Virginia State University

What it is like

Virginia State University sits in Ettrick, Virginia, on the Chesterfield County side of the Appomattox River, across from the city of Petersburg. It is a public university with 5,074 undergraduates and 481 graduate students in the federal data. About 83% of undergraduates are Black, and about 72% receive Pell Grants, the federal grant for students from lower-income families.

The main campus covers 236 acres, and the university also runs a 416-acre farm for teaching and research. Richmond is about 20 miles up Interstate 95 and Washington, D.C. is about 125 miles to the north, so students have a big city within reach without living in one.

The school describes its own pitch as the advantages of a large university, meaning research and technology, combined with the personal attention of a small college. Admission is not highly selective: about 89% of applicants are admitted, and the middle ACT score among students who submit one is 18. VSU calls itself an 1890 land-grant university, and it holds a research designation from the Carnegie Classification called R2.

History

The state of Virginia chartered the school on March 6, 1882, as the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. The bill was sponsored by Alfred W. Harris, a Black attorney who sat in the state legislature for Dinwiddie County. A hostile lawsuit held up the opening for nineteen months, until October 1, 1883. That first year the school had 126 students and seven faculty members, all of them Black. Wikipedia describes it as the first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for Black Americans in the United States.

The first president was John Mercer Langston, one of the best-known Black leaders of his day. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1888, and no other Black Virginian won a seat there until 1992. Between 1888 and 1968, four presidents (Johnston, Gandy, Foster and Daniel) served an average of about twenty years each.

The name changed as the mission did. It became the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute in 1902. In 1920 the state moved its land-grant program for Black Virginians here from Hampton Institute, and a college program was restored in 1923. The school became Virginia State College for Negroes in 1930, Virginia State College in 1946 and Virginia State University in 1979.

In 1944 VSU opened a two-year branch in Norfolk. It became a four-year branch in 1956 and gained its independence as Norfolk State College in 1969.

More recently, author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave the university $30 million in 2020. In autumn 2025 she gave a second gift of $50 million, which news reports call the largest single gift from an individual donor in the school's history.

Academics

VSU is organized into a College of Agriculture, the Reginald F. Lewis College of Business, a College of Education, a College of Engineering and Technology, a College of Humanities and Social Sciences, a College of Natural and Health Sciences and a College of Graduate Studies. The university lists 37 undergraduate degree programs and 19 graduate degree programs, plus two doctoral programs: an Ed.D. in educational administration and supervision and a doctorate in health psychology.

What students actually graduate in tells you where the weight sits. In the latest federal data the biggest bachelor's programs are psychology, with 76 awards, criminal justice, with 68, business administration, with 51, and communication and media studies, with 49. Teacher education follows with 41, then biology with 29 and computer science with 27. At the graduate level the largest programs are in educational administration, at both the master's and doctoral level, and in student counseling.

The land-grant mission shows up most clearly at Randolph Farm, a 416-acre learning center where students and faculty study new and niche crops, water quality, animal production and aquaculture. It has about 130 acres of irrigated cropland, 57 research and teaching ponds, a fish hatchery and roughly 75 acres of fenced pasture.

The university also lists a Peace Corps Prep program, a Public Health Institute and the National HBCU Studies Data Collection and Research Center.

Among the school's graduates is Gladys West, who earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics here in 1952 and a master's in 1955. She went on to work as a mathematician and programmer at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, on models of the Earth's shape that helped make GPS accurate, and the Air Force inducted her into its hall of fame in 2018.

Campus life

The Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons, which opened in 2025, is the largest building in the school's history at 175,000 square feet. It houses the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Education, and it also holds a swimming pool, a gym with six basketball courts, an indoor running track, a black box theater, dance studios, an art gallery and broadcast and recording studios. It is named for the founder.

Freshmen are required to live on campus. There are exceptions if your permanent home is within 25 miles of VSU, if you are 21 or older, if you are married or were previously married, or if you have completed military service. Two incoming students can room together if each requests the other on their housing application. Rooms are furnished and come with cable TV and internet. The newer Quad and Gateway halls are LEED gold certified and have workout rooms, communal kitchens and lounges.

The school's student organization list has 62 groups, from a Biology Club and a Society of Women Engineers chapter to the VSU Gospel Chorale, the Sankofa Dance Theatre, the Imprint Step Team and a Caribbean Students Association. All nine Divine Nine fraternities and sororities are on campus under the National Pan-Hellenic Council.

The Trojans compete in NCAA Division II in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, known as the CIAA, which Virginia State has belonged to since 1920. The school fields 20 varsity teams, 10 for men and 10 for women, in colors of orange and blue, with Troy the Trojan as the mascot. Football plays at Rogers Stadium, which seats 7,909. The CIAA was founded in 1912 at Hampton Institute and is described as the oldest African-American athletic conference in the country.

The town around you is Petersburg, 21 miles south of Richmond. It had 33,458 residents in the 2020 census, and its Old Towne district has restored historic buildings and local restaurants.

Traditions

The Trojan Explosion Marching Band is the largest student organization on campus. It includes instrumentalists, the Essence of Troy Dancers, the Satin Divas flag line, the Troy Elegance Twirlers and the Commanders of Troy drum majors. The band's own description is "The Best Band in the CIAA," and it lists appearances at the White House, NBC's Today Show and the Honda Battle of the Bands ten times.

The band's roots go back to the 1888 to 1889 school year, when a student named Ulysses S. Grant Patterson started a brass band of 10 players. Over the decades it went by other names, including the Marching 110, which in 1966 became the first American marching band to play at a Canadian football game, in Montreal. Harold J. Haughton Sr. renamed it the Trojan Explosion in 1984. In 2010 the VSU drumline played at the White House for President Obama.

The other campus institution is the Woo Woos, the cheerleading squad. Paulette Walker Johnson became the cheer coach in 1974 and built a fast, low-to-the-ground stomp-and-shake style rather than one based on stunts. The explanation Johnson has accepted for the name is that crowds would shout Woo Woo when the squad came out. The style spread through HBCU cheerleading and beyond.

Homecoming includes a yearly parade. The 2022 route was set to start near Union Train Station in Old Towne Petersburg, wind through the city and end at the campus Multipurpose Center, with the Woo Woos and the Trojan Explosion joined by more than 13 high school bands and dance teams. The school calls it a family reunion for students, alumni, families and the local community. Homecoming week is also when campus tours pause, so plan a visit around it.

Getting in

VSU uses rolling admissions, and the admissions office says its goal is to give you a decision as quickly as possible. The school urges you to start early. It has separate application paths for freshmen, transfer students, graduate students, international undergraduates and returning students, and the application is free.

The school is test-optional. It says admission decisions put the emphasis on your core classes and that you do not need to send SAT or ACT scores, and that sending them will not hurt your admission or scholarship chances. You will need a high school or GED transcript. The school asks for college-preparatory coursework of 4 units of English, 3 of math starting at Algebra I or higher, 2 of science with one lab and 2 of social studies, and it recommends 2 units of a foreign language.

Transfer students can check how courses from Virginia community colleges and Richard Bland College count toward a VSU degree, using an equivalency tool on the admissions site. Deadlines change from year to year, so read the current dates on the admissions page linked below before you plan.

Paying for it

VSU offers its own merit scholarships to incoming freshmen based on high school GPA. The Academic Excellence (Honors) Scholarship is $8,000 a year for a 4.0 GPA. The Orange and Blue Scholarship is $4,500 a year for a 3.75 to 3.99 GPA, and the Trojan Trailblazer Scholarship is $2,000 a year for a 3.50 to 3.74 GPA. All three are renewable for up to four years if you complete 30 credits each year and keep a 3.0 GPA, and the honors award also asks you to take part in the Honors College. The College of Engineering and Technology offers a separate $3,000 scholarship to students with a 3.0 high school GPA who plan to major in computer science or computer engineering. Amounts change, so confirm them on the scholarship page.

Transfer students with an associate degree and a 3.0 GPA are considered for the Founder's Scholarship of $6,500. The school also lists a $10,000 Food and Agri-Science Scholarship, Army ROTC scholarships and athletic scholarships.

The school's financial aid office is the place to start, and its FAFSA school code is 003764. Do not judge the price by the sticker. Use the net price calculator on the financial aid page, or the College Board version the federal data links for VSU, to see an estimate for your family's income.

Visiting

The Welcome Center is in the Multipurpose Center on campus, and that is where tours start. In-person tours run Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and they are 60-minute walking tours led by student ambassadors who talk about landmarks and what student life is like. In March and April, tours are offered for small groups or on select weekdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Register through the tour page linked below.

Tours close for holidays, fall break, homecoming week, Thanksgiving and the winter break, and they can be cancelled for heavy rain, lightning, extreme temperatures or snow. Groups of more than eight from a school or community college should give four weeks of notice, and four months for March or April. The school also has a virtual tour for families who cannot travel first.

The school recommends visiting while classes are in session. On campus, see the Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons and the Welcome Center in the Multipurpose Center. Off campus, Petersburg National Battlefield preserves sites from the 292-day siege of 1864 and 1865, and Pocahontas Island holds one of the oldest free Black settlements in Virginia. First Baptist Church in Petersburg, founded by Black residents in 1774, is one of the oldest Black congregations in the country. Old Towne Petersburg is the district for restaurants and a walk through restored buildings.

Who it fits

VSU fits a student who wants a full-size university with real range, from agriculture and engineering to psychology, education and business, and who wants to be at a school where about 83% of undergraduates are Black. It fits families who want to plan the cost early: 72% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants, and the school publishes a merit scholarship scale you can read in advance.

It suits students who like a marching band, a step team, a gospel choir and a football Saturday, and those who want a land-grant school with a working farm and a public health institute attached. The biggest programs here are in psychology, criminal justice, business, communication and teacher education.

Be honest about the numbers too. About 40% of students who start finish within the federal measurement period, and about 69% come back for a second year, so use the visit to ask what support the school gives students who are struggling. Petersburg is a small city, and the nearest big-city life is Richmond, about 20 miles away, so a student who wants a city at the door should ask how people get there without a car. And if you are deciding between HBCUs, Virginia Union University in Richmond is 23 miles away, which makes it easy to see both on one trip.

Getting there from the West Coast

The nearest major commercial airport is Richmond International Airport, code RIC, in Sandston, Virginia, in Henrico County. It sits about 7 miles southeast of downtown Richmond, and the school says it is about 30 miles from campus.

The school describes the campus as reached by Interstate 95, about 20 miles south of Richmond and about 125 miles south of Washington, D.C. Since the airport is not next door, plan how you will get from your gate to campus before you book. Tours start at the Welcome Center in the Multipurpose Center, at 20809 Second Avenue, with the entrance on Third Avenue.