Residential Colleges

Key Mechanisms

Click through each tab in the menu below to learn about the key mechanisms Residential Colleges employs to promote student success.

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.

Pillars

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 upper-division residential 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 (International Student Orientation, CommonVU Orientation, and Transfer Student Orientation) as well as the Sophomore Year Experience. Through these initiatives, Residential Colleges creates opportunities for student engagement that align with six pillars (sense of self, integrative learning, dialogue across difference, advocacy, leadership potential, and global connections).

To learn more about each of the pillars, click on the corresponding tabs in the drop-down menu.

Curate Your Sense of Self

Develop who you are and who you want to be, how you act in the world and what you value about yourself, your place, and your impact.
Pursue Integrative Learning

Explore opportunities to learn outside of the classroom and expand your interests by engaging with faculty, practicing immersive learning, and undertaking discovery and research.
Dialogue Across Difference

Embrace the challenge and opportunity of sharing information, perspectives, and ideas through different modalities while maintaining civility, dignity, and appreciation for varied viewpoints.
Engage in Advocacy

Strategically leverage resources and practice help-seeking behaviors on behalf of yourself and others.
Foster Your Leadership Potential

Learn how to positively support and influence others’ perspectives and actions through motivational and modeling strategies, both through formal roles and responsibilities and less formal efforts.
Forge Global Connections

Cultivate networks within and beyond the Vanderbilt community to broaden perspectives about cultures and human experiences around the world.