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Rankings / By State

Best Engineering Colleges in Virginia

By David Krug, Co-Founder, CollegeRanker · Updated 2026-05-31 · 11 schools · Agent Insights
11
Schools Analyzed
$68,476
Avg. Earnings (10yr)
68%
Avg. Graduation Rate
$20,387
Avg. Net Price

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This ranking scores 11 institutions on graduation rates, graduate earnings, debt burdens, and social mobility data from Opportunity Insights. Every data point comes from federal sources. No surveys, no opinions.

Social mobility carries the heaviest weight in our algorithm. We use Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card — built on 30 million anonymized tax records — to measure whether a college changes a family's economic trajectory across generations. Schools that take low-income students and launch them into higher earnings rank higher than schools that admit wealthy students and take credit for their success.

The transparency penalty matters here. Schools that don't report their data get scored lower than schools that do. If an institution won't show you its numbers, we think you should know that before you write them a tuition check.

Quick Numbers

Schools ranked 11
Avg. earnings at 10yr $68,476
Avg. graduation rate 68%
Avg. net price $20,387
Avg. median debt $21,540

How We Ranked

Engineering programs in Virginia ranked by outcomes and program concentration

Read our full methodology →

Earnings vs. Cost

Each dot is a ranked school. Up = higher earnings. Right = higher cost. Top-left is the best value.

$15K$68K$120K$0$50KNET PRICEVirginia PolytechnicVirginia MilitaryWashington andGeorge MasonUniversity of

Graduation Rates

Longer bars = higher graduation rate.

Virginia Polytechnic Ins…86%Virginia Military Instit…79%Washington and Lee Unive…94%George Mason University69%University of Virginia-M…95%Sweet Briar College50%Old Dominion University45%Virginia Commonwealth Un…64%Northern Virginia Commun…35%Hampton University56%Randolph-Macon College72%

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Full Rankings

#1

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Blacksburg, VA · 30,923 students · Public

55% accepted 86% graduate $81,698 earnings
Virginia's full profile
#2

Virginia Military Institute

Lexington, VA · 1,527 students · Public

71% accepted 79% graduate $77,369 earnings
Virginia's full profile
#3

Washington and Lee University

Lexington, VA · 1,881 students · Private nonprofit

14% accepted 94% graduate $94,810 earnings
Washington's full profile
#4

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA · 27,752 students · Public

87% accepted 69% graduate $76,343 earnings
George's full profile
#5

University of Virginia-Main Campus

Charlottesville, VA · 17,597 students · Public

17% accepted 95% graduate $86,863 earnings
University's full profile
#6

Sweet Briar College

Sweet Briar, VA · 443 students · Private nonprofit

76% accepted 50% graduate $51,943 earnings
Sweet's full profile
#7

Old Dominion University

Norfolk, VA · 17,514 students · Public

90% accepted 45% graduate $54,914 earnings
Old's full profile
#8

Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond, VA · 20,753 students · Public

93% accepted 64% graduate $58,128 earnings
Virginia's full profile
#9

Northern Virginia Community College

Annandale, VA · 33,048 students · Public

35% graduate $53,557 earnings
Northern's full profile
#10

Hampton University

Hampton, VA · 3,727 students · Private nonprofit

62% accepted 56% graduate $59,159 earnings
Hampton's full profile
#11

Randolph-Macon College

Ashland, VA · 1,639 students · Private nonprofit

87% accepted 72% graduate $58,448 earnings
Randolph-Macon's full profile

Sources & Citations

[1]

U.S. Department of Education. College Scorecard Data. Federal Student Aid, National Center for Education Statistics.

[2]

National Center for Education Statistics. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

DK

David Krug

Co-Founder, CollegeRanker

David Krug is the co-founder of CollegeRanker and a data systems architect focused on making institutional research accessible to families. He builds the data pipelines and ranking algorithms that power CollegeRanker, drawing from federal datasets and Raj Chetty's Opportunity Insights research to measure what traditional rankings ignore: whether a college actually changes a family's economic trajectory.