Hi!
I am a current student at Vanderbilt and wanted to open up this thread to answer any questions y’all might have about student life on campus. Obviously I am biased to my own experience, but I know getting a student’s opinion can be helpful when you’re making your decisions, so let me know if you have any questions!
Go 'Dores!
Are you in a fraternity/sorority? How central are they to social life on campus?
What is the workload like? If a student were pre-med or pre-law, where GPA is crucial, is a 3.8 possible while still being able to do some ECs and a bit of social life?
I’ve heard that Vanderbilt is pretty conservative and preppy, and that students dress up a bit, even for class. Is that true?
Thanks!
Hi @Eidetic! Great questions.
Fraternities host themed parties almost every weekend, and both sororities and fraternities host date parties and formals two or three times per semester. I definitely would say there’s a little bit of a divide between Greek-affiliated students and non-Greek students, however-- I know SO many kids at Vanderbilt that aren’t Greek and are accepting of the system, have friends in all different houses, etc. And vice versa-- a lot of Greek people have friends who aren’t!
I think the biggest factor in whether you see the Greek system as defining on campus is a matter of attitude. The people I’ve known who feel most ostracized by Greek life were also the people who thought it had no value in the first place. However, the students who are open-minded (on both sides) seem more likely to have friends across groups.
I’m neither pre-med nor pre-law, so I can’t personally speak to those situations. However, I wouldn’t say a 3.8 in a pre-med major (bio, biomedical engineering, or Medicine, Health and Society–Vandy’s custom pre-med major) is average/easily attainable. Intro Chem, Physics, etc. seem to be difficult classes and if I had to guess, I’d say the average pre-med GPA is closer to the mid-3s, if you want to also have a life! I can speak even less to the pre-law situation! Sorry!
There really are “all kinds of kinds” here. In terms of style and dress, preppy is probably the norm. I see Barbours and bean boots and those Herschel backpacks probably on a daily basis. However, athleisure is a huge thing too. Girls wear leggings and Nikes a lot and guys wear those trendy jogger sweatpants. I can’t really compare if we dress up more than other schools, but when I walk through the dining halls, people are generally presentable. I don’t see a lot of pajama pants in the middle of the day–that would be pretty far from the norm.
In terms of conservatism of opinions/politics, Vandy is changing a bit in that I’ve seen the school diversify in the couple of years I’ve been here. Students come from all over–TN, FL, IL, NY, CA, etc etc. There’s a big southern presence, definitely, and I’ve found it somewhat corresponds with people also being politically/otherwise conservative, but it also doesn’t have to be that way. I know some kids from the deep south who are super liberal rah rah Bernie kids and I know people from NY/NJ that are conservative. This usually reflects itself (to a degree) in Greek life and organizational involvement-- people self-segregate, which doesn’t have to always be negative. People find their people and are happy with them. It’s up to you personally whether you think that’s a bad thing and want to bridge those populations.
Hope this helps!!
Thanks for taking the time to answer questions about Vandy! Here are my questions.
For greek life, from what I hear, if you’re interested in greek life but not 100% sure still put your best effort into rush. This isn’t like state school where you will find greek life personalities outside of greek life (esp with about half the school being greek).
for pre-med I can’t say I’m going to recommend aiming for the mid-3s so you can have a social life as well because it’s pretty risky to not try your best as a pre-med given how competitive everything is. If you’re going greek and you’re a guy expect your gpa to drop unless you have really good time management skills.
A 3.8 is definitely possible with ECs and a social life, but don’t join like 10 clubs. You won’t have the time and it won’t significantly make your med school apps better. Find a couple you’re actually interested in because if you’re pre med your most important ECs are research/shadowing/volunteering. Leadership is a plus, but only major leadership positions like vsg president (although vsg is kinda a joke here but too bad med schools won’t know that)
10 clubs? How can you put your heart into 10 while also getting a decent academic experience unless you’re like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. I think med. and professional schools like to see some degree of focus whether it be in areas relevant to the prof. school or otherwise. VSG? I’m guessing there are plenty of other leadership positions or better yet, projects, that a student can do that are more impactful for the student and the one reading the application (like if you have a high GPA and strong research record, I’m sure getting an NIH summer fellowship or a Goldwater Scholarship is more likely to impress very top medical schools based on what I saw from my friends’ med. school successes).
Yes, Bernie is correct. Research is almost a requirement today for pre-meds and the more prestigious the better.
You also must make time for healthcare exposure (shadowing, scribe, volunteer work) and community service. If that’s not enough the MCAT added biochem, sociology, and psychiatry to the MCAT which is almost an extra semester before taking the MCAT’s the end of your third year. So time management and efficient use of your summers are a must for premeds.
Most pre-healths took bchem anyway. It was a natural follow-up for ochem (though most bchem classes are not ochem based. The pressure is not to understand pathways and transformations in undergraduate bchem but typically to just regurgitate the structures and reactions which is honestly just…sad). Too bad it sucks at most schools. Students will now take this course for the MCAT and ironically, while it will help them for medical school bchem (largely memorization, but I would say has more application than most UG bchem courses as they try to get students to understand it at a systems level), it may not help as much for MCAT biochemistry(it provides a nice little soft foundation for addressing the harder questions they may ask on an MCAT. One may be better off just consulting the prep books) and Molec. Cell related passages (much less memorization oriented). A pre-med system is strange beyond belief(“we want you to think like a scientist on the MCAT but not in your pre-clinical courses once you get to med. school”… very confusing 
. I think I’ll stick to feeling excited for my pre-MDPhD friends which are science nerds and are aiming for schools with a bigger integration of the basic sciences into the pre-clinical curriculum) has been created by all those “requirements” they have. Honestly, a research based molec. cell or general cell biology course coupled with a microbiology course (one that focuses more on the experimental side of things though) may help much more than the biochemistry 1 courses at most schools (and yes, I’ve seen that most elites are also guilty here). Lots of pre-healths already take sociology and psychology as well so that is lesser so a problem
@bernie12 @bud123 Reread my post because you basically reiterated what I said, then made it sound like I said the complete opposite
@bernie12 I gave VSG as an example, not a requirement. Anyway, VSG president would look great on your app and I don’t think that’s a wrong assumption
Leadership in general is great, but if you want it to cover a deficiency in your application it should be a major position. At least this is what an adcom told me
@Suffer newcomer2016
@welphereigo haha apparently they’re trying to kick him out of the race
Suffer, agree with your post. Your points to pre-meds are important enough to reiterate.
@Suffer I suppose I am just surprised that student gov. positions would be that smiled upon at this stage as you seem to be yourself (you did not it as a joke). I understood it wasn’t requirement it just appeared that you thought or it has been shown to perhaps have more “value” than other types of leadership positions which I find strange.
@bernie12 No sorry for the misunderstanding. Just throwing out an example, and that was the first one I thought of (esp with what is going on at our school)
I guess a possible argument is that it has name recognition but I’m sure a leadership position in a smaller club will give you similar experiences
How tough are the grades? The average for Vandy is like a 3.3, which isn’t too far off of MIT. Like, just for classwork alone, is it stressful? How much time do I have to spend a day to achieve a 3.8+ GPA? Does the professor care about you?
How hard is it to get into a frat? and how much more expensive would it be?
@idkName Personally, I didn’t find the grading at Vandy that tough. Obviously, it depends on the major and class. Some intro classes (gen chem, calc, etc.) have a reputation for being tough. As far as time goes, it also depends on the major. I know guys who barely did any work and went out 4+ days/week while still making the Dean’s List, while others put in many hours per day but still struggled. Some majors, such as HOD, have a reputation for being very easy, while others, such as the STEM majors, are much harder. As far as the professors, it varies. There are some who clearly only care about their research, while others hold review sessions and extra office hours before exams.
@bigbuddy Basically any guy can get into a fraternity. Getting into a top or mid-tier house is more difficult. Dues are about $1000 per semester, it varies by fraternity.
@idkName : Apparently the mean is more like 3.4ish (maybe slightly higher or lower) now…pretty much in line with its peers as it has always been. Hopkins is traditionally the one to lag some. Also, considering that MIT is almost all STEM oriented (yes I know their non-STEM majors are excellent as well), 3.25-3.3 is really strong! Also, I do not know why 3.8 is some magical number people like throwing out (seems everyone asks, “should I come here? Is it hard to keep a 3.8”…newsflash, it’s an elite school so it should be fairly challenging to keep that type of GPA). Keep all that in mind once you get to a school and not as part of choosing one. If you go to a selective school and enter a decently challenging academic major (as you probably should), you will have to work for consistently high grades. At some schools, the actual classes in many departments are harder (content wise, not just grading) than other selectives, but in general, even those outside that group should be challenging enough provided you want to get an education worth the amount you pay (or the amount someone else paid to fund your merit or need-based aid).