<p>Obviously getting full tuition and a travel stipend are great benefits, but what other benefits are out there? Any current CV Scholars out there who can answer this?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I believe CV Scholars are included in the honors seminars system although all Vandy freshman have the option of applying for these seminars after first semester.</p>
<p>What are these honors seminars like? For someone who is not too fond of seminar-style classes, and has a STEM bias, will they still be valuable experiences?</p>
<p>Oh, and does being a CV Scholar help you once you are actually on campus? That is, will I get different advising, or have better access to professors? </p>
<p>Our son did the honors seminars as a second semester freshman accepted applicant. He was not a STEM major, and it is quite viable to skip the seminars and to instead put your passion in your lab work with a professor you get to know really well, as a teaching assistant or as a tutor, to get published in the academic journals, to do remarkable community work, to seek your honors diploma work in your selected major instead of via seminars, to pursue your theater or music performance passions, your debate touring, your sporting life etc. There is no bias in favor of students who take seminars. Those students to not enjoy any vaulted status or respect.</p>
<p>Our son had a decidedly communications/political/fine arts focus so he was relieved to get some of his science and quantitative work done in seminars, in unorthodox but still challenging ways. That doesn’t mean that some serious engineering majors or premeds also didn’t love the seminars…some of them do the seminars and make the seminars better by their presence. The seminars mean different things to different students. But no one seems to find them onerous. They instead are experienced as stimulating and intense.</p>
<p>It is a bit of a commitment to accumulate the points to earn an honors diploma by taking the required permutation of honors seminars. Our son did complete the requirements. He enjoyed every seminar. I would guess that a lot of students take two or three seminars, and find them to be very memorable experiences but don’t bother with the honors diploma via that route. They might instead prefer to build their resume in other realms or to opt for an honors status in their own major or to aim for Phi Beta Kappa. There is a definite feeling on campus that besides a few savants in math or on musical instruments or in engineering or on computers… all the students at Vandy are honors students and equals, although unique in relation to each each other.</p>
<p>Back to our son’s comments on his seminars. I can share that he had a top science department chair in a seminar on Astronomy. He has an amazing female literary figure as a teacher. He has a lead political science figure as a teacher. Imagine our son in say his fall term sophomore year in a seminar, still unsure of his major or minor but knocking out required core subjects. There is no preference given to age or college year at the table. So someone still 19 may be discussing astronomy or politics or a strain of literature with a highly published professor and students who are 22 and perhaps advanced science majors. Grading is not easy and it is safe to say that decent writing skills will help you in the seminars. The seminars are rather cross-disciplinary. But since they are limited to 12-15 students, they are unique and intimate and replicate the kinds of experiences you might have received if you had not chosen Vanderbilt but instead you had ended up at Amherst or Davidson. The professors seemed to really enjoy this opportunity to discuss topics in depth. It is fair to say that some STEM majors who needed to knock off required courses in foreign studies or social sciences or literature thoroughly enjoyed this option. Very unlike larger classes where you are more anonymous and you are graded entirely on your exams and papers. Again, Vanderbilt offers many many pathways that have intimate classes in them for all students. cheers!</p>