Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia, formed in 1968 by merging the Medical College of Virginia, founded in 1838, with the Richmond Professional Institute, founded in 1917. It still runs two urban campuses about a mile apart: Monroe Park for the general university and the MCV Campus for health sciences. That dual identity, arts and professional schools on one side and an academic medical center on the other, is its structural fact.

The university comprises schools of the arts, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, social work, engineering, business, education, and related fields. It is best known for VCUarts, biomedical and cancer research at the Massey Cancer Center, and social work. Graduate students work in VCU Health hospitals, engineering laboratories on the Monroe Park campus, and the da Vinci Center for product innovation.

Enrollment is about 28,000 students, with graduate and professional students a large share because of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and the arts. International students come from more than 100 countries and form a noticeable minority. Faculty number in the thousands. Alumni include novelist David Baldacci and many physicians, dentists, and artists trained on the two Richmond campuses.

Graduate study is known for the MD, DDS, PharmD, MFA, MSW, and research PhDs, mixing clinical rotations, studio critique, and laboratory supervision on a semester calendar. Assistantships, residencies, and arts fellowships are the usual support. Students live in an urban setting between the Fan District, the state capitol, and the hospital complex, with housing in converted row houses and a short walk or bus between campuses.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Virginia Commonwealth University lists 2 graduate programs in education and public health, all of them doctoral programs.