Life in Nashville for an international student

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I am considering applying to Vanderbilt, but have some questions about Nashville and the environment around the university. While I love the US (and yes, country music), I am a bit concerned because of the fact that Nashville is considered by many to be a "hillbilly" town. Do you think a foreign student would have trouble fitting in? The same question also applies to the university, which is considered to be vEry southern!</p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>“Southern,” “Very Southern,” and “Hillbilly” are all relative terms. As someone who comes from a small southern town and is at Vandy, it’s a much more urban environment that doesn’t NEARLY have the same atmosphere as home. But many people that I’ve met here that moved down from the northeast or east from California think that it’s SOOOO different. But there’s something for everyone here: if you don’t want to be involved with southern culture and country music, you can avoid it pretty easily, but if you like it, it’s there.</p>

3

<p>These stereotypes are pretty silly. Nashville may host many country bands in the Honky Tonks downtown, but Nashville is known as Music City, not just Country Music City. It’s the place where practically every big band of every genre stops on tour. “Hillbilly” is just absurd. It is a large urban center and a bastion for healthcare and entrepreneurship.</p>

<p>In 2013, the city ranked No. 5 on Forbes’ list of the Best Places for Business and Careers – does that sound “hillbilly” to you?</p>

<p>Vanderbilt just does not have a strong southern culture. So often people visit campus expecting southern accents, cowboy hats, and country music playing from loudspeakers across campus. While you may see a bit of that downtown, the fact is, the Vandy campus is almost indistinguishable from any elite campus in the northeast, except that we tend to dress better, have nicer weather and more trees. </p>

4

<p>…and Vandy has happier students than those northeast elite U’s. Nashville is far more cosmopolitan and metropolitan than Durham, Charlottesville, Winston-Salem and Davidson but you don’t hear those adjectives attached to those smaller cites in the south.
Nashville is the center of art, culture, music, TV shows, NFL, and government for the state and region. Nashville is a leader for academic and private healthcare. There are about 20 colleges and universities in the area so lots young adults, educated entrepreneurs, and Ph.D’s call Nashville home. About 6 million tourists save money all year so they can vacation in Nashville. So ditch the old stereotypes and go visit Vandy and Nashville and see what you think.</p>

5

<p>I find this “hillbilly” stereotype of Nashville annoying and tiring as it is so unfounded. I moved to Nashville at age 13 from NY in the 70’s and never thought of Nashville as “hillbilly”. I moved away in the 90’s and am always amazed at the growth of the city each time I return.
There is the Green Hills Mall just a few miles from Vanderbilt that has evolved to hold stores like Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Tiffany, Coach, David Yurman…I don’t think these stores could exist if Nashville was full of “hillbilly’s”. You have the Gultch area that’s full of hipster type restaurants. Belle-Meade is a neighborhood not far from Vanderbilt that is full of beautiful million $ homes. I could go on but my point is, please do your homework and research Nashville before applying the old “Hee Haw” stereotypes. Tennessee is a mid-sized state and does have some towns in it that can be thought of as “hillbilly” but Nashville is a city that definitely doesn’t fit that bill.</p>

6

<p>Nashville is very cosmopolitan for a town in the South. There are many articles about its “change”, and radio stories too such as this one:
<a href=“http://www.xpn.org/world-cafe/sense-of-place/nashville”>http://www.xpn.org/world-cafe/sense-of-place/nashville&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.xpn.org/world-cafe/sense-of-place/nashville/episodes/nashville-episode-7”>http://www.xpn.org/world-cafe/sense-of-place/nashville/episodes/nashville-episode-7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>This popped up in my Facebook feed today. I constantly see things like this, but this one is handy as a representative profile of Nashville:
<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/08/just-how-american-is-nashville-were-no-1-according.html”>http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/08/just-how-american-is-nashville-were-no-1-according.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;