Safest College Campuses In Virginia: LIST

The National Council for Home Safety and Security has released its annual rankings of the safest college campuses in the country, and six Virginia campuses made the list, with one cracking the top 10, but it could be a controversial pick. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg is the safest college campus in Virginia and the eighth safest in the country, according to the study.

Out of 243 ranked colleges and universities, six Virginia campuses landed on the list. The Mormon-run Brigham Young University-Idaho topped the national list.

The rankings focused on local crime rates, so the infamous 2007 mass shooting by student Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus in Blacksburg before taking his own life, didn't factor into the list. The shootings in April 2007 are the third deadliest shooting rampage in US history. Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, where he was remembered as a quiet student who rebuffed other teens.

The National Council for Home Safety and Security compiled its rankings using data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting and the Campus Safety and Security Survey administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Most schools with at least 10,000 students were ranked by looking at violent and property crime rates for the cities in which the schools are located and the number of law enforcement officers employed by the institution.

"I continue to remain so very proud of all the hard work and dedication on the part of the professional law enforcement officers and professional support staff here at the (Virginia Tech Police Department)," Virginia Tech Police Chief Kevin Foust said on Facebook. "I'm into my 34th year in law enforcement and have worked at the local, federal and now state level. I count the men and women of the VTPD amongst some of the best and brightest with which I've had the honor to be associated. We are far from perfect, but we try to learn from our mistakes and continually strive to improve ourselves in our chosen profession in order to make this campus as safe and secure for all."

See how other Virginia campuses ranked below. National rankings are in parentheses. Click here to see the full list.

• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (8)
• George Mason University (21)
• James Madison University (46)
• University of Virginia Charlottesville (77)
• Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond (167)
• Old Dominion University Norfolk (190)

Each school’s safety ranking was calculated by analyzing crimes reported by universities, which includes rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, motor vehicle theft and arsons. And the crime rates for the cities where the schools are based was also a factor.

Below are the following top 10 university campuses in the U.S.:

1. Brigham Young University
2. Oakland University
3. Northern Kentucky University
4. University of Rhode Island
5. Bridgewater State University
6. University of New Hampshire
7. Boston College
8. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT)
9. University of Massachusetts
10. Tufts University

PHOTO: Students and visitors attend a candlelight vigil on campus at Virginia Tech April 16, 2012 in Blacksburg, Virginia. (Photo by Jared Soares/Getty Images)