<p>While Vandy is a reach for everyone now your son is very well qualified and his chances are good. His interest in the classics may help too. I don’t think his freshman GPA will be a problem and they look at and report the highest test score (they want to look good when reporting test scores). Good luck.</p>
<p>@catsmeow the following is a quote from the Vanderbilt web site Admission Blog:</p>
<p>'Our athletic programs are NCAA Division I; therefore, our athletes do not come through the Early Decision process"</p>
<p>All three admission pools at Vanderbilt have merit scholarship applicants in them but those decisions are not released I believe until after regular decisions come out so this has no effect on ED acceptance rates.</p>
<p>catsmeow: Momthreeboys has corrected me again with regards to athletes at Vanderbilt. Thank you Mom. I was thinking about athletes at the LAC’s and highly selective non DI Universities. When I referred to merit type applicants, I was referring to the “super applicants” in the ED pool who will end up getting the very generous Vandy merit scholarships. I’m just assuming that a number of the ED acceptances will go to these types of people.</p>
<p>If you look on the CC boards of selective colleges and universities you will find many opinions on what advantage, if any, ED confers. I personally agree with those who say it is an advantage, but not as great an advantage as appears on the surface because of things like self selection of the ED applicant pool. There’s even been some academic research on the topic which shows that ED is not as great an advantage as you think.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, all any of us can say more or less whether an applicant will be close, then so many variables come into play that even the Vanderbilt Director of Admissions would be hard pressed to say, for most applicants, whether an applicant will definitely get an acceptance before deliberations occur.</p>
<p>Kaukauna: I over looked your comment yesterday regarding "The only thing which seems a little contradictory is that your son attended PAVE which is science / technology orientated and he is telling Vanderbilt he wants to major in classics. On the surface it doesn’t quite fit.</p>
<p>Attending PAVE helped our son tremendously and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He got to stand in on several surgeries. One of which was open heart surgery which excited him a lot! It is my understanding that a degree in Classics does not limit ones opportunities. And that many Classics majors score high on both the MCAT, LSAT, and also get accepted into good MBA programs. We encourage his drive for a double major. I’m not sure why you think this would be considered contradictory and/or why it doesn’t fit?</p>
<p>For some reason premeds with classics major are appreciated.</p>
<p>love2bnana: No, a classics major does not limit one’s opportunities for medical school. Not at all. My comment was just a surface statement. At first glance classics and related studies seem somewhat distant from science / technology. But you’ve connected the dots for me. Did your son talk about these dual passions in his application? All the best.</p>
<p>kaukauna: I’m not certain. I didn’t look at his application. In fact, I have never seen what a common application looks like. Do you think that makes any difference on being accepted? Don’t they just apply for an undergraduate school/degree?</p>
<p>I guess my opinion, which is just my opinion and not worth much, is that it would have been kind of a nice twist to bring up in an essay or an interview that you are interested in classics, and you’ve done all this studying, and your basically fluent in Greek and Latin, reading Cicero and such, but you’ve got your brain also looking at the science and technology and helping mankind realms through the practice of medicine.</p>
<p>But having said that, even if he didn’t do this explicitly, the app reviewer can make the connection him / herself. </p>
<p>Either way, it makes for an interesting and unsual candidate, in my opinion, which is a good thing.</p>
<p>I fully agree. A young man who wants to major in the classics is a gem in this consumer-oriented society, and a physician who read classics is a diamond in the dry medical world. I am sure this kid will be somebody in a near future.</p>
<p>Our son was accepted into Vanderbilt!! We are so excited for him. And I am feeling extremely Happy, Happy, Happy!!! No more college applications for 2 years :)</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son love2bnana!</p>
<p>Love2bnana: I’m happy for you and your son. Now I can say that I knew it all along! Yea right!! But I did have a good hunch about your son.</p>
<p>Kaukauna - Thank You so much! This was the best news we have received in a very long time. We have never seen our son get as excited as he did today. It was so great! I actually think the neighbors could hear our excitement down the street…</p>
<p>Congrats to your son, love2bnana. Our son’s freshman roommie was from Orange County. terrific guy. Didn’t have any warm winter clothing when he arrived tho. ha. Or a tie. Or a blazer. We lived in Nashville twice so had a good sense of Nashville’s charms re weather (beautiful long springs, lovely autumns, rainy cold winters with some snow and even some risk of tornadoes in other seasons).
(I used to live in LA, so am only kidding around. My mother was a southern lady in the 60s in LA and was very out of place…she was formal, white gloves petticoat type lady). Son’s Cali frosh roommie worked very hard at Vandy as an econ major and was very happy. Became an RA…which I always respected since he saved his parents significant money taking that on.
Love having Californians in Tennessee. Your son’s happy news makes me smile for him.</p>
<p>Thank you Faline2 for the tips. We are pretty casual here in california. We will have to get him a new wardrobe for Vandy. He wears uniforms to school here (shorts w/ collared shirt) and mostly board shorts at home. Lol. Do the guys wear blazers daily? And ties? I appreciate any other pointers you might have.</p>
<p>naaah. there is plenty of casual attire at Vandy and no one wears ties/blazers around daily altho there are dress codes at a couple of southern colleges (Sewanee, Hampton Sydney). Our son was not into preppy clothing at all but he did interview for internships/positions etc starting freshman year for various things and attended a couple/three semi-formals (he was not Greek). He wore jeans with boots more than khakis. There is a long season for shorts. A sleeping bag for Alternative Spring Break which is very popular? A good blazer or two, and khakis will go a long way, along with a pair of dress shoes-- even if you keep them in a box on a top shelf most of the year. A windbloc zip jacket that can get drenched in rain when you are carrying books and have a long walk to go. Shoes that are not slippery on wet flagstone stairs and are possibly water repellant. (son wore light sneaker type hikers a lot) Various outdoorsy things like a vest that is windblock ready will go a long way to helping a guy out between buildings for a nice light option during in between weather weeks. Freshman closets are on the generous side on Commons. A shoe that can be worn in bad weather although attempts are made to clear sidewalks as soon as possible. Amazon Prime is a good investment as it is easy to ship to the post office any little thing.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son! My 2 girls LOVE it there.</p>
<p>Congratulations!</p>
<p>love2bnana - Congratulations to your S! Mine is a 1st year from California and loving it. He went to VU knowing no one and has come home first semester with a group of friends.</p>
<p>S is not too concerned with attire and continued to wear his California clothes (shorts, t-shirts and jeans with hoodies). He really didn’t look out of place. Yes, there are students that dress in a preppy style. At Thanksgiving, we did buy him long sleeve shirts and waterproof shoes. He has also asked for warm socks and long underwear for Christmas.</p>
<p>Enjoy not having to worry about any other college acceptances. It was great last year when S was accepted ED1. It went from wondering where he would go to how were we going to get him and his stuff there by airplane.</p>