Vanderbilt University

Cornelius Vanderbilt had a vision of a place that would “contribute to strengthening the ties that should exist between all sections of our common country” when he gave $1 million to create a university in 1873. Today that vision has been realized in Vanderbilt, an internationally recognized research university in Nashville, Tennessee, with strong partnerships among its 10 schools, neighboring institutions and the community.

Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, engineering, music, education and human development, as well as a full range of graduate and professional degrees. The combination of cutting-edge research, liberal arts education, nationally recognized schools of law, business, medicine, nursing and divinity, and one of the nation's top-ranked graduate schools of education creates an invigorating atmosphere where students tailor their education to meet their goals and researchers collaborate to address the complex questions affecting our health, culture and society.

Vanderbilt provides a gateway to greatness, drawing the brightest students from across the nation and around the world. Vanderbilt alumni can be found in Congress, on the judicial bench, in the pulpit, leading corporations, conducting innovative medical research, serving in their communities, and playing in the NFL, major league baseball, the PGA and LPGA.

Vanderbilt, an independent, privately supported university, and the separate, nonprofit Vanderbilt University Medical Center share a respected name and enjoy close collaboration through education and research. Together, the number of people employed by these two organizations exceeds that of the largest private employer in the Middle Tennessee region.

Vanderbilt University is a leading center for graduate and professional school education, offering advanced degrees in an expanding slate of fields including the natural sciences, biomedical sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, religion, education, law, medicine, nursing and business. The university announced in 2009 that graduate education is a top priority that will enjoy increases in resources and faculty over the next decade.

Today, Vanderbilt University is a private research university of about 6,500 undergraduates and 5,300 graduate and professional students. The university comprises 10 schools, a public policy center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, engineering, music, education and human development as well as a full range of graduate and professional degrees. The university is consistently ranked as one of the nation's top 20 universities by publications such as U.S. News & World Report, with several programs and disciplines ranking in the top 10.

Cutting-edge research and liberal arts, combined with strong ties to a distinguished medical center, creates an invigorating atmosphere where students tailor their education to meet their goals and researchers collaborate to solve complex questions affecting our health, culture and society.

Vanderbilt, an independent, privately supported university, and the separate, non-profit Vanderbilt University Medical Center share a respected name and enjoy close collaboration through education and research. Together, the number of people employed by these two organizations exceeds that of the largest private employer in the Middle Tennessee region.

Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries collect, manage and provide access to information. Partnering with the university in research, our librarians help shape informed scholars and engaged citizens. The Heard Libraries rank among the top 50 research libraries in the nation and are home to extensive physical collections, databases, e-books, journals and archival materials. The oldest item in the Special Collections Library dates to 2500 B.C.E., and new publications are added daily. Librarians teach classes and engage in one-on-one consultations to teach everything from tools for digital scholarship to bibliographic research to information literacy. In addition to materials in support of Vanderbilt's research and curriculum, special collections strengths include the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies; the Emmy Award-winning Television News Archive, the world's most extensive and complete archive of its kind; the Southern Literature and Culture Collection; Latin American collections for Brazil, Colombia, the Andes, Mesoamerica and Argentina; the U.S. Playing Card Company Game Collection; and the Global Music Archive.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is an independent, nonprofit corporation that shares Vanderbilt University’s respected name and collaborates closely with the university through education and research. With the only Level 1 (highest level) trauma center in Middle Tennessee and the region’s only Level 4 (highest level) neonatal intensive care unit, Vanderbilt University Medical Center includes Vanderbilt University Hospital, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital, The Vanderbilt Clinic, and Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks.

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was in his 79th year when he decided to make the gift that founded Vanderbilt University in the spring of 1873.The $1 million that he gave to endow and build the university was the commodore's only major philanthropy. Methodist Bishop Holland N. McTyeire of Nashville, husband of Amelia Townsend who was a cousin of the commodore's young second wife Frank Crawford, went to New York for medical treatment early in 1873 and spent time recovering in the Vanderbilt mansion. He won the commodore's admiration and support for the project of building a university in the South that would "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country."

McTyeire chose the site for the campus, supervised the construction of buildings and personally planted many of the trees that today make Vanderbilt a national arboretum. At the outset, the university consisted of one Main Building (now Kirkland Hall), an astronomical observatory and houses for professors. Landon C. Garland was Vanderbilt's first chancellor, serving from 1875 to 1893. He advised McTyeire in selecting the faculty, arranged the curriculum and set the policies of the university.

For the first 40 years of its existence, Vanderbilt was under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Vanderbilt Board of Trust severed its ties with the church in June 1914 as a result of a dispute with the bishops over who would appoint university trustees.