>

Student Life

Student Life

Life as a cadet

Cadets take the same classes and join the same clubs, teams and organizations as every other student. They also have opportunities few college students get, from Army schools and leadership placements in active-duty units to funded language study overseas.

Travel, lodging and meals are covered for the programs below. Training of 28 days or more also earns a daily training stipend.

A cadet in camouflage moves low through fallen leaves during field training.
Cadet Advanced Individual Training (CAIT)

Army schools

Seats are competitive and assigned by Cadet Command each summer. Cadets must pass the course physical and fitness test.

3 weeksFort Benning, Ga.

Airborne School

Ground week, tower week, jump week. Five parachute jumps from military aircraft earn the Parachutist Badge.

10 training daysFort Campbell, Ky.

Air Assault School

Helicopter operations, sling loads, rappelling and fast-rope, finished with a 12-mile ruck march. About an hour from campus.

3 weeksAlaska

Northern Warfare

Cold-weather and mountain operations, with a river phase and a glacier phase.

2 weeksVermont

Mountain Warfare

Climbing, rope systems and movement in steep terrain at the Army Mountain Warfare School.

Cadet Troop Leader Training (CTLT)

Lead Soldiers before you graduate

For three to four weeks, MS III cadets serve as lieutenants in active-duty units across the United States and in Europe. You get a unit mentor, a platoon, and a close look at the job you're training for, with lodging and meals on post.

Nursing cadets

The Nurse Summer Training Program places nursing majors in Army hospitals in the U.S. and overseas, working beside an Army Nurse Corps officer.

Internships

Placements matched to your major

  • Army Medical DepartmentWork under an AMEDD officer at an Army medical center. Pre-med and pre-health.
  • Research Internship ProgramArmy research and development labs. STEM majors.
  • Army Corps of EngineersCivil, mechanical, electrical and environmental projects in a USACE district.
  • National Nuclear Security AdministrationNational labs and production sites.
  • Forensics and Public AffairsBiometrics and forensic labs, or Army journalism and media.
Language and culture

ROTC Flagship Summer Language Programs

The Defense Department's ROTC Flagship Summer Language Programs send ROTC students overseas for intensive study of languages the military needs. Scholarships cover tuition, lodging, meals, round-trip travel, visas, insurance and books, and any ROTC student in the country can apply.

  • Arabic
  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Korean
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Swahili

Languages and host programs change each year. More information from The Language Flagship.

From the battalion

Go Gold cadets have studied overseas through these programs: three across Taiwan, one in Latvia and one in South Korea.

During the school year

What we do

Cadets in uniform do push-ups on the field.

Push-Up Club

At every home football game, about six cadets take the field and do push-ups for every point Vanderbilt scores.

A Ranger Challenge cadet in a helmet anchors a rope bridge to a tree.

Ranger Challenge

Army ROTC's varsity sport. Every cadet can try out each fall, and the team trains nearly every morning to compete against the brigade.

Cadets carrying rucksacks march along a sidewalk near campus.

Ruck Club

Cadets ruck the loop around campus together to build the endurance every officer needs.

The color guard marches onto a stadium field carrying the national and Army flags.

Color Guard & Drill Team

The color guard presents the colors at games and community events, and organizations can request it. The drill team competes at Tulane's Mardi Gras meet.

A cadet lies hidden in fallen leaves during field training.

Field training exercises

The battalion heads to Fort Campbell for land navigation, small-unit tactics and nights in the field.

Army and Navy ROTC form up together on the 50-yard line of Vanderbilt's stadium.

September 11 remembrance

Army and Navy ROTC gather on the field at FirstBank Stadium to honor the fallen, and cadets have climbed the stairs of Nissan Stadium in a memorial workout.

A cadet hoists a trophy over his head as teammates cheer.

Army–Navy competition

Cadets face Vanderbilt's Navy midshipmen in flag football and the ROTC Olympics.

Cadets in Army PT uniforms run together past Centennial Park.

Army Ten-Miler

In 2023, its first year racing in Washington, D.C., the battalion team placed ninth of 64 ROTC and academy teams.

Cadets also plan and run the Military Ball and the Dining In, formal traditions of the officer corps funded in part by alumni gifts.