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About A&S

When art + science come together, anything is possible.

Three students pose for a photo outside on a fall day

In the College of Arts and Science, we pursue both personal discovery and world-scale impact to address the most enduring challenges of our time. Through interdisciplinary research, innovative teaching, and service to society, we explore deeply, encourage curiosity, forge connections, and cross boundaries. We are informed by the art and inspired by the science of how the world works and what makes us human.

Quick Facts

  • 100+

    Majors & Minors

  • 4,124

    Undergraduate Students

  • 773

    Full-time Faculty

  • 6:1

    Undergraduate Student to Faculty Ratio

  • 20

    Graduate Programs

  • 614

    Graduate Students

  • $59M+

    in External Research Grants

  • 2

    Alumni Nobel Prize Winners

Our Faculty

A&S faculty are world-renowned leaders in research, teaching, discovery, and creative expression. They are equally passionate about mentoring students as they are about conducting groundbreaking work that changes the way we understand our world.

See Faculty Research

Our 773 full-time faculty include:

  • 16

    American Academy of Arts & Sciences members

  • 4

    National Academy of Sciences members

  • 2

    National Academy of Medicine members

  • 1

    American Philosophical Society member

  • 2

    Pulitzer Prize winners

  • 1

    Dan David Prize winner

  • 16

    Guggenheim fellows

  • 5

    Carnegie fellows

  • 3

    MacArthur fellows

Our Students

The A&S experience is exactly what college should be: an intellectual environment where students can explore everything they’re curious about, interested in, and fascinated by—at the heart of a world-class university. Our student body is passionate, talented, and bold. They explore, engage, create, and learn from their instructors and from each other in a dynamic learning community.

See Student Work

At the College of Arts and Science, our focus is on teaching competencies and skills that prepare students to be successful professionals and engaged citizens. Graduates leave the college knowing how to think critically, communicate effectively, question analytically, and explore deeply, regardless of whether their degrees are in chemistry or English, art or anthropology, mathematics or philosophy. Armed with both broad knowledge and specific technical skills, our alumni are well-positioned to compete and succeed in a rapidly changing economy.

Career Outcomes

Following graduation, about half of new A&S alumni go directly into the workforce. They find success in a wide variety of fields, but certain industries are consistently popular with our graduates, such as finance, consulting, technology, education, government, and law.

Another 25-30 percent of A&S students typically go directly to graduate school. The majority of these pursue an M.A./M.S./M.Ed. or Ph.D., but law school and medical school are also very popular choices. We also have a significant number of alumni who spend several years in the workforce before returning to graduate school for an M.B.A. or similar degree. A&S alumni enjoy very high acceptance rates to outstanding graduate programs. In recent years, the top 10 graduate school destinations for our students have included Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, Duke University, Harvard University, and others.

For the class of 2024, within six months of graduating:

  • 90% were employed or in graduate school
  • Of those in graduate school, 84% were in their first or second choice program
  • Of those employed, top employers included Capital One, Deloitte, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Teach for America, and JP Morgan Chase.

For more statistics on A&S undergraduate outcomes, visit the Vanderbilt Career Center website.

Meet Our Alumni

Jake Aronskind, BA'19

Aronskind, CEO and co-founder of Pepper, was recognized in the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. While honored to be recognized, Aronskind said the goal has always been to foster connection around homemade food.

Elizabeth "Betsy" Ayala, BA'99

Ever binge-watched a home renovation competition on HGTV or a Food Network cooking challenge? If so, you can thank Ayala, the executive behind many popular TV shows across the Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio of networks.

John Jumper, BS'07

The youngest Nobel Prize recipient in 70 years, Jumper was honored for his work creating AlphaFold2, a platform that uses AI to determine the three-dimensional structure of a protein based on its sequence of amino acids.

Notable Alumni

  • John Jumper, BS'07 (Mathematics and Physics): Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work using AI to advance the scientific discovery of proteins' structures
  • Muhammad Yunus, PhD’71 (Economics): Winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the field of microfinance, founder of Grameen Bank, recipient of the 2009 U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, interim leader of Bangladesh
  • Dorothy Wingfield Phillips, BA’67 (Chemistry): Vanderbilt’s first Black woman undergraduate and Director-at-Large of the American Chemical Society
  • Lamar Alexander, BA’62 (Latin American Studies): U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of Education, 45th Governor of Tennessee
  • Robert Penn Warren, BA 1925 (English): Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and fiction writer, America’s first Poet Laureate, member of the Fugitive Poets