Virginia Tech will honor members of the Class of 2020 with an online commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15. The online ceremony begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be available on the Virginia Tech homepage and the university’s commencement website.
Graduates and their families, friends, and loved ones are encouraged to tune in early at 6:15 p.m. to enjoy memories from classmates and see special messages.
The online ceremony will feature inspirational remarks from notable Hokies, including Miss America 2020 Camille Schirer ’18, legendary defensive coordinator Bud Foster, and world-renowned poet and University Distinguished Professor Nikki Giovanni. Virginia Tech President Tim Sands and Executive Vice President and Provost Cyril Clarke will also speak and confer degrees.
All Virginia Tech campuses and students will be together, including undergraduate, master’s, Ph.D., doctor of veterinary medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine students, and the Corps of Cadets. Students will hear a special message from their respective deans and then hear their names called.
On Instagram and Twitter, tag your photos and videos with #HokieGrad for a chance to be featured on the commencement website. You can also submit photos for the Facebook photo album. The album and instructions are here.
Approximately 62 associate degree candidates from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and 5,554 bachelor’s degree candidates from all colleges will be honored at the ceremony. This year, 2,498 graduating Hokies will complete their baccalaureate degree programs with honors, having achieved cumulative grade point averages of at least 3.4 on a 4.0 scale.
Mechanical engineering is this year’s most popular major among graduating seniors. The next four most popular majors are business information technology, biological sciences, computer science, and finance.
Here are the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to students from Virginia Tech’s colleges:
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: 507
College of Architecture and Urban Studies: 354
Pamplin College of Business: 961
College of Engineering: 1,616
College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences: 970
College of Natural Resources and Environment: 216
College of Science: 930
The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets will recognize 275 graduates from its program. Of those, 162 will be entering service in the military as commissioned officers — 73 in the U.S. Army, 44 in the U.S Air Force, 35 in the U.S. Navy, and 10 in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Approximately 1,247 graduate students will be honored. They include 824 master’s degree candidates, 13 education specialist degree candidates, 18 Ed.D. candidates, 104 advanced graduate certificate candidates, and 288 Ph.D. candidates. Noha Elsherbiny, a doctoral candidate in computer science, with an emphasis in computer education and learning analytics, will deliver remarks as part of the online ceremony.
The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine will recognize 123 recipients of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine will honor its class of 44 graduates.
