Belmont University sits on 75 historic acres two miles southwest of downtown Nashville, Tenn., a thriving metropolis known worldwide as Music City USA. In the mid-1800s, the land the university now occupies was known as the Belle Monte estate, the Victorian home of one of Tennessee’s wealthiest couples, Joseph and Adelicia Acklen. Their antebellum Belmont Mansion remains today, flanked by university buildings separated in age by more than a century.

The first educational institution on the estate was the original Belmont College (1890-1913), offering elementary school through junior college education to young ladies. The school merged with Ward Seminary to become the prestigious Ward-Belmont School for Women (1913-1951), and in 1951, with the support of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, the school became the coed Belmont College. Since becoming Belmont University in 1991, Belmont has grown not only in size but in quality. The mansions, gardens and statues of Belmont’s historic past now sit side-by-side with state-of-the-art facilities equipped with the best technology and faculty to educate today’s students with the right tools for real world success.

Belmont University is among the fastest growing Christian universities in the nation with more than 7,700 students hailing from every state and 25 countries. Since 2000, enrollment has risen from just under 3,000 to more than 7,700 students for the 2016-17 school year. As enrollment steadily increases, so does the quality and diversity of each new class. Incoming freshmen represented 48 states and 10 foreign countries and scored an average of 26 on the ACT.