@collegemomjam : Their engineering program is indeed very challenging. But this can be said of a) elite engineering programs or b) engineering programs at overall elite undergraduate institutions.
Outside of that, VU is still relatively tame compared to the upper half of the top top 20 and several places outside. Again, it is really about the same level as the schools tied with it and below. Also, in general, students there value balance so they are generally a more laid back student body than more pre-professional oriented schools like JHU, Emory, WUSTL, or those with super heavy STEM biases like Rice.
@cobrat : Some schools have students who like to rate themselves high on every. VU is one of the schools on hotstreak right now so students are very happy about the ranking, scores, qol. They tend to rate themselves very high on happiness while also turning around and saying they are also one of the most rigorous schools at the same time (they still have many students who complain about grade deflation. Grading patterns in the subjects they complain about are similar to other schools in their tier). Could it be that “rigor” is being measured more so by expectations than actual complexity? Could be. If students find it annoyingly harder than expected to balance a super full EC life (an aspect that stood out to them when choosing) and academics, then they may “feel” kind of oppressed or more challenged than what they actually are or even should be. But students attending many other schools kind of expect to feel that burn or to make a compromise. I think it results from just a different culture. I don’t think much has changed. It is claimed (okay, it is data supported, they list major popularity stats themselves) that many still do the Peabody major (maybe ranks like 3rd) and that many also do econ. along with it and one is known as a very easy but still employable major and econ. is known as medium difficulty and definitely employable. Really not much different from other schools in its bracket except maybe students who are less geared toward the big 3 pre-professions as a whole. This may make it laid back compared to others, but I imagine many students are caught by surprise (so they assert that grading is harsher or that stuff is very hard).