Are Peabody students disliked here?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
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<p>So I'm a rising senior, and I've been considering application to Vanderbilt into Peabody. Not because its easy as I've heard quite commonly, but because I have a genuine interest in neurology. This being said, I looked at the Cognitive Studies major offered at Peabody, and this definitely sparked my interest since I did very well in my AP Psych course and enjoyed the material on cognitive processes specifically. I'd also plan on double majoring in neuroscience at A&S to provide a pretty complete education in the field of neurology. By the way, I'm premed, I'd just like a unique, almost abstract perspective on neuroscience before the trials of med school and having to memorize every nerve of the body (along with much other memorization). I know that a lot of the hate to Peabody students is directed at HOD majors (I've heard its universally regarded as an easy major). But what I'm wondering is if someone in my position, who would be taking probably the same amount of courses at A&S as Peabody, would garner the same amount of resentment from the students I'd encounter on a daily basis. Seems as though the college as a whole has a reputation for being easy to get a high GPA in, and as a result the students are characterized as not being as smart as the rest of the campus. I don't think I'd classify myself as dumb either hahahah (4.0 UW with 6 APs, 34 ACT), I just don't want to end up at Peabody if I'd be labeled as such.</p>

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<p>Not at all…</p>

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<p>High School is over…do what you want to do!</p>

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<p>Nobody cares which school you’re in</p>

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<p>You may get **** for being in peabody, but it would be in jest. However, I could see more dislike directed at you because you seem like a self conscious middle-schooler.</p>

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<p>Alright, good to hear…and RTH, I’m not like that at all, so I doubt that would be a problem. I just wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t be completely shunned from the rest of the students. Not like I expected it to go that far though. Just a little searching around the forums and seeing numerous threads dedicated to disdain for the HOD program had me a little concerned.</p>

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<p>What in the world are you talking about… Where did you hear this stuff…</p>

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<p>[HODumb</a> | The Vanderbilt Torch](<a href=“HugeDomains.com”>HugeDomains.com)
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vanderbilt-university/482873-human-organizational-development-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vanderbilt-university/482873-human-organizational-development-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Maybe got the wrong message from it, and now that I see hate may be a strong word for it…like I say, I don’t know, it just seems like the perception of the HOD major is negative. But as can be seen from the responses, that obviously doesn’t translate to all of the Peabody students…</p>

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<p>HOD gets crap as a major, but people don’t hate/resent people doing HOD… That’s insane.</p>

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<p>Are you a guy? If so you’ll be very happy with Peabody.</p>

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<p>@Pancaked: alright, good to hear, honestly it was just a random thought that popped into my head and I have no idea why. vandy seems like a great place overall with pretty friendly people, so now that i think about it its pretty hard to imagine disliking people because of their major</p>

<p>@dtotheustin09: yes I am actually, why do you say that?</p>

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<p>lol, i dont hate HOD people as there are lots of hot girls there</p>

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<p>ipepper, babyboom hit the nail on the head. the attractive girl ratio is out the roof.</p>

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<p>ipepper, nice article. Quite enlightening. It still boggles me, however…if the top-ranked school of education in the country gets so much crap for being easy, what does that tell us about the students majoring in similar things at other schools?</p>

<p>How does the rigor of HOD compare to that of majors like psychology, philosophy, history, sociology, Asian/Latin American/African American + Diaspora studies, and English? Religious studies? Communications (which gets crap in other schools too) ?</p>

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<p>I have to wonder if many people are simply anti-social science/humanities. From experience, I personally don’t find most of those significantly less rigorous (psyche is actually pretty hard, I don’t know how other places do it) as they are generally more writing intensive and require a more intense commitment outside of class and often in class. If anything, it’s the grading that’s annoyingly soft at times (w/exception of psyche, English, history, and polisci where even getting a “fair” grader can screw you if you don’t put out quality work). I guess LAC-like places (most which don’t have engineering) don’t have as much animosity toward these type of majors, because I don’t see it that much (many/most science/math math students double major in such disciplines. I thought Vandy was similar or is it not?).</p>

<p>I don’t care for that Torch article. Seems to be passing judgement based upon a weak introductory course. I’m sure that if the student does some exploring, he’ll find many other weak introductory sequences or courses throughout Vanderbilt just as at other elite schools (many will be in what is deemed as particularly or somewhat strong majors). They contradicted themselves when they essentially said: “I’m not judging based upon this…”, but basically did so throughout the whole article.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I was honestly pretty shocked at that article as well. Like he kinda made it seem like HOD was easier than elementary school or something. Oh well, from the responses I’ve gotten I feel as though the “animosity” is toward the major itself, not the people in it. And bernie, I do know that humanities majors get even more disdain when they’re premed. All the science and engineering majors feel like these majors are going the easy way to a high GPA, which I don’t really believe if what you said about its focus on writing is true.</p>

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<p>Again, I don’t notice that disdain here (we don’t have engineering, so the dynamics are different). No one cares. And also science oriented students (other than those majoring in it alone or w/a science major) seem to get lower grades in humanities and certainly social science courses than peers that are inclined toward the subject (the only difference may be that getting low in such a class means C+ to B as opposed to science courses meaning C- to B-. Basically grades go lower). Many aren’t used to producing beyond what is considered high quality writing at the HS level, and being in the sciences may have decreased their writing ability as a whole. The disdain may be more common at places w/a big engineering scene. That’s just speculation though. I don’t understand why it would even occur in that case. I’m betting people at Vandy care less than what could be revealed by that article or the thread you found. It probably won’t be noticeable once you get there. Your pursuits are noble and make lots of sense, I see lots of people do the same thing, and they like it and people don’t display disdain toward it. If anything, it makes them more interesting. Don’t worry about it. Enjoy the benefits of having reinforcing backgrounds and your time at a great school :slight_smile: .</p>

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<p>Alright, thanks for the advice! I’ll definitely keep it in mind :)</p>