<p>Over the course of reading CC for over a year, I have noticed a pattern on the Vanderbilt forum. Posters with low post counts and short paper trails visit the forum, create incendiary threads or posts whose major purpose seems to be to harm Vanderbilt's reputation. Vanderbilt has issues (as does every other school in America), but many of the criticisms reflect someone whose motives may not be pure. Perhaps this is legit, but it definitely raises the question of who are these posters and what are their real objectives. </p>
<p>To all the readers who are truly interested in learning about Vanderbilt, I suggest that you take your guidance from those who have high post counts and actual direct knowledge of the school, eg, current students, parents, alumni, etc. They know the real story about Vanderbilt and have demonstrated on CC the history and the integrity to comment on both the school's peccadillos and its many, many strengths.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, you could be Exhibit A. Your record:</p>
<p>19 posts
16 about Vanderbilt-all explicitly or implicity negative</p>
<p>You yourself have stated that Vanderbilt is not for you so why do you keep coming back here? You clearly have no credibility on this board. As previously suggested by me and others, it is more than time for you (and the other Vandy bashers) to direct your energies in a more positive direction and traffic on those sites/forums where you actually have an interest in attending. Good luck with your search and I hope that you find a school that makes you happy and leaves you fulfilled.</p>
<p>I think we need to distinguish between people who criticize Vanderbilt just to do it and those who bring up valid concerns. The goal of this forum is to collect as much information about Vanderbilt as possible, be it good or bad.</p>
<p>I actually have no idea what a troll is, but I guess I could figure it out. Here's the deal. I was really excited about Vanderbilt. I now feel like I got a big sell job from my counselor and truthfully from many of the college search books. I went to visit and was shocked and very disappointed and then I found this forum and, yes, I vented. Interestingly, I have gotten PM'd by many current students corroborating what I saw and I now know several people who have already, or are going to, transfer out and I think truth in advertising is important so that more people don't have to have that experience unecessarily. I have since found other colleges that I am interested in and am pursuing and frankly, I thought that the last time I wrote in here was truly that, the last time, but I have found it quite interesting to see people on this forum finally asking some important questions regarding the school. As someone above said, it is important to learn both the good and the bad about a school.</p>
<p>It seems unusual that you have virtually no posts about whatever school you are looking to attend. Judging from previous posts it looks like you made a screenname specifically to bash the school. Also -- some of your posts are blatant lies. You have posted that Vanderbilt has a large cocaine scene which is complete BS. I'm all for criticisms that have an element of truth but when you start making things up it is problematic.</p>
<p>I have to say, I really like the school, and I am hoping to go there, but there IS a fair amount of cocaine there. nymets11 are you a girl or a boy? I personally know there are girls who use it to keep their weight down.</p>
<p>what is all this talk about cocaine? I'm a sophomore here and have repeatedly heard people talk about cocaine usage here. I've not yet heard of any cocaine problems.</p>
<p>hopinV, there are people who use drugs at every school. But being an upperclassmen I know the scene is very small. A student would never be exposed to it unless they tried seeking it out. "TheSearch" tried to brand Vanderbilt as a school with a drug problem, but any current student can confirm this is not the case.</p>
<p>Yeah--appears this guy is the "rat." Vanderbilt has problems. Let's not pretend they are not there. If we ignore the problems, Vanderbilt will not improve. See my post on the Honor Council. I am backed by evidence. Something this poster could use besides crossing his fingers on his Vandy degree and blog count.</p>
<p>collegejunkmail, are you a student at Vanderbilt? In my three years at Vanderbilt I have never found drugs to be a problem. If your expierences have differed than feel free to elaborate.</p>
<p>Also -- I don't know why you have such a problem with the Honor Council. If you cheat on a test, you will fail the class. I have never seen the system abused and if you are honest you really have nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>No I am not a student at Vanderbilt. I noted in my post the same thing--some students have it coming to them... but let's be honest, is it really necessary to hold a popularity contest to root out the good guys/gals, give them power to handout punishments by the lot, and deny students basic civil liberties, such as right to an attorney. Let's get real here... This is a bad system. I never said Vanderbilt is a bad school; however, I am concerned based on the overt power struggle here.</p>
<p>I really think you are worrying too much about this. If you decide to enroll here, you will see the system is run fair and effectively. The vision of a Student-based Honor Council was orginally created by Thomas Jefferson at William and Mary. Since then it has spread to many top schools including Vanderbilt, UVA, Haverford, and Davidson. I think its a good system.</p>
<p>Interesting thesearch, since according to you, there appears to be very little that is positive about Vanderbilt. You mention that many current students have PM'ed you "corroborating" your so-called story. What are their accounts/names because I'd honestly like to see who they are. I highly doubt you've even found more than one person. Even IF your particular experience was negative, you're using your instance to extrapolate a cloud over the whole university instead of using countless examples of students who have ACTUALLY lived at Vanderbilt for the past few years. You attempt to discredit those who actually ATTEND the school when they don't agree with your incredibly biased attitude based on a very limited experience. </p>
<p>Those who ACTUALLY CARE to honestly learn about the colleges they are considering attending would do well to realize that people who are unhappy are much more apt to vocalize their unhappiness(i.e. studentreview.com or whatever that website is) than those who are satisfied. I have a friend who is extremely unhappy with his experience at Yale, and I could easily list 10 complaints he has with the school itself. Does this mean I think any less of Yale? No, because it's not representative of the entire student body.</p>
<p>Defending Vanderbilt on a random website against random people with malicious intentions when they have VERY LITTLE knowledge of the actual Vanderbilt experience is incredibly tiresome and almost not even worth the effort.</p>
<p>I did a pretty thorough college search. Save one, I got in every place I wanted to go and most were listed in some publication’s compilation of top universities. As part of this search, I visited Private University X. I didn't like it. It didn't feel right for me. The student body didn't feel right. There was something about the facilities. I even found some totally minor thing that I hated that would be considered a stupid objection to every other person who had matriculated this fine place. Basically, I just didn't fit. On campus, my gut was telling me something I eventually heard. Oh, and I didn't really like its home city either, but this should never really be a consideration point.</p>
<p>What I didn't do next was try to convince other people that my opinion was a majority view. I didn’t make up stories or try to buttress my silly points with hearsay. I moved on. It wasn’t for me. And I never for a second considered harboring a grudge against the glossy and snazzy marketing literature I received from X University.</p>