Students at the university can explore at leisure the treasures of this lovely valley, which was for centuries a continental crossroads, and which is today one of the best-preserved medieval cities in all of Germany. Vanderbilt has been successful in securing single rooms in modern dormitories, most of them near the university campus, for all students in the program. Students are normally housed on different floors so that they have ample opportunity to meet non-American students. Students make their own arrangements for meals. There are facilities for cooking in the dormitories, and the University Cafeteria offers a variety of inexpensive meals.
Most German students eat in their rooms or at the cafeteria.
The six-week student orientation program following arrival in Regensburg includes an intensive German language course, a number of excursions around the city, and a study tour of longer duration. The intensive German language course, for which students receive 4 hours of credit from Vanderbilt, consists of grammar review, conversation, and lectures introducing the student to social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of contemporary Germany. Since the fall semester ends too late for students to return to the Vanderbilt Nashville campus for the spring semester, students may enter the Vanderbilt in Germany program either in the fall for the full academic year or for the spring semester only. The Vanderbilt in Germany program is unusual in that students enroll directly in the German university with the full status of German university students. Depending upon their fluency in the German language, students may earn from 12 to 18 hours of credit each semester, including the intensive German language course taken during the orientation period.