I am thinking about applying to Vanderbilt, but I am worried that the students there only care about your wealth and social ranking (or how nice your clothes are). Also, is there a push to join and sorority/fraternity? I am not against it, but i know that in the South greek life is very prominent. Thank you in advance for your comments!
Apply first! Vandy has diversified its student body a lot, and even though the preppy reputation lingers on, most Vandy students are not like that. Vandy’s Greek life is pretty regulated and most top tier frats have been kicked off or are under probation. The Greek life here is pretty small compared to a state school’s. Join student organizations, get involved and you’ll be fine, I promise. As a girl, I have never been pressured to join Greek life. I got so involved with other student orgs, that I didn’t have the time or the inclination to rush.
there’s some wealthy people here, but I personally only know people who are here on hella financial aid and scholarships. no one cares how much money you have. also, no one cares if you do greek life. lots of people do it, but i think the majority doesn’t.
I think even the word “Vanderbilt” from other sources has connotations that imply wealth/money. But it is important to try to make your decisions on where to apply with a clear head and without letting such impressions color things and get in the way…not only at Vandy-- but at other great colleges that have stereotypes to contend with.
All similar/comparable mid sized private research universities with great (no loan) need aid will attract thousands of applicants who will throw in their hats for the opportunity to pay only what their parental income can bear without taking on loans. For those on need aid, Vandy can be the same cost as their flagships. When you attend one of these schools, a large % of the student body comes from families who can pay full freight, and another large portion of the student body is on “sliding scale”–but the talent and the motivation to learn is shared regardless.
Vanderbilt in my view is very well run and its trustees have made terrific decisions to invest in attracting and supporting talent with no regard for income (although I think Vandy does consider your financial need when filling out their class off the waitlist). The trustees have been as visionary as money and land will allow re the freshman campus --varied living and residential college options—a new Engineering building and on and on.
Save all the agony and the ecstasy of weighing out where to put down your deposit for May when you have the choices before you. Avoiding schools with Greek life (my Vandy son was independent) is to avoid many of the great university communities in the nation. Although some freshmen may seem a bit clueless or a bit entitled, keep your mind and heart open to your classmates. Over four years, everyone is moving forward and everyone is changing.
@jeng : In the south? You do know that is mainly talking about public schools whose Greek life often has a completely different flavor and dominates the campus atmosphere when combined with sports. Three of the top 5 or so southern private research Us indeed have a good subscription to it, but usually students are not pushed to do it and nor are the campus vibes usually completely dominated by them. Context really matters here. To treat Emory, Duke, Vanderbilt, Tulane, and Rice like it is any old southern institution would cause a miscalculation. Their student bodies are also dominated with people from outside of the south (except maybe Rice, which has more of an engineering/STEM emphasis so attracts those types who may not as willingly go Greek).
People worried about others’ money or students being wealthy? I do not think this is a fair critique/question. Good luck finding an elite public or private you are interested in. Please keep an open mind with this stuff and ask maybe more pointed questions. If you are considering elite publics and privates (research U or LAC), these should kind of be at the bottom of your list of concerns. If not, cross basically all of them off of your list.
So where would you want to go instead?
Here’s the median family income from a variety of top 30 private research universities. FYI, the median U.S. family income is about $56k.
Harvard $169k
NW $171k
Duke $187k
ND $191.5k
Yale $192k
Penn $195.5k
Brown $204k
Vandy $204.5k
Wake $221.5k
Tufts $225k
Gtown $229k
WUSTL $272k
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/yale-university
Fact is that the enrollment all of the top private colleges skews to the wealthier side. That’s just how it is.
But all these schools have lots of kids attending on financial aid and scholarships. The reason why Harvard’s number is the lowest of the above (of course) is because Harvard itself is extremely rich and so can hand out the most financial aid dollars.
You should have about 50 things more important to your choice than this.
Generally speaking students don’t know or care about their peers family income or net worth. As noted above top U’s are over represented with well funded students. Well funded students usually have smart parents who value education, and place their children in academically enriched environments with access to quality EC’s.
The percentage of students paying the full COA at top U’s hovers around 40%+. Coincidence, or is that the magic number needed to “keep the lights on”.
@northwesty : The schools that have lower median incomes simply recruit less wealthy students whether the school can afford it or not. Harvard can definitely afford it, but that does not mean Duke, NW, and others within the 100k range can as easily afford to. Regardless these are all extremely high medians. Considering that the ones offering generous financial aid packages still have very high median incomes (in half of the cases over 200k), it means that they have a threshold of insanely wealthy students who can essentially kind of compensate for the financial aid expenditures. Some may also rely on QB scholars and recruit heavily those lower income URMs who successfully get Millennium-Gates Scholarships, so that they do not have to fully cover ALL of the low income students as well as some of the “grey area” (still wealthy in an American context, but cannot easily pay 60k+ a year). To do that is extremely expensive, and you need lots of full-pay folks to help. The common thing at these types of schools that may get slightly annoying to lower income students is that other students assume that their peers are of decent means so the topics of conversation can get a little odd to someone from a lower income background, like students may openly talk about what is considered a relatively large allowance and how they are out, or talk about vacation homes (or vacations in general) like it is hardly a thing, but it comes with the territory from my experience. I was lucky to have friends who were a very nice mix of the income brackets.
to be fair to jeng, he/she is expressing a concern of many high school seniors who will read that 50% of the females at Vandy go Greek (this is a pretty high number…so you need to have your eyes open)…and a lesser percentage of men.
It can be jarring to be around a segment of people who have had generous economic advantages but it won’t take long to see that tons of those more affluent students are talented and fully deserving and contributory. And the point has been made that this split in economic diversity is repeated across the nation in private schools with financial need money to offer.
I thought I would quote my high school senior who ended up going to Vandy (with an unexpected merit offer). “I will apply to Vandy’s merit programs but it is at the bottom of my list…it doesn’t sound like “me”…and is too preppy and Greek for me”. – So we flew to Houston and he applied to and was admitted to wonderful Rice, a peer institution that does not have Greek life (all Residential House College system) and offers some nice modest merit money discounts rather broadly distributed to a large hunk of the entering class. As fate would have it, zip merit offer at Rice. The fickle finger of fate! He applied for merit at Emory and the admissions department forgot to bring his application to the committee. This stuff happens! He visited Vandy and realized he was suddenly excited over Vanderbilt’s rather delightful location and easy access to a very enjoyable city. He could visualize his non-Greek life quite easily. The recession hit…other full pay admissions were declined.
One thing not mentioned directly so far is the primary value of not overspending in undergraduate school, particularly if you have grad school dreams. I honestly see our strong students who went to the state flagship colleges doing just as well in graduate school admissions. Although my own son was also initially cowed by anxiety about Greek life…realistic budgeting and academic fit are the things that must come together first. Social fit counts. But start with the long view on money.