<p>My daughter (a highschool junior) is seriously interested in Vanderbilt. The sorry fact is that I do not really know Vanderbilt as much as her other possibilities like Columbia, UPenn, Brown, and Duke among others. So I decided to ask the Vanderbilt parents to educate me. I would be grateful if you could give me your candid answers to the following questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>What are the attractions of Vanderbilt over and against other peer schools? (I know it is an elite academic school, so please give me some non-academic reasons.)</li>
<li>No school is perfect. What are some of Vanderbilt's drawbacks? </li>
<li>So far, are you happy/unhappy with the school, and why?</li>
<li>The school is near the downtown of a large city. Is the school physically safe for the girls?</li>
<li>Have you attended PreVU? What was it like?</li>
</ol>
<p>I can’t answer specific questions about Vanderbilt, but as I see that you are more familiar with East coast schools, I will tell you that name isn’t everything. My son will be attending WUSTL this year, a school that often struggles with name recognition as it’s in the Midwest. Your daughter is really the only one who can know what it is that she really wants out of a college experience. Brand name recognition isn’t that important to many students, and unfortunately too many of us get caught up in the prestige game. I still get a little upset when people ask me why my son (from Florida) is going to school in Washington State instead of JHU or Michigan, two other schools he was accepted at.</p>
<p>In the end, your daughter will need to feel that there is a certain je ne sais quoi (unexplainable factor) that draws her to one school over the other. </p>
<p>Those students who go to Vanderbilt (one of my sons classmates will be attending) loved the friendliness, close proximity to downtown Vanderbilt, and the campus spirit (SEC pride). I’m sure that there are many more reasons that a Vandy student or grad could give you.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response. WUSTL is a mighty great school, and you should be proud of your son–I do not understand why some people should wonder about your son’s choice of it over and against Hopkins and Michigan. You are quite right that name recognition isn’t everything, and that is why I wanted to hear from Vanderbilt parents about their experience of the school.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman this year at Vanderbilt. He knew he wanted to attend a mid sized school in the south (for the weather) and he wanted to study Biology. Vanderbilt has a great reputation academically and a beautiful campus but I think the tipping point of why we chose Vanderbilt over his other top choice schools was because of Nashville. In our opinion its just a great city. I feel he is safe there and its very easy to navigate as its not too big. He will experience southern hospitality and all the music, dining and sporting events Nashville has to offer. The convenient airport to get back and forth was also a plus as we live on the East coast.</p>
<p>We attended a PreVu day last summer and it gave us a good feel for the school. They had information sessions regarding admissions, financial aid, and they also had a students only session broken up by which school the students are most interested in. We went on a campus tour and they gave us lunch in the Commons dining room. The day ended with a current student panel session of questions and answers. It was a more informative than the typical tour/admissions sessions. I definitely recommend it to help get a feel for the school. </p>
<p>Good luck in your search. It’s a bit overwhelming but if you do your research and visit lots of schools your student will figure out where they belong.</p>
<p>My daughter is a 2009 alum and had a great experience at Vanderbilt. We’re from upstate New York, and she was hesitant about a school that few people here know. She was motivated to apply by a positive encounter with a Vandy adcom at her high school.</p>
<p>Vandy is in the West End, an upscale area. A few blocks away, there are more business-zoned areas, and also areas that are less upscale. I did worry about my d’s safety, because parents do that :), but I felt that the campus was as safe as an urban campus can be. It’s necessary to be vigilant, but not more so at Vandy than in any other city location. Her purse was stolen once - in broad daylight, as she and a large group of friends were entering a nice restaurant about a mile from campus. It was a pretty bold crime, but could have happened anywhere. Nashville is a great city - terrific food, sports, restaurants, music - and as visitors we experienced true hospitality from people on campus and elsewhere. </p>
<p>The administration was responsive, and the faculty were very connected to students outside of the classroom - a real plus. Profs hosted kids for dinners and outings; my d’s advisors were stellar, and encouraged her in pursuing post-grad options.</p>
<p>I think that Vandy, more than most schools, should be visited to get a true picture of the campus atmosphere. Many posts on CC purport to “know” what the school is like, but I’d be skeptical unless they come from students, alums, or parents. Not all of these will be as positive as I am, but at least they’ll be speaking from experience.</p>
<p>DoubleEternity,
My son is a 1st year so I’ve recently been through the journey of selecting a college. We are from the west coast where most people have kind of heard of the name and think it is an Ivy League school. Our Son’s interested started with the really nice glossy brochures that Vanderbilt sent him in 9th grade. It caused us to look at the school. I also have family in Atlanta where the university is more widely known and S was encouraged to look at it.</p>
<p>What are the attractions of Vanderbilt over and against other peer schools? (I know it is an elite academic school, so please give me some non-academic reasons.)
S requirements were a good engineering school, small or mid-sized with a “real” marching band. Trust me, those requirements created a very short list. When you ask son today why he chose Vanderbilt, he will tell you the community. The community is the students, faculty and staff working together to improve the world and each other. It does come through when you talk to members of the Vanderbilt community.
My husband and I were impressed with how the community works together. Since S is part of band, we’ve seen Coach Franklin come to a band practice to tell them how important they are to the football team and the band show up at a football practice to play for the team. When we talked to the engineering dean about S minoring in music, he encouraged him to pursue his dream and told us of a project one of the engineering students is doing with music.
It is expected that each student gets involved in several areas beyond their academics. And when we talked to students they rattled of several extracurriculars they were involved in. We have felt that VU is interested in developing the whole person more so than other colleges we visited.</p>
<p>No school is perfect. What are some of Vanderbilt’s drawbacks?
The cost. It is expensive if you are a full pay student. And for us, I wish it was a little closer to home.</p>
<p>So far, are you happy/unhappy with the school, and why?
It has only been 2 weeks, but we are very happy and continue to believe VU was an excellent choice. Numerous times we have been told that the faculty and staff are there to ensure that our student will be successful. They are confident that the students they have selected can do the work and they will be the safety net to make sure that they don’t get to far off track to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>The school is near the downtown of a large city. Is the school physically safe for the girls?
Since most crimes against woman occur by people they know, the location does not have that large of impact. Nashville is a city and you need to be aware of that if you head outside of the Vanderbilt bubble. On campus the security is impressive. You cannot get into a residence hall without the appropriate coding on your commodore card. Then you can’t get on an opposite sex floor with your card. From midnight to 8 AM there is a security guard at the main entrance of each building and the other entrances will not work. I would not be worried.</p>
<p>Have you attended PreVU? What was it like?
We did not attend PreVU, but we did attend Black and Gold Days. We walked away knowing it was the school of choice and concerned he might not get admitted. It was a great opportunity to tour the campus, meet with students, and meet with each of the schools. We included a meeting with the assistant dean of engineering and it was very worthwhile. However you do it, a visit to Vanderbilt when students are in session is worthwhile. Any of the programs will allow you and your student to experience Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>For starters Vanderbilt is one of 15 universities in the top 20 in the USNWR and top 50 World Academic Research Universities. But that is based on wealth, prestige, research productivity, and the opinion of 60 year old tenured faculty.
If you want to know what the students say about their undergraduate experience look at current student surveys from the Princeton Review. They look at many areas but a few student rankings are particularly telling.<br>
Quality of Life score: Vanderbilt is #9
Happy Students: VU # 8
Best Run School: VU #18
Great City: VU # 19
Of the USNWR top 20 schools Vanderbilt, WashSL, Rice have the best student scores followed by Yale, Stanford, and Dartmouth. The rest don’t score very well according to students in these areas.
Brilliant students. Vandy students SAT/ACT are now higher than UPenn, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Duke, and JHU.
If you like sports…SEC
Into politics…state capital
Like music…everyone plays Nashville
Weather…do you like sundresses and t-shirts or parkas and scarves
Vanderbilt has a popular charismatic chancellor
VU is located in a nice safe part of town. Belmont University is 2 blocks away so you have 20,000 students in this part of town.
Nice Freshman dorms…check out The Commons
School spirit
Merit scholarships
Vanderbilt is a HOT school right now.
At Vanderbilt you get BALANCE. You get an elite academic experience and the best 4 years of your life.</p>
<p>Oh, the drawbacks: It’s hard to get into, cost, it’s bad if you have oak tree allergies, & students will not want to leave Nashville so you will have to visit her.</p>
<p>I would disagree with Go9er…I am from West Coast, and everybody has totally heard of Vanderbilt, and no one thinks it is a member of the Ivy league. Rather, they all know it to be an elite school, and think of it in the same vein as Duke.</p>
<p>oliver007 - Good to hear that. It may just be where I live, but we’ve been asked numerous times if Vanderbilt is an Ivy League school. We live in a rural part of California with few students that go to schools outside of California.</p>
<p>My D is a going into her junior year at Vandy and is studying abroad this fall. Right now, as she’s waiting to leave, she’s really missing Vanderbilt and is feeling jealous of her friends who are back on campus. Although many students do study abroad, many have mixed feelings about it because they don’t want to miss out on what’s happening back at school. Her classes have been very challenging but, for the most part, very small with good interaction between the students and professors. The administration has been a pleasure to deal with, and I feel that they do try to treat each student personally. The campus is beautiful, the on-campus housing options are terrific, the student organizations are fantastic and varied, and, of course, the academics are top notch.</p>
<p>My D has already had two great summer internships due, in part at least, to her Vanderbilt credentials.</p>
<p>Regarding safety, I think my D has felt very secure on campus late at night with her group of girlfriends. The school runs “Vandy Vans” all throughout campus until the wee hours of the morning–these are free and transport students all over campus. The students take these from frat parties back to the dorms (and I suppose from the library, too, but I haven’t heard much about that). When they go off campus (downtown to clubs and such), they take cabs. So long as they travel in groups, I think they are as safe in Nashville as they would be just about anywhere else.</p>
<p>For us, the down side is the cost. We do not receive any type of aid, so the expenses are tough to take.</p>
<p>Lots of great info here about the Vandy community. Just wanted to add that my son is starting his senior year at Vandy and is thrilled to be back on campus after his Junior spring semester abroad. He is happy with his choice…he wanted a warmer climate (we live in NY) and he wanted a balance between academic and social…Vandy has proved to be that. I have tried not to be a meddling mother but when my DS1 asked for my help the admin and Parents Hotline were amazingly helpful…and the issue was sorted out quickly! I am from Nashville and its a wonderful place to go to school…my DS1 is the 4th generation to go there…my DS2 is quite happy at Yale and has found ‘his people’ …each child is different so visit and attend PreVue if you can …its what sold my DS1 on the school. He is a Vandy tour guide and loves showing prospective students and parents HIS campus. Good luck…its a great adventure figuring out where to go and where you get in! Admit rates are at an all time low for Vandy …hot school!</p>
<p>Haha, bud123, the oak trees! My poor son gets hit with springtime allergies twice - once down in Nashville where the spring is earlier and then again in New England when he comes home for summer! But other than that, he loves Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>The school was also not on my radar and one of the few we didn’t visit initially. We made a last chance visit when he was waitlsted and I was pleasantly surprised. (I guess I expected the presentation and tour to be snobby like another similar school’s but it was nothing of the sort.) It’s been a good fit for him. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, he did start liking country music!)</p>
<p>One thing I really appreciated for both of my Vandy kids was the fact that most all of the students live on campus for all four years. I think it really builds a sense of community that’s not possible when students arrive at other schools with the intention of spending their freshman year in a dorm and then moving off campus the moment they can. They were pre-Commons kids and the one who lives in Nashville now often expresses jealousy over the new dorms.</p>
<p>I like that too (living on campus all 4 years.). While perhaps it does not lend itself to developing independent living skills, that is not a area of concern for my son. I have seen some really rickety student rentals near other campuses – serious falling down slum lord stuff, not at all maintained, and they freak me out as fire and structural hazards!</p>
<p>Four years of residence living was a plus for us too. It is a unique opportunity that is not available at many research universities. It really is one less thing to worry about.</p>
<p>The on campus living aspect was a key one for both of my sons…they were put off by what they viewed at UPenn…most move off campus as sooon as possible. They wanted the full experience as they envisioned college…campus life!</p>
<p>son took three shots each visit to the Vanderbilt Allergy specialty clinic. But at least he had air conditioned dorms in generally top condition (Duke freshmen don’t get A/C without doctors excuse). </p>
<p>Quality of facilities is outstanding. Breadth of student life opportunities are excellent. You won’t be in the Symphony if you were an OK high school musician…this is a conservatory program at Vandy. </p>
<p>Town Gown relations are excellent. Not so in Durham. (Duke/Vandy parent here).</p>
<p>Crime risks are much greater near Duke and Hopkins. Vanderbilt crime concerns are in the Quite Reasonable and to be expected category. No, your laptop isn’t safe in the library if you go for a run or a coffee like it would be at Davidson or Washington and Lee. Yes, major hospitals like Vandy do have some hangers on and troubled souls hanging about and theft issues ensue. Armed robberies of students? Rare. common sense usually is enough in the campus area.</p>