<p>I read this on the princetonreview.com website under "students say about...the student body</p>
<p>"Vanderbilt students are renowned for "the Vandy 'look': Louis V purse, pearls, and flipped collar." Students concede that the typical Vandy student has a "preppy, country-club style [and] is well put together and always looks polished and professional." They add, however, "A lot of people here look similar on the outsidethey have money, they are pretty, they seem smartbut really, everyone is still learning about life. Too many people are scared to break the bubble of the traditional student until they are a junior or senior." Most students are "religious, conservative, Republican," and active, both on campus and in the community. In their approach to schoolwork, "students apply the law of diminishing returns to all aspects of their lives. They carefully weigh their goals and how much effort they want to put forth and will cease to pursue anything the minute they feel they're gaining less than they're putting in."</p>
<p>Would any currents students agree or disagree. I'm not super into the super-rich kid scene - Is Vandy more so than EMory, Duke, or other prestegious southern schools or any schools for that matter. Are kids there for a great education like at Penn persay or to meet future doctors for husbands like at Miami persay?</p>
<p>Haha, well, although I'm not a student, I've heard that Vanderbilt has an active party scene. So I'll assume that they know when to party and when to work. :)</p>
<p>As far as a "diss" goes, I don't think the majority of Vandy kids would be offended by the above Princeton Review excerpt. The school definitely has a distinct feel, and if that excerpt is a turn-off (which for me, it was) then it just helps you pick a school at which you would feel more comfortable. And there's nothing wrong with that. =)</p>
<p>Most are "conservative, republican"?
How people of 09 describe themselves on facebook:</p>
<p>Very Liberal - 19
Liberal - 164
Moderate - 192
Conservative - 250
Very Conservative - 18</p>
<p>So that's less than 42% who consider themselves to be conservative.</p>
<p>If you divide the moderates in half among liberals and conservatives than it's a 57-43 ratio. That's definitely to the right of mainstream and people should be aware of that when applying or deciding on attending, because if you're going to be paying over 40 grand a year, you should be very happy with the atmosphere.</p>
<p>Because of what I ultimately ended up choosing, for comparison purposes I was very curious to see how UMich's 09 class described themselves on Facebook too:</p>
<p>124 Very Liberal
865 Liberal
563 Moderate
320 Conservative
19 Very Conservative
(18% conservative, or with 50/50 split: <33%)</p>
<p>it doesn't make sense to divide the moderates in half. like feenotype said somewhere else, they're the buffer between the loud left and the loud right. sure, there are more conservatives than liberals, but it's not like it's 100 to 1 (or even 2 to 1). I doubt that anywhere a person goes that they'd have a tough time finding people who share the same political views, so this factor was moot when I was making my decision. heck, if washington and lee has a vibrant democratic club, i'm not worried about vanderbilt.</p>
<p>PS - 57-43 isn't as big of a divide as you make it out to be. I mean, as much as it sucked, the vote in the last presidential election was 51-49.</p>
<p>It should also be known that Davidson County (where Vanderbilt is at) went overwhelmingly for Kerry.</p>
<p>Well, as did most major metropolitan cities. However: due to Vanderbilt being an expensive private university in the South, it attracts a lot of wealthy, white, conservative students. That's why Vanderbilt is said to still be in transition from becoming a regional university to truly national.</p>
<p>Even if it's in transition, its much closer to the former than the latter. I'm not sure how long it has been since you were looking at colleges, but Vandy isn't nearly as provincial as it was even up the 1980s.</p>
<p>its getting less conservative, but regardless of political affiliation the "work hard, party hard" mentality is there. kids study really hard during the weekdays, take copious notes so they can hit the dancefloors hard on weekends. vandy breeds well-rounded students and are at the top of their game -- both socially and academically.</p>
<p>MatthewM04 - All I can report was the prevalence of anti-Bush graffitti all over campus just before the election and the lack of Bush events and support. Looking at the Facebook tells you nothing either - I was listed as a conservative at the time and I didn't vote for Bush.</p>
<p>Edit: And the fact that "elite, private college" is coming to mean upwards of 65% liberal (see: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc. etc.) seems to mean a little bit as well.</p>