The Virginia Military Institute is a state military academy in Virginia renowned for training cadets through an intense adversative method, emphasizing a lack of privacy, criticism in minute detail, camaraderie, and a requirement for absolute adherence to the rules. It is a "military academy" in that all VMI students/cadets must participate in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, although accepting a commission in the armed forces is optional.
Until the mid-1990s, VMI admitted only male cadets. Now, men and women may both be cadets at VMI.