Virginia Commonwealth University

Date: Nov 02 2013
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
VCU is an okay school. One of the problems is that it focuses more on building brand new buildings than improving the ones it already has. Walking through campus, you can see one beautiful building next to two run down ones. Living in freshman dorms last year was a nightmare, nothing worked and the building staff wasn't very helpful.

Shafer has a pest problem, and it wasn't uncommon for me to find hair in my food. Everything is great during family weekend and orientation, but after that it all goes downhill.

The student body is pretty friendly and a lot of them are easy to talk to. They come from all over the place and are interesting. There are some students that have their priorities a little backwards…but that's almost any college.

It's pretty difficult to rate the faculty because some teachers are great! Unfortunately, there are some who will make you hate even thinking about the class. Some professors will lose your work, talk down to the students, and only read from PowerPoints with very little engagement or explanation. In some classes, the coursework is just four months of busywork and not at all challenging, these classes are usually intro-courses to fulfill your non-major requirements.

The social life is pretty fun. There is always something to do, but you have to be very careful because Richmond at night can get pretty dangerous and safety doesn't seem like much of a priority to VCU. I have had friends held at gunpoint and one attacked by a group of men right on campus. They focus a lot of energy on noise violations from parties though.