#36 Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University (also known informally as Vandy) is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the South. Vanderbilt hoped that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War.

Vanderbilt enrolls approximately 12,000 students from all 50 U.S. states and over 100 foreign countries in four undergraduate and six graduate and professional schools. Several research centers and institutes are affiliated with the university, including the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, Dyer Observatory, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the only Level I trauma center in Middle Tennessee. With the exception of the off-campus observatory, satellite medical clinics, and the Institute, all of the university’s facilities are situated on its 330-acre (1.3 km²) campus in the heart of Nashville, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from downtown. Despite its urbansurroundings, the campus itself is a national arboretum and features over 300 different species of trees and shrubs.