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Housing and Residential Experience

2021-2022 First-Year Student Housing

*Polices are subject to change due to COVID-19 guidelines and protocols.

Residential Requirement

Vanderbilt University is a residential campus for undergraduate students, and the residential experience is understood to be an integral part of a Vanderbilt education. This commitment to residential education is clearly expressed in the University’s residential requirement:

“All unmarried undergraduate students are required to live in residence halls on campus during the academic year, May session, and Summer sessions. Authorization to live elsewhere is granted at the discretion of the Director of Housing Assignments in special situations or when space is unavailable on campus.” (Student Handbook)

The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons

The Ingram Commons is part of the Residential College system. All first-year students are randomly assigned to one of the ten first-year houses on the Martha Rivers Ingram Commons. While the majority of spaces are double rooms, several of the houses contain triple rooms and a limited number of single rooms. View more information about the houses.

First-Year Student Housing Application

The First-Year Student Housing Application will be available in the Housing Portal on April 12, 2021 at 8 a.m. CDT. All incoming first-year students are required to submit an application. The deadline to submit an application is June 1, 2021. To complete the First-Year Student Housing Application, please log in to the Housing Portal with your VUNet ID and password. After logging in, you will be prompted to log in to Duo to authenticate your log in. Please make sure you have downloaded Duo prior to logging in. Once in the portal, please click Applications and select First-Year Student Housing Application. Complete the entire application, including the lifestyle questions, and submit it.

First-Year Student Roommates

First-year students are assigned to double rooms whenever possible.

Factors to consider when searching for a roommate include your sleep habits (are you an early riser?) and study habits (when and where do you plan to study?), how you maintain your living space (tidy or casual), the ways you socialize and recreate, and your cultural interests and preferences. If you would like to have a roommate assigned, we will attempt to match you on the basis of answers to the living and study habits questions.

Roommate Requests – Due June 15

In order to request a specific roommate, you will need the VUnetID of your preferred roommate (you do not need their password). Each student in the pair must request the other in order to be considered. If you do not make a specific roommate request, we will assign a roommate to you. Please note that Vanderbilt cannot guarantee that roommate requests will be honored. Only mutual roommate requests are considered.

To request a roommate, please first complete your First-Year Student Housing application in the housing portal. Once you have submitted your application, click Roommate Selection on the left, then click Select Roommates. Click Search for Roommate. Type in the VUNet ID of your preferred roommate and select them. If someone has already requested you as a roommate, please log in and click the 3 dots next to the pending roommate request’s name and click match. Only fully matched roommate pairs will be considered.

First-year students are randomly assigned to houses. Requests for assignment to specific buildings are not considered.

First-Year Student Move-In

First-year student move-in is scheduled for Saturday, August 21, 2021. Students will be provided with a specific move-in time between 7 a.m. and 12 p.m. with their room assignment information. Room assignment information will be mailed to all incoming first-year students on or before August 1, 2021. Prior to August 21, we will be preparing the halls for your arrival and as a result, will not be able to accommodate early move-in requests. Please plan your travel to Nashville accordingly. More information about move-in can be found here.

Official Notice

Admission to the University does not guarantee assignment to a particular type of room, residence hall, or area of campus. First-year students may be assigned to singles, doubles, or triples. Further, the University population is fluid, and demand for housing may change considerably in a relatively short time. In circumstances in which the number of first-year students enrolled exceeds the number of spaces for them on The Commons, it may be necessary to house students in alternative accommodations (such as study room on residential floors in first-year or upper-division halls or in other spaces available on campus) for a few weeks, for a semester, or for the entire first year.