Students
Prospective cadets must be between 16 and 22 years of age. They must be unmarried, and have no legal dependents, physically fit for enrollment in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and be graduates of an accredited secondary school or have completed an approved homeschool curriculum. The Class of 2015 at VMI had an average high school GPA of 3.50 and a mean SAT score of 1151.
Eligibility is not restricted to Virginia residents, although it is more difficult to gain an appointment as a non-resident, because VMI has a goal that no more than 45 percent of cadets come from outside Virginia. Virginia residents receive a discount in tuition, as is common at most state-sponsored schools. Total tuition, room & board and other fees for the 2008–2009 school year is approximately $17,000 for Virginia residents and $34,000 for all others. These fees can be misleading, because VMI's endowment enables VMI to meet a substantial amount of a cadet's financial need before the cadet needs loans.
Of the 1251 students enrolled in 2005, 66 were African-American, 39 were Asian, 34 were Hispanic and 71 were women. Of 509 students that matriculated in August 2012, 46 were women. The first Jewish cadet, Moses Jacob Ezekiel, graduated in 1866. While at VMI, Ezekiel fought with the VMI cadets at the Battle of New Market. He became a sculptor and his works are on display at VMI. One of the first Asian cadets was Sun Li-jen, the Chinese National Revolutionary Army general, who graduated in 1927. The first African-American cadets were admitted in 1968. The first African-American regimental commander was Darren McDew, class of 1982. McDew is currently a US Air Force lieutenant general and Commander, Eighteenth Air Force, Scott Air Force Base, IL. It is unknown when the first Muslim cadet graduated from VMI, but before the Iranian Revolution, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, several Persian cadets attended and graduated from VMI. Other Muslim graduates have included cadets from Bangladesh, Jordan, Indonesia and other nations.
VMI has traditionally enrolled cadets from the armed forces of Thailand and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Graduates have gone on to pursue graduate degrees after VMI at universities throughout the United States before returning to their countries to continue their military service. Several graduates reached general and flag officer ranks. During the 1990s many other nations were represented in the Corps of Cadets, including Great Britain, Bangladesh, Finland, Botswana, Germany, Kenya, South Korea, Indonesia, and Japan.
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“We must continually remind students in the classroom that expression of different opinions and dissenting ideas affirms the intellectual process. We should forcefully explain that our role is not to teach them to think as we do but rather to teach them, by example, the importance of taking a stance that is rooted in rigorous engagement with the full range of ideas about a topic.”
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