About Residential Colleges

Residential Colleges are more than a set of buildings. Through intentional and mutually beneficial educational networks, Residential Colleges creates experiences rooted in discovery, creative inquiry, and engaged citizenship. The residential college system cultivates student success through opportunities to engage with faculty, the intentional creation of a diverse community, and connections to campus resources.

Interacting with world-class faculty inside and outside of the classroom is the hallmark of a Vanderbilt education.

Within the residential college system, students are presented with the opportunity to interact with, learn from, and experience life with a professor who spends their days researching world problems and educating future leaders before coming home to a unique residential community. Faculty heads connect students to other faculty members through informal interactions, faculty salons, and other events throughout the academic year.

For students not living in a residential college, Residential Colleges provides ample opportunities to connect with faculty in formal and informal settings. From Dean’s Dinners and field trips, the annual Murray Lecture, and Sophomore Year Experience events, Residential Colleges is committed to facilitating opportunities to get to know Vanderbilt's incredible faculty.

Community Building

Vanderbilt’s campus is more diverse and dynamic than ever before. With this exciting progress comes a heightened responsibility—and opportunity—to enrich the connections, camaraderie, and support among our evolving community.

The first-year houses and upper-division residential colleges are designed to foster unity and togetherness while also ensuring that each resident is positioned for personal success. Each living-learning community provides fellowship to Vanderbilt students while also introducing new possibilities for engagement, collaboration and leadership.

Additionally, Residential Colleges works to facilitate opportunities to build community through its three orientation programs: International Student Orientation, CommonVU Orientation, and Transfer Student Orientation. Each orientation program welcomes new students and serves as an introduction to the role each member of the Vanderbilt community plays in ensuring everyone feels purpose and a sense of belonging while at Vanderbilt.

Connecting to Campus Resources

Vanderbilt offers a variety of resources for students at any stage of their academic journey. Residential Colleges is committed to helping students discover and connect with the offices and resources they need to be successful. This begins with orientation and continues through the Sophomore Year Experience and throughout the residential college system.

Residential Colleges is committed to making resources more accessible to all Vanderbilt students and identifying areas where additional resources or clearer paths to resources are required.

The residential college system includes two areas of focus: the first-year experience and upper-division student engagement. These focus areas are broken down into several key programs and initiatives.

All first-year students reside on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons. After the first-year, students may apply to transition to another college for sophomore year and beyond. By participating in the residential college system, students get to know other students, faculty, and staff and become more connected and involved in their residential community and broader Vanderbilt network.

Residential Colleges also oversees all orientation programs (CommonVU Orientation, Transfer Student Orientation, and International Student Orientation) as well as the Sophomore Year Experience. Through these initiatives, Residential Colleges creates opportunities for student engagement that align with the department’s five pillars (intellect, community, personal well-being, self-discovery, and cultural awareness).

Intellect Community Personal Well-Being Self-Discovery Cultural Awareness

Intellect

Intellectual discovery is at the center of all Residential Colleges programming. From dinners at the Dean’s Residence to lectures from esteemed scholars, casual interactions with the faculty heads, the Charged Up Series for sophomore students, and more, academic inquiry remains at the forefront of the work of Residential Colleges.

Community

Community starts as soon as a student begins their Vanderbilt journey. During orientation all new students are immediately welcomed into the Vanderbilt community with the understanding that we are all part of the same university.

All first-year students and transfers begin their time at Vanderbilt the same way—by journeying to Alumni Lawn during Founders Walk. Students are not just participants in this community; they also actively contribute to its diversity, inclusion, and ongoing dialogue. This spirit of collaboration is reinforced and expanded in the upper-division residential colleges and Sophomore Year Experience as second-, third-, and fourth-year students continue to shape and be shaped by their involvement in the greater Vanderbilt community.

Personal Well-Being

Through programming, students learn to understand and utilize the skills necessary for healthy physical, psychological, and sexual well-being. From identifying peer mentors and resources—such as resident advisers and orientation leaders—to participating in discourse with community members regarding healthy living, students learn to engage in practices of self-care, and then initiate programming focused on these topics.

Additionally, Residential Colleges emphasizes connecting students with on-campus resources, including the Student Care Network, a holistic network of services and resources pertaining to health and wellness for Vanderbilt students, which includes Student Care Coordination, the Center for Student Wellbeing, the Student Health Center, and the University Counseling Center. By engaging with these resources directly, students further their understanding of developing personal resilience and sustainable practices of healthy living.

Self-Discovery

Residential Colleges encourages students to begin the process of self-discovery and clarify their own ethical, spiritual, and civic personal values within the first-year experience. Through upper-division student engagement, students further their understanding of not only their own values but also of their responsibility to the community at large.

All houses and colleges also host programming throughout the year that allows for engagement with the community. Through dialogue, intentional programming, and student-led initiatives, students of all grade levels challenge their personal development, broaden their understanding of their own identities, and contribute to the integrity of the community.

Cultural Awareness

Within residential colleges, students learn to explore, live, and celebrate diverse communities by developing thorough understanding of identities, biases, stereotypes, and cultural competencies.

Residential Colleges seeks to empower students to contribute to the creation of an inclusive community that embraces and honors people of all backgrounds and experiences. Programs throughout the year are put on in the houses and colleges that celebrate the diversity of Vanderbilt's community and encourage students to engage with traditions and customs different from their own.