<p>My cousin goes to Vandy right now and so I'm inclined to check it out, but I don't know how I feel about going down South. </p>
<p>Any northerners have any input on this?</p>
<p>This issue comes up so much and it always gets the same responses -- there are plenty of very happy northerners at Vandy. It is a typical college campus housing many different types of people from all over the country/world. There are plenty of kids from here (northeast) who attend/will attend/will apply. The bigger issue is if Vandy is a good fit for you all around. You have a good resource in your cousin - does he/she like it?</p>
<p>Well she's a senior, and I talked to her about it and she said she felt that the community had changed for the better, but she wasn't that sure if this was true since she lives off campus now and has kind of a skewed view. But basically she said when she first got there she felt really out of place and surrounded by a lot of stereotypical southern blondes and buff jocks (please don't take offense to that assessment because they're not my choice words, but hers) for the entirety of her first two years. Apparently you can apply through two schools and one is called Peabody (I think..correct me if I'm wrong) and this school is apparently easier to get in through, and there were a lot of people who applied through Peabody and then transfered to where she was after being admitted (she's a Geology/Poly Sci major, not sure what school that puts her in though) and felt like there were just a lot of people there who shouldn't be (based on their ability to keep up in the classes). </p>
<p>I like many things about the school, and I watched this video on YouTube about freshman move in day and the welcome they got was one of the most caring I've ever seen/heard of...so overall I've been getting a good feeling from the school I just don't know if I want to be that far away from home, or in that different of an environment. </p>
<p>I'd be interested to know how people who felt similarly (about liking everything, except for going so far South), but ended up going anyways feel there now. </p>
<p>One other thing though, do you know how the Hillel/Jewish community is there? Like, is there any significant amount of Jewish kids there or are there like...2 :P haha</p>
<p>Speaking of Northern people coming down South, here's a reminder that Vandy won our bowl game. I'm sure there's an article somewhere about how important that win is to the school (more applicants too!!!!</p>
<p>what's a bowl game?</p>
<p>"What's a bowl game"? </p>
<p>Oh wow. You'll definitely need to know what a bowl game is if you plan on going to a Div. I-A football school.</p>
<p>Hillel seems to be quite strong at Vanderbilt - they have a nice campus center that includes a vegetarian kosher deli. My d has a large number of Jewish friends who are, like most Vandy students, very happy there. Check out the Hillel website: Jewish</a> Life at Vanderbilt .</p>
<p>My d is from upstate NY and has loved Vandy from day one. She doesn't plan to spend the rest of her life in Nashville, but she loves being in the south and finds the differences (weather, laid-back atmosphere, better manners, etc.) enjoyable and certainly not too challenging. She is a liberal Democrat, unchurched, from an upper (but not all that upper) middle-class family. Vandy is not too Republican, preppy, born-again, conservative, or rich for her. Really!</p>
<p>Why not visit? It will tell you more than we can about whether Vandy is a good fit for you. I agree, though, that sports are a big part of what makes Vandy the great school it is - you'll want to find out what a bowl game is if you decide to attend.</p>
<p>BC and Vandy are basically tied on my list right now. I cant believe Vandy beat them the other day. Great game though.</p>
<p>I live two blocks away from BC :P</p>
<p>I am actually planning a visit in late march, but since she lives off campus I might get a bit of a weird view..we'll see. </p>
<p>But that's kind of what I'm worried about, the football thing...I mean football is popular up hear I suppose, but it doesn't have quite the same cult following as it does elsewhere in the country and especially not in the high schools. Most people at my school don't even know we have a football team and we sure as hell don't do the whole homecoming thing...so divisions and whatnot have no billing in my book</p>
<p>What about greek life? It seems to me that that plays a pretty huge role in the social life. My cousin joined a sorority that's specifically for girls who don't want to be in a sorority, but all feel like they have to because it's so important on campus...I'm not the hugest fan of greek life</p>
<p>So maybe Vandy's not the place for me, despite all of the other wonderful things about it that I liked...oh well</p>
<p>I'm going to visit in March anyways and I'm trying to keep an open mind because you never know!</p>
<p>I might not be the best to give you opinions on Vandy since I've yet to even visit, but I do know plenty about the South! Don't worry about the football thing, really. If you're not into that sort of stuff, don't force it. At my high school, which is very small-town "southern" and football-centric, there's still a huge number of people who don't get into the sports side of life, myself included. I only went to football games because my boyfriend was in marching band. XP I couldn't really tell you what a bowl game is either. Basically, all you need to know is that when your team wins (and believe me, you'll know) be happy for the players who worked hard and got something for it.</p>
<p>Greek life, I know less about (like I said, I haven't visited yet), but if you do apply I'll let you know there's at least one other applicant who isn't big on it. I'm definitely not joining a sorority.</p>
<p>The South isn't as scary as TV likes to make us out to be, really. We just like ice in our tea and call say "hot water heater" despite the redundancy.</p>
<p>Haha..hot water heater isn't just a southern thing :) we say that up north too, but it's funny what kind of bizarre vernacular works itself into the english language! </p>
<p>^that's good to know though (about the greek/football stuff)</p>
<p>Well I'm visiting in March, so I'll keep ya'll posted (did you catch that? trying to fit in here haha)</p>
<p>Haha..hot water heater isn't just a southern thing :) we say that up north too, but it's funny what kind of bizarre vernacular works itself into the english language! </p>
<p>^that's good to know though (about the greek/football stuff)</p>
<p>Well I'm visiting in March, so I'll keep ya'll posted (did you catch that? trying to fit in here haha)</p>
<p>Ha, well some northerners who moved down here have teased my mom and me about it, so I just assumed it was southern. Hope you have a nice visit!</p>
<p>My D is a northern girl who is very happy at Vandy. She has no interest in greek life and did not rush. </p>
<p>She has noticed a strong Jewish presence on campus, which I assume means that Hillel is pretty active. Check it out for yourself ... even if your cousin isn't involved, you can email the group before you visit & ask to meet while you are there.</p>
<p>As a parent of a senior son and freshman daughter at Vandy, from New York, I can tell you that they both love it. The school is very diverse geographically with many students from NY, NJ, DC, Boston, Chicago etc. I believe that approx. 10-12% of students are Jewish.</p>
<p>I am a northern girl who went to vandy and hopefully ill be able to clear up some things for you. 1) I didn't find the southern vibe to be as strange as the prep school vibe that I got. I went to a public school in Connecticut and when I came to vandy it was a COMPLETELY different atmosphere. HOWEVER, I do not think it was because I was now in the South, but more in terms of the public/private school split. Not saying that private school kids are exclusively friends with other private school kids, but I felt like there was a real sense of elitism specifically among these types of students that I was not used to. Sometimes I think I would have been better off at a more northern school, as I have found that I am not really into the south. But there are perks, such as the weather (I absolutely hate the cold.)
2) the greek life on campus is pervasive, I don't care what anyone says. I cannot stand when people come on to this board and tell prospective students that the greek life is easy to ignore, because its not. everyday, every class you will see greek shirts, you will overhear greek conversations wherever you go. this is not an exaggeration. HOWEVER, on the other hand this potentially does not bother some people. But I do wish i was given mroe accurate information before I matriculated to vanderbilt. </p>
<p>Sorry for the random info! if you have more questions feel free to PM me</p>
<p>You can ignore the elitism. I did when I was up there for 6 weeks. There are always other people who are like you [whoever you may be]. You just have to find them. =]</p>
<p>Again, Vanderbilt certainly doesn't hold a monolpoly on elitism or greek life on campus. The same is often said of many other campuses, even some of the "Eastern LACs" in the North, State flagship universities and the Ivy's (Dartmouth, Wake, Washington and Lee, UVA, UNC CH Hill, Bucknell, Colgage, etc). I don't think the southern location has anything to do with the private school kids and elitism or greek life. My son does go to a private school and actually did prefer most of the private schools he visited (north and south) to the public schools although it was more of a "feel" thing about the campuses and nothing to do with the location. Boston College has no greek life on campus but I've heard many say they don't like the crowd there because of the same reasons the OP mentioned (private school kids from feeder schools, too many cliques, etc.) and that is certainly in the north!</p>
<p>Having just spent a couple of weeks with my Vandy sophomore daughter, who is from the northeast, a liberal, Jewish, and still in love with the school, I just wanted to chime in with another perspective. Nicole's post is absolutely consistent with what my daughter says and she insists that the parents on this board who try to claim that "all types" are happy at Vandy are giving misleading advice. No one would deny that there may be individual students here and there who are outside the Greek scene and do not drink and are happy, but my d. says they are rare and invisible. There are thousands of good schools in the US that are not dominated by Greek life -- if you don't like Greek life, go to one of them instead of Vandy! The next big thing about Vandy that doesn't seem to show up on these discussion boards is the fact that the grading at Vandy seems to be extremely harsh, so if your GPA is really important to you, look elsewhere. It seems many straight A students at Vandy are shocked that their college GPA looks nothing like their high school GPA. Finally, depending on what program you're enrolled in, you may be surprised how extensive the "core requirements" for a Vandy degree are. Compared with similar schools, Vandy has a lot of basic requirements outside the major. If you had hopes that college would mean a lot of freedom in deciding what courses to take, Vandy may not be for you.</p>
<p>Interesting vibe from this thread...</p>