by our College Data Analytics Team
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 the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
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.
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.
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.
Learn more about Virginia Commonwealth University admissions.
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.
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%.
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.
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%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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.
| $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.
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.
See which majors at Virginia Commonwealth University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Virginia Commonwealth University.
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 |
| 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 |
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!
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.