Virginia Wesleyan University
Private College in Virginia Beach, VA. Six-year graduation rate 42%. Median 10-year earnings $50,074.
The median ten-year earnings figure of $50,074 sits near the national middle rather than at either extreme. 42% finish within six years — respectable, though a meaningful share still leave without a credential. Debt is the pressure point: a median of $27,000 at graduation.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
73% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. 3,808 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Only 12% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere.
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 | — | — |
| SAT Math | — | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Virginia Wesleyan University →Academics
Completion is middling: 42% finish inside six years. Retention of 74% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. 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 44% transfer-out rate is high enough that a large share of this school's students are really passing through. At 15:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,243 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $21,267 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $14,080 while those at $110k+ pay $24,782. 95% of students get grant aid averaging $26,572, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 59% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
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 · 369 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 | $14,080 |
| $30–48k | $17,108 |
| $48–75k | $15,967 |
| $75–110k | $22,603 |
| $110k+ | $24,782 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 732 of these 1,243 students, totalling $4,794,138 — an average of $6,549 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Virginia Beach City) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)