Radford University

Date: Mar 12 2016
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
I figured it would be in the best interest of high school seniors considering Radford University for me to leave a review of my freshman year experience here. This is my warning for all radford hopefuls to step back and think twice before attending here. Ask yourself why do you want to go to Radford?

Academics: To be quite frank, academics here especially as a freshman are a complete joke. You will realize that you are surrounded by people who didn't perform that well in High School and struggle with basic intro classes. For example, in my intro Biology class the average grade was a 47 percent… While I had an A because I actually took my classes seriously. A large majority of the freshman here don't even make it past the first semester because all they do is drink every night and completely forget why they're in school in the first place. This also has to do with the the fact that RU accepts about 80 percent of their applicants, so you can guess that there's a lot of incoming freshman that just aren't prepared for college. The professors are very friendly and easy to get in touch with. RU is still trying to get their reputation together and are in the process of scrapping the "Party school" label. There are definitely some solid programs here such as the Nursing program that's one the best in the state, but for the most part there's no real reason why you would go to RU unless you didn't get into any other decent school in VA. While I don't necessarily believe that Radford is for people who didn't get into tech, the difference between the two schools is almost like day and night. The average student here doesn't give a about their academics, just take a look at the average retention rate for Radford.. A whopping 75 percent. 1/4 of the every freshman ends up transferring or dropping out. It's not just some coincidence either. Not to mention that RU has this stupid "core curriculum" that forces you to take 2nd year English classes during both semesters of your sophomore year and other useless classes that have nothing to do with your major. Compared to other schools who only require a year of freshman English.

Extracurriculars: RU has plenty of different clubs for you to choose from, the campus isn't that diverse but nobody gets treated differently because of how they look. But tbh if you're not in Greek life you are pretty much a nobody here.

Social life: The party scene here is overrated in my opinion, it's nowhere near the level it used to be at. Cops are tremendously corrupt due to radfords campaign to fix its party reputation. But there are parties every night if you like to drink.

Campus: The campus is small but very nice in its own sense. It's easy to get from one side of campus to another. But that also means seeing the same people everyday as you go to class. RU is in the middle of fucking nowhere and their isn't much outside of the campus.

Overall, if I had a chance to go back in time I wouldn't go to RU. The reputation of the school is horrible and most people here don't care anything except drinking. While a degree from RU isn't worthless, it isn't prestigious by any means either. If you're considering RU just because it's your only option, just suck up your pride and go to go to community college and you'll save some time and money that way. After a year or two you can transfer out and go somewhere else that will be worth it. Radford is the laughing stock of Virginia schools, don't do it to yourself please I beg of you.

As for me, I'm currently finishing up my second semester and will be attending Virginia Tech in the fall (thank god lol)