Driving to Nashville, where the university is located, gave me an indicator of just how gorgeous the campus would be. Rolling hills covered with fall foliage greeted my eyes on the road to the music city, and the crisp air was overwhelmingly different than the 70-ish humidity that’s the norm for November in Cypress. Though the area around Nashville was is beautiful is can be, nothing prepared me for the campus I was about to tour.

Walking from to the university was an experience in and of itself, just with how nice the people were and how easy it was to get around such a bustling city. Once I arrived at the Vanderbilt Office of Undergraduate Admissions, I was directed to a room where a campus admissions officer played a video on the academics, athletics, and admissions process that take place at Vanderbilt University. Surprisingly, the officer provided a warm and optimistic insight on applying to the university- convincing us that though getting in to the college wouldn’t be easy, everyone in the admissions office would be looking for reasons to admit students, not reasons not to.

The tour then divided up into groups of 10, with two students currently attending the university leading us on a walk of campus- showing us the buildings and dorms of Vanderbilt while also spouting off fun facts to keep us interested in campus life, like the fact that a Taylor Swift music video was filmed in the school’s library. The students really emphasized the interconnectedness of the campus- how most students lived in the dorms, how those involved in Greek life didn’t live all together in a house but live with other students, and how easy it is to make friends you’ll know your whole life on the first day of the semester at Vanderbilt. Overall, the school was gorgeous, academically prestigious, and full of students extremely close to one another. Not many schools have the ability of making someone feel comfortable as soon as they step on campus, but I can certainly say that Vanderbilt is one of the few that do.