<p>According to Business Insider, Vanderbilt ranks #6 on the most dangerous campuses in America, ahead of among others, Rutgers-Newark, NC A&T, G. Tech, MIT, and Southern Cal, and South Alabama. Any idea as to the validity of this?</p>
<p>Most</a> Dangerous Colleges In America - Business Insider</p>
<p>I’m curious how they qualify “on campus” and how it varies between schools. The majority of those crimes certainly did NOT occur on campus. The Vanderbilt police department alerts students about every crime, from armed robbery to a man grazing a students boob while walking on the street. We are pretty rarely are notified. I think much of the data is coming from the greater Nashville area, some parts of which are not the safest place. Campus itself is very safe. This method of reporting may not be the same for every school. </p>
<p>We also rank high on that particular list because we happen to be one of the smallest schools on that list. It also doesn’t include any schools under 10,000, which are a lot more likely to be located in cities with higher crime rates and tend to have higher crime:student ratios, so the list is skewed. The bigger the school gets, the more likely it is to be located in a random college town rather than inside a big city.</p>
<p>I can tell you that this list definitely does not include the schools that are actually considered the most dangerous where students are actually nervous to leave campus…</p>
<p><a href=“Most Dangerous Colleges 2010”>Most Dangerous Colleges 2010;
Vanderbilt is #46 on this list, whereas we find Harvard, Tufts, UPenn, Brown, Columbia, and Stanford in the top 20. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.american-school-search.com/colleges/dangerous[/url]”>http://www.american-school-search.com/colleges/dangerous</a>
Here’s another with Vanderbilt as #77. Dartmouth, Princeton, Amherst, Swarthmore in the top 20. </p>
<p>Notice both these lists include schools with under 10k students.</p>
<p>These lists are always based on random data and methodology and never match up and never give an actual realistic indication of how safe the campuses are. Students at Vanderbilt feel and know they are safe on campus and that’s all that really matters. Students here also realize Nashville is a big city and is a dangerous place just like any other big city, so we’re careful when leaving the safety of campus.</p>
<p>I wonder if those crimes include cases of “indecent exposure” while in said parking lot lol Vandy police alerts are amusing, but they’re rarely anything serious. The campus isn’t dangerous but Nashville is a major city so there is an increase in crime as you venture further away from campus.</p>
<p>Probably because Vandy actually reports campus crime.</p>
<p>I don’t like to see the term “dangerous” used when the statistic is based largely on property crimes.</p>
<p>@Hunt: It may be dangerous even though a property crime. For example, what if the bicycle thief refused to wear a helmet during the getaway ?</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is in a very safe area of Nashville – there are bad areas of Nashville but the area around Vandy is nice</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I have been to Vandy several times and it is very nice (one of the few places where I consistently see happy students even right before exams), which is the main reason my twins are applying this year. I was very surprised by these stats and suspect that they do not reflect reality.</p>
<p>The areas surrounding USC & Georgia Tech, for example, are much more dangerous than Vanderbilt, yet USC is not even listed among the top 25. This is probably due to a different reporting protocal.</p>
<p>My D went to Vandy. At the same time, I worked in a school in an urban area of the midwest. The school where I worked had a low crime rate, yet I can assure you that my D was safer than I was. I wouldn’t even walk by myself in the area of the school at lunch. My D was able to walk anywhere in the day … and she was careful at night. Heck, I wouldn’t have walked from my office to the parking deck by myself after 5!!! D lived off-campus, behind the freshman dorms, and she could safely walk from her condo to the campus after dark. She would not walk to areas off campus on the Elliston side alone after dark, but that was a common-sense, safety thing.</p>
<p>Bottom line … Vandy is safe. Be careful, as is always a good thing.</p>
<p>My daughter feels very safe on campus. When she comes in late at night from driving somewhere she does use the campus escorts. The police station is actually in her parking lot. I live in the area and frequently walk around the elliston, 21 avenue, West end, Centennial park areas at night and daytime without any worries. The other sides, I’m not as comfortable with, however, police presence is always there! I see students running the loop around campus at all times, and sometimes wonder if that is safe? I think the area in general is very safe, but students should use caution, as they would in any city!</p>
<p>:/</p>
<p>The site uses the term “forcible rape”. Are there other types of rape I am not aware of?</p>
<p>Well there’s “legitimate rape” according to Todd Akin…</p>
<p>
There is also statutory rape.</p>
<p>How active is the campus late at night? Are there a lot of people out after 11PM?</p>
<p>Yes. Tons.</p>
<p>The Vanderbilt website is an excellent source of info on crime/arrests on campus. The Daily Crime Report <a href=“http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/files/biAOJ2/Daily%20Crime%20Report.pdf[/url]”>http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/files/biAOJ2/Daily%20Crime%20Report.pdf</a> provides a listing of all arrests, going back to September of this year. Interesting reading - primarily alcohol violations and minor property crimes.</p>
<p>My d, a 2009 alum, was the victim of a crime while she was a student - but not on campus. Her purse was stolen when she was entering a restaurant with a group of friends in an area of town where they’d always previously felt secure. I don’t think that means that Nashville is particularly crime-ridden - just that it’s not possible to be safe from certain crimes, no matter where you are.</p>
<p>One thing to remember is that Vandy’s medical center is right on campus. The areas surrounding hospitals are often likely places for property crimes, and worse.</p>