Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school with its initial $1 million endowment in the hopes that his gift, and the greater work of the university, would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the American Civil War. Vanderbilt is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and has been the conference's only private school since 1966. The university comprises eleven schools and enrolls nearly 13,800 students from the US and 70 foreign countries. Vanderbilt is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Several research centers and institutes are affiliated with the university, including the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, and Dyer Observatory. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, formerly part of the university, became a separate institution in 2016. In 2025-2026, Vanderbilt opened campuses in New York City, San Francisco, and West Palm Beach. Vanderbilt alumni, faculty, and staff have included 54 current and former members of the United States Congress, 18 US ambassadors, 13 governors, nine Nobel Prize winners, two vice presidents of the United States, and two US Supreme Court justices. Other notable alumni include three Pulitzer Prize winners, 27 Rhodes Scholars, two Academy Award winners, one Grammy Award winner, six MacArthur Fellows, four foreign heads of state, and five Olympic medalists. Vanderbilt has more than 145,000 alumni, with 40 alumni clubs established worldwide.