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Virginia Commonwealth University Data & Information Overview

124 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
91% Acceptance Rate
If you want to know more about Virginia Commonwealth University, such as what majors does it offer, how diverse it is, how well it ranks, and more, this is your one-stop resource.
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How Well Is Virginia Commonwealth University Ranked?

#189 Best Colleges in Nation
#8 Best Colleges in VA
Social Work Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2025 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Virginia Commonwealth University was awarded 124 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is social work.

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Overall Quality

VCU is ranked #189 out of 2,152 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2025 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when VCU held the #240 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

VCU also holds the #8 spot on the Best Colleges in Virginia ranking.

See all of the rankings for Virginia Commonwealth University.

Is It Hard to Get Into VCU?

91% Acceptance Rate
64% Of Accepted Are Women
32% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 91%, Virginia Commonwealth University is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.

Average Test Scores

About 32% of students accepted to VCU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 530 and 660. Math scores were between 500 and 630.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Virginia Commonwealth University  ( 530 to 660 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Virginia Commonwealth University  ( 500 to 630 )
200
800
VCU received ACT scores from 4% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 22 and 30.

ACT Composite Scores for Virginia Commonwealth University  ( 22 to 30 )
1
36

Learn more about Virginia Commonwealth University admissions.

Virginia Commonwealth University Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
64% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Virginia Commonwealth University is about average at 16 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Virginia Commonwealth University is 64%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  64 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Virginia Commonwealth University

85% Freshmen Retention
44% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 85% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Virginia Commonwealth University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  85 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at VCU for first-time, full-time students is 44%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  44 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University Undergraduate Student Diversity

18,734 Full-Time Undergraduates
54.6% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
62.9% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 21,943 undergraduates at VCU with 18,734 being full-time and 3,209 being part-time.

How Much Does Virginia Commonwealth University Cost?

$20,405 Net Price
47% Take Out Loans
$31,228 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of VCU is $20,405. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for VCU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$14,188 $15,435 $18,675 $23,433 $28,236

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of VCU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At VCU, approximately 47% of students took out student loans averaging $7,807 a year. That adds up to $31,228 over four years for those students.

Get more details about paying for Virginia Commonwealth University.

How Much Money Do VCU Graduates Make?

$58,128 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from VCU make about $58,128 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for VCU students since it is 18% more than the average college graduate's salary of $49,219 per year.

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See which majors at Virginia Commonwealth University make the most money.

Location of Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia State
18,734 Full-Time Undergraduates
Midsize City Campus Setting
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public institution located in Richmond, Virginia. The city atmosphere of Richmond makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

Get more details about the location of Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Contact details for VCU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 910 W Franklin St, Richmond, VA 23284-2512
Phone: 804-828-0100
Website: https://www.vcu.edu/

Virginia Commonwealth University Majors

105 Majors With Completions
15,662 Undergraduate Degrees
15,662 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 105 majors graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University. Of these students, 15,662 received undergraduate degrees and 15,662 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
General Psychology 561 $29,462
General Biology 452 $31,149
General Business/Commerce 392 $51,669
Nursing 387 $71,847
Teacher Education Subject Specific 371 $34,677
Social Work 348 $34,088
Design & Applied Arts 333 $25,872
Criminal Justice & Corrections 263 $38,495
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 224 $49,111
Communication & Media Studies 221 $35,808

Learn more about the majors offered at Virginia Commonwealth University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at VCU

67% Take At Least One Class Online
10% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2022-2023, 18,802 students took at least one online class at Virginia Commonwealth University. This is a decrease from the 22,958 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2022-2023 18,802 2,680
2021-2022 22,958 3,919
2020-2021 25,559 10,467
2018-2019 9,120 1,048

Learn more about online learning at Virginia Commonwealth University.

If you’re considering Virginia Commonwealth University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against VCU? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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