Considering Student Population Trends for Virginia Tech's Future

As Virginia Tech looks towards its 175th anniversary, questions regarding what kind of student body it intends to serve must be answered. At present, the university is serving an almost-exclusively “traditional” student body, which is typical of many residential colleges and of its peer institutions. The university will almost certainly continue to recruit and be attractive to this population, which is likely to grow in the future based on current Census projections. There are also opportunities to expand its role as the “people’s university” to educate more of the non-traditional student populations as part of its land-grant mission.