Vanderbilt Summer Academy (VSA)

[ Courses | Admissions | Qualifying Scores | Residential Life | Cost and Financial Aid | FAQs ]

Housing, Facilities, and Dining

Vanderbilt University offers comfortable and safe living and dining facilities across its campuses. Newly renovated residence halls are secure, air-conditioned, and provide easy access to classroom buildings and amenities such as the Student Recreation Center and Student Life Center.

Summer Academy students live on Vanderbilt's campus in secure residence halls with fully furnished, air-conditioned rooms. Students are supervised in the residence halls and after classes by caring, well-trained and carefully selected undergraduate and graduate student staff who act as positive role models for college-bound teens.

Residential Life

Our classes may be rigorous, but there is educational value as well in having time for hanging out with new friends and taking advantage of the multiple exercise and enrichment options available on campus.  

Vanderbilt Summer Academy students can enjoy social and recreational activities after classes and on weekends. From dances to quad fests, movies, and off-campus strolls in groups with our residential staff to coffee shops in Hillsboro Village, nearby bookstores and vinyl record shops, ice cream vendors and sushi restaurants, students experience a vibrant social life. Whenever possible, students will also attend Nashville-area sporting events (Nashville Sounds baseball games, for example) and visit cultural landmarks such as Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

Every day after classes and before study hall Vanderbilt Summer Academy students have the opportunity to exercise their bodies as well as their minds with classes in Tae Kwon Do or yoga, or the many offerings from our partnership with Nashville's Global Education Center, opportunities ranging from Polynesian dancing to African drumming. Vanderbilt Summer Academy students also have access to the Vanderbilt Student Recreation Center, which features a swimming pool, a running track, basketball courts, tennis courts, athletic fields, and an indoor rock wall for climbing. And of course the beautiful lawns on the Peabody campus of Vanderbilt University are ideal for a pick-up game of Ultimate Frisbee.

In addition to social and physical activities, the residential and instructional staff facilitate extracurricular discussions and workshops to aid students in their development as gifted youngsters, navigating school, peer relations, and preparations for college and life.

See our Cell Phone Policy for specific instructions on phone usage.