Vanderbilt Visions

What is Vanderbilt Visions?

Vanderbilt Visions allows groups of new students to discover college life together.

All first-year students will be assigned to one of 80+ Visions groups. These groups—each of which is made up of about 20 first-year students—meet weekly throughout the first half of the semester. Visions groups help you form strong connections and support networks with classmates across different houses, schools, perspectives, and geographical backgrounds and assist with your transition to becoming a successful college student. Visions also connects you with a faculty member and an upper-division student peer mentor, called faculty and student VUceptors. Visions encourages you and your classmates to express your questions, ideas, and opinions and learn from and with each other.

Participation in Vanderbilt Visions is mandatory for all first-year students and attendance will be taken at every meeting.  All Visions groups share a required program syllabus. Each 50-minute session uses small group discussion to focus on:

• Facilitating a successful transition from high school to college, emphasizing academic preparedness and self-management
• Constructing a thriving community of scholars who jointly explore individual and collective responsibility for creating a campus environment where every individual feels valued, supported, and empowered to grow
• Communicating the value of connecting with campus resources as a strategy for maximizing academic success and prioritizing wellbeing
• Cultivating active participation in academic inquiry through the development of habits of critical thinking and exploration

Who are the VUceptors?

Visions is led by teams of faculty and student mentors, called VUceptors.

Your faculty and student mentors have chosen to become VUceptors because they are dedicated to assisting and learning from first-year students. Your faculty VUceptor may come from any one of the ten undergraduate and professional schools and colleges at Vanderbilt and your student mentor is an upper-division student from one of the four undergraduate schools.

Applying complementary skill sets, your VUceptors model a dynamic and meaningful professor-student interaction and help to create a mutually beneficial learning environment for everyone as they foster your group’s discovery of the personal, social, and academic community values of Vanderbilt University.

VUceptors work collaboratively with International Orientation Leaders and Transfer Student Leaders to welcome all new undergraduate students to campus each year.

Over the summer, you can expect to receive a letter or email and a phone call from your student VUceptor (usually in early August). Your student VUceptor can answer questions you might have about coming to Vanderbilt and what to expect on Move-In Day.

Any faculty or current undergraduate students who are interested in becoming a VUceptor can learn more about the application process by clicking the links below:

Become a student VUceptor

Become a faculty VUceptor

Visions Group Assignments

Visions is a required university program. All first-year students will receive a Visions group assignment on Your Enrollment Services (YES). Fall enrollees will be assigned to Visions in mid-July; spring enrollees will be assigned in late December. In making Visions group assignments, your class schedule will be considered to ensure that you are available to attend regularly.

Visions groups only meet on Mondays and Tuesdays in the afternoon and evening. There are no morning sessions.

Up until the start of the semester, your Visions group assignment is not finalized, and you may see changes in YES without notification as groups are balanced and class conflicts resolved. All conflicts with courses in which you are enrolled or for which you have been waitlisted will be automatically resolved up until Move-In Day. After that time, if you need a change for an academic conflict, please contact us. Please note that automatic resolutions may take up to one week to process.

You may request a change to your Visions group assignment through the end of the add/drop period by emailing visions@vanderbilt.edu for any of the following reasons:

• Enrolling in a new course with a time conflict
• Requesting more time between classes for travel
• Admittance to a selective performance group through the Blair School of Music which requires audition upon arrival

You may not select a specific group, individual VUceptors, or a specific day or meeting time. Up until 11:59 pm CT on July 15, 2026, you may request a change for a non-academic reason. Beyond that date, changes for non-academic conflicts cannot be made. Non-academic reasons include:

• Participation in a student organization (or interest meeting/interview for a student organization)
• Participation in a club or intramural sport (or interest meeting/interview for a student organization)
• Self-scheduled tutoring appointments or study groups

You should treat Vanderbilt Visions as you would any other class when considering your attendance.

Visions ATTENDANCE POLICY

Vanderbilt Visions is a mandatory program for all first-year students. Attendance will be taken at every meeting. As the Visions program is only six weeks in length, attendance policies are strictly enforced.

The Student Handbook says, “All first-year students must observe the attendance policy of Vanderbilt Visions. Failure to do so may result in corrective action through the university’s accountability process.”

Students are only permitted to miss Visions for illness, a mandatory academic class conflict, or a religious observation. Attending an interest meeting, audition, or interview for a student organization, club or intramural sport, or a student-only study group will not be considered an excusable reason for missing Visions.

Students are permitted only one (1) unexcused absence before corrective action will be taken. If you need assistance getting excused from a student organization or other non-academic commitment, please email visions@vanderbilt.edu.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

With additional questions about the Vanderbilt Visions program or how to get involved as a VUceptor or a campus partner, please contact Director of the First-Year Experience Natalee Erb.