The university takes its founding date of 1838 from the year the Medical College of Virginia was created as the medical department of Hampden-Sydney College. MCV became independent in 1854 and state-affiliated in 1860. VCU's Monroe Park Campus began in 1917 as the Richmond School of Social Work and Public Health. In 1925, it became the Richmond division of the College of William and Mary; and in 1939, its name was changed to Richmond Professional Institute. It separated from William and Mary in 1962 to become an independent state institution. In 1968, MCV and RPI merged to become Virginia Commonwealth University, the most comprehensive urban university in the state and one of the top research universities in the nation.