<p>Hi! I'm a junior currently looking at colleges. I'm from NYC and I've never been outside of the Northeast. I am just wondering what Tennessee is like... how is Nashvile? Is it a "dangerous" city compared to NYC? What about the people? Are they friendly? I know nothing about the south, so any kind of information would be great. Thanks!</p>
<p>Nashville is one of the great third coast cities in America. Think Austin, Texas, Santa Fe, St. Louis…cities that have great cultural lives and great sports and arts scenes. I guess you are joking about it being more dangerous than NYC but to respond to that the best thing I can say is that Vanderbilt has a superb location in its host city, sort of on the same lines as the excellent location of Rice in Houston. Town Gown relations are excellent as well. The economy is good.<br>
That said, you are in the heartland of America in Nashville and no longer in a coastal culture. Nashville is only four plus hours from St. Louis, and Tennessee itself has three regions…the Appalachian Eastern region, the Middle Tennessee region dominated by Nashville, and the western Tennessee dominated by Memphis and smack on the Mississippi.
Nashville is a vibrant full on city but it is no Houston, Atlanta or St Louis for that matter. It is more manageable and more intimate than the above cities but since it is the seat of the state government, you get many advantages re concentration of agencies in town. The weather seasons are quite nice and the campus is warm and friendly with small classes on an expansive campus which also has fine graduate schools and hospital complexes that serve the region just as Duke serves its region.</p>
<p>We are from the midwest, and my daughter has truly enjoyed Nashville. She graduated last May and lives in the Sylvan Park area of Nashville … she loves being close to everything, and she feels very safe (she is careful, of course). There is so much to do, and she takes full advantage of it. She is hoping to move back to the midwest in the next year or two (she just isn’t a southern girl), but the only city she finds even remotely similar to Nashville in terms of things to do is Chicago … and that is a lot more expensive than Nashville.</p>