Radford
University is a great place to go to college. It
is in a quiet small town, with a nice campus
and enough people to enjoy yourself while not being crowded.
It will always be a part of my heart and
a part of my life after spending four years there
I do feel changed for the better. The faculty in
my major, while not always the brightest in their fields,
were extremely kind, always helpful, and very cooperative. I visited
faculty weekly in their office hours and held discussions with
them about my field and learned so much. I would
say that much of what you get out of Radford
however depends on your department. The economics department in particular
is extremely easy, with the exception of certain professors, yet
you do not learn much. The political science department has
some very good professors who are very bright and will
teach you a lot, however many of the really good
professors have retired and some of those left behind aren't
so great or are adjunct faculty.
I would encourage anyone
who wants to go to Radford to check out the
programs first. Visit the campus and visit the department you
want to major in. Ask them if they are accredited
and ask about the program, look at the course catalog
and compare the requirements of the major to other schools.
If you can get into a better school for undergraduate
school maybe you should go there, but know that you
can go to a school like RU and have an
absolutely wonderful time in undergrad, and end up at a
good grad school, law school, medical school, or business school
- so many RU students have.
Unfortunately, the new administration
led by President Kyle has - in its positive quest
to improve RU's ranking - embarked on a quest to
cut so many programs such as religion, philosophy, anthropology, art,
physics, and much of the liberal arts. This is extremely
bad, but it is doubtful that all of these areas
will be cut.
The kids that go to RU like
to party a lot. I personally don't drink and went
to two parties my entire time at Radford, so don't
think that you won't find students of your ilk if
you are not a partier. There is actually a lot
to do even though its a small town, you can
bowl at the Bonnie, there are a lot of good
places to eat on campus (Salsaritas, Au Bon Pain, Ben
and Jerry's, Wendy's, Chik-Fil-A, Chinese, Starbucks) and close to campus
(Mi Puerto, Mongolian Grill, Sharkies, Applebees). There are almost always
activities going on on campus and speakers come often, but
you will have the most fun with your friends.
The
classes are small and your teachers will almost always get
to know you. I loved this because it gave me
personalized individualized attention that allowed me to thrive in learning.
But make sure you look up the professors of your
program before you go and don't always take the easy
route and the easy professors. See if they have research
in their fields and if they are good, and yes
even hard, professors before you come. If the program for
your field is good here then don't hesitate on coming.
But the education here is like any other public state
college or university, its not going to be the best
ever and is rather easy, but its good enough, although
as a recent graduate I sort of feel like even
though it felt like I learned a lot I did
not learn as much as I could have if I
gave each class my all.
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