<p>Vanderbilt always seems to report incoming freshman scores etc. University-wide. Long ago I saw some numbers that broke it down by school, and not surprisingly, Arts & Sciences was above the University-wide numbers, with Peabody and the music school appreciably below. Most schools competing with Vandy have pretty much an A&S and maybe an engineering division without any teachers' college or music school to take down the numbers. Would Vanderbilt do better with rankings and general perceptions if it made apples to apples comparisons with other schools possible by breaking out A&S's numbers? Isn't that more important than ruffling feathers at Peabody and Blair by acknowleging what everyone knows to be the case, anyway?</p>
<p>Hi. Rankings don't matter.</p>
<p>Seeing as how nobody will probably be able to convince you of this, I'll go ahead and give you the definitive "yes" for which you're obviously looking.</p>
<p>The A&S numbers for the class of 2011 would probably place Vandy somewhere around the top ten in the nation.</p>
<p>28.49% acceptance rate (meaning 28%)
31 average SAT / 1407 average SAT
90.1% of students in the top 10% of class</p>
<p>Either way, unlike most other schools around now, it's pretty painfully clear that Vandy can go nowhere but up. Every single element of the school leads you to that conclusion. Just look at the fact that The Commons are almost complete. It will be virtually impossible to live off of campus after that point (meaning that statistic will probably jump to at least 96% = higher ranking).</p>
<p>Finally, the fact that the music and education schools are on campus add significantly to the overall experience of the students. I "shadowed" a student this past Friday and ended up going to one of her music classes (a&s student - liberal arts curriculum). Who ends up walking in and surprising the teacher? A legendary guitar player that is a good friend of the prof's husband (the husband plays guitar for the Dixie Chicks). Things like that don't happen at other schools.</p>
<p>vandy prides itself on being a well rounded school. unlike my current university, georgia tech, which has everything but is only really good at engineering, vanderbilt has a large group of intellectuals and virtuosos in all realms of learning. rankings don't really matter; anyway, they are in the top 20 colleges of the country that has the best tertiary education system in the world...that has to mean something.</p>
<p>Sir Brian, some of your claims are a bit off.</p>
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The A&S numbers for the class of 2011 would probably place Vandy somewhere around the top ten in the nation.
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</p>
<p>That's a fairly idealistic statement; there's no way Vanderbilt would be considered top ten in terms of low acceptance rates. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, Northwestern, Stanford, Duke, Washington University in St. Louis, MIT, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Williams all have lower acceptance rates. There are more, but I'm sure you get the point.</p>
<p>
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Things like that don't happen at other schools.
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</p>
<p>Your little anecdote about the Dixie Chicks is nice, but to say that they don't occur at other schools is ignorant. Yo Yo Ma, arguably the most renowned cellist in the world, frequents Harvard on multiple occasions to conduct masterclasses and give recitals. Jennifer Stumm, world class violist, regularly works with the dual degree program of Tufts University and NEC. Hans Jensen, a legendary cello teacher, is the prof at Northwestern.</p>
<p>
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28.49% acceptance rate (meaning 28%)
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</p>
<p>No, no 28.49% means just that: 28.49%</p>
<p>For the ranking-concious, 28.49% rounds to 28%.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how unusual my experience was, but it happened every time I visited Vandy (one, heh)! I doubt this would be the same at other schools. Then in regards to the professors themselves, Vandy's Blair school of music boasts just as many "legendary" if not more musicians.</p>
<p>Acceptance rates do not indicate a school's ranking at all. Chicago has, what, a forty percent admissions rate?</p>
<p>I'm finished talking about rankings now.</p>
<p>No one should take WUSTL's admit rate seriously. They game the system worse than anyone. They have low admit numbers and then let in tons of students off the wait list.</p>
<p>They really don't let a lot of people in off of the wait list. They just flood people with application material, encouraging them to apply (IMHO Grades and Test scores are the only thing that matter @ wustl)</p>
<p>most colleges' CAS have stronger numbers ... its not just vanderbilt that reports everything as a whole.</p>
<p>Although I hope this would be obvious, there's far more to being a great school than having a low acceptance rate with high test scores. Harvard wouldn't reject valedictorians with perfect SAT scores if that were the case.</p>
<p>Re Lurker's comment. A school like Wash U does not have a teacher's college and a school of music. Emory reports its scores for the Emory College separately and does not include other divisions like the school of nursing. Prestigious liberal arts colleges don't have anything but A&S divisions, and most of the ivies are pretty much the same at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>Forget about rankings. Higher reported scores help attract better students. What's wrong with that? And in this instance, reporting A&S separately would not be a manipulation. It be more specific, accurate and informative for potential applicants.</p>
<p>There are many colleges with well under a 28% accept rate. </p>
<p>Harvard: 9%
Princeton: 9%
Yale: 10%
Columbia: 10%
MIT: 12%
Stanford: 12%
Brown: 14%
Dartmouth: 15%
Penn: 16%
Pomona: 16%</p>