<p>Okay...so I discovered Vanderbilt, and even before finding out that it was a prestigious university I fell in love with it. I'm seventeen, currently a sophomore in a community college looking to transfer, and I've pretty much made up my mind that Vanderbilt is where I want to go. I have a 3.87 GPA, a 31 ACT, a strong extracurricular list with national championship wins and a nationwide non-profit fundraiser project that I started and currently run and I'm a Biology major aiming for med school among other things. I think I could get in. However, my family is an extremely conservative/christian/watches-glen beck-for-fun type, and they are adamantly opposed to Vanderbilt because they heard it was extremely liberal. They want me to go to my state school instead, UT Knoxville, which I'm adamantly opposed to for various reasons. They've devoted their whole lives to raising and homeschooling me (not for religious reasons, but local schools are ranked worse in America) and I think they're pretty much afraid I'll come back a gay liberal athiest hippie with obama and coexist stickers plastered on my prius and some tattoos to boot. I personally know what I believe and why I believe it, and don't think college can change that. Oh, and I should note that I have no problem with others' beliefs not aligning with mine. Some of my best friends are strong atheists, gays, obama enthusiasts, etc. and the worst that leads to is deep intellectual conversations. </p>
<p>So anyways, with that background in mind, do you think I'll fit in at Vanderbilt, and are any of my parents fears justified?</p>
<p>You are 17, and have a healthy attitude about your beliefs and your ability to spend time with peers who have varying religious and political views. All good. You have done a fine job getting ready for college with your grades, activities and testing. Vanderbilt is an intensely diverse student body from all over the nation and the world. It is not a 100% liberal campus in its leanings. There are political rags published for liberal and conservative politics on campus. You can read these online anytime. You can watch youtube at insidevandy.com. </p>
<p>Your biggest challenge is not to decide if Vanderbilt is too liberal. The biggest hurdles are A the odds of admission which are quite slim for anyone, and your ACT would probably need to come up, and B the matter of paying for Vanderbilt if admitted, ie knowing if your family is willing to pay their Estimated Cost of Attendance. The Honors programs at the University of Tennessee might be much more affordable but in this economy you have to be majorly forward thinking on finances and you must have a clear understanding of your parents willingness to pay what Admissions is likely to deem their fair share. It is possible that a private school like Vanderbilt with its No Loans Need Blind admission stance would be a bargain. Only you know. </p>
<p>Immerse yourself in the Admissions pages at Vanderbilt.edu. Take a hard look at the admissions stats of the current class and recent admits. Read this board in March and April to see the stats of fine students waitlisted and denied. </p>
<p>I hope your college years are golden whereever you end up.</p>
<p>Wow, all I can say is Vanderbilt actually has a reputation historically as being a bit more conservative than your average college, certainly more than a lot of the Ivies which it is on par with academically. That’s been changing recently with a more diverse student body, but hey, you’ve got to work and live in the real world right? Vandy is hardley Berkeley I can assure you, good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I realize I probably sounded cockier than intended in my post. I thoroughly understand how competitive Vanderbilt is, I am by no means ready to transfer quite yet, I still need more time strengthening my resume before I apply. I’m just optimistic about my chances if I am able to complete everything planned.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is almost certainly less liberal than just about every other top school.</p>
<p>I believe I saw somewhere that the students at Vanderbilt self identify about 50/50 Republican/Democrat and someone here on College Confidential noted on another post that the students who lean conservative do so more on economic matters and tend to be a bit more liberal on social issues. </p>
<p>There certainly seem to be a lot of “tree huggers” on campus (Vanderbilt is very proud of being a “Green College”) and a definite institutional emphasis on community service; plus there has been a huge amount of press in Tennessee about the school’s non-discrimination policy as applied to membership in student organizations. (At least two attempts by the state legislature to smack down the policy have been nixed by the state attorney general.) Link to the controversial policy: [Student</a> Organizations | Dean of Students | Vanderbilt University](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/studentorganizations/]Student”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/studentorganizations/)</p>
<p>All of which is to say, I understand where your parents have gotten the idea that Vanderbilt is a haven for liberals. However, pancaked and StMikesDad^^ are correct that most of the rest of the country views Vandy as fairly conservative. (Is UT really conservative?)</p>
<p>You have been home schooled your whole life, you attend a local community college so your parents are afraid that once you are out from under their direct supervision, which you never have been, you will forget all the values that they have instilled in you and become a different person. You will need to reassure them about the sincerity of your beliefs and your maturity. And hey, remind them they can visit you in Nashville from Memphis much easier than they can visit Knoxville :-)</p>
<p>At any of the more selective schools, the professors will tend to be quite liberal. However, you can go four years without knowing the politics of most of your professors – it never comes up because it is not relevant to the subject matter of their classes. And if you do learn they are liberal, so what? Once you are away from your parents, you will always be encountering people who don’t agree with you.</p>
<p>As for the students at the more selective schools, they are a cross-section of America. Some come from conservative families, some come from liberal families, and many come from families that don’t really care about politics. It is rare that the politics of teenagers are much different from the politics of their parents (it is later in life that people formulate their own philosophies), so you won’t find a lot that are really liberal. There may be some very vocal liberal students at some schools, but they are a small minority. Most students are apathetic on political issues.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is a great school for a conservative. The student body is split exactly 50/50 so you can openly have your views and still have great debates. You will definitely be comfortable politically - its one of the few elite schools that has a good balance.</p>
<p>If you do get into Vandy, going to UTK instead would be a colossal waste. Vanderbilt is not a liberal school - in fact it’s probably the most conservative top 20 school, which is to say that the student body as a whole is pretty moderate. That says something about academia more than it says something about Vanderbilt, though. Vandy College Republicans is more popular than College Democrats, but the word which best describes most students’ political views is apathetic. Most Vandy students are too focused on enjoying their time at a great school and planning for their future success to bother with political involvement. There is comparatively little student activism at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>If Vandy is more liberal than UT, it’s because most of the student body comes from places that aren’t Tennessee. In any case, it seems silly to let political views dictate your college choice, which is usually best viewed as an economic decision (cost vs. increase in future earnings).</p>
<p>Vandy has a reputation as a conservative, very Southern, school… I don’t know where your parents are getting that vibe from.</p>
<p>Liberal means different things to different people. Conservative parents such as the OP has may consider the party culture or the fact that there is a LBGQT community on campus as “too liberal”. Vanderbilt may be conservative but it’s not on the same level as private schools such as Swanee.</p>
<p>UTK or Vanderbilt is not going to prevent you from becoming the person you are meant to be. </p>
<p>Both my sister and I went to UTK. I am the ultra-conservative, meat loving omnivore, CPA. She is the tree-hugging hippy liberal vegetarian horticulturalist. Same School.</p>