FAQ: Vanderbilt (from a current freshman)

Vanderbilt FAQ:

I decided to start a thread about Vanderbilt because I know that I would have appreciated this before making my college decision.

A little about me: I am an RD admit for the c/o 2019 and I just finished my first semester at Vanderbilt. I didn’t know that much about the school before I visited so here’s what I can say with my current experience. I am currently undecided on a major but I am learning towards the pre-med track. I come from a large public high school in the midwest. I’m not going to focus on grammar/structure/spelling during this FAQ, so please forgive any errors (especially my tendency to write long sentences).

I’m going to answer questions on social life, academics, and admission. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask in the thread.

FAQ:

Social life:
Q: Is the social life accessible?
A: You’ll pretty much always be able to find someone to go out with. It’s probably a little harder if it’s not the usual Thursday/Friday/Saturday night, but if you find like-minded people, you’ll find a group who likes to party as much as you do. As far as actually finding places/things to do, it’s not easy but it’s not impossible. I think it’s probably similar to other colleges, if not a little easier.

Q: What are the social outlets?
A: Greek life for the first semester has tons of open parties/formals/etc. Other people tend to go downtown to some bars, but they can be strict if you’re underage. There are some social scenes in upperclassmen housing, but commons is relatively dry (as in you might party a little in the rooms but people tend to migrate elsewhere).

Q: What if I don’t want to/like to drink?
A: There’s no social pressure to drink or party. I find that if you don’t like drinking, you could just say “no thanks” and go out with your friends or find a friend group who doesn’t like to drink.

This FAQ went on for longer than I expected, so if you want to finish reading the FAQ, click here (there’s no spam/virus):

https://docs.zoho.com/file/pc9eb3938df1644b848b6b6d5ddac7095c2bd

If collegeconfidential doesn’t allow links (it wouldn’t when I last used it during my junior year), use this and replace the *s with periods:

https://docszohocom/file/pc9eb3938df1644b848b6b6d5ddac7095c2bd

Also, if this thread helped you in any way, please let me know! I would love to know if I helped any prospective students (even if you decided that Vanderbilt might not be for you.)

Thanks for this! I got in ED1 so I’ll be there next year. Silly question - how important is it that I buy cowboy boots? Are they really that huge? Also, what are sports games like?

A lot of girls wear cowboy boots. You will be fine either way. Sports are fun. Some dress up (but not too much like some colleges), some go very casual. Some girls will wear black sun type dresses to football games; some will wear jeans and/or shorts.

Nashville has plenty of cowboy boot stores… No need to make a decision before you come to campus!

Nice job! I presume you live in Hank?

bump

(I believe that’s how you move a thread to the top)

Seeing that RD results came out today, I thought that I would give this thread new life. I might check this periodically to answer new questions, so feel free to ask. I have some new/more informed opinions about Vandy with the new semester (namely about student orgs/greek life), but the FAQ is definitely still informative.