Just wondering about the rigor at vandy, saw one about engineering so I wanted to see about A&S! Anyone from Vanderbilt’s college of arts and sciences, if you don’t mind, post your statistics in the following format:
Current GPA at Vanderbilt
SAT/ACT at High School
General impression of how hard it is
Thanks!
@peaceouttide : That is loaded for many. Also come on, arts and sciences units at ALL schools have many majors. No whole entity is going to have a certain feel. In addition, it is college, and a great one at that,if people’s sense of challenge correlates strongly with their SAT/ACT (which is restricted to the very upper end already…so differences between most scores should be irrelevant at this point. With STEM and some others, experience and AP/IB credits in the subjects may be far more useful indicators especially at elites where scores over say 1350 are extremely abundant and indeed most of the scores) then that means something isn’t right about the course work (suggests that assignments and exams closely mimmick the SAT/ACT and the type of learning they require. Would be a shame if a university couldn’t do much better than that). I would worry about your specific majors of interest. Any feedback you get back about that in those terms you listed will not be particularly informative. Are you looking for a challenging experience or are you concerned?
You can choose a major known to be less rigorous or with a certain teaching culture so thus has a focus on the type of “rigor” you like or don’t like. For example, if you were to compare biology to chemistry at most schools known for rigor in STEM (all elites), the 2 may be totally different. Some schools, biology’s rigor may come from having students memorize and then borderline regurgitate lots of content, which since most HS students are used to learning biology that way (or even STEM in general) no matter their SAT/ACT is actually more doable than chemistry which may make students solve problems at a very high level and understand concepts much better. A student who was great at memorizing would find making a grade easier in the biology department. A student who dislikes heavy doses of rote memorization may tolerate biology courses, but indeed find chemistry much more likable and doable for them. What if you don’t like writing, well that would cross off a decent chunk of majors. People’s experiences are very tailored to themselves in college. And “rigor” and whatever you consider rigor is ultra department dependent and your definition of it. Do you define rigor as lots of reading and grade HW and assignments, cognitive complexity of material, examination styles, what? Departments (and even professors) will offer different flavors of it and different levels of each. What types do you want to engage? Which ones do you think you would dislike?
A short answer would be, it is rigorous in the A&S. The motto is work hard, play hard. I have seen many complain it is too hard - but I think those students might be partying and not focusing as much as others. I have a student there. It is challenging, but they meet with professors and have great study habits. And then, after the tests, have fun! I don’t think the above GPA and ACT question really helps. Most kids that get into Vandy are in the Top 10% of their class. They are smart and high test scores.