.

Most of the faculty doesn't give a shit about you, you're just another student of their gigantic university. If you don't get yourself involved, consider yourself a nobody.

If a shitty urban lifestyle is what you want, that's what you're getting. You're not safe walking around at night, you're just not. The escort takes hours, the panic buttons throught campus would leave you dead an hour before they got there. But, it's friendly, you can basically talk to anyone, you have a lot of down time. There are a lot of diverse individuals, parties consist of getting drunk and getting diseases. With so many people, disease spreads like wild fire in an urban campus like this one.

1st Year Female -- Class 2011

Innovation: A+, Campus Aesthetics: F

When I first came to VCU fall of 2003, I loved it. VCU was still a mess back then, but I think it was better. I knew a lot of people from HS who were going here, so I had no problem in the social arena. And VCU throws a lot of parties (homecoming, stepshow, back to school concerts, siegal center/commons parties), so my freshman year there was never a dull moment.

Now I hate it. I do have friends here (a few, most of them have left). But I am literally counting down the days when I get out of this hell hole.I hate my major department, you can kiss graduating in 4 years goodbye unless you are doing some really good a** kissing as classes get harder and harder to get into every semester. One of my professors told me only 46% of people who have been here since freshman year graduate within SIX YEARS. Your advisors are useles, you are better off talking to a brick wall. Not enough teachers for classes, so they may only offer one class in a spring or fall semester, not both (delaying graduation).The school is so big now you are basically just another number to the professor, if they even care that much. If you are thinking about switching majors or coming here--DO NOT GO INTO EDUCATION!!! Their education department is HORRIBLE!! I try to warn every innocent person who thinks about going into their program, to go the other way. THEY MADE, YES YOU READ RIGHT, MADE MY MAJOR UP IN 2005! AND THEY STILL DO NOT HAVE THEIR STUFF TOGETHER (ADDING CLASSES, CONSTANTLY CHANGING THE CURRICULUM, GIVING FALSE ADVICE TO STUDENTS, NOT BEING CLEAR ON GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS....I could go on). If I wasn't on the verge of graduating and having so many credits, I would have left like some of my friends and transferred to another school. And I am NOT doing the full program at VCU because its horrible and I just want to get the hell out! Oh and my major only has ONE advisor...hope you dont have to talk to her soon as you have to wait 2-3 weeks to see her.

The food is horrible, I haven't eaten in Shafer in about a year and a half, and when I was a freshman-Hibbs was a health hazard.Going to the commons or the bookstore for something to eat takes patience as the workers seem to think you are on THEIR time.

Safety? Ha ha thats funny. My car has been broken into, my boyfriend's car has been broken into, I can't count how many times I have heard gunshots-lost count years ago, Monroe Park is not the place to be after dark, bums are everywhere-although they have tried to keep a lot of them off "campus"-they are still around to harass you, Richmond is depressing, me and my friends don't really club in the city anymore after being tired of ending each night running because someone started shooting or fighting in the club, people get robbed by the library (isnt that motivating) and at the 7-eleven-recently i havent heard too much about it, but it was frequent a few years ago. My sophomore year a dead body was found near the Life Science Building. The new card office across B&B on Broad St.? Is named after a student who was shot and KILLED in front of Broad and Belvidere Student Apts. Yes and I was student when that happened.Needless to say I could go on about how useless VCU is, but I think you get the picture. The school has potential, but I feel the people in charge are only concerned about money (tuition, books, fees go up EVERY year). By the time you are a senior, very few people are school spirited, if they even had school spirit to begin with. I sure as hell don't, maybe if we had a football team and a REAL homecoming, and a nice unified campus-maybe, but as of now I am sick of seeing black and gold.

1st Year Female -- Class 2008

Social Life: C-, Education Quality: F

I am in my sophmore year and cannot wait to transfer from the shithole that is VCU. If you are thinking about attending VCU I'm almost positive that after you have read my review your mind will be changed.

I'll start off with the positive things that VCU has going for it. It could be due to my major or luck in choosing classes but almost all of the professors I've had have been extremely friendly and more than willing to help students. Of course (especially in the 100 level) there are classes where you are simply a number, but this seems to be the case at almost every university so it's not too surprising. It is certainly true that the student body is very diverse, and in terms of finding friends it's pretty easy to assuming you live in the dorms freshman year. However if you are coming from certain areas of Northern Virginia you will be hard pressed to find the types of people you normally get along with.

Now on to the negative part. I will be listing these in no particular order as certain things matter more to certain people. First off, this is a school for misfits and underachievers. The grades and SAT score needed to get in are a joke, so if you're expecting to be surrounded by intelligent people you will most likely be disappointed. However to be fair I have met a lot of intelligent people here, but almost all were from my major classes. As a guy I can tell you this is not the place you want to end up at, there are definitely some attractive girls but most either have boyfriends, are being chased by like 5 other guys, are complete airheads, or have a cloud of unjustified arrogance around them at all times. Also tattoos are very popular among girls, and if you, like me,find this to be a huge turnoff(especially the lower back "tramp stamp")then steer clear. In short, while it is not impossible to have some decent hookups, relationships are almost certainly out of the question.

Richmond itself is a very rough place and can put you in a perpetual bad mood. I feel like my guard is always up around here, and the feeling gets stressful and wears on you after awhile. On the other hand the VCU police force does a good job of keeping the campus relatively free of crime, and I have personally had no problems walking home at all hours of the night.

The social scene is interesting, and it's hard for me to compare it to some of the other colleges I've visited. VCU is certainly a party school, but not in the conventional sense that anyone can get into any party. There are many parties that are list only or frat sponsored that can be nearly impossible to get into unless you know somebody or bring like 5 girls with you. If you don't know a good amount of people or are naturally an introvert, a lot of lonely weekends are in store for you.But now perhaps the worst part of going here. VCU is simply not respected by most future employers and is itself not as easy as people would make it out to be. A lot of hard work and studying needs to be done to attain an A in even a lot of 100 level classes, so this lack of prestige coupled with harder than expected classes adds up to working hard for no real reward.

2nd Year Male -- Class 2010

Faculty Accessibility: A, Campus Aesthetics: F