Rhodes Scholarships are international postgraduate awards given to students to study at the University of Oxford. Since the scholarship program began in 1904, UVA has had fifty-five Rhodes Scholars, the most of any university in the American South, eighth-most overall, and third-most outside the Ivy League (behind Stanford University and the United States Military Academy (West Point)).

Eight NASA astronauts and launch directors are UVA alumni: Karl Gordon Henize, Bill Nelson, Thomas Marshburn, Leland Melvin, Jeff Wisoff, Kathryn Thornton, Patrick Forrester; and Michael Leinbach.

The Pulitzer Prize has been awarded to eight UVA alumni: Edward P. Jones, Ron Suskind, Virginius Dabney, Claudia Emerson, Henry Taylor, Lane DeGregory, George Rodrigue, and Michael Vitez.