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Virginia Commonwealth University Data & Information Overview

437 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
93% Acceptance Rate
Find out more about how Virginia Commonwealth University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
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How Well Is Virginia Commonwealth University Ranked?

#240 Best Colleges in Nation
#7 Best Colleges in VA
Mental & Social Health Services Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 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 437 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is mental & social health services.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

VCU landed the #240 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation.

VCU is also ranked #7 out of 63 schools in Virginia.

See all of the rankings for Virginia Commonwealth University.

Is It Hard to Get Into VCU?

93% Acceptance Rate
65% Of Accepted Are Women
29% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Virginia Commonwealth University has an acceptance rate of 93%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for VCU.

Average Test Scores

About 29% 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 550 and 660. Math scores were between 520 and 640.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Virginia Commonwealth University  ( 550 to 660 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Virginia Commonwealth University  ( 520 to 640 )
200
800
VCU received ACT scores from 5% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 20 and 29.

ACT Composite Scores for Virginia Commonwealth University  ( 20 to 29 )
1
36

Learn more about Virginia Commonwealth University admissions.

Virginia Commonwealth University Faculty

18 to 1 Student to Faculty
68% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Virginia Commonwealth University is about average at 18 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 68%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  68 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Virginia Commonwealth University

84% Freshmen Retention
45% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 84% 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  84 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 45%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  45 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?

$20,490 Net Price
47% Take Out Loans
$31,784 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of VCU is $20,490. 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 +
$14,507 $15,891 $18,553 $23,030 $27,769

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 $7,946 a year. That adds up to $31,784 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at VCU is 2.6%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Virginia Commonwealth University.

How Much Money Do VCU Graduates Make?

$50,106 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from VCU make around $50,106 per year during the early years of their employment. That's great news for VCU students since it is 18% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 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/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/virginiacommonwealthuniversity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VCU

Virginia Commonwealth University Majors

89 Majors With Completions
5,479 Undergraduate Degrees
1,888 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 89 majors graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University. Of these students, 5,479 received undergraduate degrees and 1,888 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 591 $29,652
Teacher Education Subject Specific 444 $29,863
General Biology 415 $24,666
Design & Applied Arts 302 $29,473
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 276 $30,506
General Business/Commerce 264 $43,919
Communication & Media Studies 257 $31,961
Nursing 212 $60,267
Political Science & Government 201 $32,107
Criminal Justice & Corrections 187 $34,326

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

Online Learning at VCU

80% Take At Least One Class Online
14% 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 2020-2021, 22,958 students took at least one online class at Virginia Commonwealth University. This is a decrease from the 25,559 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 22,958 3,919
2019-2020 25,559 10,467
2018-2019 9,276 819
2017-2018 9,120 1,048
2016-2017 7,925 939

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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