Quick facts
With an enrollment of nearly 15,000 students, the College of Humanities and Sciences forms the heart of VCU’s Monroe Park Campus. Review our quick facts below to find out more about us and our commitment to providing excellence in both undergraduate and graduate programs.
Students, faculty and alumni
- 14,674 total students (nearly 50 percent of all VCU students)
- 12,295 undergraduates (more than 56 percent of all VCU undergraduates)
- 39,536 alumni (25 percent of all VCU alumni)
- More than 400 total faculty members
Degrees conferred
- 2,004 bachelor’s degrees
- 347 master’s degrees
- 32 doctorates
- 85 certificates
Academic programs
- Three schools
- L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs
- School of Mass Communications
- School of World Studies
- More than 15 departments and programs in the liberal arts and sciences
- Innovative and signature programs
- Homeland security and emergency preparedness: first undergraduate program of its kind in the nation and one that offers a graduate degree in the same field
- Forensic science: one of three programs in the country to have both undergraduate and graduate programs accredited
- VCU Brandcenter: ranked No. 1 nationally
- Psychology: nationally ranked in scholarly productivity — No. 5 in clinical and No. 3 in counseling
- Ph.D. in Media, Art, and Text
- Ph.D. in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- Ph.D. in Systems Modeling and Mathematical Analysis
- Ph.D. in Health Psychology
- Ph.D. in Chemical Biology
- Largest academic units
- Wilder School: 2,208 students
- Biology: 1,818 students
- Mass Communications: 1,426 students
- Psychology: 1,527 students
- English: 654 students
Research and scholarship
- 19 major books by faculty authors and 412 manuscripts published in 2008
- Home to four academic journals, including Blackbird where a newly discovered Sylvia Plath poem, “Ennui,” was published
- Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry: “Interrogation Palace,” by David Wojahn, director, Creative Writing Program
- Jefferson Science Fellow, U.S. Department of State: Puru Jena, Ph.D., Department of Physics
- Nobel laureate, John Fenn, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry
- More than $26 million in external funding for research
Select grants
- Mathematics – Wiliam Haver, Ph.D., and Ruben Farley, Ph.D.: $4.4 million, National Science Foundation
- Psychology – Al Farrell, Ph.D.: $3.4 million, Centers for Disease Control; Clarissa Holmes, Ph.D.: $3.7 million, National Institutes of Health
- Physics – Shiv Khanna, Ph.D.: $527,000, Pennsylvania State University
- Chemistry – Julio Alvarez, Ph.D.: $450,000 Career Grant, National Science Foundation
- Biology – John Ryan, Ph.D.: $1.8 million, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Bonnie Brown, Ph.D.: $168,000, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and $266,500, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
The College in the community
- Represented among Carnegie-ranked partnerships and outreach programs
- More than $9 million in total grant support involving community engagement
- Areas of focus
- Neighborhoods and communities
- K-12 education
- Government and leadership
- Family, individual and community well-being
- Community and public safety
- Nonprofits
- Technology, media and humanities
The College in the world
- Partnerships: University of the West of England, Fudan University, University of Córdoba, University of Guadalajara, University of Messina, University of São Paulo and St. Petersburg State University
- Global initiatives
- Center for Integrative Mediterranean Studies
- Women’s International Experiences Scholarship
- Study abroad and international fellowships
Budget
- Total budget: $73.1 million
- State: $46.5 million
- Non-state: $26.6 million (auxiliary, gift, grant and university funds)
