Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, carries an architectural and intellectual identity unlike any other public university in the country. Its rotunda-anchored lawn, honor system, and residential college model remain central to the student experience in ways that are not performative but genuinely structural.
Virginia Tech in Blacksburg has grown into a major engineering and research university, and George Mason in Fairfax has become one of the fastest-growing universities in the country by serving the enormous population of working professionals and government contractors in the Northern Virginia corridor.
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See how Virginia's colleges compare to the national average on the four measures most students and families weigh when deciding where to go: cost, acceptance rates, graduate earnings, and graduation rates.
The colleges in Virginia that rank highest by UCD Score, and those that deliver above-national graduate earnings at a below-average net price, two of the strongest signals when choosing a school.
Not every student is looking for the same thing. These six panels rank Virginia's colleges by the data that matters most for each path.
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by net price
Ranked by enrollment
Ranked by grad earnings
Which colleges give you the most for what you spend? These eight schools rank highest in Virginia by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eastern Shore Community College Melfa | $2,495 | $32,418 | 13.0× | Excellent |
| 2 | Paul D Camp Community College Franklin | $4,126 | $36,031 | 8.7× | Excellent |
| 3 | Rappahannock Community College Glenns | $4,343 | $36,121 | 8.3× | Excellent |
| 4 | Patrick & Henry Community College Martinsville | $4,102 | $33,323 | 8.1× | Excellent |
| 5 | Virginia Western Community College Roanoke | $4,966 | $38,787 | 7.8× | Excellent |
| 6 | J Sargeant Reynolds Community College Richmond | $5,168 | $39,529 | 7.7× | Excellent |
| 7 | Brightpoint Community College Chester | $5,490 | $41,223 | 7.5× | Excellent |
| 8 | Wytheville Community College Wytheville | $4,622 | $34,303 | 7.4× | Excellent |
ROI Ratio = median earnings 10 years after enrollment ÷ annual net price. Higher is better.
The six fields of study with the most annual graduates across all colleges in Virginia, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Virginia's colleges. A more granular view than the Popular Majors above, useful when you already know roughly what you want to study and want to see where the volume is.
Careers with a strong employment footprint in Virginia. What graduates from local colleges actually go on to do. State-level employment is shown where the BLS publishes it; national wage + growth shown alongside.
The cities in Virginia with the most colleges, ranked by number of institutions.
Utah crowds 14,137 students into each of its colleges, four times the national norm. These are the states where college options are scarcest per student.
There are 170 colleges that operate a medical school, and they cluster hard. Texas leads with 14, three states hold a fifth of them, and four states have none.
Northeast college graduates earn about $12,700 more a decade out than Southern ones, but they also pay thousands more to get there. The regional split, by the numbers.
Browse our full directory: every college, major, program, and career we track, all built from verified government data.
Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
