<p>Having spent 4 years in Nashville and VU, I strongly recommend AGAINST going to Vandy as an Asian myself.</p>
<p>Nashville has been one of the most racist places I have ever lived in my life. You can go around town and the only types of Asians people know of are Chinese and Japanese (and in fact I have been asked the “Are you Chinese or Japanese” question plenty of times. Vanderbilt is the most diverse place in the entire city and if you’re OK with staying within the ‘bubble’, then I guess it can be OK. Even within Vandy, there is a strong tendency for Asians to just hang out with Asians without branching out as a result.</p>
<p>Plus, outside of this, the dating life at Vanderbilt sucks for Asians. People discriminate, but don’t admit it just because it is not kosher to do so. I would recommend going to a bigger city, not some podunk town like Nashville. Worst 4 years of my life.</p>
<p>@martel_pride Do you know if the teachers discriminate against Asians as well? There was a ton of this at my school. To name just one example, one white student wrote on a quiz “I have honestly not read the book and cannot complete this quiz” and got 100%. My other Asian friend wrote the same thing on the same test and got a 0%. Yet another example is that teachers let the white students retake tests, but never the Asians. Is it like that at Vandy?</p>
I am sorry, but I find this to be so unlikely that I doubt anyone believes that is a true story. Are you saying they conspired to see what would happen? It just doesn’t pass the smell test.</p>
<p>I can assure you that it is true. I don’t know how to prove it to you, but it is. The white student was in theater, and they had a performance the night before. So PERHAPS the teacher thought that it was ok to exempt her from the quiz. However, I find that ridiculous and unfair. Extracurriculars are chosen by the student, so the student should accept the consequences of those extracurriculars. </p>
<p>There are many other stories. In my Spanish class, there were only two Asians including me. My Spanish teacher constantly mixed up our names by “accident”. I can understand it happening on the first day of school, but in May? Really? Do Asians really look that similar?</p>
<p>I would take martel_pride’s words with a grain of salt. He was at Vandy as a graduate student, and they are entirely disconnected from the undergraduate population.</p>
<p>The student population is not racist, nor is the Nashville population is racist. In fact Nashville has been voted the “Friendliest city” in the nation and is also ranked 1 for “best overall people”… Maybe this person just had a bad experience around particular graduate students and city dwellers. Nashville even has some incredible Asian cuisine that Vandy students frequent.</p>
<p>Some Asian students tend to self-segregate, but that just some students, and is a personal choice. Asian students who choose to be a part of the entire student body and not just the Asian community are integrated just like anyone else.</p>
<p>Pancaked- Thank you very much. This racism was a really big deal for me and had a really negative effect on me. I’m hoping to have a new start at college.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that you’d find a racist teacher at any respectable college. Unlike in highschool, they would lose their job and reputation very quickly.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t trust rankings like that. They tend to only measure certain characteristics and then measure them in somewhat questionable ways (for example, I can imagine ways to measure “friendliness” and “best people” without taking into account race relations, multi-culturalism, and demographics within a city). Atlanta, for example, has been known to get some interesting, often contradictory, top rankings by some agencies. Regardless, I can’t really imagine Vandy or Nashville being anything like martel describes it. Seems to be hyperbole. As for a racist teacher (at least blatantly)…uh no.</p>
<p>I agree with Pancaked in that professors do not discriminate. Far from it, for that matter. It’s a very diverse faculty from all over the world.</p>
<p>Asians tend to self-segregate wherever you go. I tended to go for a more diversity in the people around me. No other further comments to what Pancaked said because I am but one data point, but just telling it like I saw it because like most graduate students, most of our social life is off-campus.</p>
<p>I will also add - so that I don’t sound like a complete debbie-downer on VU, that there were a few neat things that I appreciated about VU. While I am outspoken my social experience around Nashville, I will say that academically, you’d be making a good decision.</p>
<p>Profs are among the most laid-back that I’ve met in my life. It’s hard to see them as super-important in their respective fields because of how much they break the stereotypes of what scholars should be like.</p>
<p>For those in science & engineering, there is a pretty good chance of getting into a lab for research experience. If you have multiple schools on your list, this is really where that student-to-faculty ratio plays in. For every open lab spot at VU, there are less applicants per spot than if you were at a huge state university. The main thing is that for those of you who are bio/medicine people, the fact that a large medical center is right on campus is really key. Facilities are among the best in the US (although this depends on field), and the amount of collaboration is pretty high - you may be in a chemistry lab but interact regularly with medical doctors who may be the end-users of your products.</p>
<p>These all would be very different if it was a very racist academic environment. Therefore, when I made my original post, I was simply referring to life around Nashville, and in a few cases, around VU.</p>
<p>I feel like the first thing is the case for many of those in academia. In addition, I find that how laid back they are depends on if you catch them in a more graduate school/research type setting or in an undergrad. type of setting. The former tends to be less intense. In general, it just seems like those in academia are just more laid back than those in professional schools for example (which makes sense). However, you can often tell when a particular academic is perhaps more of a standout than the others (Dennis Liotta over here, for example, is ridiculous. Other high powered PI’s in the chem. dept say that they rarely see him. I’ve TAed for his classes and taken a grad. class from him and he’s extremely inaccessible. He has a full office to assist him that is larger than the actual chem. department HR office and you must contact his secretary to access him. I think it’s overkill). Regardless, what you’re saying now makes more sense is more in line with what someone who goes to Vandy will experience. In addition, the UG dynamics are different because of the greater abundance of organizations and on-campus events that bring students together regardless of ethnic boundaries. I feel we’ll need more evidence about demographic based issues on campus, and normally those come to the fore when there are lots of international students. If Vandy’s international population catches up to its peers, it would be interesting to see what many of them think (I think it’s only around 6% now).</p>
<p>I realize this thread is old, but I’d just like to add my 2 cents as someone who has lived in the Nashville area for most of my life and the Vandy area for the past 4 years. There is no lack of ignorance about Asians, and as martel_pride said this can often lead to self-segregation just to avoid the “So what are you?” questions and the like. Nashville is better than the surrounding area’s flat-out hatred and xenophobia, but still not great. The vibe I get is that while people may be on top of it academically, they are still pretty clueless as to how to deal with discussions about race, or knowing when to just. shut. up. Because why does my country of origin matter to YOU, random stranger at a sushi restaurant?! I’m not asking you where in Europe YOUR ancestors are from! There’s a lot of “ooooh exotic” type attitudes.
I still applied to Vanderbilt since it is practically in my backyard, but I have to say that my experiences in this area have been a major con and make it probably my last-choice school, despite the excellent academics. If you’re Asian and considering Vanderbilt, I would say be cautious about it. Having dealt with this kind of thing growing up, I’m shamefully much too lenient about it, but on the plus side shutting people down when they ask rude questions is second nature now. You can avoid the racism if you make the effort, if not you will most definitely encounter it on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Yes, racism does exists at Vandy and in Nashville, it exists every where around the world! Sometimes it is subtle and sometimes overt. I’m a firm believer in “you get back what you give”.
Although I’m of mixed heirtage (Chinese/Eastern European), most when they first meet me would put me in the “asian” box. I honestly can say that my four years at Vanderbilt were GREAT!
As a freshman, I still remember when members of the Asian Society would come around the dorms and ask me to join, but I was more interested in Greek life and joined a popular fraternity. Because of my position in the fraternity, I had to interact with the surrounding Nashville neighborhood and was always treated with the same respect that I gave. Yes, you can segregate yourself and be “safe”, but let’s face it, we don’t live in a safe world. So get out of the box and enjoy!</p>
<p>My Anglo son/recent Vandy grad went non greek and at least half of his Vandy friends are sons or daughters of people born in Asian countries…very diverse group of friends…a few Greek, mainly independent status students. In fact, several of his Asian second gen friends spent New Years with him in his new city. Although it is a fair question to discuss the social well being of Asian American and international students at any college or in any region of the USA, I think that Vanderbilt is diverse enough to be under full consideration for Asian students who are accepted. Vanderbilt was not “perfect” for our Anglo son either socially but I think Vanderbilt is a wonderful university-- and for him it was plenty of preparation for an intensely diverse workplace in the major city where he lives now. Honestly, I think the issue of whether or not Vandy offers the ideal social life for anyone accepted should wait till March/April when your admissions options are before you. Vanderbilt has graduate schools, a fine city around it and massive resources. Best of all, it has no loans in its financial need packages. I think the tipping factor for students whose parents cannot finance graduate school should be the financial best fit…then embrace the college of your final choice and be the change as vandyman2013 was in his experience at Vanderbilt where he started by grounding himself first in Greek comradeship. Our son built a life for himself in other arenas. Not easy no matter who you are in all honesty to get on your feet and to build a community for yourself while you sort out so many things regarding your career preparation, internships and volunteer activity choices.<br>
Focus on getting in! then compare your financial best fit along with social fit impressions.</p>