About Virginia Tech

The University At A Glance

• Located at Blacksburg, Virginia
• Eight colleges and graduate school
• 60 bachelor's degree programs
• 110 master's and doctoral degree programs
• Almost 28,000 students, making it the largest in the commonwealth
• 16:1 student-faculty ratio
• Main campus includes 110 buildings, 2,600 acres, and airport
• Computing and communications complex for worldwide info access
• Among the Top 50 research institutions in United States
• Has adjacent corporate research center

From a meager beginning in October of 1872, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech, has evolved into a comprehensive university of national and international prominence. As Virginia's largest university with 25,600 students and one of the top 50 researchinstitutions in the nation, it is an institution that firmly embraces a history of putting knowledge to work. That tradition is roote in our motto, Ut Prosim: "That I May Serve," and our land-grant missions of instruction, research, and solving the problems of society through public service and outreach activities.

Instruction

Our eight colleges (Agriculture & Life Sciences, Architecture & Urban Studies, Pamplin College of Business, Engineering, Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Natural Resources, Science, and Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, plus the Graduate School) offer more degree programs than any other university in the state with 60 undergraduate and 110 graduate programs. Virginia Tech is one of the nation's leaders in developing and using new instructional technologies

Research

With annual research expenditures of about $170 million,Virginia Tech consistently ranks among the top 50 research universities in the United States. With more than 100 research centers, the university also consistently ranks among the topinstitutions in industry-supported research and near the top 10 in the number of patents issued each year. The university's faculty and students are involved in more than 3,700 research projects in fields ranging from biotechnology to materials, from the environment and energy to food and health,
and from transportation to computing information.

Public Service

As part of its public service mission, Virginia Tech is involved in a multitude of outreach projects. For example, it spawns economic development, helps global marketing efforts, investigates better uses for strip-mined land, helps clean the Chesapeake Bay and other state waterways, directs reforestation in Senegal--and the list goes on. Outreach efforts also focus on education and the dissemination of knowledge. Virginia Tech has a long history of providing innovative distance learning techniques--satellite videoconferencing, multimedia, interactive video, interactive computer conferencing, web-based courses, etc.--to meet the various needs of working adults and other nontraditional students.

Professionals, organizations, and communities also tap Virginia Tech's vast resources, expertise, and research results through the Division of Continuing Education, which offers hundreds of programs annually.

The Cooperative Extension Service, operated jointly in the commonwealth by Virginia Tech and Virginia State University,has been helping people improve their economic, cultural, and social well-being for more than 85 years now. With 107 city/county offices, and more than 44,000 volunteers and 160
programs Extension reaches and teaches millions of Virginians annually.

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