Aside from its main location in Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University also has a campus in Education City in Doha, with strong collaboration and interchange between the two sites. The school also has partner programmes overseas in the United Kingdom, Italy and Portugal. In 2017, 77 percent of students in our survey expressed they were satisfied with the school's teaching of technical skills - an improvement on the previous year's 63 percent satisfaction score. Over 80 percent of students were satisfied with business and marketing courses. Students were also satisfied with the quality of teachers at the university and the student body, though only 72 percent felt prepared to work in the fashion industry. Correlatively, the school scored poorly in graduate employment and the quality of recruiters attracted to campus.
49th
Undergraduate, Fashion Ranking 2017
Full-time fashion students
238
International students
1%
Student : Teacher ratio
10:1
Tuition: Domestic/intl
$24k/$34k
Acceptance rate
60%
Graduation Rate
70%
Courses Offered
Undergraduate:
BFA Fashion Design; BA Fashion Merchandising
Student & Alumni Comments
"The studio classes in design, patternmaking and construction were very well done! The faculty was knowledgeable and I was better prepared in how to make garments than most of my peers right out of college. However, I felt that the programme did not properly prepare me for the current work environment. I knew nothing of mass market production or sampling processes. I had to learn most of what I currently do on the job."
"Overall good for industry basics and general Fashion Design skills but lacked in diversity of other related fashion industry careers. Needed more product development and production options. Women's Design was overly emphasised. Realistically, most graduates did not go into Haute Couture fashion; rather the American sportswear markets."
Full Undergraduate, Fashion Ranking
The Business of Fashion's global fashion school rankings aim to provide an objective assessment of the top undergraduate and graduate fashion programmes around the world.