Hi! I’ve mostly narrowed my decision to these three schools but can’t seem to get much farther.
Overall, I’m a bit concerned about the huge emphasis on Greek life. I’m not really it and, as an Asian-American, have heard some minor stuff about slight discrimination (??). Besides that, I love the quality of life, weather, Commons, energy, etc.
I’m interested in both psychology and economics. Psychology more as a personal interest, and economics also so but additionally because I wish to pursue a career in investment banking. Also, I don’t qualify for financial aid…
Greek life is big but half of women and more than half of men are not a part of it, so you will find your niche also I’ve heard greek life is pretty different from the classic big state school image Ive been conditioned to believe. I’ll be going to vanderbilt next year and I’m not interested in being part of a sorority (although I plan on going to frat parties sometimes).
I totally understand wanting to go to a school with a sizeable and integrated Asian population. That is a decision that I can’t really put any input into.
There is an emphasis on greek life, but it’s not too ridiculous. The kids who have no interest in greek life or greek life type activities associate with alternative communities and do fine. The kids who have the most trouble with the culture here are the ones who do have an interest in greek life/most of their friend group is greek, but for whatever reason, they themselves don’t join. These people who are caught in the middle between the greek and non-greek communities are the ones who end up feeling frustrated or left out. Either end of the spectrum will enjoy their time though.
There is definitely a difference between here and the UC’s. Those schools will be a lot bigger and therefore more diverse, with a wider variety of people who have different interests.
I graduated from Vandy last year. Greek Life is certainly big here, but the administration is trying to minimize it. (If you’re interested see this post of mine-http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vanderbilt-university/1868189-thoughts-from-a-recent-grad-p1.html). Despite this, it still dominates the social scene. If you have no interest in it that is one thing, but if you want a traditional college social life I’d strongly encourage any guy to give it a shot.
Concerning your areas of interest, both are fairly popular and easy majors. I don’t know much about psych, but I was an econ major. Personally I wasn’t happy with the quality of instruction in the program, although there are a few good profs. Since your goal is to work in IB, I wouldn’t do an econ and psych double major. If you don’t have a strong interest in econ I’d forget about majoring in it and double major in psych and math or CS and minor in financial economics.
You have a tough decision to make. If you can I’d definitely revisit each of the schools.
also I’ve heard greek life is pretty different from the classic big state school image Ive been conditioned to believe. I’ll be going to vanderbilt next year and I’m not interested in being part of a sorority (although I plan on going to frat parties sometimes).