As college application season ramps up, there are plenty of reasons to consider Virginia Tech. Here are nearly two dozen of them.

  • For almost 150 years, Virginia Tech has been conducting life-changing research, educating the leaders of tomorrow, and working to solve challenges that plague our world, including Alzheimer's disease, water contamination, autonomous vehicles, head injuries, and cybersecurity.
  • Virginia Tech offers 280 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 34,000 students and manages a research portfolio of more than $521 million.
  • The university's largest campus is in Blacksburg but includes growing academic and research centers in Roanoke, Virginia, and in the Washington, D.C., metro region.
  • Virginia Tech excels in providing experiential learning opportunities, so its students are extremely involved in co-curricular activities, ranking 13 percentage points higher than college students nationally and double that of students at other large institutions, a recent Gallup study said.
  • The College of Engineering ranks No. 8 in the nation for research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation, and No. 13 for its undergraduate program by U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 rankings.
  • The university’s Master of Information Technology program (a collaboration between the Pamplin College of Business and College of Engineering) ranked No. 2 nationally in the most recent U.S. News rankings and its evening MBA program ranked No. 17.
  • USA Today College and College Factual have consistently ranked Virginia Tech as the nation’s best for studying natural resources and conservation.
  • Virginia Tech’s  College of Architecture and Urban Studies ranked in the top five nationally for its undergraduate programs in architecture and interior design, according to America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools.
  • Virginia Tech's purpose-driven curriculum prepares students to be adaptable and to see the world through the lens of the university's motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).
  • Today, the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets continues its long military tradition, and the university boasts the highest commissioning rate — 79 percent — of all the senior military and service academies in the nation. While the corps comprises only a fraction of the student population, it embodies the university's emphasis on building character and leadership.
  • The Calhoun Discovery Program within the Honors College is one example of collaborative learning at Virginia Tech, supported by a $20 million donation from alumnus David Calhoun, senior managing director for Blackstone. The program allows students to form connections between their academic majors and other disciplines while engaging with partners in industry, including Boeing, which has committed $3 million cash and significant in-kind contributions.
  • Professor Marc Edwards, along with pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, were named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People for their work uncovering the lead in water issue in Flint, Michigan. Edwards now leads the U.S. Water Study team that won a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  • The Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership runs or participates in two major federal drone-integration programs: an FAA-designated test site and as one of 10 teams in the UAS Integration Pilot Program, which brings together communities, governments, and companies to enable the next generation of drone operations. Partners include Wing, State Farm, and Intel.   
  • Computer science faculty member Kurt Luther earned the Microsoft Cloud AI Research Challenge Grand Prize in 2018 for his work exploring how crowdsourcing systems can support creativity and discovery. Entomologist Muni Muniappan, head of the Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab, travels the world to work directly with farmers to protect their fields and stop the march of invasive pests.
  • The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the second largest university-level transportation institute in the country, pioneered the use of the naturalistic driving study research method and is a national leader in autonomous vehicle research. The institute will operate the first research bed capable of testing advanced vehicles in a controlled rural setting.
  • The Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology Is a research leader in 3D and immersive environments, including the Cube, an experimental living laboratory that is widely accepted as one of the most technologically advanced venues for immersive environments.
  • The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute is leading transformative scientific advances in interdisciplinary research to address contemporary challenges in health and disease through combinations of biological, behavioral, computational, and engineering approaches.
  • The Virginia Tech Helmet Lab and Center for Injury Biomechanics has pioneered new methods for collecting quantitative, real-world data on head impacts and developed an evidence-based rating system for safety equipment that gives consumers clear guidance about which models do the best job of reducing concussion risk.
  • The university’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program is the first accredited MPH program at a veterinary college in the U.S. It’s delivered through a partnership between the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
  • In November, a Virginia Tech team of students will compete in the Solar Decathlon Middle East as the only U.S.-based team among 21 universities worldwide. And students on the Virginia Tech Hyperloop team placed fourth in the international SpaceX Hyperloop I competition.
  • The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, which houses more than 180 companies and research centers that employ more than 3,000 people, is a for-profit private subsidiary of the Virginia Tech Foundation.
  • The Hokies’ 20 sport teams compete in NCAA’s Division I as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Buoyed by eight sports participating in postseason play, Virginia Tech Athletics finished 28th in last year’s national Learfield Directors' Cup competition.
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