<p>The</a> Vanderbilt Profile * | Undergraduate Admissions | Vanderbilt University</p>
<p>Saw that this week - crazy high numbers! </p>
<p>At what point will the numbers stop increasing? As impressive as it is (and it IS impressive), I have to wonder if they truly do practice the “holistic” admissions they talk so much about. Its hard to believe they are really looking at the “whole student” when the bottom of the middle 50% is at or near 700? </p>
<p>I just hope my S2 doesn’t see these numbers - he is finishing up his application today and that info will certainly take the wind out of his sails!</p>
<p>yikes…although I love seeing the geographic diversity on that map…such a big change! dwhite, here’s to a happy outcome for your son! How is your Vandy grad faring in the wide world?</p>
<p>Dwhite:</p>
<p>I would say that it is getting so hard to get into the Ivy League that Vanderbilt has its pick of a lot of people with super high academic stats. Vanderbilt is getting the “overflow”.</p>
<p>3 people got accepted from my HS.</p>
<p>Their SAT/ACT scores were 2400(35)-2380(35)-2380(36).</p>
<p>It seems that Vanderbilt has “number oriented” admission practice and Vandy becomes “semi backup school” for high stat kids. (I hope I do not offend anybody.)</p>
<p>My D was definitely a “holistic” admit. She had an unweighted GPA of about a 3.6 (but 10 APs with 4s and 5s on all but one), and an SAT of 1430/2140. These are not weak scores, I know, but not knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark scores, either. But, she had interesting and varied extracurriculars, and she really clicked with her admissions representative. She did get admitted off the waitlist (called on the first day of waitlist admits), and is doing fine there in her first semester. She says she definitely feels just as smart as everyone else, although everyone is very smart. She says that juniors and seniors she has talked to have said that they would not be admitted if they applied now–the students are getting smarter and smarter every year. Her friends are from all over the country. It’s very diverse, in that sense. Not particularly diverse in the “type” of kids that are there–mostly upper middle class white kids.</p>
<p>My impression is that the students are generally well-rounded and not just “high stats kids.” They seem to have had good SAT and ACT scores, good GPAs, and were leaders in several non-academic areas. For example, my son who is a sophomore had an SAT of 2200-ish, was captain of the band, and captain of the tennis, indoor track and soccer team (in addition to numerous other EC’s.) He is impressed with his classmates’ intelligence, as well as the diversity of activities they excel at. We’re from Connecticut and he is very happy with his college choice.</p>