Housing and dining

The comforts of home

Our students come from all over the world and from diverse backgrounds. Many are leaving home for the first time. That’s why we make sure to offer plenty of options and all the comforts of home. 

Curious to see for yourself? Take a virtual tour of our residence halls.

Looking for information on how the pandemic is impacting VCU housing? Visit our COVID-19 residential life and housing site.

Living on campus has some serious perks.

More than 6,000 students live on campus, including most freshmen. Residence halls at Virginia Commonwealth University come in all shapes and sizes — traditional, suite or apartment style. All buildings are secure, with a 24-hour information desk, and include laundry facilities, lounges, Wi-Fi, air-conditioning and furniture. 

If you’re a first-year student, we strongly encourage you to live on campus. It’s not required, but it will give you more chances to get involved, connect with the university community and find your place at VCU. Residence halls provide new students with frequent social activities, not to mention easy access to a support network. Resident assistants, graduate resident directors and professional staff can help with your social and educational transition to college. Need another reason? We’ve found that freshmen living on campus have a 10-percent higher GPA than those who don’t. 

A common bond

Want to live with students who have similar interests or majors? VCU has a number of living-learning communities for students interested in the environment, leadership, the arts, outdoor adventure, LGBTQIA+ and more. These programs are designed to enhance on-campus living with a focus on shared interests, academic experiences or lifestyle preferences.

• See first-year living-learning community options
• See upperclass living-learning community options

What’s for dinner?

We know you can’t study on an empty stomach. That’s why VCU has tons of on-campus dining options to fuel your 8 a.m. classes, your late nights and everything in between, all with a swipe of your VCU ID card.

When you have a dining plan with VCUDine, our award-winning dining program, you have the flexibility to eat at 22 different locations across two campuses, including Panda Express, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A or the all-you-care-to-eat dining hall, Market 810. And with eight different dining plan options to choose from, you’re guaranteed to find one that’s perfect for your stomach and your wallet.

Fresh menus, fun events

Thanks to partnerships with local farms and distributors, VCUDine is able to offer fresh, quality foods like local kale, sweet potatoes, Asian pears and tofu. Our creative menus incorporate unique holiday food traditions, and three times a semester we invite local, authentic and culturally diverse restaurants to serve up their specialties as part of our Guest Restaurant Program.

• VCU dining locations and hours
• Meal plan options

Richmond has good food. Really good food.

Richmond has become a dining destination, so much so that it made Yelp's "Top 10 Foodie Cities" list in 2019 and Forbes called it a "hidden culinary gem" in 2021. Quirky coffee shops, Southern comfort food, taco bars, farm-to-table eateries, French cafes, food trucks, doughnut shops and more breweries than we know what to do with — they’re all in Richmond, many within a few blocks of campus.