<p>i'm from california but am thinking of applying to duke, vanderbilt, emory, and maybe a few other schools in the south...i'm wondering if there are any west coast kids who have gone to the south for college, and how they've fit in. i've never been to any states besides new york and arizona so i have no idea what carolina/tennessee/georgia would be like...</p>
<p>Hi, I’m from California also! In terms of Southern colleges, I was just at Duke(I’m visiting family in North Carolina), and Duke specifically is very liberal. I felt very welcomed on campus, and it was very diverse too (speaking of Cali, I live near SF and was excited at Duke to see all the gay flags :D)</p>
<p>However, Georgia and Tennessee are very south in my opinion, and for me personally when I have been down there I have felt out of place in terms of Religion (atheist) and Political (Democratic) and social values (I’m Bi, and huge supporter for gay rights).</p>
<p>Atlanta, GA is a metropolitan city, so it’s quite “liberal” Emory would fit into that category. I’ve been there many times (I’m from Cali too :)) Dunno about Vandy though. TN is diff. more conservative than GA. Though tbh, I don’t think there would be THAT much differences at the schools themselves.</p>
<p>uuhhh…don’t think Tennessee is any more conservative than Georgia if you are talking about it being a red state. Both states have significant conservative elements politically
best to look at the university student body</p>
<p>my son’s roommie at Vandy was from LA.–great guy…tons of Californians applying to Vandy now. That said, Duke son has a lot of California friends and California has been sending a significant number of students to Duke for a longer time. One of the largest Duke Alum clubs in the USA is in San Francisco…also large Duke Alum Clubs in Boston, NYC and Atlanta for starters. I think those are the top four Duke Alum Clubs. </p>
<p>take a good look at the demographics pages on the Duke website and you will see that California is highly represented in the Duke student body.</p>
<p>Vandy’s transition to having a truly national and diverse student body has been going at a huge pace in the last five years. Duke son applied to Vandy along with 11 thousand people…this year Vandy got just under 22 thousand applicants. Vandy is undergoing a big shift that Duke transitioned through much earlier. </p>
<p>Duke son had an immensely satisfying four years and was fond of Durham and enjoyed the research triangle…which does have an amazing core of people all around who are doing great things. However Vandy has a superior town/gown bond between Nashville and the university…and Emory is very beloved in Atlanta. Atlanta has huge federal dollars around with the CDC on the same street as Emory for instance…Vandy has a beautiful location in a great “third coast” city…and Duke has great international stature and a truly international outlook.</p>