8,000 Stories, 1 Lawn: 2026 Final Exercises by the numbers

By Jane Kelly, jak4g@virginia.edu | May 14, 2026
Illustrations by Peyton Sorah, University Communications

Four years ago, when UVA Today first introduced the University of Virginia’s Class of 2026, you learned a lot about them through numbers.

Noted as a group of helpers, 92% of the incoming class had participated in community service, and 81% said they made a point of listening generously to others’ opinions. “They’re just such nice people,” Stephen Farmer, UVA’s vice provost for enrollment, noted at the time.

Those nice people are about to process down UVA’s majestic Lawn. The University will bestow 8,053 degrees, 4,797 of those undergraduate diplomas, during Finals Weekend.

The celebrations begin Friday afternoon with Valedictory Exercises at John Paul Jones Arena. President Emeritus Jim Ryan will headline the event, which also features class gifts.

Number of
Degrees Awarded

On Saturday, students from the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the School of Education and Human Development will hear from Kenyon Bonner, vice president and chief student affairs officer. On Sunday, McIntire School of Commerce associate professor Sherri Moore will address graduates from the schools of Architecture, Continuing and Professional Studies, Data Science, Engineering and Applied Science, Law, Medicine, Nursing, the Darden School of Business and the Commerce School.

Here is another set of numbers to help you learn about the Class of 2026 and what they have accomplished.

8,000 degrees
and counting

Students in the Class of 2026 come from 112 countries, from Australia to Ireland to Zimbabwe. They come from 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Of the 4,797 baccalaureate degrees UVA will award this weekend, 290 were earned in three years or less. Seven were earned in two years. Ten 19-year-olds will be graduating. This year’s oldest graduate is 73. More than 1,300 people will become first-generation college graduates.

UVA will award 461 first-professional degrees – 310 in law and 151 in medicine – along with nearly 3,000 graduate degrees, including 2,364 master’s degrees.

Forty-five hundred students come from Virginia. New York has the second-highest number of graduates, at 355.

As in years past, students are encouraged to give their balloons to members of UVA’s “Balloon Brigade,” who will be stationed along the Lawn. UVA will donate them to patients at UVA Health Children’s.