Questions about Vanderbilt culture and social life

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
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<p>Hi there, and it is good to meet all the other undergrad and grad students around here.</p>

<p>Some things I was wondering about Vanderbilt, since I admit I have always found these Southern Ivy League Universities to be fascinating and wanted to understand more about their culture and the kind of students they have.</p>

<p>One thing I wondered is, is it true that Vanderbilt is conformist and forces students to conform to certain image and a culture? I have heard that if you are a typical nerd type intellectual, like that which would be found at MIT, or, say, a free spirited musician-activist type of intellectual from the West Coast or a Jewish or Asian quiet intellectual type from, say, new York or Philadelphia, or especially if you are gay, lesbian, black or Latino, indeed anything other than the rich, wealthy Southern prep in polo shirts and designer jeans that you will not fit in at all and will not be seen as conforming enough and will feel forced to change your clothes, your demeanor, the kind of music and movies you like to talk about, your hairstyle, everything. And that the students are often very judgmental towards others who do not conform to what they think an ideal college student is. Is this true or is this merely a misconception?</p>

<p>And as far as the social scene, it has been said that Vanderbilt has a reputation for being an out of control, binge drinking "party school" while maintaining a great academic ranking. As for the party school thing, I had always wondered about that because Vanderbilt has only been in Playboy's 1op 10 party schools and on this list : Top</a> 100 College Party Schools for 2013-2014 -- NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- it is only at the 71 rank. In Vanderbilt, roughly speaking, what percentage of the students do not partake in the party scene at all, what percentage partake 1-2 times a week as a casual social partier, what percentage have 1-2 nights a week where they binge drink and use every drug they can find and are out of control in an Animal House on Steroids fashion and what percentage are binge drinking and doing the out of control thing at least several times a week to as much as every day of the week?</p>

<p>I wonder because I always found in interesting how Vanderbilt is able to be a great academic school and a great party school when by comparison, virtually all the other elite schools are not able to do it nearly as much. UPenn, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Harvard, Princeton, U Michigan, Emory, Columbia, U Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, none of them, it seems are able to do what Vanderbilt does and have a great academic scene and a party scene like they to do. Is it that Vanderbilt, and none of these above schools, really has the hands down most brilliant students on the whole nation and that is why they are able to have such a great academic reputation and a party reputation simultaneously? Or are there other factors here?</p>

2

<p>Something seems amiss in the post above. Seems cheeky and contrived. Is the writer being sincere or sarcastic?</p>

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<p>I am interested in knowing more about what i asked above, it was not meant to be purely sarcastic.</p>

4

<p>What a disgusting cartoon of a school Vanderbilt would be if your “misconceptions” were valid. No one – not even the offensive southern preppy children of the corn you describe – would want to attend. </p>

<p>And as for your request for a detailed breakdown of precisely how many people party, exactly how hard, and how often…really?</p>

5

<p>This does seem cheeky and contrived. None of that is really answerable, you know that right (seriously, percentage of partiers of varying degrees?) ? And also, Duke and Notre Dame would be considered very similar environments. It has nothing to do with degrees of brilliance and more so campus culture and atmosphere (also, if you were actually serious about this, you’re forgetting that some institutions are more academically intense than others and thus at the more intense schools, you’re going to draw the bookworms who don’t mind it as much or could handle it w/o feeling like their social life is in jeopardy. Many top students actually enjoy a high level of intensity. Hard to believe, isn’t it?). Some bright people love to party and are less focused on high levels of academic engagement beyond earning a grade (they use their brilliance for more or less pragmatic purposes more than they do for mere “interest” or curiosity) and some very bright people like to be more engaged academically (displays and uses brilliance at random and very often for purposes that are less pragmatic). The schools’ cultures differ in what type of “brilliant” students they draw. Vanderbilt’s bright students students seem more rounded I guess whereas those at many of the others are more bookwormish (they like to party every now and then and plenty of the student body indeed does it frequently, but it is not perfectly balanced with academics). Nothing wrong with either type of school in my opinion. Depends on you.</p>

<p>As for the caricature, it does seem odd and far from the truth since the regional demographics of the school have changed so much. In addition, you would probably be caricaturing several other elite schools that ever had a more “southern” feel such as Virginia, Chapel Hill, etc. It’s not really fair to single one school out.</p>

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<p>Actually, that used to get asked here and discussed and debated on here about other schools all the time. In fact, as a lurker here, I had even seen this topic start a few legit flame wars around here.</p>

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<p>No, that is not true.</p>

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<p>Yes, that is merely a misconception.</p>

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<p>Almost cut/paste from an identical thread on the Duke page, btw.</p>

9

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This is no more true of Vanderbilt than it is of Yale, Wesleyan, or Williams. Each of these schools has its own culture, but they aren’t “conformist.” Pretty smart people at all of them. Why would a student feel more compelled at Vanderbilt to change his/her identity than at any other school? There probably are some students at Vandy who judge others for not wearing polo shirts or designer jeans, just as there are students at Wesleyan who judge others for wearing them. I don’t see how this “forces” anything.</p>

<p>Sounds like you want to stir the pot, OP. As Vandy’s student profile becomes more diverse and even more accomplished, I wonder at what point the perpetuation of this stereotype about Vandy students will stop.</p>

10

<p>emax201–are you a prospective Vanderbilt student with a legitimate question about the social scene on campus? As purpleacorn pointed out, this post is almost identical to one on the Duke page, including your typo “new York” --are you interested in attending Duke also? Oh wait, on another of your recent posts you mention you are a current grad student at UVA; which is it?<br>
In case you are legit, then I think, as usual, pancaked ^^ has done a fine job of answering the questions.</p>