@bud123 : I wonder which schools’ students dominated those rankings which unabashedly give themselves high rankings on literally everything. I also don’t understand how that helps them. They seem overly worried about regional customs. It doesn’t seem a good self-rating of a place is enough for them. They really need to learn more about VU and the city and see if THEY like the scene. I caution against using the ratings of other students. They could have different expectations or values which will show up in the surveys (like on PR, some students at some schools like to rate things like laboratory facilities and libraries very high;u which would suggest that they feel much more strongly about that sort of thing than anything else the school offers, even if the other things are done very well) I honestly think the OP will find much to like or love, but I need them figure it out and think a little deeper and beyond what even we have to say.
Also, that is a small slice to just limit to affluent suburbs. One key difference between southern large metros and some of the more well-to-do northern cities is that less suburban areas often have better schools in northern schools. Many elite students or students going to elite schools will come from more urban HS’s from some of those cities. It seems that in the south (I am from GA), indeed most of the suburbs (some affluent, some alright) produce these students though at more socioeconomically diverse elites, you will see quite a range anyway with a surprising number of students coming from more urban high schools (magnet or non).
@yearstogo : Yes, as a person from Georgia, it actually upsets me. I just moved out here to Utah for my PhD and hear some of the same types of dialects (believe it or not, many here who haven’t traveled outside of the west believe certain dialects heard here are unique, but many people have something close to what is labelled as a “rural southern dialect”) and see some similar customs.
@Faline2
I really wish more students would keep an open mind. I know it is hard especially after being sold some images (whether it be marketing or media) or dreams about certain areas and schools (or even visiting and having a “this is it” moment), but it needs to happen. I would imagine those with a more open mind would do at least slightly more detailed research that leads them to the conclusion that they could end up happy and doing cool things at many universities. I also wonder how someone can visit a school and love the scene and then decide that they are worried about certain stereotypes. Perhaps they actually would enjoy a mild version of said stereotypes (or simply did not do much observations/exploration to even determine if they exist to an extent to which there should be concern) and don’t know it yet 
My D is not a southern girl, and she was fine at Vandy. She did not rush a sorority, did not dress up for football games, did not dress up for class. She was active on campus in her own way - one that suited who she is. She graduated in 2011 and has a fabulous job that she would not have had she not attended Vandy. She stayed in Nashville for a year after graduation, then moved to Chicago because she prefers the midwest … but she is glad for the time she spent in Nashville.
@Mikemargo11 If the only thing about Vanderbilt that concerns you is a preconceived notion about Southern culture, might I suggest another visit to Nashville and Vanderbilt for a longer time to reassess the situation. If you can get tickets to a football game, go and experience it for yourself and decide what dressing up for football really means. I don’t live in Nashville, but I do like to visit. There is a lot to see and do there.
Just returned from moving my kid into the frosh commons at Vandy. If it were not for the hot sticky weather and the BBQ served one night at dinner, it would have been hard for me to tell that I was in the south from my participation in the frosh move-in process. I could have been at any number of top 20 schools based on the kids I saw and interacted with.
Kids from all over the country. Plenty of Yankees, Asians, Latinos and AAs. Blond preppies with southern accents too. But a lot less than I would have thought given Vandy’s reputation (which seems to be significantly vestigial at this point) as a southern country club.
@northwesty : Uhm…southern accents are generally just rare even at southern public schools (the more selective ones) now-a-days (you would be lucky to hear any regional accents of domestic students at really any school with around a 1250 M/V or high SAT mean. Perhaps some hide it, but television has done a number on regional dialects so I wouldn’t use them to measure “southern”). VU pretty much mirrors other top 20 privates demographically perhaps with less Asian students than most, but still a lot. It just still has more whites than some but is really just as diverse as you would expect a selective or elite private or public to be. I think it usually just gets compared to Emory, Rice, and Duke which is a little unfair. It compares more favorably with places like Georgetown, Virginia, and WUSTL to some extent (mainly in % white) demographically (and perhaps to some extent "culture wise when you talk UVA, USC which is a giant private, or Chapel Hill)
@bernie12
So only students at second tier colleges are prone to having regional accents? I never realized that lack of a regional accent was a prerequisite for doing well on the SAT.
@TomSrOfBoston : I don’t really know what the tiers are and how to define them (I am also not gungho crazy over the separation into tiers and the overusage of certain USNWR ranking categories unless I find some striking, usually academic, similarities. Like how I found many of the private schools ranked in the top 10 by USNWR have similar features to each other that were seemed lesser so the case for private research Us below it. And usually when I do that, I try to mention specifically what many have in common). I am basically just saying that for some reason I do not notice them as prevalent at certain schools and that I have actually met some who suppress them when at school. I threw out a random number that hinted at “selective”. I have seen some students with southern drawls at my alma mater (when I attended) mask or eliminate it when talking to professors or certain groups of students but were comfortable when among friends. I always wondered if the selectivity or wealth of a place put some pressure on those who normally would speak with such dialects. So there is some “choice” in the matter it seems. I am also being cynical in suggesting that more students perhaps have regional dialects than one would be led to believe. And some dialects (or lack of) tend to be associated with intelligence or the lack of it or pleasantness and “desirability” (like when polls were taken and often a “midwestern”, whatever that is, dialect would be most desirable) as well as different socioeconomic brackets (like the supposed disappearance of “New York English” is often said to be along SE lines). It is more complex than normally presented and I admit to not having done it that complexity justice by putting it that way, so fair enough.
“Dressing up for football games.” My understanding is the most students don’t go to the games. They tailgate, but they don’t actually go to the games. Am I wrong about that?
Less than 50% of the students at Vanderbilt are white (non-Hispanic white). Of those white students, 32% (roughly 1/3) are Jewish. Many of the remaining white students are from all over the country and world, not just the South.
The stereotypical white Southerner with the (long lost) stereotypical Southern culture that could be a culture shock for you will be a small minority of the students at Vanderbilt, and easy to avoid if that’s what you choose to do.
You might find though that you really love and appreciate the Southern people and culture that you do encounter. Contrary to what one person posted above, they are not all rednecks waving Confederate flags. There is a rich cultural heritage in the South that has nothing to do with racism, but does have somewhat different cultural norms relating to what constitutes polite interactions, how to dress for various occasions (and for women, how to style their hair), what to eat for various occasions, how to maintain a close connection to the land (hunting and fishing, e.g.), how to maintain traditions around football (when watching in person and on TV), how to host family gatherings of multiple generations, and the role of Sunday church to anchor the week. It is the Bible belt after all. Even if many Southern adults do not attend church frequently, it is likely that church had some role in their upbringing unless they are part of another religion.
However, Nashville is a major city, and all major Southern cities are very diverse, with people and influences from all over. They do not maintain a pervasive Southern culture or accent for the most part. My daughter grew up in Atlanta, attends a university in the Midwest, and has traveled around the country a bit. She is always frustrated at how many people comment on her lack of a Southern accent, as if they are shocked. Many Southerners, especially in big cities, are not nearly as “Southern” in the stereotypical sense as you might expect. They grew up very cosmopolitan. As one person commented above, it is these “city Southerners” that you are more likely to find at Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt students are quite diverse, especially when compared to the Ivies, UChicago and WashU. I recently read that Vandy is more diverse than southern state flagship schools like Arkansas and Alabama. I was surprised when I heard that. But I believe Vandy has a genuine focus on diversity, and it is such a desirable school that it is able to grab top students no matter where they are from.
It depends on the Ivy (I think Brown and Dartmouth are not particularly diverse, but the others are very SE and ethnically diverse) and again, it and WUSTL are quite similar. I think Chicago may be a little more diverse or is kind of similar. Whoever started just breaking down the white the demographic there…most elite schools could say the same (in fact there are some where like 30-35% of each incoming class is Jewish) thing and it often isn’t more so whether someone is “fully white” so much as the regional and continental demographics. Furthermore, while I do not buy that VU in particular is much more “southern” than some key schools I can think of that are not particularly southern, sometimes the school can have vibes and traditions that would be associated with a certain region that students from other regions like. It isn’t purely about who populates the school so much as what they do and what traditions and past-times they participate in. I can not have a dialect of the region but then embrace certain customs of it. And of course VU is less diverse than schools that do not particularly fall in the “selective” category. However, I am thinking Chapel Hill, UVA, Florida, Georgia, and definitely the tech schools like Georgia Tech give it a nice run for the money.
Basically most of the need-blind schools in the top 20 have a “genuine”(whatever this means. Please do not make up a definition that only fits the way VU does it because it really does it no differently than elsewhere. Some schools just continue to attract certain demographics better and location may play a role) focus on diversity. VU is not particularly special in this arena at least not among the top 20s, no matter what people want to say. It is quite special at other things, but this ain’t it. Now the “southern culture” stuff is far over-attributed which is not really fair. It gives a UVA or Chapel Hill type of vibe which isn’t bad.
But I am kind of bothered by how “southern culture” is getting bashed on here right now as if it is something you should fight to prove a school, you, a sibling, or a child doesn’t have. As if it isn’t diverse or lacks good attributes. I think folks here are trying a little too hard to say that VU does not have a southern vibe at all perhaps because you all feel a need to defend against the negative associations that you think will come to mind and there are some, but I don’t see why not defend parts of the vibe/culture, if they exist in some form on the campus, that may be viewed by many students or people in general as a plus. Like I think this person said they enjoyed their time in NASHVILLE and at VU. Let us keep it real and recognize that while Nashville is a very cool city, some of its “southernisms” (which are far more notable than in Atlanta or even Charlotte) are definitely a part of what make it cool. Are you all to just say: “Well, VU has changed so much that it takes no part in such a thing! It is a nice little bubble for you to hide away from everything good or bad in southern culture”? I am not for that sentiment. Not every place has to look and feel like Chicago, LA, NYC, Philly, SF, or Boston to be “cool” and of “good culture” in my opinion. Viewing all of these cities as having the gold standard of what a city should have is not particularly good in my opinion and as a person who appreciates many of the south’s larger cities (including poor Houston 
), I sort of resent this. I feel as if there must be a better way to address this concern that comes up often on here and is handled like this pretty much every single time. If someone was planning to move to Atlanta from the NE and asked me if it (where I just moved from) was southern and they were concerned, I would tell the truth. It is a huge metro area with high and ever increasing diversity, that can still have some southern flavor flavor (the good) to it. It also has some problems that are likely exacerbated by it being in the south. I know y’all are trying to sell a school and avoid any critiques, but you can at least tell about potentially good elements if this is the case.
Some of my most favorite cites in the US are in the south (Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans), and it’s their southern culture which make them so special in my heart.
@NoVADad99 : My hometown is Savannah! Everytime I go back and visit family, I realize how much I took for granted.
Vanderbilt posts the regional breakdown on its website. The majority of students are NOT from the south. There are some traditions but it ends up more like a theme. My kid (southern) laughs at how not southern it is. Lots of kids from NY, Chicago, LA. Despite being located in the south, it’s good mix of students from all over, so no dominant culture.
https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/profile/#enrollmentbystate
My daughter is a junior at Vandy and she absolutely loves it. Since you enjoyed your visit, I would encourage you to apply. She has friends from Florida, Chicago, Texas, Missouri, New England…and several international. I understand your concerns, as we had the same. We are from Colorado and had no ties at all to Tennessee. She is really glad she took the risk! I love to visit, and can’t get over how amazing the students are.