<p>I am planning on majoring in engineering, but I am not sure 100% on the type yet. After fin aid and scholarships, vandy is about 2500 less per year (not a very significant difference). I am a bit nervous about vandy's huge greek scene (dont know if I would join a frat), but I also definitely dont want to go to a giant nerd school - I want to have some fun. Rice is also within driving distance of home.
Im leaning toward rice, but waiting till I go to owl days to make a final decision (I already visited vandy and loved it).
What do you guys think?</p>
<p>You would probably like Rice more if the Greek scene at Vandy isn’t your taste.</p>
<p>well, i’m not sure if it is or not. how often are you “expected” to party in some of the more mild vandy frats?</p>
<p>you dont have to join a frat if you want to party with them. the frats are open for the most part, you can party with your friends in the dorms, or you can do any of the other limitless possibilities to entertain yourself.</p>
<p>you should only join a frat if you really like the people, which means you would probably want to spend a lot of time with them anyawy</p>
<p>You’re not “expected” to do anything. The majority of students here applied and enrolled when Vanderbilt was still advertising its “work hard, play hard” culture. As such, the vast majority of students not only do work hard and play hard, but do so naturally. Surely anyone can come here and enjoy it whether or not that describes them, but nobody will disagree that a certain type of person will fit in and enjoy Vanderbilt more than another.</p>
<p>i read an article that the university is trying to downplay the “play hard” part in order to be seen as a more prestigious school. and to do that, they are cracking down on fraterities. im worried that greek life wont be nearly as much fun over the next 4 years. how much truth is there to that?</p>
<p>[Greek</a> grief | InsideVandy](<a href=“http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/9914]Greek”>Hotels Inside)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Based on the experiences of my son, his girlfriend and other friends, quite a few “types” will fit in and enjoy themselves. Probably not all types, but I think Vanderbilt appeals to a broader range of students than many seem to think.</p>
<p>If you have already visited and loved it, ModernChem, your questions about fitting into Vanderbilt have already been answered. Visiting Rice also is a good idea, though. They are both great schools.</p>
<p>Students at Rice “party hard” too. I am pretty sure you could party every night of the week if you wanted to, and I would consider it the norm to party during the weekend there, no different than most other colleges</p>
<p>vandyclassof13 - The party scene on most colleges today (what youth IS largely about) is accompanied by an attitude that things will never be as good as they used to be. When you talk to students here, you’ll hear outrageous stories from the seniors (who will be able to tell you more outrageous stories they heard from past seniors), incredible stories from the juniors, and pretty good stories from the sophomores. Examples of this are front yard shotguns and afternoon drug and alcohol fueled porch parties that are slowly becoming extinct. That isn’t to say we’re all pessimists, it’s just a result of the school “cracking down” more and more each year. Look out for news in the next week or two of a couple ‘flagship’ fraternities here possibly being “kicked off campus”. If these rumors do manifest, these guys and the girls that party with them won’t be “going away”, they’ll just buy houses close to campus and party there instead to “taint” Vandy’s name less until the agenda-setters hit their goals and think it’s safe for them to come back aka reinstate their charters. To illustrate this, the two examples I used above are pretty commonplace at most Greek’s off-campus houses, in fact more and more so each year I’ve been here. You have nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>Midmo - I would definitely venture to say that your perception of “many people” thinking that only a certain type of person would fit in at Vanderbilt, is off balance (at least from the perspective of the typical Vanderbilt student). That perception is analogous to little leagues now giving away trophies to everyone for participation instead of only to MVPs. Relativity is still just as real as it ever was. You will see that I mentioned one type enjoying our school more than another; this isn’t an all or nothing relationship.</p>
<p>Here’s the good news, we’re both right. A southern born and bred, social, intelligent, wealthy, attractive person will enjoy Vanderbilt more than any other type of person. Please let me know if you disagree with this. That “sliding scale” of enjoyment however, probably has a low end where most schools top off and a pretty limited standard deviation as well, that is to say that these “alternative types of people” might be on the very low end of this hypothetical enjoyment distribution graph, but are still far above where they would be at most other schools and really not that far away from the “type” of persona above.</p>
<p>The perpetuating establishment here recognizes that pretty much anyone will love Vanderbilt, because when push comes to shove, you can count on one hand the number of schools in the country that even come close to matching it in broad-based appeal.</p>
<p>Smalltown, I’m not sure if you’re just missing this, but nobody argues that there are groups wherever you go that are into a thing, i.e. partying. The point is that Vanderbilt has a) a significantly higher percentage of those students than any comparable school (very helpful when it comes to not having to see Ex’s at bars, etc…) and b) has students that work very ‘hard’ and then play very ‘hard’ (as opposed to say, taking walks).</p>