At a Glance
Virginia Tech admits 55% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
Net price data temporarily unavailable. Visit each school's net price calculator directly.
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Sticker price
Not reported by this school
Debt at Graduation
Not reported by this school
receive need-based grant aid
$34,527
average debt at graduation
Virginia Tech graduates carry an average of $34,527 in debt.
Merit Aid
2,978
students received merit aid
$3,559
average merit award
Getting In
Virginia Tech admits 55% of applicants.
This school reports SAT section scores but leaves the composite range blank, so there is no mid-50% band to chart.
Mid-50% by section: Reading 640–710 · Math 640–740.
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 9% of the class submitted
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University rates your personal essay as Very Important — equal weight to your GPA. Don't underestimate it. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
33% of Virginia Tech classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Virginia Tech, 33% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
17:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
32.6%
In Greek life
~20%
Greek-life participation from Virginia Tech FSL (2025) — not reported in Virginia Tech's 2024–25 Common Data Set.
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Virginia Tech's student body is 57% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Virginia Tech graduates 69.1% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Virginia Tech graduates 69.1% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Virginia Tech
69.1%
4-yr grad rate
Data pending
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
86.3%
Overall 6-yr rate
79.1%
Pell recipient rate
A 7.2 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
93%
93% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Blacksburg.
Blacksburg is a town of about 45,000 built around the university, with a compact brick downtown of restaurants and music venues that students walk to rather than drive to. The setting is why many students pick it: the New River, the Jefferson National Forest and the Blue Ridge are all close enough for an afternoon, and a waterfall hike at the Cascades is thirty minutes out. The trade-off is isolation — Roanoke is the nearest city at 45 minutes, and Washington, DC is a four-hour drive. Campus carries the social calendar here, which suits students who want that and frustrates students who want a city.
Notable Alumni
Chris Kraft
NASA's first flight director and the architect of Mission Control, who ran the room through Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
Class of 1944
Regina Dugan
The first woman to lead DARPA, who went on to build advanced-technology groups at Google and Facebook.
Dave Calhoun
President and CEO of Boeing from 2020 to 2024, after a long run as a senior executive at General Electric and Nielsen.
Class of 1979
Homer Hickam
Author of the memoir Rocket Boys, adapted into the film October Sky, about a coal miner's son building rockets in West Virginia.
Class of 1964
Bruce Smith
The NFL's all-time career sack leader with 200, and a first-ballot inductee into both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
College town
Blacksburg, VA
Best For
Traditions
Hokie Stone
Nearly every building on campus is faced in a gray-to-pink limestone cut from the university's own quarry, and new central-campus buildings are still required to carry it.
The Corps of Cadets
Virginia Tech has kept a residential military corps since 1872, on either a military-leader track through ROTC or a civilian citizen-leader track — but joining is entirely optional and the large majority of undergraduates are not cadets.
Ut Prosim and the Pylons
The 1896 motto, Latin for "That I May Serve," is carved into the eight War Memorial pylons alongside Brotherhood, Honor, Leadership, Sacrifice, Service, Loyalty and Duty, and is used in earnest rather than as decoration.
Enter Sandman
The Metallica track has opened Hokie football entrances at Lane Stadium since 2000, with the whole stadium jumping — routinely named the loudest entrance in college football.
The Ring Dance
Since 1934, juniors have received class rings redesigned fresh for every graduating class, exchanged at a formal dance.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Blacksburg
Cascades Falls and Mountain Lake
30 minutesA four-mile hike to a 66-foot waterfall in Pembroke, with the lodge used as the Dirty Dancing filming location just up the road.
Roanoke
45 minutesThe nearest real city — a downtown market, the Taubman art museum, and the closest access to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
New River Gorge National Park, WV
2 hoursWhitewater rafting, world-class rock climbing and the bridge, in one of the country's newest national parks.
Asheville, NC
3 hours 30 minutesMountain-town breweries, the Biltmore Estate and the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Washington, DC
4 hoursA long haul up I-81, but the destination for free museums and the internship circuit many Hokie engineers end up on.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA)
45 minutes from campus
For international flights: Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) — about 2 hours 45 minutes by car.
Pro sports nearby
- Salem Red Sox MiLBAbout 45 minutes away
- Carolina Panthers NFLAbout 3 hours away
- Charlotte Hornets NBAAbout 3 hours away
Career Proximity
Blacksburg isn't near a metro, so the internship pipeline runs two ways: the Corporate Research Center sits on the edge of campus with roughly 180 technology companies across 40 buildings, and Virginia Tech's engineering reputation pulls recruiters from the Washington, DC defense and tech corridor four hours north. Expect to relocate for a summer more often than commute to one.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Virginia Tech
- Torc Robotics
- Volvo Trucks New River Valley
- Moog
- Carilion Clinic
Roanoke — about 45 minutes; Washington, DC is roughly 4 hours
Who Thrives Here
Virginia Tech is a big, hands-on public university — about 31,000 undergraduates, a 17-to-1 student-faculty ratio, and only a third of classes under 20 students, so this is a place where you go find professors rather than being handed small seminars. The culture is unusually service-minded for a school this size: the motto Ut Prosim, "That I May Serve," gets used in earnest, and a residential Corps of Cadets has been part of campus since 1872 — joining is optional and most students don't, but its presence sets a tone. Blacksburg is a real college town in the Blue Ridge, which suits students who want the outdoors and frustrates students who want a city. The trade-off is money: Virginia Tech meets 54.5% of demonstrated need and its graduates leave with about $34,527 in debt, both a long way behind the private universities it competes with for engineers. It graduates 86.3% of students within six years, but only 69.1% in four.