West Virginia University is located in Morgantown, West Virginia, with divisional campuses at Potomac State in Keyser and WVU Tech in Montgomery. With 33,000 students statewide, they come to campus from every West Virginia county, all 50 states and more than 113 nations. A member of the Big 12, WVU is one of a few schools in the country that are a land-grant, doctoral research university with a comprehensive medical school. Our researchers are doing groundbreaking work in STEM education, energy, rural health and neuroscience. We also partnered with the FBI to create one of the first accredited forensic programs in the nation. In 2012-13, WVU awarded 6,267 degrees on its main campus, 137 at the WVU Institute of Technology, and 197 at Potomac State College. The campus is lively with organization activities, leadership opportunities and a commitment to being student-focused. With more than 190,000 alumni worldwide, the Mountaineer spirit can be found around the world.
West Virginia University includes 15 colleges and schools offering 191 bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and professional degree programs in:
- agriculture, natural resources and design
- arts and sciences
- business and economics
- creative arts
- dentistry
- education and human services
- engineering and mineral resources
- law
- media
- medicine
- nursing
- pharmacy
- physical activity and sport sciences
- public health
WVU’s students are continuously recognized for their academic achievements:
- WVU is among the top 15 public universities in the number of students earning Rhodes Scholarships: 24
- 39 Goldwater Scholars
- 39 Fulbright Scholars (five alone in 2012)
- 22 Truman Scholars
- 19 Critical Language Scholars
- 14 Gilman Scholars
- 9 Boren Scholars
- 5 USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team Members (and 11 academic team honorees)
- 3 Morris K. Udall Scholars
- 3 Department of Homeland Security Scholars
- 2 George C. Marshall (British) Scholars
- 1 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar
WVU student success stories
Jordan Lovejoy, a senior triple major in English, Spanish and women’s and gender studies from Pineville, is WVU’s third-ever Udall Scholar.
Andy Maloney, a 2014 Goldwater Scholar, is a sophomore chemical engineering major from Morgantown. He aspires to a career related to Alzheimer’s research because both of his grandmothers had the disease. Andy traveled to China for an eight-week research trip and to San Francisco for an engineering conference.
Virginia Cunningham, a native of Hurricane who is a physics major with a minor in astronomy, won a 2014 Goldwater Scholarship. She was always fascinated by the unknown; her first project at WVU involved working to discover HII star-forming regions, and she went on to spend a summer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Nicholas Underwood, an aerospace engineering graduate student and native of Beaver, was selected to be part of NASA’s social media contingent and covered the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Media Day at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. He was one of only 25 people nationwide selected.
WVU faculty research makes a difference
WVU was awarded $19.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to address health issues that commonly affect West Virginians. Additional West Virginia entities committed $33.5 million to the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute for a total of $53.1 million. The grant enables WVU to become more competitive for biomedical research funding for studies targeting cancer, heart disease, stroke and obesity-related diseases.
WVU research may lead to new drugs that could help relieve arthritis sufferers’ pain. Patients in Dr. Colleen Watkins’ clinic are enrolled in a study of GPSM3 gene variations and their role in arthritis.
An interdisciplinary team sought, and received a National Science Foundation grant to collect and analyze samples from the Elk River chemical spill. The results will be used to develop short- and long-term treatment strategies.
WVU provided $1 million in support for the Green Bank Telescope, resulting in guaranteed access for WVU astronomers to the world’s premier single-dish radio telescope.
An international team of astronomers, including WVU researchers using the Green Bank Telescope, discovered a unique stellar system of two white dwarf stars and a superdense pulsar.
WVU nurse-researcher Taura Barr is developing a test to quickly diagnose potential stroke victims and expedite treatment. It’s a simple and inexpensive test that could mean the difference between life and death for rural residents.