<p>According to the UR Common Data Sets for the last couple of years, 12-15% of the applicants registered as URMs, while roughly another 10 list themselves as other. Diversity can be measured in more ways than just race. Clearly on CC, we see socioeconomic, political, geographic, religious differences just to name a few.</p>
<p>My H and I were pleased with the atmosphere and offerings at Richmond. My D liked UR immensely but truly loves the school she will be attending. Either choice was a good option for her.</p>
<p>oldhag- I love your honesty! I think your daughter is going to have an incredible time at Richmond! It truly sounds like she knows herself. What you were saying about size, ect is so true. I hear so much about "diversity". Yes, it is wonderful to seek, but on each person's level. We live in a small, sea-side town in N.J. which is 99% Catholic, mostly Irish, me being the "Italian" is probably diverse to some! LOL! My son graduated from a high school of a little over 1,000 students. On graduation night, of the 250 or so seniors, only about 5 (people) were any other race than white. I am not going to say I don't like my little town for it's great schools, safety and especially, the ocean. Would a little diversity nice? Sure, but not enough to make us move, or feel like we are commiting a crime by living here. Truthfully, when we do move, it will be to a very similar town, but south. He will be attending Wake this fall. I have a feeling he might find Wake diverse, just from where he is coming from. Wake is 85% caucasion, compared to his 98% high school. IMO, he has been raised to be a respectful and loving person, and that is the most important thing he needs anywhere.</p>
<p>Oldhag - Totally off topic - What new shopping mall is being built near U of Richmond? I remember the school as being surrounded by a very lovely neighborhood and can't imagine a mall ever being approved for that area. I know there is a new mall - Short Pump, but that isn't really that close and I don't think public transportation would get you there. Thanks.</p>
<p>Short Pump it is! I believe it is less than 20 minutes from campus. I'm sure my D would befriend a student or two with some wheels in order to get herself there if public trans was unavailbale ;)</p>
<p>I just got back from living at UR for a month for Governor's school, so I know about the campus, but not a whole lot about the people or faculty there, just the staff. The staff is great though. They do have a lot of law enforcement around it seems, not that it was a problem for us because we had such strict rules anyway. But even if you just leave a door to the dorms open, it like automatically signals the police or something and they come check it out. It seemed a little excessive to me, considering once you get in the lobbies you have to use your access card to get out of it into any halls or anything. But it's nice to know I guess. </p>
<p>The buildings are really nice, there's nice architecture and also the decor and architecture inside. You can tell it's a small school. We were in a lot of the buildings and by all of them you could tell it's a small school, and I think they must have pretty small classes. Most classrooms seated about 30. </p>
<p>The dorms were basic but not too bad, I was in Lora Robins which is a girls' dorm during the year, probably underclassmen. The rooms were all double, two beds, two dressers, two closets, two desks, carpeted, good air conditioning/heat. Pretty small, but nice enough. Hall bathroom. Some of the rooms like in South Court (boys IIRC) are triples, and some have hall baths but some have room bathrooms. Other dorms also have suite type rooms. I'm guessing those are upperclassmen dorms though. Even during the summer the cleaning staff kept the bathrooms pretty clean, they came most days. There were lounge areas on the hall to gather, halls were pretty enclosed, like they're trying to create a sense of community in the way it was designed, that was just the feeling I got. But I'm sure you can be in others during the year.</p>
<p>Dogwood - The other "new" mall that is even closer to UR is Stony Point Fashion Park, just south of the river. Both it and Short Pump Town Center opened within about a month of each other several years ago and both are outdoor malls. But there are no new malls in the works thank heavens, we're over malled as it is!</p>
<p>Thanks oldhag and sewbusy. I haven't been to Richmond in about two years. I remember when the "new" mall was Regency - I lived about a block from that and that was about 30 years ago. I guess the new thing is now these outdoor malls, kind of like the old Willow Lawn, I guess. What goes around comes around:)</p>