<p>Obviously there is a huge Southern culture at Vandy, and I'd welcome that. But being from CT, am I going to be some unwanted "Yankee" if I end up at Vandy or is that completely false?</p>
<p>Check out this link and scroll down to “location by state” for 2011. I believe that 33% of students were from the South. While TN is the state with the most students, NY is second with 553 (and Texas is third). There were 257 students from NJ, 179 from PA and 138 from CT. </p>
<p><a href=“http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/profile/[/url]”>http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/profile/</a></p>
<p>We live in CT and my son, who is a junior, loves Vanderbilt. All of his friends seem to like the colleges they are atending, but he LOVES his. He is fairly liberal, and enjoys the discussions that arise from differences in politics and culture. I believe they report that one-third of the campus identifies as liberal, 1/3 as moderate and 1/3 as conservative, which makes for interesting late-night discussions.</p>
<p>Thanks a ton. Great information.</p>
<p>I’m a Vandy freshmen and I’m from the Midwest. A ton of the people I’ve met are not Southerners at all and we all mesh and fit quite nicely into the campus culture and so on, so don’t be worried about being an “unwanted Yankee” - that won’t happen.</p>
<p>66% of Vandy students are not from southern states. Truth be known there is not much diversity difference between well educated high schools kids from Atlanta, Boston, and Denver.</p>
<p>There most certainly are some dyed in the wool southerners at Vandy … but they are one interesting group among many.</p>
<p>There is almost no southern-ness here. It’s kind of shocking at first, but then the reality hits that when you walk off campus you are in Nashville. It’s nothing to be scared off by.</p>
<p>If you think it’s southern in the immediate area off-campus, try going out a bit away from town. Now, THAT’S southern! :)</p>
<p>It’s actually great to not be from the south. You’ll get to do a bunch of new things and experience new restaurants and activities. Make friends from the south who can show you how things are done, but expect weird looks if you ask for unsweetened tea. </p>
<p>(It’s a joke. :))</p>
<p>it is more southern than you think</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is replete with giggling gidgets who care mostly for their sororities and cliques. It is just about as bad as you would expect from any typical southern university. The fact that they score a bit better on the ACT doesn’t erase the personality type. Yech for me, but others love the hamminess of it all.</p>
<p>Although many may remember the Sandra Dee or Sally Fields Gidgets from 1960’s TV and movie fame, the Gidget character was originally created by author Frederick Kohner in 1957. The title of his book was “Gidget, The Little Girl with Big Ideas.” Since the women at Vanderbilt generally have big ideas, the previous post may prove more appropriate than it appears at first glance. The women (and men) at Vanderbilt are intelligent, engaged learners who generally excel in many of the following domains: in classroom discussions, in athletics, in music, in politics,… and/or in social gatherings. The average Vandy student does have “big ideas.” </p>
<p>Anyway, if you can’t giggle (or laugh) when you are 18-22 years old, life would be sad. Luckily, for most people who are able to enjoy the academic, and yes, social aspects of college life, life is good. So giggle/laugh away…</p>
<p>Placido, aren’t you a student at Brown? I don’t recall anyone else from Brown over the years bothering to come over to the Vandy board to stereotype half the student body before.<br>
Many students at Vandy probably applied to Brown and respect Brown. You were lucky enough to be accepted. Some Vandy students turned down Ivies for various reasons including merit aid -which is not offered at Ivies-- but is a possible outcome for the lucky at Vandy, Duke, Emory, Rice.</p>
<p>For students whose best option in April is Vanderbilt (my Independent, not Greek youngest son’s best financial and academic package was Vandy his senior yr in HS), you will find vestiges of the old south culture of the formally more regional Vanderbilt in the social whirl of Greek life that resembles UVA’s… and in the alum who are still of course representing the university scattered throughout the USA. More girls are in sororities than in most top 20 universities, --for men, it is similar to UVA, Duke etc. re percentages in Greek life.</p>
<p>The alum and the current student body are very very different from one another geographically and in many other respects. If you matriculate to Vandy, you will be part of a very exciting and intense academic community where every one of your peers is quite talented, motivated, special in their own right. If you matriculate to Vandy, you are part of an undergraduate university with incredible resources and with a newly national and very diverse student body. It will be interesting to see how the undergraduate university develops culturally as the student body continues to be more and more selective and diverse.</p>
<p>Nashville is a great host city and an excellent “third coast” city, less federal money and less of a hub than Houston or Atlanta, but a fine city with truly excellent artistic institutions and sports venues. And one of the pleasant things about life at Vandy is that the host city loves Vanderbilt…they have a great relationship. There are plenty of places to intern in business, education and political institutions locally.<br>
Nashville is a very southern city in the middle of a very red state. But commerce is actually pretty lively in Nashville. And the arts are surprisingly rich.</p>
<p>As a Southerner I’d say it’s not that Southern. Very diverse population and getting more so every year. And our sweet tea is not that great, unfortunately.</p>