Admissions office hosts Winter Visit Week

Last week, students may have noticed an influx of new faces invading campus. The visitors were part of Winter Visit Week, an Office of Undergraduate Admissions event that took place from Feb. 17 - 22.

Winter Visit Week "tends to be when a lot of schools have February break," said senior Sarah May, the president of the Spider Key Society.

She explained that this time of year is busy because it's when the admissions office is making its decisions, before many students find out in the spring.

"Right now everybody that is waiting to hear about admittance is in limbo," May said. "So right now this is when we get the most ...[visitors] in the winter."

According to an email from Nathan Crozier, the director of admissions, University of Richmond had more than 450 students visit during Winter Visit Week and received more than 9,900 applications for the 2014-15 academic year.

Besides being an increase from last year, this was also the second-highest number of undergraduate applications in the school's history.

"There has been an increasing number of talented and diverse students applying to and enrolling at the University,"

Crozier wrote in an email.

He said the emphasis Richmond puts on the undergraduate education and the opportunities inside and outside of the classroom were likely the reasons for the increased interest.

Caroline Crosley, a junior in high school, said she was visiting Richmond with her mom as part of a college trip. Besides Richmond, she had also been to eight other schools, but she counted Richmond as one of her top choices.

"I think it's the most beautiful campus I've been to," she said.

Crosley said she was interested in Richmond because of the education program here, which is one of her main interests. She said she also had an interest in marine biology, but Richmond doesn't have a specific program for it.

Another junior in high school, Megan Baird, said she was also seeing Richmond as part of a trip with her family. "I'm on break so this is a break trip. ... We've gone to a couple schools all over Virginia and North Carolina," she said.

Baird said it was her first time on campus, but her mom had attended Richmond and had loved it, which was what prompted her to give it a look. She said her main interests were studying psychology and special education.

Contact reporter Richard Arnett at richard.arnett@richmond.edu