<p>They said that it is harder and less likely for a minority to get in, not that, if you do get in, you’ll be mistreated. I honestly think that this is a situation that is perhaps being misread. It may be possible, for example, that whites are more inclined to join greeklife in the first place, which explains why, at other places, that even though there are frathouses/frats that are historically dominated by a minority ethnicity (black frats and sororities for example, and I know we have an Asian fraternity), they don’t become dominant on campus. For example, we don’t have 4 black/Asian frat/sorority lodges or houses, but only 1, yet there are several houses/lodges dominated by whites. I seriously doubt this is because the administration won’t allow more of such houses to be built (I’m convinced that the demand isn’t there since we were allowed to have so many culture/academic related houses like the Spanish house, Asbury house, black student alliance house, etc all of which, mind you, may contribute to further self-segregation. No need to join greeklife when you can do that instead. SimilarlyAssess whether or not all the minorities at Vandy actually want to be in Greeklife. I bet I know what the answer is. They have other outlets.). On top of this, the separation in housing may naturally occur because the minorities are more comfortable with their own and thus less inclined to join historically white greeks. I don’t think it’s good enough to say, “as proof, look at their websites, they are mostly white”. So is Vandy, so perhaps it is reflective of Vandy’s demographics more so than the culture of the frats. It seems that here for example, the historically white fraternities are more mixed and this could easily be explained by the fact that we are like 50% minority (and then most of the white students are Jewish, which, if you counted as a religious/cultural minority, would make it more like 75-85% minority) vs. the 25-30 at Vandy (maybe 40-50% if you count Jewish students). Just not sure if that assessment is fair. As for non-greeks. Vandy is a good sized university, not to mention that it is a really good university, so there is more to it than greeklife and it offers plenty for you to do outside of greeklife. There is more to extracurriculars and social scene than partying, so I’m sure non-greeks (and even greeks for that matter) have plenty of stuff to do outside of that realm. </p>
<p>iLiveOnCC: If you like Vandy, just go. Don’t waste so much time worrying about this stuff. Vandy is basically just like every other top school, just less minorities. We for example (perhaps due to heavy international population), still have self-segregation (though it actually isn’t that bad, and it mostly occurs along class lines. Races tend to intermix all of the time. I’m black and most of my friends are not white or black. They are Indian or Asian for example). I can’t see self-segregation going to too heavy an extreme at Vandy. It would be weird. It would be like: All 73% percent of the whites to themselves, The 7% blacks to themselves, the 7% Asians (by the way, this makes Asians as still over-represented and the others as under as Asians only comprise about 5% of the US population. That’s not URM status, it’s simply much less than similar caliber schools. Any weird admissions of Asians may have to do with something else or perhaps getting more minorities as a whole, not applying URM status to Asians) to themselves, 7% hispanics to themselves. I would expect the minorities to at least socially integrate with the predominant ethnicity to a large degree. Just saying that schools with more people that “look like you” can have the same problems. They may just be easier to ignore (though sometimes more diversity means it can be greatly exacerbated). Just really think about this issue, seriously. Give Vandy a fair assessment here and realistically compare it to your other prospects (this involves looking beyond and perhaps double checking what people like me or anyone else on a site like this say by checking the stats. and reasoning your way through it and reaching your own conclusion). Also, let things like a visit influence your decision. See if you observe significant racial interaction then (outside of settings like say, a dining hall, where yes, like people tend to sit together. Perhaps observe the social interactions occuring when classes change over for example. Because the term “self-segregation” is loaded and suggests intention; as in, I am not really even interested, in any type of setting, in meeting different types of people. If this is true, you’ll observe separation in the most loose and informal of settings).</p>