At Richmond, there is no typical applicant. Admission officers work hard to evaluate each applicant in a holistic manner, assessing character, service, special talents, creativity, independence, and life experience alongside traditional measures of academic success – like grades, rigor of curriculum, test scores, and recommendations. While admission is highly selective and there's no perfect formula that will guarantee acceptance, there are a few minimum requirements that guarantee each student we accept will come to campus prepared to succeed in any of our programs.
Candidates for admission must have a high school diploma (or equivalent), and must have completed a minimum of 16 units of secondary school coursework. Minimum requirements include four units in English, three in college preparatory mathematics (including Algebra I, II, and Geometry), and at least two each in history, laboratory science, and foreign language (two units of the same language, not including American Sign Language, which will not satisfy the requirement for foreign language). Competitive candidates for admission typically exceed the minimum requirements and have taken four units in all five core areas at the highest levels available in their school setting.
To learn more about students who were recently admitted, check out the first-year student profile.
A University of Richmond education gives students all the benefits of a liberal arts education but draws on the strengths of each of its five schools. First-year seminars are taught by faculty from all five schools (including the Richmond School of Law and School of Professional and Continuing Studies), and undergraduates are guaranteed access to upper-division courses in every school, regardless of their major field. Cross-school and interdisciplinary study is common; in fact, many students call more than one school home.
School of Arts & SciencesBecause the University of Richmond offers every student an academically intensive curriculum, close faculty attention, and undergraduate research opportunities, there is not one University-wide honors program that's open to all eligible students, regardless of major. Rather, individual academic departments implement specific requirements students must meet if they are to graduate "with honors" in a particular major or academic discipline. Not all departments offer an honors option.
Those departments that do offer an honors program expect a substantial commitment from students. In most departments, students must submit a formal application to graduate with honors, must meet any additional course requirements outlined by the department, and must complete an intensive senior thesis or comparable research project.
The Academic Advising Resource Center works with incoming students to help them transition to college, plan their course schedule, guide them through general education requirements and narrow academic interests. All students receive individual guidance from a faculty advisor beginning their first year; once they declare a major, students move to a faculty advisor in that discipline.
All merit-based scholarships at Richmond involve holistic consideration of applicants; none are awarded based on preset numerical criteria. Typical merit scholarship recipients fall toward the top of our academic profile and exhibit impressive personal accomplishments. Most merit scholarship consideration is automatic; deadlines and other requirements can be found on our scholarships list.