virginia military institute is a small, public, nationally-ranked college committed to leadership development in a military environment in lexington, virginia. vmi instills values of honor, discipline, selflessness, commitment, duty, self-reliance, and service. vmi is recognized as one of america’s top colleges for liberal arts and sciences by us news & world report, the princeton review, and peterson’s guide to competitive colleges. us news ranks vmi’s engineering programs among the twenty best in america. men and women of vmi are free to choose military or civilian careers.