Dare to grow at Vanderbilt.
Whether your passion is engineering or music, education or the liberal arts, we can help you find your impact at Vanderbilt and around the world. Create new solutions to old problems and solve the challenges of the future with our collaborative, cross-disciplinary research. Tell us a little about yourself so we can share with you more about the Vanderbilt experience.
At Vanderbilt, learning happens all the time—in classrooms and labs, at internships and during study abroad, and even in your campus residence. Our programs are rigorous but our students are collaborative, supported, and ranked among the happiest in the country.
Vanderbilt’s 11 distinct schools—which offer over 150 academic programs—all collaborate together on a single, compact campus. This means that students have no lack of academic avenues to explore and there aren’t strict boundaries between areas of study. Through initiatives like Immersion Vanderbilt and Quantum Potential, we’re actively bringing together students and researchers from different backgrounds, disciplines and points of view to solve big problems and fuel exciting breakthroughs.
student-to-faculty ratio
average class size
of first-years return for their sophomore year
We encourage students to take their time to declare a major, explore multiple disciplines, and work with students across the university. This equips them with the leadership and collaboration skills they’ll need for life after graduation.
Jake Aronskind, BA'19, has been named to Forbes’s 30 under 30. Jake is the co-founder of Pepper, a cooking app that gives its over 1.5 million community members a platform to share recipes and create digital social cookbooks.
With over 100 research centers and institutes, Vanderbilt is leading discoveries in education, public policy, national security, and more.
Starting their very first semester, there are many opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in the groundbreaking research taking place on campus. And unlike many other universities, all of our researchers are also dedicated teachers. This creates positive feedback loops that benefit both faculty and students—with research informing teaching and student interaction informing research.
All first-year students live on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons residential campus. Each college is led by a faculty head of house who lives alongside students, extending learning outside the classroom and connecting students with the resources they need to thrive. By sharing a single campus for their first year, students form a strong sense of community and class identity.
Outside of residences, there are over 450 student-founded and led groups at Vanderbilt. Organizations for activism, art, culture, music, academics, greek life, media, spirituality, sports—and many more—welcome any Vanderbilt student to join their communities.
Athletics bring spirit, tradition, and healthy competition to campus all year. With 17 Division I varsity teams in the legendary SEC, 34 club sports, and over 20 intramural leagues and tournaments, Vanderbilt gives everyone an opportunity to get in the game.
The health and safety of students are top priorities at Vanderbilt because, as a university, we are truly dedicated to educating the whole person. We call our holistic network of resources and support services the Student Care Network. It’s wide range of offerings are designed to assist with any type of challenge a student could face.
I used to have such a limited world perspective because my world was so small. But since I’ve been on campus, I’ve been exposed to so much, and I have a big future ahead of me.
Providing for college is one of the largest single investments a family will make, and we strongly believe that a Vanderbilt education is well worth the investment.
At Vanderbilt, we believe cost should never be a barrier to a world-class education. Through Opportunity Vanderbilt, we make three commitments to cultivate a community of talented intellectuals from all backgrounds. First, our admissions process is need-blind for U.S. citizens and eligible non-citizens. Second, Vanderbilt will meet 100% of a family’s demonstrated financial need. Lastly, financial aid awards do not include loans.
of undergrads receive some form of financial assistance
million in scholarships for 2025–26 first-year students
Opportunity Vanderbilt’s three commitments place Vanderbilt among a small number of U.S. universities to adopt these philosophies and allocate the resources necessary to make a premier college education a reality for students and their families.
In addition to Opportunity Vanderbilt, the university awards undergraduate merit-based scholarships, honors veterans’ educational benefits, and provides funding for extracurricular activities that have fees through a program called Experience Vanderbilt.
Nashville has been named America’s friendliest city for three years in a row. It’s full of historic landmarks, hidden gems, and limitless opportunity. It’s easy to understand why so many students choose to call Music City home.
Located a little more than a mile from downtown, the university’s students, faculty, staff and visitors frequently cite Nashville as one of the perks of Vanderbilt. The city typically enjoys a mild and pleasant climate with only a few days of the year having either very hot or very cold conditions. Navigating the area without a car is easy with public transportation, ride shares, or bike. For getting in and out of the city, the Nashville International Airport provides flights to 75 nonstop markets.
Nashville is known for its chef-driven restaurants, spicy hot chicken, and classic barbecue. When students aren’t enjoying the award-winning dining on campus, they have thousands of downtown restaurants to choose from.
The city is home to dozens of galleries, museums, and performance venues. The Frist Art Museum is the heart of the Nashville art community and no two visits to the stunning art deco building are alike. And from the Nashville Opera to a local dive bar — there’s somewhere to enjoy world class live music any night of the week.
When it comes to jobs and internships in the city, the university has a great relationship with many local companies and organizations, giving students a wide variety of meaningful internship opportunities.
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