Hargrave was renamed in 1925 in honor of J. Hunt Hargrave's financial and organizational support. By then the school had already drifted toward a military model, and the new name removed any remaining ambiguity. The Corps of Cadets grew. By the 1970-71 academic year, enrollment reached 586 and the corps was organized into two battalions led by a cadet colonel. The school admitted female cadets for the first time in 1975-76 — Geri Lou Huizinga and Lynn Emerson became the first women to graduate in 1976 — and remained coed for nearly thirty years before transitioning back to all-male in the early 2000s. The last female cadets graduated in 2009. In 1981, when the producers of the movie Taps approached Hargrave about filming on campus, school officials declined; they disagreed with the plot, and the producers wanted to build a wall in front of the school for the shoot.

The Corps of Cadets is structured like a small Army battalion — four companies (Alpha, Bravo, Delta, and Band), an officer corps trained at a summer Officer Candidate School, and a Command Sergeant Major as the senior NCO. Every six-week grading period an Honor Company is selected based on academic and military performance; the winning company gets to eat first at mess and to display a streamer on its guidon. Cadets who break the rules can be sent to the Bullring to walk tours — one hour walking in uniform makes a single tour. The honor code prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing; accused cadets face a panel of fellow students on the Honor Council. The school's library carries more than 14,000 reference and book volumes, and a formal Leadership and Ethics curriculum, drawing on General Colin Powell's writings, threads through the academic year.

Hargrave's postgraduate basketball program — the year between high school and college that lets prospects develop their game and grades — turned the school into something most boarding schools in tobacco country never imagined being. The Tigers won three National Prep Championships. They produced college coaches as well as players. The list of NBA alumni reads like a tour of the early-twenty-first century league: Larry Brown from the class of '59, who later coached the Pistons to a title; Josh Howard ('99) of the Mavericks; David West ('99) of the Pacers and Warriors; Marreese Speights, Jordan Crawford, Terry Rozier, Montrezl Harrell, Naji Marshall. CNN's Inside Man, hosted by Morgan Spurlock, devoted a second-season episode to the program. The basketball pipeline is the loudest story, but Hargrave's NFL alumni — Torry Holt, Ahmad Brooks, Branden Albert, Muhammad Wilkerson — make a strong second line.

Other Hargrave graduates have made their marks far from a hardwood floor. William M. Tuck, in the class of an earlier era, went on to serve as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and then as the 55th Governor from 1946 to 1950 before a long run in the U.S. House. Walter R. Davis from the class of 1938 became CEO of Occidental Petroleum. Sloan D. Gibson, class of 1971 and a former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, returned in 2021 to serve briefly as the first alumnus president of Hargrave. The novelist Tom Robbins came through. So did NASCAR's Ward Burton from the class of 1982, who won the Daytona 500 in 2002. The campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Eric F. Peterson took over as president in 2022. The Bullring is still there. Cadets still walk it.