Accepted, Want to Visit, Tours Full

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
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<p>DD has been accepted to Vandy with a SWEET fin aid package. We've never been to Nashville. (Florida people.) DD is on spring break this week. DD usually has a very demanding school and work schedule, but happens to be available this week only and miraculously, so am I. I really want to drive up Thursday and tour Fri/Sat, but the tours are all full.</p>

<p>DD is majoring in engineering. Her mind is set on Georgia Tech (big fat scholarship). I can't help but feel she needs to actually visit Vandy. I think she'll love it once she sees it. I don't really have a preference for one school over the other as they are both great choices. I just want her to make an informed choice. But there's no available tours when we are able to visit.
Can we effectively visit a campus without formal tours?</p>

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<p>Call the admissions office and see if they might be able to squeeze her in for one of the tours. I’m sure they have people who cancel or don’t show for whatever reason. Maybe explaining the situation will help. Congratulations to your DD! My D is a freshman at Vandy and she loves it there. Good luck!</p>

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<p>I would contact her regional admissions rep for advice. He/she may tell you to come anyway. There are bound to be people who won’t show up for scheduled tours. I think you could get a good sense of the campus on your own with a visit to The Commons, Sarratt Student Center, and a classroom building. As a national arboretum, it’s a beautiful campus, especially in the spring (unless you are allergy prone!).</p>

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<p>land64shark,</p>

<p>Definitely go. My family (one senior who applied this year and two juniors) attended Vanderbilt’s tour and admissions presentation last spring break. The general presentation was very informal and in a large auditorium with lots of seats. They then had student-led tours, with no attendance taken. Frankly, neither was very out of the ordinary. The best part was walking around campus just with the family and seeing lots of happy students going about their business on a gorgeous campus. I mention “happy students” because I have been on plenty of campus’s where that is not the vibe (see Harvard, MIT, Cornell).</p>

<p>Oldest son also went to Vanderbilt’s summer camp and loved it. Kids attend form all over the country and you live in the freshmen dorms on the Commons, which are very nice and with a-c. Once your DD sees Vandy, I would be surprised if she wants to go to G. Tech.</p>

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<p>Definitely make some phone calls. If your daughter has been accepted and is favoring another school, I’m certain Vandy will want to accommodate her. Not exactly difficult to add two extra people onto a tour group!</p>

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<p>Not to imply that you should be dishonest but… when I went on a tour in July, they never counted people, or asked if everyone was there. If you absolutely cannot be squeezed into a tour, then I think it would be pretty easy to just tag along on one anyway.</p>

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<p>is there some reason you would not think twice and take her out of school in Florida for an accepted students day instead? Just saying…it is a huge decision and my Dad is a Ramblin Wreck but Vandy is a completely different residential life experience. They are apples and oranges, both sweet. </p>

<p>if you have any things laying around like unused airmiles, that would be my thought because she just got into a college with a 10% RD admission rate and if it is one of her top 2…or the only thing that might dethrone GT, then I would rack that trip up to a Making Memories parent/daughter outing to remember to help her come fully to her final decision chips fall where they may. There is something wonderful about seeing so many admitted students milling about, some who will not end up at Vandy because they have better financial offers or will take other offers. I also recall at Vandy and Duke Blue Devil Days, a score of students who flew or drove in solo, took taxis, did the day and stayed in a hotel and returned home sans parents. it is done is all I am saying although I would not want to miss it as a parent. </p>

<p>Regardless…if you want to go this weekend. Just Go. Send an email to your regional rep informing them you are going to be on campus and asking if there is any way your admitted student can tag along.
Very diff experience walking the campus with 17 year old juniors and their parents. What a difference a year can make for seniors. </p>

<p>I also perfectly agree that you can make this work. You can for instance, request to sit in on a class (our son did three…they used to have a list of preapproved classes in the admissions office but you do have to arrive early sans your parent, and shake hands with the prof and inform them you are sitting in out of courtesy.)</p>

<p>We found a half hour in the library roaming around observing or simply eating in the dining hall listening in a bit to be really helpful. If you want tips on where to eat or go in Hillsboro Village or the West End area, let us know or PM. </p>

<p>She will miss being addressed by the Chancellor, the student discussion panels and the opp for lectures on a few career paths at Vandy on accepted student days.<br>
Not the end of the world by any means as the campus itself can tell you the tale. </p>

<p>congrats and enjoy</p>

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<p>Thank you all for your replies. They are very helpful.</p>

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<p>Also, if she knows any students there, she could try to hook up with them and see if they would take her for a tour.</p>

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<p>Well, I called our regional admissions counselor but was forced to email her because she has been out of the office. She responded readily enough, but only to say there’s nothing she can do if the tours indicate they’re full. Oh, and they form a waiting list the day of the tour on a first come first served basis. So much for accommodating the admitted student from out of state that’s never been to campus and is leaning towards another school. All in all, I’d say it’s left me a little cold.</p>

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<p>Oh wow! To be honest we had a similar experience at another school and it also left my daughter cold and that one has dropped off the top of her list now. How can admissions offices be so uncaring? They care enough to give a great scholarship? Why can’t they just arrange a private tour? <em>shakes head</em></p>

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<p>You could definitely join in on the walking tour without a reservation. Just hang around outside the place where they convene and then tag along. No one would question it for a minute. I wouldn’t let my admission decision rest on something like that.</p>

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<p>I would have also been put off, I admit—a lack of largesse is always a flaw. However, two stories, lesson obvious re letting one person stop you from embracing an entire city and Vanderbilt is really a city unto itself…with 6000 undergrads yes, but also 6000 grad students, a regional lead hospital, and tons of contributions in its region of the USA, …I think it is the second or third biggest employer in TN. I also try not to judge say Paris on the rudeness and lack of largesse of a hotel concierge. </p>

<p>yes, I compared Nashville to Paris but then I just had a glass of wine.</p>

<p>OK…
Duke admit son, 2005. Denied at his Ivy league crush and admitted to some very good match colleges, son never anticipated admission to Duke and had no attachment to it whatsoever because he expected a waitlist or rejection. Goes to overnight on a Blue Devil Day, and no one comes to get him. He is the last student waiting as darkness falls. Finally a very very odd person who cannot make eye contact, clearly has limitations of some kind that might be handicap level, comes to get him. Tells him that he was called and made to come get a Prospie as a “joke for his fraternity.” Then leaves son in Duke dorm without a key and says he may return by 3am or so. Nice, Huh?<br>
Duke son wanders with boys in tuxedos to what turned out to be the final Duke Sympnony Orchestra performance, chats some of them up. Watches senior Dukies give their final goodbye speeches to their beloved conductor and sees a real espirit de corps. and he realizes that the rude guy isn’t Duke.<br>
Spends four of the happiest years of his life at Duke, with a seat in the symphony where he maintained many friends, held offices and also loved his conductor.<br>
Duke son also competes on written exams and through three elimination rounds based on social skills with literally hundreds of students and is chosen to be in an elite group that gives tours for major events, conferences and events at Duke. He is in a position to make people welcome.</p>

<p>Vandy son attends Accepted Student Day and has a merit scholarship. Very anxious and negative re the Greek scene reputation. Student panel is sadly four Greeks with two boys in Identical pink and blue shirts (diff frats though!) with the same logos on them and no independent student speaking about the other half of the college socially. The one girl he feels will address life for non Greeks opines that her sorority has made all the difference in her life at Vandy. I hear a segment of parents and students looking for their car keys. Tours are offered and 10 new guides show up. Son notices a girl in a Red Coat giving a tour and we follow him to her. She is independent, a film major and moving to Sweden soon. She shows him her dorm, takes him to lunch, her BF joins them and son realizes…hey out of 6000, I would be a fool to stereotype everyone.<br>
Three years later son is in a European country for a semester. Girl in Red Coat and her BF, now ages 25…invite him for a weekend in Sweden. He gets on a plane and goes. </p>

<p>Lesson from my experience…follow through with April visits. Let your son or daughter figure it out and everyone hold your horses re jumping to conclusions. </p>

<p>With 28,300 applications…it is a sure bet that Vanderbilt has 1600 really great young men and women who will deposit and move into the Commons. Perhaps Vandy will be your child’s best ever decision. Perhaps the dice will fall and another great community will be his or her next home. But don’t make random decisions.</p>

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<p>My D walked around campus on her own and stopped students - who looked “nice” - to talk to them (and this is a shy young woman). That sealed the deal for her.</p>

<p>There is no reason you can’t go and just hang around. Join the walking tour, as suggested. Check out the public areas on campus and around campus. You can still get a good sense of things on your own.</p>

<p>Faline2 has a son who is an independent spirit, and I have a daughter who is also an independent spirit. Both have found their niches and enjoyed their time at Vanderbilt. My D graduated last May. While at Vandy, she studied abroad (and traveled all over Europe on the weekends - wherever the cheap flights flew), served on the board of Habitat, served on Music Group (planning concerts), had a radio show, interned at a record label and a music management company, did sociology research one summer (with a stipend of $4000), and graduated with honors. She didn’t rush a sorority, she didn’t go to fraternity parties … but she went to concerts in town, hung out with friends, etc, etc. You can make it what you want it to be! :)</p>

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<p>If all else fails, I can give you guys a tour! I’ve helped out with the admitted students tours in April the last couple of years so I somewhat would know what I was doing :)</p>

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<p>^^^Aww…hugs to Lauren!</p>

<p>(((((Lauren)))))</p>

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<p>Well, we didn’t end up going. Thank you Lauren. That is wonderfully generous to offer your tour guide services. Unfortunately(???), DD is dead set on Georgia Tech. (Full ride OOS scholarship, top 5 engineering school, and her sister is a current junior with the same deal and is doing fabulously with a 4.0 in chemE.) If DD wanted anything but engineering, Vanderbilt would be hard to turn down. But she wants engineering. I guess her logic is sound. It’s just so hard to turn down Vandy and over $59K of financial aid when I know how extremely lucky she is and that a great many would kill for such an opportunity. Sigh!</p>

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<p>I am sure your D will be happy at GA Tech. There is no one “best” school. Best wishes! :)</p>

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<p>Congrats to your daughter…she will love sharing an alma mater with her older sis. I know a 19 year old there now and she is super happy. Plus Georgia Tech is the BOMB in engineering. </p>

<p>daughter of a GA Tech grad.</p>