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Housing and Residential Experience

First-Year Student Housing

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 Student Housing Portal (date: TBD).  All incoming first-year students are required to submit an application.

First-Year Student Roommates

Vanderbilt matches first-year students based upon their responses to a short list of lifestyle questions included on the housing application.  We believe an assignment process that facilitates diverse roommate pairings, rather than one in which students select their own roommates based on preexisting relationships, has important educational benefits and is consistent with the university’s commitment to fostering an inclusive campus community.

First-Year Student Move-In

First-year student move-in is scheduled for Saturday, August 22, 2020.  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 emailed to all incoming first-year students on or before August 1, 2020.  Prior to August 22nd, 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.