Tennesee’s prestigious Vanderbilt University is giving Big Apple institutions such as Columbia and New York University a local run for their money — by opening a satellite campus in Chelsea.

The Nashville-based “Harvard of the South” began welcoming students Aug. 23 to the educational Manhattan outpost, which is the site of an old Episcopal seminary for priests, the General Theological Seminary.

“Vanderbilt’s connection to New York has deep roots,” Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said in a statement.

“Our university began more than 150 years ago through the vision and generosity of New Yorker Cornelius Vanderbilt. So, in a very real sense, today is not simply an arrival—it is a homecoming.”

The university will spend $44 million to operate the 13 Gothic-style buildings from the seminary under a 99-year lease, according to The City outlet. The buildings occupy an entire block between Ninth and Tenth avenues along West 20th and West 21st streets near the High Line.

Vandy will spend another $50 million on massive renovations to upgrade the buildings, with many of the upgrades already under way.

The distinguished offshoot will bring together for a semester Vandy main-campus students who are enrolled in Arts & Sciences, Engineering, and Human & Organizational Development, combining coursework with hands-on internships across the Big Apple.

The students will intern with iconic New York groups such as Merrill Lynch, Tishman Speyer, the American Museum of Natural History, the High Line, The Legal Aid Society, city Law Department and Uber.

The university said the expansion makes sense.

More than 7,800 Vanderbilt alumni live in the New York region, which is its largest grad network outside of Tennessee, and a considerable number of the esteemed university’s incoming students come from the New York region.

Vanderbillt also has those historical New York roots: It was founded thanks to a donation from 19th century shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, a New Yorker born on Staten Island.

Cornelius Vanderbilt was known as “the Commodore,” and the university’s sports teams are called the Commodores in his honor.

The first batch of students consists of 87 transfers from the main Vandy campus in Tennessee who can now easliy access internships in New York’s financial services, real estate, architecture, law arts and entertainment and media industries.

Jacques Kalfayan, 21, said he’s proud to attend the respected “Harvard of the South” for his semester at the Big Apple campus.

As a transfer to Vanderbilt from the University of Massachusetts, he’s a first-generation college student whose parents came from the former Soviet Union and Syria, and he is studying economics and political science.

He said his parents wanted him to get into Harvard.

“I’m glad, I’m fortunate, that I got into Vanderbilt, and it’s the Harvard of the South, so I get to say that at least, right?” Kalfayan, who was raised across the Hudson River in Edgewater, NJ.

Courses explore topics including urban life, finance, behavioral science and systems thinking.

Kalfayan is also interning at the not-for-profit group inlightenup.

“As home to leading institutions in finance, media, technology and the arts, and as a jumping-off point to the rest of the world, New York offers unbounded opportunities,” Diermeier said.

“As we establish this new home in New York, we look forward to becoming part of the fabric of this city—building partnerships, creating opportunities, and bringing Vanderbilt’s people, ideas and research into New York’s institutions, industries and communities. We want our presence here to make a meaningful difference for New York and the Vanderbilt community.”

Diermeier and students celebrated the campus opening in Chelsea by ringing the opening bell on NASDAQ.

Other students are excited to be in the Big Apple.

“I just got out of my first class, and I’m already finding a lot of community in the classroom. A lot of the students are self-starters and they’re asking questions just like me, and I’m ready to be super ambitious with them,” said Carolina Kelly, a culture, advocacy and leadership major in the class of 2027, in a statement provided by Vanderbilt.

Eric Wu, an economics major said, ““I’ve already felt a big sense of community through the people I met at orientation and the people I already knew coming here.

“Meeting all the neighbors through the orientation events made me feel welcome here in New York City already.”

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt is expanding its tentacles elswhere, too.

The university is also creating satellite campuses for art, architecture, and design in San Francisco named after Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang, and opening a center for finance and business in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The Vanderbilt expansion in New York comes as other colleges in the state and elsewhere struggle with declining enrollment, particularly following the COVID-19 outbreak.

A number of smaller higher education institutions have closed in New York and elsewhere, including Kings College in Manhattan, the College of New Rochelle in Westchester County, Concordia College in Bronxville in Westchester, the College of St. Rose in Albany and Cazenovia College near Syracuse.

The City University of New York’s enrollment has not fully recovered from the drop in students pre-COVID, and St. John’s University closed its satellite campus on Staten Island because of a decrease in admissions.

Educators blame part of the plummeting enrollment to “the cliff,” the declining birth rates among families in recent decades amid stiff competition for students.