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re:vu - quick facts about vanderbilt

Student Information | Schools and Degrees | Accreditation and Rankings | Employment | Athletics | Alumni | Campus | Leadership | Library and Archives | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Research Information | Patient Care Information | Centers and Institutes | Financial Information

Commodore 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 a million dollars 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 and a distinguished medical center creates an invigorating atmosphere where students tailor their education to meet their goals and researchers collaborate to solve complex problems affecting our health, culture and society.

Vanderbilt provides a gateway to greatness, drawing the best and brightest students from across the nation and around the world. Vanderbilt alumni can be found in Congress, on the judicial bench, heading corporations, conducting innovative medical research, writing for and appearing on the stage and screen, and playing in the NFL, NBA and major league baseball.

An independent, privately supported university, Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee and the second largest private employer based in the state.

STUDENTS (2007/2008)
Enrollment
  • Undergraduate: 6,532
  • Graduate and professional: 5,315
  • TOTAL: 11,847
  • Full-time: 11,107
  • Part-time:740
  • Men: 5,581 47%
  • Women: 6,266 53%

Percentage of undergraduates who live on campus: 84%

Percentage of undergraduates receiving some sort of financial aid: 60%

Undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio: 9:1

Undergraduate tuition: $34,414

New Freshmen
  • Number of new freshmen: 1,673
  • SAT I-verbal mid 50% range: 640-730
  • SAT I-math mid 50% range: 660-740
  • ACT mid 50% range: 29-32
  • Number of applicants: 12,911 people

Degrees Conferred 2007

  • Baccalaureate: 1,468
  • Master's: 1,062
  • M.D.: 114
  • Other doctoral: 498
  • Total degrees conferred: 3,142 No honorary degrees are conferred

Enrollment by School

    • College of Arts and Science: 3,843
    • Blair School of Music: 197
    • School of Engineering: 1,305
    • School of Nursing: 618
    • Peabody College: 1,650
    • Divinity School: 230
    • Graduate School: 2,121
    • Law School: 628
    • Medical School: 624
    • Owen Graduate School of Management: 519
    • Division of Unclassified Studies: 25

Student Housing

  • Residence halls and apartments: 30
    Capacity:
    4,915
  • Sorority Houses: 11
  • Fraternity Houses: 15

Extracurricular activities

Regional Breakdown

  • New England 4%
  • Midwest 14%
  • South 45%
  • Middle States 13%
  • West 7%
  • Southwest 8%
  • U.S. Territories >.1%
  • International 8%
  • Unspecified >.1%

SCHOOLS AND DEGREES
  • College of Arts and Science: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts*, Master of Science*, Doctor of Philosophy*
  • Blair School of Music: Bachelor of Music
  • Divinity School: Master of Divinity, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Arts*, Doctor of Philosophy*
  • School of Engineering: Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science, Master of Engineering, Master of Science*, Doctor of Philosophy*

 

benson hall

 
  • Graduate School: Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Liberal Arts and Science, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy
  • Law School: Master of Laws, Doctor of Jurisprudence, Doctor of Philosophy*
  • School of Medicine: Master of Laboratory Investigation, Master of Science in Medical Physics, Master of Public Health, Master of Science in Clinical Investigation, Doctor of Audiology, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy*
  • School of Nursing: Master of Science in Nursing, Doctor of Philosophy*
  • Owen Graduate School of Management: Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Finance, Master of Accountancy, Doctor of Philosophy*
  • Peabody College (of education and human development): Bachelor of Science, Master of Education, Master of Public Policy, Doctor of Education, Doctor of Philosophy*

 

*These degrees are awarded through the Graduate School, but are listed under both the Graduate School and the specific school of the university.


 


ACCREDITATION AND RANKINGS
The university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, master's, education specialist's and doctor's degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Vanderbilt University.

Vanderbilt is a member of the Association of American Universities.

Nobel Laureates

  • Muhammad Yunus, Ph.D. 1971, 2006 Peace Prize for establishing the Grameen Bank and his pioneering the practice of providing micro loans to the impoverished.
  • Vanderbilt Medical Center faculty member Stanley Cohen, 1986 Prize in Medicine, for his discovery with a colleague of epidermal growth factor.
  • Stanford Moore, B.A. 1935, 1972 Prize in Chemistry, for fundamental contributions to the understanding of enzyme chemistry.
  • Vanderbilt Medical Center faculty member Earl Sutherland Jr., 1971 Prize in Medicine, for his discovery of the metabolic regulating compound cyclic AMP.
  • Vanderbilt physics professor Max Delbruck (1940-47), 1969 Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses.

Rankings

The Times of London

  • 53rd -- Best Universities in the World
  • 26th -- Best in North America

National Research Council survey of graduate programs

Pharmacology Ph.D. program
  • 6th -- Faculty quality
  • 3rd -- Program effectiveness

Religion Ph.D. program

  • 7th -- Faculty quality
  • 8th -- Program effectiveness

Business Week

  • 30th -- Graduate Business Schools (Owen Graduate School of Management)
  • 24th -- Executive MBA Programs (Owen Graduate School of Management)

U.S. News & World Report

  • 19th -- National Universities
  • 14th -- Best Value
  • 18th -- Research-oriented Medical Schools
  • 3rd -- Graduate Schools of Education (Peabody College)
  • 34th -- Graduate Business Schools (Owen Graduate School of Management)
  • 16th -- Law Schools
  • 19th -- Graduate Schools of Nursing
  • 42nd -- Graduate Engineering Schools
  • 43rd -- Undergraduate Engineering Schools

Kaplan/Newsweek

  • One of 25 new "Ivies"

Thompson’s ISI

  • 1st -- Most cited program in pharmacology

 
EMPLOYMENT
(2006-2007)


the bridge over 21st avenue

     
Staff: Total University
Central
Medical
Center
Full-time 16,260 3,575 12,685
Part-time 2,020 682 1,338
Total 18,280 4,257 14,023


Total Employment: 21,502

 

Faculty

Full-time faculty by school:
College of Arts and Science
: 519

School of Engineering: 120
Peabody College: 125
Blair School of Music: 51
Divinity School: 26
Law School: 48
Owen Graduate School of Management: 47
School of Medicine: 1,753
School of Nursing: 187

Total full-time faculty: 2,876

Part-time faculty: 346
Faculty with terminal degrees: 97%

 

ATHLETICS

  • Conference membership:
    • Southeastern Conference Eastern Division
    • American Lacrosse Conference (lacrosse)
  • Men's varsity teams: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis
  • Women's varsity teams: basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track
  • Seating Capacity:
    • Memorial Gymnasium: 14,193
    • Vanderbilt Stadium: 39,447
  • students playing footballSchool Colors: Black and Gold
  • School Mascot: The Commodore


ALUMNI

  • Number of living alumni: 114,226
  • Number of alumni residing in Nashville: 19,314
  • Alumni Association founded: 1879
  • Number of alumni clubs worldwide: 35


CAMPUS

Located a mile and a half southwest of downtown Nashville, the campus is a park-like setting. Vanderbilt is home to more than 300 tree and shrub varieties and was designated a national arboretum in 1988. Buildings on the original campus date to its founding in 1873. The Peabody section of campus has been a registered National Historic Landmark since 1966. Off-campus facilities include the Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory, situated on a 1,131-foot hill, six miles south of campus.

  • Grounds area in acres: 330
  • Number of buildings: 229
  • Total square footage of physical plant: 16.9 million
    • University Central: 6.2 million square feet, 37%
    • Medical Center: 8.9 million square feet, 53%
    • Real Estate: 1.8 million square feet, 10%

      Campus map | Vicinity map

     


LEADERSHIP

The Board of Trust is the governing body of the University. The Chancellor, who is chosen by the Board of Trust, is the chief executive officer of the University.

Officers of the Board
Martha R. Ingram, Chairman
Dennis C. Bottorff, Vice Chairman
Darryl D. Berger, Vice Chairman
William W. Bain Jr., Secretary

General Officers
Nicholas S. Zeppos, Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Professor of Law
Lauren J. Brisky, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Chief Financial Officer
Harry R. Jacobson, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
Michael J. Schoenfeld, Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs
David Williams II, Vice Chancellor for University Affairs and Athletics, General Counsel, and Secretary of the University
Matthew W. Wright, Vice Chancellor for Investments

kirkland hall

Academic Deans
Mark Bandas, Associate Provost and Dean of Students
Camilla P. Benbow, Dean of Peabody College
James W. Bradford, Dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management
Douglas L. Christiansen, Associate Provost for Enrollment Management and Dean of Admissions
Colleen Conway-Welch, Dean of the
School of Nursing

Steven G. Gabbe, Dean of the School of
Medicine

Kenneth F. Galloway, Dean of the School of
Engineering

Dennis Hall, Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Education
James Hudnut-Beumler, Dean of the Divinity
School

Richard C. McCarty, Dean of the College of
Arts and Science

Edward L. Rubin, Dean of the Law School
Mark Wait, Dean of the Blair School of Music
Francis W. Wcislo, Dean of the Commons

 

LIBRARY
computersWith holdings of 3.3 million volumes, 36,000 journals and serials, of which some 17,000 are electronic, and more than 3 million microforms, the Jean and Alexander Heard Library includes the Central Library, Divinity Library, Peabody Library, Alyne Queener Massey Law Library, Walker Management Library, Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library, Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, Sarah Shannon Stevenson Science and Engineering Library, Special Collections and University Archives, and the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
Access to the library catalog is available at www.library.vanderbilt.edu.

Vanderbilt is one of 13 Nashville-area institutions participating in Athena, an online service through which patrons at any participating library, including local public libraries, can borrow books from any other participating library.

The Television News Archive is the largest collection of network newscasts and specials available to the public. Individuals throughout the world may make videotape loan requests for reference, study, classroom instruction and research. Abstracts of all network newscasts since August 5, 1968, are available online by subscription to non-Vanderbilt users at tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center includes:vumc doctor

VUMC programs unique to the region:

  • Level I Trauma Center
  • Comprehensive Adult and Pediatric Burn Center
  • LifeFlight air emergency transport
  • Voice Center
  • 19 specialty services of Children's Hospital, including Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and a dedicated pediatric emergency department
  • Poison Control Center for Tennessee
  • State’s only comprehensive Organ Transplant Program

 

vumc doctor

 

Vanderbilt Medical Center research

  • From 2001 to 2006, Vanderbilt had a compound annual growth rate of 16.4% in NIH grants, the fastest growing academic medical center program in the country. Vanderbilt is now ranked 12th nationally. Seven of the School of Medicine ’s departments were ranked in the top 10 among comparable medical school departments in receipt of NIH funding in 2005 - Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Cell and Developmental Biology/Cancer Biology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Radiology/Radiation Oncology. Six departments were ranked in the top 10 nationally in scholarly productivity. Support for competitive research grants from all sources was more than $390 million for fiscal year 2006-2007.

  • The Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is a comprehensive cancer center as designated by the National Cancer Institute -- one of 39 such centers in the United States and the only one of its kind in Tennessee. It is also a member of the elite National Cancer Center Network comprising the top 21 clinical cancer institutes in the country.

RESEARCH INFORMATION
(year ending 6/30/07)

Total research expenditures: $ 411.1 million

Sponsored research and project awards: $526.6 million

Ranked 23rd in federal research and development funding among U.S. colleges and universities based on fiscal year 2005.


PATIENT CARE INFORMATION
(year ending 6/30/07)

  • Licensed hospital beds: 847
  • Hospital discharges: 50,716
  • Hospital patient days: 260,977
  • Clinic outpatient days: 1,095,559
  • Emergency room visits: 98,229
  • Uncompensated care: $238.6 million


CENTERS AND INSTITUTES

students and faculty/staffResearch and teaching that join traditionally diverse disciplines are prevalent at Vanderbilt through more than 120 centers and institutes that include:

  • The National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of educations and human development was founded in 2006 with a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to determine the impact, if any, financial incentives have on teacher performance. Peabody College is the only U.S. education college home to two national centers, the other being the National Center on School Choice.

  • The Vanderbilt Burn Center, a 24-bed Level I burn center, is dedicated to meeting the challenges of burn treatment and recovery. The center treats adult and pediatric patients from across the Southeast. It serves as a resource center for both referring facilities and the community, providing outreach programs, continuing education and ongoing research to maintain state-of-the-art care.

  • The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development conducts collaborative research, training and outreach to understand human development and improve the lives of individuals with disabilities.The center is a federal University Center of Excellence for Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service.

  • The Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach is dedicated to fostering unique partnerships between university scientists, K-12 educators and students, and the local and global science community. In 2007, the center launched the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt, a partnership with Nashville public schools that enrolls students who excel in science and math.


    View a complete listing of Vanderbilt's centers and institutes

 

FINANCIAL INFORMATION
(year ending 6/30/07)

Total Net Assets: $5.02 billion

Managed Endowment

  • Market value: $3.49 billion
  • Endowment utilized: 4.0%
  • Endowment per student: $300,531

Operating Budget: $2.6 billion

Expenses by Function
$2,651.4 million in fiscal 2007

  • Health Care: 61%
  • Education, room and board: 20.7%
  • Research: 13%
  • Institutional support: 2.3%
  • Public service and other: 3%

Revenues by Source
$2,732.9 million in fiscal 2007

  • Health Care: 64%
  • Government, grants and contracts, including F&A costs recovery: 13.9%
  • Net tuition, fees, room and board: 8.4%
  • Gifts, private grants and contracts, and endowment distributions: 8.5%
  • Investment income and other: 5.2%

 

Contact Us:

Vanderbilt News Service
(615) 322-2706
(615) 343-7708 fax
news@vanderbilt.edu
www.vanderbilt.edu/News
Medical Center News and
Public Affairs

(615) 322-4747
(615) 343-3890 fax
www.mc.vanderbilt.edu
Athletic Media Relations
(615) 322-4727
(615) 322-4121
(615) 343-7064 fax
www.vucommodores.com

 

Note: This page is based on the RE:VU brochure, which is published every December. This page last updated March 2008.

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