Notes

These are items that bear looking into more closely.

• This institution’s six year bachelors graduation rate is 64.5%, so approximately 2/5 of undergrads who enroll do not earn a bachelors degree from here.

• This institution’s full-time undergraduate enrollment has tended to decrease over time.

Overview of institution

This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.

• Institution kind: Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity

• Undergrad program: Balanced arts & sciences/professions, high graduate coexistence

• Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Comprehensive programs, with medical/veterinary school

• Enrollment profile: High undergraduate (see more details below)

• Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $21,294 (1.1 times the equivalent cost of Harvard).

• Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.

• Size and setting: Four-year, large, primarily residential

• In state percentage: 92% of first year students come from Virginia

• In US percentage: 99% of first year students come from the US

• Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 64.5% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)

• Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 43.9%

• Percent of students seeking a Bachelors who transfer out of this institution: 20.4%

• Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 19.5 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]

• Student to faculty ratio: 8.3 (undergrads to all faculty)

• Degrees offered: Certificate of at least 2 years but less than 4 years, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice

• Schedule: Semester

• Institution provides on campus housing: Yes

• Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 5702 students

• Freshmen required to live on campus: No

• Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes

• Disabilities: 15.00 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.

Map

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Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap, ODbL

Comparisons

The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.

• Virginia Commonwealth University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Florida State University, University of Cincinnati-Main Campus, University of Illinois Chicago, Wayne State University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Louisville, University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, Cleveland State University, University of Memphis
• Virginia Commonwealth University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: University of California-Los Angeles, University of Virginia-Main Campus, University of Georgia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State University-Main Campus, Purdue University-Main Campus, William & Mary, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, University of South Florida, University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus, Florida International University, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of South Carolina-Columbia, University of Missouri-Columbia, University at Buffalo, James Madison University, University of Kentucky, George Mason University, University of South Alabama, University of Toledo, Old Dominion University, University of New Orleans, Morgan State University, Jackson State University
• These institutions compare themselves to Virginia Commonwealth University, but not vice versa: University of Central Florida, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, CUNY Bernard M Baruch College, Texas Tech University, California State University-Fullerton, Georgia State University, Iowa State University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, The University of Texas at Dallas, Indiana University-Indianapolis, Rowan University, West Virginia University, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Florida Atlantic University, Kent State University at Kent, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, East Carolina University, University of Mississippi, Northern Arizona University, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Rutgers University-Newark, Missouri State University-Springfield, University of New Mexico-Main Campus, Christopher Newport University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Augusta University, DeVry University-Virginia, Liberty University, Radford University, Norfolk State University, Hampton University, Shenandoah University, South University-Richmond

Enrollment

General

Teaching

Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.

Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.

Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.

Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.

Geography

This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated.

Financial Aid

Graduation

Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).

Library

Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.

Diversity

The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.

Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).

These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.

Overall diversity