Concerns about Vandy Greek Life...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
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<p>^^^It is my guess that Vanderbilt admissions staff does not agree with you that Vanderbilt would be a less than perfect choice solely because one has no interest in joining a fraternity or sorority.</p>

<p>In fact, I suspect that they do not consider it particularly "helpful" (your word, vandygirl12) when students they have accepted (and therefore have determined would be an asset to the campus) are discouraged from attending.</p>

<p>When my son visited campus after being accepted there was no mention of greek organizations by anyone--admissions staff, tour guides, faculty or administrators. Clearly the people in charge of the university do not consider membership a major factor in the determination of "fit".</p>

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<p>It wouldn't be the first time that a school chose not to expose a controversial topic in public. Their job when dealing with admitted students is to provide information but also engage in more than a little marketing and sales. I'll bet if someone that was clearly interested in Greek life asked he/she would have received a rousing response on how great the fraternity/sorority system is on campus.</p>

<p>I'm more intrigued that the Greek members seem to think that they don't have a positive or at least neutral impact on their non-Greek student peers (or perhaps that's the problem, they don't see them as peers), but rather a negative one. The message is that you can't have as good an independent experience at Vanderbilt as you can get elsewhere precisely because of the prevalence of Greeks on campus.</p>

<p>Frankly, my daughter was very excited about visiting after receiving the CVS scholarship. While we will still do so because it's not fair to judge a school based on message board comments, I can't say it hasn't had an significant impact on our perception of the receptiveness of VU to those that choose not to follow the school's traditional Greek model. One has to wonder how open it is to other non-traditional paths, such as a female engineering/math major. </p>

<p>I attended multiple universities for undergraduate and graduate work and each had a thriving Greek community. At no point did I ever hear anyone say that you might be better served as an independent to avoid those schools. In fact, it could definitely be argued that the frats/sororities improved the quality of life for a lot of independents as many parties, sponsored activities, volunteer initiatives, sports competitions, etc. crossed boundaries. There were differences in lifestyle of course, but it's very disappointing to hear that at Vanderbilt there appears to be much more of an emphasis on "us" vs. "them." I hope that's not the case.</p>

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<p>Edit to the message above:</p>

<p>Re-reading VandySAE's latest message he mentioned that 75% of independents interact in some substantive way with the Greek community. If true, that's definitely a positive sign. But I must admit all the talk on this site and others about how you have to participate in the Greek system to have a social life or enjoy your time at Vanderbilt is disconcerting. Perhaps my daughter will join a sorority, but if she chooses not to I don't want that to be a pre-cursor to a negative college experience.</p>

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<p>Padre13, please do visit. The Vanderbilt message board is not representative of the school as a whole. I think you will be very pleased with the people you meet at the engineering school. We certainly were, and continue to be, two years later.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I'll bet if someone that was clearly interested in Greek life asked he/she would have received a rousing response on how great the fraternity/sorority system is on campus.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Actually, that was not our experience during the two visits we made to campus. Responses to direct questions from students on one of the general tours seemed to be playing down the importance of Greek life, pointing out that only officers lived in the fraternities, and that the new freshman campus was not situated near most of the greek houses. And as I mentioned above, the subject was not one of the featured panels during accepted student day presentations, at least not in engineering.</p>

<p>On "us" vs "them": while my son has never had any interest in joining a fraternity, he has also never made any negative comment to us about them, including when he was pointedly asked by a friend of ours (an adult) if he had any complaints or negative comments whatever about the campus scene. He answered no, not any.</p>

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<p>As implied by my screen name, I have two kids at Vandy (the 06 is actually back for professional school). One is Greek, the other wasn't. You can be happy either way. The key is being happy as yourself before ever setting foot on campus. Someone earlier in this thread or another similar mentioned that Greek life doesn't play as much of a part in the lives of Greek juniors/seniors after the "new" wears off - true, at least in the experience of my Greek child and that of my non-Greek's significant other.</p>

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<p>One last thing and then I'm going to stay off this thread (because you parents clearly just want to believe what you wanna believe)--you've all just assumed I'm greek, when in fact, I'm not.</p>

<p>I did not go through rush this year for a variety of reasons, but almost certainly plan to do so next year.</p>

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<p>vandygirl12, always understood you had not pledged or rushed this year...you stated so in an earlier thread. I hope it all works out for you the way you most enjoy next year.</p>

<p>Padre, I know how you feel exactly...my son is also admitted with a merit scholarship to Vandy and when he reads the posts from this handful of kids who are not exactly the Welcome Wagon... my son cringes. He also has options, and some of these posts had us looking at them last night! </p>

<p>Accepted student day will be a big help for him to sort this out..whenever we get those dates. I hope that you will return with your daughter. There are many gracious people at Vanderbilt.</p>

<p>He has attended classes and so that was really helpful for his personal insight. I hope you visit. The campus has so much to offer, and is ivory tower pretty but also connected to public service and commerce on so many tangible levels impossible to get in a more isolated setting. Class size is quite impressively intimate for a research institution.</p>

<p>By the way, I meant to post that I picked up the (conservative) campus paper when we were last there and it stated that the same exact percentage of students pledged post Commons opening. I think you can read most of the papers online, so I am not going to hunt that up..but is important to know that although the student body is demographically greatly different than in my youth..traditions run deep.</p>

<p>changing the subject </p>

<p>One thing I like to remind parents of prospectives about Vandy is that the student body is unusual in this respect..there really are both conservatives and liberals on campus so there is dissonance. Personally, we tend to choose and value dissonance for college..our home town is rather homogenous, and far away from the seat of government...maybe others don't need this aspect to grow as we think our kids do. Dissonace makes beautiful art, and good debates and forces you to be clear and to not "coast." Vandy has a leadership role in the region on so many levels but it is also cool to be around state government in a town with a decent economy.</p>

<p>The reason I like this aspect of life at Vandy..is because I think it is very good to live among people who voted both red and blue if you want to be ready for the work place. Vandy is unusual for a top 20 university in this respect. There really are newspapers with good editorial writers on all sides of the issues. </p>

<p>When I was in grad school in Nashville at about 22...the undergraduate college voted heavily for Reagan in that mock election. That made Vandy very different from other college campuses back then. When my eldest son did his overnight, it just happened to be mock election week in 2004..and the campus split down the middle with Kerry and Bush...again..very unique for a top 20 campus. We had just come from Dartmouth and from visiting New England small colleges where everyone votes the same and you only saw Kerry banners displayed. </p>

<p>It just happens that our sons are four years apart. The mock election this year went in Obama's favor, but Vandy students did some serious debating and again..I think it can be an asset to go to a college where the outcome is not totally predictable. I can't help but think that classroom discussions benefit, just as my son thinks he is going independent and is ready to go to schools with strong Greek presences.</p>

<p>We had dinner last month with some of our former classmates working in Nashville, one of whom is on faculty at Vandy...and their perception is that the student body in the undergrad school is now truly diverse politically speaking.</p>

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<p>We are accused of either telling you what you want to hear.
We are accused of not being welcoming enough.
Which one is it? haha.</p>

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<p>"If you come to campus and do not want to be apart of the Greek system that is fine. You can get by without and and have one hell of a time here."</p>

<p>I was glad to hear that the above was your experience...admittedly! my son has the same question golfr4 presented</p>