University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is Virginia's public flagship research university, founded in 1819 in Charlottesville by Thomas Jefferson. It was organized from the start around independent schools rather than a collegiate church model, with the Academical Village as its original campus. The Lawn and ranges remain the center of Grounds, which now extend through a residential college town in the Piedmont.

Schools include the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the McIntire School of Commerce, the Darden School of Business, the School of Law, the School of Medicine, the School of Education and Human Development, the School of Architecture, the School of Nursing, the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and the School of Data Science. Law, business, medicine, public policy, and the humanities are the graduate fields most closely identified with the university. UVA Health is the clinical site for biomedical graduate students.

Enrollment is about 25,000, including roughly 8,000 graduate and professional students. International students are a moderate share of graduate enrollment and come from more than 100 countries. Faculty number more than 2,000. Alumni include President Woodrow Wilson, writer Edgar Allan Poe, who studied there, and senator Robert F. Kennedy, a graduate of the School of Law.

Graduate degrees include the PhD, JD, MBA at Darden, MD, MPP, and data-science master's. Doctoral study is supervision-led; Darden, Law, and Medicine follow professional cohort models. The academic year is two semesters. PhD students are commonly funded by assistantships; Darden and Law have their own scholarship cultures. Charlottesville is a small city at the foot of the Blue Ridge in which Grounds, housing, and the hospital sit close together.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Virginia lists 178 graduate programs across 47 subjects: 85 master's programs and 72 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in education, health & medical sciences and languages & linguistics. University of Virginia holds rank 55 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.