Virginia Beach, VA (population: 439,564) has three hospitality schools within a 100-mile radius of its city center. Virginia State University, the highest ranked school in this group with a hospitality program, has a total student population of 5,366. It is the 603rd highest ranked school in the USA and the 20th highest in the state of Virginia (#1 is Washington and Lee University).
Hospitality students from Virginia Beach schools who go on to become hospitality managers, caterers, event planners, wedding planners, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 334,310 people working as hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $19,190. Also, Food preparation and serving related employees make on average $20,880 per year and there are about 11,218,260 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News-NC area alone, there are 70,270 employed food preparation and serving related employees earning an average salary of $20,200. Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop in this area earn $18,330/yr and there are 2,190 employed.
Virginia Beach lies in Virginia Beach county, which is one of the 61 counties in Virginia. Overall, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News-NC area has 735,390 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.9% unemployment rate, $19.28/hr average worker wage, and a $40,100 average annual salary. Thus, about 2.980 out of every 1000 jobs in Virginia Beach are held by hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop, and 95.557/1000 are held by food preparation and serving related employees.
Of the 3 hospitality schools with a 100-mile radius of Virginia Beach, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Hampton University comes out as the most expensive ($18,524/yr) for hospitality students, with Tidewater Community College as the lowest, reported at only $4,175/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Virginia Beach |
| Chesapeake | VA | 223,315 | 5 | 26.9533 | 56 | 15.5 miles |
| Norfolk | VA | 234,477 | 11 | 21.2525 | 420 | 16.7 miles |
| Portsmouth | VA | 102,540 | 2 | 19.0088 | 64 | 19.6 miles |
| Hampton | VA | 147,560 | 2 | 15.4443 | 49 | 25.5 miles |
| Suffolk | VA | 84,501 | 2 | 10.9214 | 2 | 33.4 miles |
| Newport News | VA | 182,057 | 4 | 29.3064 | 58 | 35.1 miles |
| Petersburg | VA | - | 3 | 33.8633 | 70 | 82.5 miles |
| Weldon | NC | - | 1 | 13.6824 | 51 | 89.1 miles |
| Highland Springs | VA | - | 1 | 3.25189 | 0 | 90.3 miles |
| Richmond | VA | 198,179 | 22 | 25.9212 | 685 | 95.9 miles |