Vanderbilt University

Location and Contact Information

The campus is in a large city.

Overview

Vanderbilt University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational, research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee and the second largest private employer in the state.

Named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school with its initial $1 million endowment, Vanderbilt was founded in 1873.

Vanderbilt enrolls nearly 12,000 students from all 50 U.S. states and many foreign countries.

The university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor, master, education specialist and doctor degrees.

U.S. News & World Report, in its 2010 rankings, placed Vanderbilt 17th among national universities. The Graduate School of Education-Peabody College was ranked first.

The campus covers 330 acres. Vanderbilt recognizes more than 300 student organizations, ranging from academic-major societies to recreational sports clubs. The athletic teams are called the Commodores.

With 15 sororities and 18 fraternities, the university has an active Greek life.

Arts life at Vanderbilt includes performances, exhibits, lectures and workshops by faculty and internationally known guest artists.

The university is organized into the following academic divisions:

• Blair School of Music
• College of Arts and Science
• Divinity School
• Graduate School
• Law School
• Owen Graduate School of Management
• Peabody College of Education and Human Development
• School of Engineering
• School of Medicine
• School of Nursing

Among the famous alumni are Lamar Alexander, former Governor of Tennessee and a current U.S. Senator; Tipper Gore; David Boaz, Executive Vice President of the Cato Institute; singers Dinah Shore and Roseanne Cash; Amy Grant; actors Molly Sims and Joe Bob Briggs; Poet Laureates Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren (who also won the Pulitzer Prize), and Randall Jarell; novelists James Patterson and James Dickey; Willie Geist, a host of MSNBC's Morning Joe; Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler; Offensive tackle Chris Williams; MLB players Pedro Alvarez and David Price; and biochemist Stanford Moore and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus--who both won Nobel Prizes (Yunus was also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom). U.S. Vice Presidents, John Nance Garner and Al Gore, Jr.--the latter also a Nobel Laureate--and journalist David Brinkley attended the university but did not graduate.

Highlights (vs. Other Schools)

• Many students concentrating in religion and philosophy, liberal arts, law, nursing and emergency medicine, engineering, medicine, and mathematics.
• High percentage of students are from out-of-state.
• Large number of programs of study offered.
• High SAT scores (combined Verbal and Math).
• High faculty salary.
• Selective admissions.
• Large number of students.
• Good faculty-to-student ratio.
• Number of dorm rooms for students.
• Unusually high availability of athletic financial aid.

School characteristics:

• The school is private, not-for-profit.
• Academic calender: Semester.
• Carnegie classification: Doctoral/Research Universities, Extensive.

Features of note:

• The school offers a faculty tenure system.
• There is a hospital on campus.
• There are one or more libraries on-campus.
• Campus housing is available.
• Students may study abroad.
• Distance learning is available.
• Weekend study is an option.
• Part-time classes are available.
• ROTC.
• Athlete financial aid is awarded.

Similar Schools

Based on proprietary BrainTrack computer comparisons against all other US colleges, these schools appear to be most similar to Vanderbilt University:

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Degrees Awarded (in 2009-2010)

Faculty

Tenure (2009-2010):

Students

Student enrollment was 12,093 in 2009-2010 (11,209 full-time equivalent).

About 49% of the freshmen class in 2009-2010 was male and women were 51% of the class.

Undergrads are 52% of enrolled students and graduate students are 48%.

Students under 25 years old represent 69% of the student body. About 4% of the school is at least 40 years of age.

Among freshmen students, 100% are full-time and 0% are part-time.

Admissions Summary (2009-2010)

SAT Test Scores:

Room and Board

Vanderbilt University provides on-campus housing for 5,838 of its 11,209 (full-time) students (as of 2009-2010). The school requires freshmen to live on campus.

Athletics

School sports include football, basketball, baseball, and track. The school is in the Southeastern Conference for major sports.

The school offers financial aid for athletes. Of students receiving athletic financial aid, 154 male students received the aid (men were 65% of those receiving aid) and 84 women were awarded financial aid based on athletics (representing 35% of students receiving such aid) .

Graduate School Focus

Vanderbilt University offers graduate (post-Bachelor) studies. The highest degree offered is the Doctorate (Research/Scholarship & Professional Practice).

Graduate offerings include continuing professional education and medical degrees.The school's Graduate School Carnegie Classification is Comprehensive Doctoral With Medical/Veterinary.

Programs of Study

(Number of degrees in 2009-2010 in parentheses)

ART STUDIES (19 awarded)

• Art/Art Studies

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT (333 awarded)

• Accounting
• Business Administration and Management
• Business Administration, Management and Operations
• Finance
• Human Resources Development
• Marketing/Marketing Management
• Operations Management and Supervision
• Organizational Behavior Studies

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (39 awarded)

• Computer Engineering
• Computer Science

DRAMA AND PERFORMING ARTS (3 awarded)

• Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts

EDUCATION AND TEACHING (276 awarded)

• Counselor Education/School Counseling and Guidance Services
• Early Childhood Education and Teaching
• Education
• Education/Teaching Individuals - Hearing Impairments
• Educational Leadership and Administration
• Educational, Instructional, and Curriculum Supervision
• Elementary Education and Teaching
• English/Language Arts Teacher Education
• Higher Education/Higher Education Administration
• International and Comparative Education
• Mathematics Teacher Education
• Music Teacher Education
• Reading Teacher Education
• Science Teacher Education/General Science Teacher Education
• Secondary Education and Teaching
• Special Education and Teaching
• Teacher Education/Profess Development, Levels & Methods
• Teaching English as Second/Foreign Language/ESL Language Instructor

ENGINEERING (368 awarded)

• Biomedical/Medical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Engineering Science
• Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering
• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering

FAMILY AND SOCIAL WORK (50 awarded)

• Child Development
• Community Organization and Advocacy
• Public Policy Analysis

FINE ARTS (12 awarded)

• Art History, Criticism and Conservation
• Fine/Studio Arts

LAW (213 awarded)

• Law (LLB, JD)
• Programs for Foreign Lawyers (LLM, MCL)

LIBERAL ARTS (938 awarded)

• American/United States Studies/Civilization
• Anthropology
• Classical/Ancient Mediterranean/Near Eastern Studies & Archaeology
• Classics/Classical Languages, Lit & Linguistics
• Creative Writing
• East Asian Studies
• Economics
• English Language and Literature
• European Studies/Civilization
• French Language and Literature
• German Language and Literature
• History
• Latin American Studies
• Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies
• Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies
• Political Science and Government
• Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics
• Russian Language and Literature
• Social Sciences
• Sociology
• Spanish Language and Literature
• Western European Studies
• Women's Studies

MATHEMATICS (25 awarded)

• Mathematics

MEDIA (53 awarded)

• Communication Studies/Speech Communication and Rhetoric

MEDICAL SUPPORT AND TECHNOLOGY (26 awarded)

• Audiology/Audiologist and Hearing Sciences
• Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist

MEDICINE (194 awarded)

• Health/Medical Physics
• Medical Scientist (MS, PhD)
• Medicine (MD)
• Neuroscience
• Public Health, General (MPH, DPH)

MUSIC (35 awarded)

• Music Performance
• Music Theory and Composition
• Music
• Violin, Viola, Guitar and Other Stringed Instruments
• Voice and Opera

NURSING AND EMERGENCY MEDICINE (291 awarded)

• Adult Health Nurse/Nursing
• Clinical Nurse Specialist
• Critical Care Nursing
• Family Practice Nurse/Nurse Practitioner
• Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing
• Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery
• Nursing Administration (MSN, MS, PhD)
• Nursing Science (MS, PhD)
• Pediatric Nurse/Nursing
• Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing

PHOTOGRAPHY AND COMMERCIAL ART (4 awarded)

• Film/Cinema Studies

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY (143 awarded)

• Divinity/Ministry (BD, MDiv)
• Jewish/Judaic Studies
• Philosophy
• Religion/Religious Studies
• Theology/Theological Studies

SCIENCE (220 awarded)

• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics
• Biology/Biological Sciences
• Cell/Cellular and Molecular Biology
• Chemistry
• Ecology, Evolution, Systematics and Population Biology
• Geology/Earth Science
• Human/Medical Genetics
• Microbiology
• Molecular Biology
• Molecular Physiology
• Oncology and Cancer Biology
• Pathology/Experimental Pathology
• Pharmacology
• Physics
• Science, Technology and Society

THERAPY AND COUNSELING (140 awarded)

• Cognitive Science
• Community Psychology
• Developmental and Child Psychology
• Psychology