Virginia Union University
Private College in Richmond, VA. Six-year graduation rate 34%. Median 10-year earnings $38,275.
Students who entered Virginia Union University reach a median of $38,275 a decade later, a figure that trails the typical four-year outcome. Completion is the weak point: 34% graduate within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $29,000 — a substantial load to service on these earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.5% — below national benchmark
- ! Debt-to-income ratio 0.76 — elevated (above 0.60)
- ! Graduation rate 34% — below national average
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 98%, Virginia Union University takes nearly everyone who applies. 2,835 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. A 14% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. The score bands below rest on the 10% of enrolled first-years who submitted an SAT score — a self-selected group, and not a cutoff.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | 450–475 | 30 (10%) |
| SAT Math | 400–410 | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Virginia Union University →Academics
Only 34% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential. First-year retention is 67% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. The 35% transfer-out rate is high enough that a large share of this school's students are really passing through. The part-time picture is harder: 31% return, against 67% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,229 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $11,483 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Income makes less difference than usual: $11,424 at $0–30k, $18,301 at $110k+. 85% of students get grant aid averaging $16,146, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Most students borrow — 71% take federal loans to cover the gap.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 395 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $11,424 |
| $30–48k | $12,372 |
| $48–75k | $14,420 |
| $75–110k | $21,362 |
| $110k+ | $18,301 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 873 of these 1,229 students, totalling $8,247,883 — an average of $9,448 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Richmond City) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Heightened Cash Monitoring (Compliance Audit Late or Missing); School placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)