No... I do not like Emory or Vanderbilt. I would prefer to go to lesser-mentioned schools like UC Boulder or Berkeley or Naropa U before I would ever attend Vanderbilt. What I don't like about Vanderbilt is the student body. A few overachieving Ivy rejects and the shallow, un-intellectual, dominant Greek life.</p>
<p>I want to go to a school that offers great intellectual and academic opportunities, as well as a healthy social life; I do not want to go to a school with a bunch of insular academics. But when the social life is dominant, and the academics and intellectuality are sacrificed, that's even worse. Your argument is that "Vandy" offers a robust social life. Yes, it does, and for a particularly un-intellectual set in my opinion. More so than the academics, which seem to lack in result.
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<p>Your ignorance continues to astound me. You claim that Vanderbilt is "un-intellectual" (you spelled that wrong by the way) but have no evidence to support it. If Vandy is "un-intellectual," why is their peer assessment score higher than Emory's? You say that Vandy is "un-intellectual" because its student body is gorgeous, uh...non-sequitur.</p>
<p>I think some of the stereotypes being pushed about Vanderbilt need to be put in context. Blairt indicates that he/she does not like Greek life and claims that this undermines the academic life of the school. For your individual taste, this may be true, but there are many other highly regarded schools that have large fraternity populations and I suggest you paint with less large a brush. </p>
<p>For example, the online version of USNWR publishes a number of lists of Top 100 schools. One of these is for % of students in fraternities. At Vanderbilt, the percentage is 34%. But are you aware of the following National Universities also on this list? </p>
<p>55% MIT
37% Dartmouth
34% Vanderbilt
33% Wake Forest
32% Northwestern
31% Emory
30% Cornell
30% U Virginia
27% Duke
25% Georgetown
25% Wash U
24% W&M
24% U Penn</p>
<p>That is 13 schools in the USNWR Top 30. I think that most will agree that these are all quality academic institutions that offer an abundance of intellectual life. </p>
<p>As for sororities, here again are some prominent National Universities that make the USNWR Top 100 list:</p>
<p>53% Wake Forest
50% Vanderbilt
42% Duke
39% Lehigh
38% Northwestern
37% Dartmouth
35% Georgetown
33% Emory
32% Cornell
30% U Virginia
28% W&M
25% Wash U</p>
<p>Greek life is more prevalent in the South, but by no means is it exclusive to that region. Most importantly, I think that these lists makes clear that there are plenty of very well regarded schools that successfully combine Greek life with academic excellence.</p>
<p>I just want to put in my two cents because I have been thinking a lot about this stuff. I have always wanted to go to Vanderbilt and have many friends who go there. Over the last couple of years I have gone to visit, and stayed overnight, several times. I have also done this with Emory and some of the other schools mentioned. I don't really care about rankings, I want a good fit, and so I have, of course looked at the academics, but also very closely at the social "feel" of each school.
Frankly, I am no longer planning to apply early decision to Vandy. I still like a lot of things about it, so I am going to apply, but it is no longer my first choice. To be candid, I also began to feel that there is a real shallow state school party atmosphere and I didn't expect the kind of heavy partying (with many types of substances!) and hooking up that I found there. I do think this lends an un-intellectual air.
I have been very impressed with the professors in the classes that I have sat in on, but truthfully, not so much with the students. In and outside of the classroom there seems to be an attitude of "how little can we do academically and still get by?" There doesn't seem to be a desire for excellence like I would expect. There is the desire to "look" excellent, and I don't just mean physically (though I think that emphasis on outer beauty that many at Vandy have is something of a metaphor) but to "appear" to have worked hard, learned a lot, etc.
Anyway, I have gone on kind of a rant, and I don't really mean to bash Vandy at all. If I get in I will visit again and consider it. Nashville is a great town and Vandy has many strengths, but in light of this thread I just had to mention what I see as some of it's weaknesses.</p>
<p>Look obviously Vandy's image attracts rather smart "popular crowd" type of people to attend. But that doesnt take away from the fact that it is a great school academically. If I were there I wouldnt worry about the frat scene, I would worry about my education, which is first rate.
Vanderbilt is improving that image that you shared HopinV. It's standards are rising. I also think that the schools practice of grade deflation makes some students either apathetic towards striving for something better or makes them want to totally forget about academics during the weekend.
Rich private second rate ivies like Vandy, Emory, Rice and Notre Dame will never have what you are really looking for in an academic powerhouse like HYP, Stanford or even a UC Berkeley. These schools usually mimic the trends in academia that HYP leave off. Thats why they're a mixed bag in terms of peoples opinions on them. Some even say "why pay Ivy League prices for a school thats not Ivy League"?
I just think that out of the three, Vanderbilt is really improving its standards to move from the image thats currently prevalent to fostering more of an intellectual enviroment while retaining it's amazing social scene.</p>
<p>My Gosh. All these things, about how Vandy is just a state-school-feel-Ivy-reject-Greeks-only, I never knew! I guess all these years of living half an hour way led me to no good.</p>
<p>I don't care if you meant the crack about WUSTL as a joke as it didn't clearly come across that way. Unless you want someone to challenge your insult against WashU, I'd suggest making your jokes funnier. </p>
<p>P.S. I'm not a WUSTL troll, just an admitted student that is willing to defend the school against crappy logic. Whether you meant to attack it or not, WashU gets more crap than any school on CC.</p>
<p>Ofcourse WUStL gets a lot of heat. The school just came out of no where one morning and established itself as an elite school. Anyways I am not here to bash it. I am just here to get an opinion on Vandy by others.</p>
<p>Dont bring Notre Dame into this also. It hardly is a "second rate ivy". If you want to say Notre Dame is a second rate ivy, you might as well lump everybody in it except the ivy's and MIT, Caltech, and Stanford.</p>
<p>I visited Vandy and was very impressed with the school. The focus on undergrads is wonderful, and the administration really seems to care about its students. The profs seem outstanding, and the academic opportunities are incredible. The campus is great, as is the surrounding area. Every prospective student we met was intelligent & mature (and NOT from the south) ... not the negative stereotype so many give to Vandy students. My impression is that this is a very up & coming school.</p>
<p>Yes, there is quite a bit of partying. But we also saw lots of kids who were doing other things besides drinking. We saw plenty of guys & girls who would fit the rich, southern stereotype ... and we saw plenty of guys & girls who would NOT. It's a large enough school that students should be able to find a niche that fits.</p>
<p>It's not for everyone, but it IS a very good school.</p>
<p>kelsmom pretty much summed it up, especially with that last statement. </p>
<p>Make all the assumptions you want about the student body, the greek life, and the social events, but when it comes to academics, Vanderbilt is excellent.</p>
<p>I think some don't have much respect for Vandy 'cause you never really hear of Vandy's accomplishments/top programs/faculty/facilities. On top of that, the GPA breakdown is sorta odd for a top-20 school. Then again, reporting methods vary. Same goes for Emory.</p>
<p>At any rate, perhaps I'm more annoyed by the fact that in rankings like US News, Vanderbilt is ranked higher than schools that are, in my opinion, academically superior (UMich, Berkeley, UCLA, etc.). 'Course, it's obvious that US News has a bias against public schools (or a penchant for private schools, you might say). At any rate, I usually don't care unless someone starts being elitist (anti-public) and asserting that schools like Emory are obviously better than schools like UCLA. Pointless to be bothered, I know.</p>
<p>And I'm not saying that Vandy isn't a great school, because it is. But I do think its placement in some rankings (as useless as they tend to be) is a bit strange -- i.e. other schools should be placed ahead of it.</p>
<p>See-right there--that whole "popular crowd" thing--it just smacks of high school. I feel like anyone who is still involved with that idea in college was trying really hard to get in to the "popular crowd" in high school and just didn't make it, or they peaked in high school and are trying to hold on to it too hard. That's one of my big fears about Vanderbilt, will I feel like I am in 13th grade?</p>
<p>Well atlead I am glad people are admitting now or explaining how others actually view Vandy. The school gets a lot of heat for bringing that type of social scene into the top 20 school arena. Some wonder how superb academics and a rampant greek social scene can exist in the same school. I wondered that too and had my own prejudices against Vandy for the longest time because of it. But now I see that Vandy is not all party school and that the social scene is not what its cracked out to be like mentioned. Going back to what my REAL GREEK frat-guy friend told me, from University of Alabama, that Vanderbilt was a nerd school over compensating for its nerdiness by overplaying the social scene. Bascially he said that they had a faux frat system.</p>
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Dont bring Notre Dame into this also. It hardly is a "second rate ivy". If you want to say Notre Dame is a second rate ivy, you might as well lump everybody in it except the ivy's and MIT, Caltech, and Stanford.
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<p>Notre Dame is second rate ivy. But I do not mean that in such a way that its derogatory. For that price tag I would rather try harder to get into an older academic powerhouse like Yale or Princeton. And saying that Cal Tech, Stanford and MIT are second rate ivies is spurious. They are sometimes ahead of the ivies in all respects and are sometimes called "ivy plus" not "second rate ivy". There is a difference. Those schools stand on their own academic feet while schools like Vandy, Rice, Emory, Wash U and Notre Dame are known for mimicking the ivy trends in order to bring that atmosphere into the south and the midwest. There is nothing wrong with that but they all still have a lot to prove to get to I guess an ivy plus category like MIT. Duke has done it and Vanderbilt is my next pick for following in that direction. Gee is doing a great job making sure that it will happen.</p>
<p>Hawkette, you have clearly made up your data about % of enrolled students in frats and sororities at various colleges.
"25% Georgetown" for frats
and "35% Georgetown" for sororities.
Georgetown is one of few universities in the US that DOES NOT HAVE frats or sororities. Something tells me your information is flawed...</p>