Considering what I’ve heard from HS classmates and colleagues who graduated from Vanderbilt, …the comment they work as hard as MIT or peer schools like CMU, Caltech, UChicago, Reed, Cornell, etc would prompt ROTFLOL laughs…even from those Vandy alums.
Things might have changed in the last 1-2 decades, but back when I was in HS, Vanderbilt was actually considered one of the more academically laid back schools among the elites in our HS and by most Vandy alums I’ve encountered.
Heck, if the Federal Service Academy → Caltech attending cousin heard a similar comment from his brother who attended RPI as hard as that school may be, he’d be ROTFLOLing on the floor.