<p>I am not certain all CV Scholars have College Scholars designations after all when I look at the numbers more carefully… since the Admission and Honors committee is stated to have preselected 30 College Scholars before fall semester and I think they offer more CV scholarships by far than that --minus Yield drop out on the CVs not taken. </p>
<p>30 more college scholars are selected spring term based on essays, transcripts, recommendations. My son chose to apply to College Scholars which has meant a great deal to him because he was admitted to some of the LACs mentioned in your other post re intellectual life at Vandy. In other words, he really likes small classes, enriched classes, independent studies and intimate discussion but preferred to give up some of that LAC asset…to have the bounty that is at Vanderbilt in other arenas.
He also did a Mayfield Project for his sophomore year and enjoyed his very diverse housemates, most of whom he keeps up with as a senior. His friends are very diverse in terms of economics, geographical region, race and religious upbringing. </p>
<p>I would like to say this: I do not think that his being a College Scholar means he is more “scholarly” than his peers. He was probably hungrier for debate/discussion and those seminars are capped at 15 scholars each. However, it would be a mistake to imagine that what is going on in those seminars is more challenging than what is going on in Theater production, Blair performance rehearsals, labs in Bio and Chem, language immersion semesters, and internships and semesters abroad that may be taking up the brain cells and energy of other peers. While my son was enjoying the liberal arts atmosphere he gave up at Swarthmore etc in these honors seminars, other students were in labs and immersing themselves in film production or engineering or economics. </p>
<p>Tomorrow’s engineer may be running a fiction reading/discussion group…it really is more about what you are interested in taking on at each year. There should not be a belief that the non Scholar students are not interested in small group discussion classes. </p>
<p>They really many not have the time to allocate to it. They might have taken a tough course first term freshman term and gotten a mediocre grade (but who wants VAndy freshmen to avoid hard classes?–rewards come later to those who suffer in the tougher quantitative courses)…They may have done incredible work that leads to applications to interesting summer work. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that the stats of the admitted class to Vandy is a pool of equals who are all individuals with varied goals. </p>
<p>Or as a gifted ed speaker once said in our Governor’s HS: The higher the IQ/giftedness via testing, the less the students are “like each other”. This makes teaching gifted students in a group difficult. Because their gifts have become so discreet and so advanced but also so unlike the gifts of the next student.</p>
<p>You can see this on a Bell curve. Therefore teachers of the highly motivated and able learner you will see in every chair at Vandy have a challenge. They need to offer a range of learning modes to the student body, all at one time. </p>
<p>Rather than conclude that only 60 people in each class get honors seminars, I think you have to factor in that several hundred fully qualified students at Vandy didn’t apply because they are immersed in their majors and their minors. Putting together an the Honors Scholar diploma takes up a good bit of your freedom. Others choose to go for Departmental honors or independent studies. Certainly most Vandy students end up abroad for service or learning experiences as well.</p>
<p>I hope you can sort all this out in April for yourself. No school has it all. If you choose Vandy, come be part of the discussion and debate on campus. My son didn’t find it difficult to write and publish for instance. Not like you might at a bigger state campus. There is a group called Critical Conversations or something like that in the undergrad school as well as a ton of speakers that come to Vandy and its grad schools.</p>
<p>hope that helps…good luck</p>