The Future of Vanderbilt's Campus...

I can’t speak to the university’s current plans because I’m not privy to those meetings obviously (although I would say those renderings are likely consistent with the administration’s current vision) but I am wholeheartedly in support of the residential college system in the works. I will be living in the one that is now finished for the next three years, and I think the only evidence you need of the plan’s value can be seen in one of Vanderbilt’s biggest current draw cards: the Ingram Commons. That’s a residential college system that you only get access to for one year (unless you become an RA) and 95+% of students rave about how awesome that is as an experience, building community in a living quarters as beautiful as the Peabody Esplanade and Commons Lawn.

As to the specific architecture of Kissam and the proposed Bronson E. Ingram college et al, I don’t know that I LOVE that style of architecture, as I personally like the more Jeffersonian style of, say, the Wyatt Center, West and North Houses, or even the bricked style of the five new-er freshman houses (Sutherland, Hank Ingram, Stambough, Murray and Crawford). But, it will be a MARKED improvement on the current buildings of Towers and Branscomb. Like ew. Even the Chaffin apartments and the Lewis and Morgan complex next to it are ugly as all get out and I would personally love to see everyone getting equal access to beautiful housing communities like Kissam and E Bronson, not just those who are lucky enough to win the lottery.

But those are just my thoughts. From an admissions standpoint, it will mean that Vanderbilt wins more students from cross-admit battles with Rice, Yale, and UChicago, as Vanderbilt’s location, culture, food, academics, merit scholarships and extraordinary faculty may be enough to put it over the edge for students who are drawn to one of the others by its residential college system specifically.