<p>I was watching the Richmond/Wake Forest basketball game on TV yesterday, and my teenage daughter couldn't believe a college was known as the Spiders. She's a pretty tough kid, but like a lot of her friends, she's totally creeped out by spiders, and said she wouldn't go there under any circumstances due to the arachnid mascot. Does anybody at U of Richmond talk about this, how the mascot is unique but might be turning off a lot of potential applicants?</p>
<p>I’ve never heard anyone say with seriousness that they would not apply to the school because of the mascot, and I seriously doubt that it deters potential applicants. Anyone who would not apply to a school ONLY because of their mascot probably doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to attend UR anyway (no offense to your daughter). So what if she’s scared of spiders? It’s not like we have real spiders crawling around. There are hornets, yellow jackets, gators, etc. used as mascots all the time and they aren’t the most pleasant creatures either. If anything, people usually like that we have a unique mascot, rather than a mascot that dozens of other schools also have, or a mascot that’s downright stupid. The mascot of my home state school is the Blue Hen Chicken. Campbell University has Gaylord the Camel. Enough said. I love our mascot and that’s that.</p>
<p>“Anyone who would not apply to a school ONLY because of their mascot probably doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to attend UR anyway”</p>
<p>No need to get nasty. I was just curious. As for my daughter, she’s 13, gets straight A’s, is completely bi-lingual, plays 3 instruments, is a star basketball player, and has a black belt in karate. I’m sure she’ll get into a school at least as selective as Richmond.</p>
<p>If you think hating spiders is an odd reason to want to avoid a college, check this out: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/790906-colleges-you-child-crossed-off-list-after-visiting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/790906-colleges-you-child-crossed-off-list-after-visiting.html</a></p>
<p>You must be kidding. My daughter is creeped out by Spiders but she has kind of embraced it and has a Spider attached to her dorm wall and wears her UR geatr with pride. She turned down some other really good schools to go to UR (Wisconsin, Boston College, Emory, Wake Forest…etc)so it would seem your daughter really doesn’t want to go there.</p>