Vanderbilt University Overview

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt University is a private not-for-profit institution. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is Vanderbilt University Known For?

• Students at Vanderbilt may have an easier time interacting with their teachers since the student to faculty ratio at the school is 8 to 1.
• The 1% student loan default rate at Vanderbilt is better than the national rate of 10.1%. That's a good sign that you may be able to pay off student loans easier than your peers at other schools can.
• The highest award offered at Vanderbilt is the doctor's degree.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 80% of the faculty were full-time.
• Students who graduate from Vanderbilt with a bachelor's degree make about $69,000 a year. That's 69% more than those who graduate from other schools.
• On average, it takes about 4.1 years for students from Vanderbilt to earn a bachelor's degree. This is excellent when compared to the average of 4.4 years.

Vanderbilt University Rankings

Vanderbilt landed the #54 spot in our 2022 ranking of best colleges. We analyzed 2,587 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. Out of the 50 colleges in Tennessee, it is ranked at #1.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Vanderbilt has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#36	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#43	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#44	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#45	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Vanderbilt.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#2	Best Legal Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Social Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Mathematics & Statistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best History Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#17	Best Foreign Languages & Linguistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#19	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#23	Best Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#24	Best Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#27	Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Vanderbilt has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#9	Best Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities Schools	College Factual
#11	Best Social Sciences Schools	College Factual
#13	Best Nursing Schools	Nursing Degree Search
#14	Best Visual & Performing Arts Schools	College Factual
#27	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#40	Best Health Professions Schools	College Factual

Where Is Vanderbilt University?

Contact details for Vanderbilt are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	2101 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37240
Phone:	615-322-7311
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/vanderbilt
Twitter:	http://twitter.com/vanderbiltu

How Do I Get Into Vanderbilt?

You can apply to Vanderbilt online at: www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/applyNow.php

Admission Requirements for Vanderbilt

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Vanderbilt?

The acceptance rate at Vanderbilt is 12%, which means the school is highly selective when deciding who will be admitted and who won't. Even if you have great grades and test scores, that may not be enough. So be sure to look for ways to make your application memorable.

Approximately 49% of accepted students are men and 51% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 13%, and the acceptance rate for women is 11%.

Average Test Scores

About 45% of students accepted to Vanderbilt submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 720 and 770. Math scores were between 750 and 800.

Vanderbilt received ACT scores from 56% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 34 and 36. Math scores were between 31 and 35. Composite scores were between 33 and 35.

Can I Afford Vanderbilt University?

The overall average net price of Vanderbilt is $48,005. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Vanderbilt, approximately 12% of students took out student loans averaging $7,422 a year. That adds up to $29,688 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Vanderbilt is 1.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Vanderbilt University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 7,057 undergraduate students at Vanderbilt, with 6,983 being full-time and 74 being part-time.

There are also 6,480 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 6,983 full-time undergraduates at Vanderbilt, 49% are male and 51% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Vanderbilt University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,117
Black or African American	773
Hispanic or Latino	703
White	2,964
International Students	658
Other Races/Ethnicities	768

Geographic Diversity

Tennessee students aren't the only ones who study at Vanderbilt University. At this time, 43 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 93 countries are represented at Vanderbilt. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and South Korea.

Online Learning at Vanderbilt University

In 2019-2020, 11,264 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Vanderbilt has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 56th most popular in Tennessee for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Growth Rankings of Vanderbilt

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Vanderbilt University was 188.9%. This is the #291 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Vanderbilt regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Vanderbilt University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Nursing	0	41	333	73	447
Economics	257	0	29	3	289
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	232	0	11	2	245
General Social Sciences	227	0	0	0	227
Computer Science	147	0	27	11	185
Law	0	0	0	182	182
Business Administration & Management	0	0	139	0	139
Applied Mathematics	0	0	130	0	130
Mathematics	121	0	0	6	127
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	100	0	1	18	119
Political Science & Government	97	0	4	4	105
General Psychology	74	0	7	12	93
Medicine	0	0	0	82	82
Educational Administration	0	0	51	29	80
Special Education	14	0	55	11	80
Romance Languages	63	0	6	7	76
Teacher Education Grade Specific	24	0	40	6	70
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	54	0	2	13	69
Mechanical Engineering	49	0	7	11	67
Legal Research	0	0	66	0	66
Theological & Ministerial Studies	0	0	65	0	65
History	50	0	4	10	64
Public Health	0	0	59	4	63
Public Policy	37	0	25	0	62
Biomedical Engineering	53	0	0	7	60
Marketing	0	0	57	0	57
Engineering Science	55	0	0	0	55
General English Literature	43	0	7	5	55
Student Counseling	0	0	51	0	51
Music	50	0	0	0	50
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	49	0	49
Cognitive Science	47	0	0	2	49
Chemical Engineering	41	0	2	5	48
Electrical Engineering	22	0	14	10	46
Human Resource Management	0	0	45	0	45
Human Development & Family Studies	23	0	21	0	44
Communication Sciences	0	0	21	20	41
Accounting	0	0	40	0	40
Child Development & Psychology	32	0	7	0	39
General Biology	18	0	10	10	38
Civil Engineering	17	0	13	4	34
Chemistry	19	0	3	12	34
Sociology	29	0	3	2	34
Philosophy	23	0	1	6	30
International Education	0	0	25	0	25
Anthropology	13	0	5	7	25
Community Organization & Advocacy	0	0	25	0	25
Area Studies	22	0	2	0	24
Fine & Studio Arts	24	0	0	0	24
Teacher Education Subject Specific	9	0	14	0	23
Computer Engineering	23	0	0	0	23
Communication & Media Studies	21	0	0	1	22
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	22	0	22
Non-Professional General Legal Studies	21	0	0	0	21
Teaching English or French	0	0	20	0	20
Geological & Earth Sciences	10	0	7	3	20
Physics	9	0	3	8	20
Religious Studies	3	0	4	12	19
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	15	0	0	2	17
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	16	0	16
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	16	0	16
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology	0	0	1	14	15
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	15	0	0	0	15
Ethnic Studies	14	0	0	0	14
Medical Science	0	0	13	0	13
Biological & Biomedical Sciences (Other)	0	0	0	12	12
Classical & Ancient Studies	10	0	0	0	10
Science, Technology & Society	10	0	0	0	10
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	0	0	0	9	9
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	0	0	2	7	9
General Education	9	0	0	0	9
Finance & Financial Management	0	0	8	0	8
Environmental Engineering	0	0	1	7	8
Germanic Languages	6	0	0	2	8
Writing Studies	0	0	7	0	7
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	0	0	3	3	6
Pharmacology & Toxicology	0	0	1	5	6
Other Engineering	0	0	6	0	6
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	6	0	0	0	6
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	4	2	6
Astronomy & Astrophysics	0	0	0	3	3
Drama & Theater Arts	3	0	0	0	3
Medical Illustration & Informatics	0	0	2	0	2
Materials Sciences	0	0	0	2	2
Genetics	0	0	0	1	1
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0	0
Other Education	0	0	0	0	0
Classical Languages & Literature	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	2,261	41	1,612	667	4,581

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Dansan4444 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.