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The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

is the largest of the University of Virginia’s 11 schools and is the institution’s intellectual core. Offering more than 50 undergraduate majors and concentrations and more than two dozen graduate programs, Arts & Sciences spans the liberal arts, incorporating the social sciences, arts, humanities and sciences. The College and Graduate School comprise more than 10,000 students and more than 750 faculty members.

Our mission is to equip our students with the wisdom and sensibilities to excel in this new century. That means developing the kind of contemporary minds—powerful, versatile and subtle—that will enable them to meet the challenges of a world that is becoming more volatile, complex, diverse and global than ever. We aspire to create a vibrant community of students who share a hunger to learn and discover. We want them to have the ability and desire to make a difference in the world and inspire others to do the same.

The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, through pursuit of its strategic priorities, seeks to heighten its own and the University’s stature as a leader in research and graduate education while maintaining its long-standing reputation for excellence in undergraduate education and exceptional teaching. The College also upholds the University of Virginia's commitment to diversity, alongside ethics, integrity, and academic excellence, as the cornerstones of University culture.

Arts & Sciences Statistics

College of Arts & Sciences Fall 2012  Total Enrollment

Undergraduate: 10,342
(69% VA; 31% Out of state)

Graduate: 1,369
(20% VA; 80% Out of state)

Undergraduate Stats

2012–2013 tuition: $12,224 (VA); $38,236 (Out of state)

Admissions: Of 21,070 fall 2012 applicants, 6,121 students were offered admission and 2,626 accepted.

Class of 2016 (First-year) Student Profile

• 64% are Virginia residents
• 26.4% are minority students
• 6.3% are foreign students
• 70% graduated from a public school; 30% from private
• 51.4% received some form of financial aid

• 92.7% ranked in the highest tenth of their high school graduating class.
• Mean combined SAT score was: 655 Verbal, 676 Math, and 675 Writing

Graduate School Stats

2012–2013 tuition: $15,672 (VA); $25,678 (Out of state)

Admissions: Of 4,543 fall 2012 applicants, 721 students were offered admission and 317 accepted.

Rankings

The University of Virginia continues to excel in the U.S. News & World Report’s (USNWR) annual rankings. In August 2012, U.S. News & World Report’s latest (undergraduate) college rankings placed the University of Virginia as the nation’s #2 public university  and as 25th  among all (262) national universities. Since U.S. News began a listing of the top 50 public universities in 1998, University of Virginia has never been lower than No. 2. In the 20-year history of the complete rankings, U.Va. has never dropped out of the top 25. USNWR rankings for individual UVA schools and departments are listed here.

Arts & Sciences Alumni

The College has many distinguished alumni, including scientist Francis Collins, journalist Katie Couric, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Claudia Emerson, Olympic Gold Medalist and WNBA player Dawn Staley, film producer Mark Johnson, television/film writer and actress Tina Fey, broadcaster and former NFL running back Tiki Barber, and former Secretary of the Treasury John Snow.