<p>What are your favorite/least favorite things about vandy?</p>
<p>favorite: superb undergraduate education experience overall
worst thing: weak reputation nationally in US</p>
<p>I asked my son who’s a rising sophomore about pros and cons of Vanderbilt. He quickly mentioned pros: interesting, fun classmates; inspiring, challenging teachers; beautiful campus/dorms; and a fun city. He couldn’t come up with cons, but I can: cost, if you don’t qualify for financial aid.</p>
<p>worst thing: weak reputation nationally in US </p>
<hr>
<p>Yeah, right …</p>
<p>I always thought Vandy had a pretty good reputation.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was gonna say that. We’re really the only ones (okay, maybe Rice too) to suffer in that arena among top 20s, Vandy does more than well.</p>
<p>Vandy has a pretty strong reputation nationally.</p>
<p>Vandy has a great reputation.</p>
<p>Its international reputation is undeservedly lacking. Especially here in Asia.</p>
<p>I don’t know if reputations are “deserved” (I sometimes like to believe this is true, but in general I believe it is more so something that a good school “should obtain”, and not via magic and a high rank). No matter how good you are, you still have to “earn” or make one, which means they have to market or get closer ties to institutions of various sorts in Asian countries. I don’t know if Vandy has it (since it’s good, probably does), but some sort of intellectual partnership w/academic institutions in Asian could help w/this process. I have no real idea how, but we somehow attract Korean, African and Chinese applicants (the Asian international applicants may want to go to a more prestigious school, but they still know enough to apply. Many actually end up liking it. Last freshmen class was 17% international and I bet most were Asian). I know some of it has to do w/relationships we have w/Korea and China. Also, just like in the US, places like HPY supposedly get disproportionate attention. My understanding is it is even more disproportionate in Asia and elsewhere outside of the US. It has been said in some cases, that HPY degree can instantly propels one when returns to an Asian city (notice I said “can”). It does for some people here, but at the same time, not really, as just the degree isn’t good enough so much as connections, what you did while earning it, and field of study (Grad/Prof schools of HY are different.). Given this, even w/an effort, it could be extremely difficult to put a dent in that ice. The best one can do is simply try to attract an app. from the students. This may not necessarily do much to improve the rep./influence throughout a whole country, but it is a start to merely getting the name out there (whether they initially like it or not. I mean it’s not like schools start off as some magical brand name that every student nationally and internationally must attend). Also, for the southern institutions, as some poster in another thread mentions, places like Houston and Atlanta have advantages attracting such students given the possible level of “comfort” afforded: like Houston and Atlanta having some fairly large and somewhat contiguous Asian communities. DC and Maryland would also offer such advantages.</p>