<p>JHS, here is a data point from Dallas, Texas. Listed below are the matriculations of the top private school for boys. As you can see, Vanderbilt is extremely well represented in enrolled students, and it is easy to imagine how similar the applications patterns are. </p>
<p>St. Mark’s school of texas<br>
matriculations<br>
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 total Schools</p>
<p>7 2 4 4 4 21 university of pennsylvania
2 4 4 3 6 19 vanderbilt university
5 5 3 3 1 17 northwestern university
2 5 5 2 2 16 stanford university
3 3 4 4 2 16 university of texas at austin
4 3 4 1 3 15 southern methodist university
1 2 5 3 3 14 washington university in st. Louis
3 2 5 2 0 12 university of southern california
1 1 3 5 1 11 georgetown university
3 2 1 1 4 11 university of texas-austin-planii
1 4 1 2 2 10 harvard university
2 2 1 2 3 10 princeton university
3 2 0 3 2 10 yale university
3 0 1 4 1 9 dartmouth college
0 1 2 2 3 8 new york university
3 0 2 2 1 8 rice university
2 0 1 0 0 7 duke university
0 0 1 4 2 7 emory university
3 2 1 0 1 7 rhodes college
0 3 1 2 0 6 university of virginia</p>
<p>I’m out of time for this right now, but why this assumption? I would guess VU accepted a lot more than 25% of applicants with extremely high scores. </p>
<p>Believe me, if the anger exhibited on the Vanderbilt forum and the financial aid forum this spring by parents who assumed top scores would definitely garner a large merit award is any indication, I would say the assumption is out there that top scorers are very much in demand.</p>
<p>mathmom-
Tulane’s acceptance rate has been 23-26% the last 2 years. Vandys has dropped too, into the 20’s as well. What year data are you looking at?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>xiggi, I am not questioning the appeal of Vanderbilt to preppies in Dallas. On the other hand, I note that Vanderbilt only gets about 7% of its students from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico combined, which together represent 10% of total US population, and I believe more than that in college-age population.</p></li>
<li><p>midmo, my only point was that it looks like Vanderbilt accepts a very high percentage of very high testing applicants. That’s all.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>JHS, your east coast bias is showing. Vanderbilt is most certainly on the radar screen of top kids here in the Midwest. The fact that it’s not on the radar screen of Philly prep schools - big whoops. They aren’t the universe! (signed, someone originally from Philly)</p>
<p>Haverford and Swarthmore aren’t on the radar screen of Chicago area prep school students either - doesn’t mean they aren’t highly competitive.</p>
<p>The EA discussion prompted me to poke around on the Tulane website. I think it’s worth pointing my son in that direction as it seems to be about right for him with programs and selectivity. OTOH … what’s the party story at Tulane? Big party school or more serious academic school? </p>
<p>(Looking for the general reputation – kids will find their niche.)</p>
<p>Hi All, My S will be attending Vanderbilt this year. I do know that Vanderbilt had 19,300 applications this year. There were many kids that applied from our HS (CT) and although quite a few were placed on the waitlist, none were accepted off of the list. Our naviance info average was SAT 1420 or 2140 superscored (which Vanderbilt does do)
Year, Applied, Accepted, Enrolled
2009 29 3 2
2008 17 2 1
2007 27 11 4
2006 18 4 0 </p>
<p>My S applied to Tulane (ea) was notified pretty quickly that he was accepted. He also applied to CMC but withdrew application because he was accepted to Vanderbilt ED2. The grant $ was fantastic, w/ no loans in package.</p>
<p>Here is my humble opinion. I’m not a big fan of ED as it’s binding and should ONLY be done if the school is far and away a favorite and the student wants to attend that school above ALL other choices if accepted. </p>
<p>SCEA has its advantages and disadvantages. That is it SINGLE choice means that you can’t apply early to other places…but it’s not binding.</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of EA…rolling admissions, and generally completing college applications EARLY in the senior year as opposed to later. Both of my kids had ALL of their college applications done and in the mail (or email) by the 15th of October. DS applied early to one school and rolling to one other…had acceptances to both by mid December. DD applied EA to two schools and rolling to one…had two acceptances by mid-December and another by Jan. </p>
<p>In both cases, my kids were very happy to have the college applications DONE early. They both said that it made their senior years more enjoyable. They were DONE with applications and standardized tests and such…while classmates were still fussing with this throughout their senior year. </p>
<p>Another plus was that my kids weren’t queing up in the GC’s office to get stuff done…wasn’t much of a line in September:)</p>
<p>So…my recommendation to the OP…have your son apply EA wherever he can. Have him apply RD to the rest of the schools BUT get the applications done as early as possible. Then you can relax a bit, hope for some early acceptances to those EA schools…but also know that you are mostly done.</p>
<p>Then IF the OPs kiddo does not get accepted EA, he can find one or two other “safer” places to apply to…and do those applications. It sure beats doing a LOT of other applications later in the senior year.</p>
<p>I always presumed that Vanderbilt was on the radar for top students, along with Ivy League and similarly selective institutions, in part because it is one of the top-most ranked schools with a generous merit aid program. I know that Duke, UChicago, and WUSTL (ranked higher than Vandy by US News) provide a (very) few merit scholarships, but Vandy makes scholarship offers to many more students. So when a kid is planning his/her college list, it makes sense to include a few merit aid possibilities, especially in these uncertain times.</p>
<p>To say nothing of the fact that it’s a wonderful school, with an outstanding faculty, programs, facilities, etc., in an exciting town with many very cool oportunities, of course.(Happy Vanderbilt parent here.) :)</p>
<p>Not in our part of the country (Southern California). Vandy just doesn’t pop up for many of the kids around here. Too bad…I think one local kid is looking hard at Vandy for the next admissions season. I’ll be interested to see if he gets in.</p>
<p>I admit to not reading every entry here, but S applied EA to Bard and U of Chicago. Accepted at both, so we have no need to apply to any safeties. </p>
<p>He also applied to an ED school from which he was deferred.</p>
<p>Everything is regional, but some things are more regional than others. Vanderbilt has been making a concerted effort to get less regional over the past few years, and as much of the discussion in this thread testifies, it is having real success at that. From my snobby, parochial, much-impeached, and somewhat out-of-touch vantage point, it hasn’t quite made it into the next-best-thing-to-Ivy club, although it’s clearly knocking on the door. I am happy to admit that I have learned from this thread that others disagree with me, and I will adjust my insufferable attitude accordingly.</p>
<p>(Speaking of Southern California, for me Vanderbilt seems a lot like the Southern equivalent of USC.)</p>
<p>Anyway, I have drawn my own conclusion, perhaps mistakenly, that notwithstanding xiggi’s assertion that Vanderbilt is a reach for anyone, it is probably a solid match for anyone with high enough SATs. I don’t know how relevant that is to the OP. </p>
<p>I continue to believe that, if the OP’s kid likes Vanderbilt almost as much as Stanford, he should apply to Vanderbilt ED, while applying EA to Tulane and maybe Chicago. If he isn’t accepted early at any of them, he can apply to some of the other colleges on his list (Northwestern, Claremont-McKenna), but he ought to apply to a few that aren’t on his list yet (and he should know what those colleges would be well before December 15).</p>
<p>I do agree that Vanderbilt has made a concerted effort to get less regional, as have Wash U, Duke and Tulane (all of which were seen as excellent regional schools 20 years ago, IME). </p>
<p>However, turn it around. Take a look at the distribution of students attending (say) Bowdoin / Colby / Colgate / Bates / Haverford / Swarthmore 20 years ago compared to today. What’s the difference?</p>
<p>It seems that when a Northeast school attracts kids from outside its geographic area, it’s assumed that it’s “increasing diversity within its national presence” - but when a non-Northeast school attracts kids from outside its geographic area, it’s “finally moving away from being just a regional school”! I don’t see much difference. All good schools have most “power” in their local regions, and all good schools are trying to increase their national presence.</p>
<p>Assuming Stanford is the first choice, how about SCEA to Stanford, followed by ED II to Vanderbilt if Stanford rejects? (I don’t know the dates of the ED II period, but I assume they are set to pick up some who were rejected by other SCEA/EA/ED schools.)</p>
<p>If Vanderbilt shares the top spot with Stanford or is slightly favored, forget Stanford (and NU) until regular round, and go ED to Vanderbilt, EA to Chicago and EA to Tulane (I think that is OK). (Hmm, I just noticed that is what JHS said, above.)</p>
<p>As I said above, I think there has been, at least in the past, a bit of boost to ED at Vanderbilt, I don’t know anything about EA at Tulane, and I do not think it makes any difference to chances at UChicago.</p>