-100%
3-year cohort default rate
3-year cohort default rate at Virginia Military Institute fell 100% between 2021 and 2024 (1.1% → 0.0%).
Virginia · Public · Predominantly bachelor's
Virginia Military Institute
Lexington, Virginia. 1,560 undergraduate students. 16 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Virginia Military Institute
Short-arc shifts (recent 3-year window), peer outliers, earnings trend breaks, completion drops, enrollment cliffs, and debt-to-earnings warnings — surfaced deterministically from the federal record. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section, since 25-year tuition drift isn't really an anomaly.
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Virginia
Each tile compares this institution to the Virginia median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
$77,369+22% · 6→10y
Virginia median $44,813$63,545
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry81.8%+35% · '97→'24
Virginia median 50.7%$19,000+156% · '97→'20
At program completion1,560+25% · '96→'24
latest IPEDS84.4%-6% · '04→'24
first-time, full-time81.7%+13% · '01→'24
latest cohort$20,484+234% · '01→'24
out-of-state $51,186SECTION 02 · EARNINGS HORIZONS
How earnings spread, 4 to 10 years after entry
Treasury tax-record earnings for federally aided students who first enrolled at this institution. Each point is a horizon from the most-recent vintage. Single median per horizon (no p25/p75 publishing).
Earnings widen with time post-entry. Selection: federal-aid recipients only — not all graduates.Methodology →
SECTION 03 · DEBT-TO-EARNINGS
What loans cost relative to earnings
Annual debt service as a share of median earnings 10 years after entry, computed under federal Direct loan terms (10-year fixed at 6%). The 8% line is the gainful-employment threshold from federal regulation; above 12% has historically been considered “failing” under prior rule cycles.
Institution-wide
3.3%Median federal debt $19,000 amortized over 10 years vs. median earnings $77,369 (10y after entry).
SECTION 04 · LONG ARC
Ten-plus year arc
Federally available history. Coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Undergraduate enrollment.
150%-time completion rate.
Median federal student debt at exit.
+35%
Virginia Military Institute · completion · 150% rose
56.4% → 76.2%
+88%
Virginia Military Institute · completion · 100% rose
36.2% → 68.1%
+25%
Virginia Military Institute · undergrad enrollment rose
1,218 → 1,527
+234%
Virginia Military Institute · in-state tuition rose
$6,294 → $21,046
+203%
Virginia Military Institute · out-of-state tuition rose
$17,362 → $52,638
+156%
Virginia Military Institute · median debt rose
$9,000 → $22,996
-100%
Virginia Military Institute · cohort default rate fell
2.6% → 0.0%
+38%
Virginia Military Institute · pell share rose
12.0% → 16.5%
+32%
Virginia Military Institute · earnings_median_10yr rose
$58,700 → $77,369
+54%
Virginia Military Institute · earnings_median_6yr rose
$41,300 → $63,545
SECTION 05 · PROGRAMS
Ranked by 5-year earnings
Each row is one (CIP × credential) program reported by the institution in College Scorecard's Field-of-Study data. Cohort floor is 30 students; below this, federal data is suppressed.
Mechanical Engineering.$83,811Civil Engineering.$80,733Economics.$80,064Biology, General.$79,095International Relations and National Security Studies.$79,025English Language and Literature, General.$73,619Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.$72,503Psychology, General.$72,223History.$62,892
SECTION 06 · BY CIP FAMILY
9 programs with earnings, grouped
Programs are grouped by 2-digit CIP family. Programs without reported earnings are hidden to keep the list focused.
ENGINEERING · CIP 14
FOREIGN LANGUAGES · CIP 16
ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE · CIP 23
BIOLOGICAL & BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES · CIP 26
PSYCHOLOGY · CIP 42
SOCIAL SCIENCES · CIP 45
HISTORY · CIP 54
FINANCIAL OUTCOME · ILLUSTRATION
Estimate the financial outcome at Virginia Military Institute
Pick a program. Cost from Scorecard net price by family income; earnings from Treasury 5-year-post-completion median, projected forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve. The selection-bias toggle applies the Dale-Krueger shrinkage. Outcomes illustration, not a forecast — see methodology.
Shrinks the earnings premium toward the matched-applicant mean. STEM <15%, business ~40%, arts & education ~60%.
NET PRESENT VALUE
$630,855
Over 40 years, discounted 5.0%
BREAKEVEN
Year 6
First year cumulative discounted earnings cross zero
- Cost per year
- $10,551
- HS-only baseline · VA
- $39,800
- Years to complete
- 4
- CIP family
- 45
Outcomes illustration · not a forecast. Projects observed Scorecard earnings forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve under your assumptions. See methodology for the math.
SECTION 07 · SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS
Same sector and degree mix in Virginia
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“Virginia Military Institute graduates earn $X” — not “Virginia Military Institute makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Virginia Military Institute caused. Selection effects (who admits, who enrolls, who completes) are real. We publish federal data with strict descriptive phrasing — and link the methodology where you can read about the limitations directly.