First-Year Class at University of Richmond is Best Qualified Ever

August 20, 2002

Nearly 800 first-year students arrive at the University of Richmond tomorrow, the best-qualified freshman class in university history.

Their ranks include five Bausch & Lomb Science Award winners, two published poets, a world champion equestrienne, national karate and kayaking champions, the inventor of the Speed Bandage and a Grammy Award-winning musician.

Also among the freshmen are a Teen Magazine athlete of the year, an Internet entrepreneur, the number one ranked female chess player in Indiana, the 2001 winner of Wal-Mart's Veteran's Day Let Freedom Ring Essay Contest, a member of the Maine Suicide Prevention Taskforce and the winner of a commendation by the Massachusetts State Legislature for work with the Anti-Defamation League.

Mid-range SAT scores for the class of 2006 are 1,240-1,370, up from 1,240-1,350 last year.

Some 5,899 students applied for admission, the second largest number to do so in the university's history.

Students from the mid-Atlantic states make up 39 percent of the class, down slightly from 41 percent last year. More students come from Virginia (16 percent) than any other state. Class members represent 37 states, and 42 of them are international students from 33 countries.

Richmond's total student population includes students from 47 states, Washington, D.C., and 77 countries.

For the first time, some men will live on the Westhampton College side and some women will live on the Richmond College side. Gray Court, formerly a women's dorm, is now a men's residence hall. Marsh and Robins halls now are women's dorms.

Classes for all students begin Aug. 26.