<h1>I'm a current student at Vandy from the Northeast and I have found MANY misconceptions on these boards which I will clear up for anyone who cares.</h1>
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Vanderbilt is a very conservative school
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<p>According to student polls, there are more liberals at Vanderbilt now than conservatives. The school would most accurately be described as moderate. Facebook, while not scientific, also has similiar trends with an even number of liberals, moderates, and conservatives (with slightly more liberals than conservatives).</p>
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Vanderbilt is very southern
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<p>Half of Vanderbilt undergraduates come from areas outside of the south. States like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, and California are heavily represented. The geographic diversity here is very good.
<a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/diversityGeo.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/diversityGeo.php</a></p>
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Vanderbilt is for very preppy and only for wealthy kids
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<p>There are definitely some very wealthy kids here, but people always forget that over 60% of the people here recieve financial aid. There is a "preppy" element and students dress well, but if you read a Princeton Review article about Vanderbilt it seems to brand everyone at Vanderbilt as wearing popped collars --- meanwhile most of the kids just wear regular clothes. Also -- McGill Hall is like a "mini-NYU" at Vanderbilt. No matter who you are you can find your niche here. Overall, people are very friendly and welcoming.</p>
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<p>Here are specific recent criticisms of Vanderbilt:</p>
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I never really associated Vandy w/ academic accomplishment. More like partying and cheerleading..
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<p>Vanderbilt's academic programs and students are top-notch. When you look at data for incoming students, the test scores are ranged 1300-1470 with a 33% acceptance rate with vast improvements every year. Stereotyping the campus as jocks and cheerleaders doesn't give an accurate representation -- the school attracts some of the brightest kids in the nation. Vanderbilt students generally have excellent social skills. But when did being gregarious and having good-looks become a negative? Social intelligence and physical attractiveness are valuable assets to have in the real world and Vanderbilt is one of the few elite schools where most students are both good-looking and smart.</p>
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maybe for southern kids whose parents wished they would go to an ivy but they just didn't study hard enough
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<p>Another ignorant statement. First, I wouldn't group all the Ivies as a whole. Despite its academic connotations, the Ivy League is just a sports conference. There is a gap in prestige between HYP and the rest of the Ivies. Second, many of the southerners at Vandy WANT to go to a southern school (gasp). Most southerners would chose Vanderbilt over lower-Ivies. Looking at Revealed Preference data is misleading because only the kids who would consider Northern schools would even apply to the lower-Ivies to begin with. But the liberalism and culture at schools like Brown and Columbia are vastly different from the traditions at Vanderbilt. Third, Vanderbilt is significantly more diverse geographically than you give it credit for. I am from New York (one of the heaviest represented states at Vandy) and I have never felt out of place. Instead, I have met friends from all across the country.</p>
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like a school that was founded to be elite.. w/ nothing to back that up unlike U Chicago
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<p>Vanderbilt has been prestigious for over 100 years so I am not sure what you are basing this on. The school was more regionalized before the 1970s but it has always been highly regarded in the south. The school has a tremendous sense of tradition (particularly in the liberal arts). When you look through a Vandy scrapbook you will find famous literary groups such as the Fugitives and Agrarians. Robert Penn Warren, a Vandy undergrad, is largely considered the founder of New Criticism -- a dominant mode of textual analysis.</p>
<p>As for U. Chicago, the school is known for embracing its nerdiness. Alumni Tucker Max dubbed it "The school that beauty forgot" or “the perfect place for every ugly nerd in the country”. Vanderbilt, conversely, is a school that prides itself on its academic and social balance. As a student I know the classroom discussions at Vandy are highly intellectual, but on the weekends people would rather have fun and relax than discuss Foucault and postmodernism. There is absolutely no cut-throat atmosphere here and people would rather be your friend than beat you on a test. In the end, you only get one chance at a college experience so you better pick a place that fits. I love Vandy and I turned down Ivies to be here. The school has a charming sense of tradition (dressing up and taking dates to football games, etc.) while other T-20 schools have comparatively weak dating scenes/parties. Just because a school has a strong social scene, doesn’t mean the students aren’t serious about their academics and professional goals.</p>