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Achievements

Student Success

WVU recipients of prestigious scholarships include 2 Beckman Scholars, 25 Rhodes Scholars, 26 Truman Scholars, 47 Goldwater Scholars, 4 George C. Marshall (British) Scholars, 6 Morris K. Udall Scholars, 5 USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team Members (and 11 academic team honorees), 29 Boren Scholars, 106 Gilman Scholars, 81 Fulbright Scholars, 3 Department of Homeland Security Scholars, 39 Critical Language Scholars, one Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar, 34 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships and one Schwarzman Scholar.

Katherine Adase, Abigail Dorsa, Giana Loretta, Ethan Nylander, Lillian Rhinehart, Lily Wright and Lauren Young are recipients of prestigious Fulbright Scholarships to teach English or conduct research abroad over the next year. (2023)

Hunter Moore and Christelle Temple will spend the 2023-24 academic year fully immersing themselves in learning Russian and Swahili, respectively, after earning the prestigious Boren Scholarship. (2023)

Ellena Gemmen, Teagan Kuzniar, Rachel Morris and Meagan Walker will each receive a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 as recipients of the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program. (2023)

A record number of 20 students received Gilman Scholarships, competitive national awards funded by the U.S. State Department to travel abroad. (2023)

Graduate student Adalheid “Heidi” Crum was named a Newman Civic Fellow. Crum’s work focuses on bridging the gap between wardships and higher education. (2023)

Azeem Khan, a political science student from Charleston, is the 26th WVU Truman Scholar, the nation’s top graduate fellowship award for aspiring public service leaders. (2023)

Innovation and Economic Prosperity

WVU is one of just more than 80 higher education institutions to receive the Innovation and Economic Prosperity University distinction from APLU, a research, policy and advocacy organization advancing the work of public universities in North America. (2023)

Academics

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has honored 19 WVU faculty as West Virginia Professors of the Year. Powsiri Klinkhachorn, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, earned the award in 2015.

WVU is one of only about a dozen schools in the country that are land-grant, doctoral research universities with a comprehensive medical school.

WVU is also a space-grant university, part of a network formed for outer-space research.

World University Rankings places WVU in the top 2.5% of 19,788 universities.

WVU is the only university in the country offering a bachelor of science, master of science and PhD in Forensic Science. WVU is only one of two programs nationally that offers the PhD in forensic science.

The WVU School of Medicine was the first in the country to rotate students through a clinical addiction program, which is now a requirement for all American medical students.

WVU is one of only four institutions that offer a joint petroleum and natural gas engineering ABET-accredited major.

Our Aquatics Therapy program (in the exercise physiology major) is the only one in the U.S.

The David and JoAnn Shaw Center for Simulation Training and Education for Patient Safety (STEPS) at WVU Health Sciences is one of the world’s only fully-accredited healthcare simulation centers.

According to Niche, WVU graduates have a 93% job placement rate (two years after graduation).

Research

WVU continues to rank at the highest level of research activity (“Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity” or “R1”) as reflected in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Only 146 of the nation's 4,500 colleges and universities attain this ranking.

In 2021, WVU reached a new record of research funding: $203 million. Funding from the federal government led this amount, with $110 million, followed by State funding at $42 million and industry/other at $40 million. The top two funding federal agencies were the National Institutes of Health ($39 million) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture ($15 million).

3,668 students participated in undergraduate research over the last 5 years (2015-20).

The FBI named WVU its national leader for biometrics research. The partnership identifies WVU as the academic arm of the FBI’s Biometric Center of Excellence.

The WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute — the world’s first institute devoted to the study of human memory — is at WVU.

WVU engineer Dan Carder, who led the research team that broke open the Volkswagen emissions scandal, was named to the 2016 Time 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

WVU professors Sean McWilliams and Zach Etienne and a group of graduate students are part of a global team of scientists who have detected gravitational waves for the third time, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened.

Maura McLaughlin and Duncan Larimer from the Department of Physics and Astronomy were part of a global team of astronomers who detected for the first time repeating short-duration bursts of radio waves from an enigmatic source, likely located well beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.

Service

WVU is one of only 75 schools recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for Engagement Classification (recognized since 2010).

WVU has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll every year since 2006.

In a typical year, WVU students contribute over 100,000 service hours.

The College of Law provides about 40,000 hours of free legal services and student pro bono projects annually.

Bonnie’s Bus, WVU Cancer Institute’s mobile digital mammography unit, has provided over 21,000 mammograms and detected at least 110 cases of breast cancer since 2009.

WVU Extension educators and volunteers guide 1-in-5 West Virginia youths in “learn by doing” 4-H projects and activities that build citizenship and career skills.

The Job Accommodation Network located at WVU serves the nation by providing free consulting services designed to increase the employability of people with disabilities.

WVU is one of a few universities to have a service dog training program where students learn how to train assistance dogs.

Diversity

WVU received a Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award for the sixth consecutive year in 2021 from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

Campus Pride gave WVU a 4.5 out of 5 rating on their national list of LGBTQ+ Friendly Colleges and Universities.

International Connections

WVU received a Senator Paul Simon Award for campus internationalization. (2019)

Since 1991 WVU’s Global Health Program has given students in medicine, dentistry, and other health careers opportunities to visit and provide care in countries whose people have limited access to health care.

WVU alumni reside in 135 nations and have organized alumni chapters in Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan; Malaysia; and Kuwait.

WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design is a Peace Corps Master’s International partner, which allows graduate students to pursue a master of science degree while also completing an international service internship with the Peace Corps.

Athletics

Since the program's first season in 1996, the women’s soccer team has never posted a losing season.

The WVU rifle team has been national champions 19 times and hosted the NCAA Championship in 2019.

Over 20 Mountaineers have played in the Super Bowl.