Verified Federal Data · No Paid Rankings

Best Colleges in Virginia

Top Virginia colleges ranked by what actually matters after graduation: earnings, completion rates, and what you actually pay. Federal data. No surveys, no sponsorships.

Schools in ranking

Virginia schools in dataset

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How We Rank Virginia Colleges

Rankings use a composite score from verified federal data: graduate earnings (28%), graduation rate (25%), social mobility via Pell Grant share (20%), debt burden (15%), and net cost for low-income students (12%). Where a school has not reported one of these, that component is dropped and the remaining weights are rescaled rather than filled in with an estimate. Only 4-year non-profit schools with sufficient data qualify.

→Earnings: Median annual earnings 10 years after enrollment. Source: College Scorecard.
→Graduation rate: Full-time first-time students completing within 150% of normal time. Source: IPEDS.
→Net price: Average annual cost after all grants and scholarships. Source: IPEDS.
→Social mobility: Share of students receiving Pell Grants, a direct measure of access for low-income students. Source: IPEDS.
→Debt burden: Median federal loan debt at graduation. Source: College Scorecard.

Top 10 Colleges in Virginia (2026)

Ranked by composite: earnings, graduation rate, social mobility, debt, affordability.

#	School	Accept	Net Price/yr	Grad Rate	Earnings (10yr)
1	Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA	14%	$23,911	94%	$94,810
2	Riverside College of Health Careers Newport News, VA	12.9%	$25,596	100%	$66,072
3	Centra College Lynchburg, VA	100%	$24,868	100%	$60,122
4	University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA	16.8%	$17,831	96%	$86,863
5	William & Mary Williamsburg, VA	34.1%	$20,422	89%	$73,490
6	University of Richmond University of Richmond, VA	22.2%	$33,417	85%	$76,178
7	George Mason University Fairfax, VA	87.5%	$18,900	68%	$76,343
8	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA	54.8%	$22,205	86%	$81,698
9	James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA	71.5%	$26,317	80%	$69,954
10	Virginia Military Institute Lexington, VA	71.2%	$17,229	76%	$77,369

43 Virginia schools in dataset. Top 10 shown. Data: IPEDS + College Scorecard. Updated annually.

All 43 Colleges in the Dataset

The ranking above shows the top 10 by composite score. Every school in the full dataset is listed here so you can explore beyond the top results.

Averett University Bluefield University Bridgewater College Bryant & Stratton College-Virginia Beach Centra College Christopher Newport University Eastern Mennonite University Emory & Henry University Ferrum College George Mason University Hampden-Sydney College Hampton University Hollins University James Madison University Liberty University Longwood University Mary Baldwin University Marymount University Norfolk State University Old Dominion University Radford University Randolph College Randolph-Macon College Regent University Riverside College of Health Careers Roanoke College Shenandoah University Southern Virginia University Sweet Briar College University of Lynchburg University of Mary Washington University of Richmond University of Virginia-Main Campus University of Virginia's College at Wise Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Military Institute Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Virginia State University Virginia Union University Virginia University of Lynchburg Virginia Wesleyan University Washington and Lee University William & Mary

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Find Your Perfect Fit in Virginia

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