Vanderbilt admissions reality check

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Honestly, it is completely valid to want a college environment that isn't heavily influenced by politics, in either direction. I have political views that I am very vocal about, but my kid who shares the same views would not want a campus environment that is consumed with politics. She can still express them, advocate for them, etc without it being a day-to-day issue on her walk to class. It isn't anti-woke, it is a desire to engage in those "woke" issues/advocacy on her own terms.

Name 5 T30 schools where this is currently an issue.

Columbia
Northwestern
Yale
Penn
Harvard

No. I can confirm for 2 of these there is no current day to day issue this semester—last fall both had issues. Not now. They have had nothing at all concerning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Do you hear yourself? What an insufferable human. Gross.

+1. It's the same old anti "woke" commercial every post seems to devolve into now on DCUM. And for the people claiming Vandy is attractive because of top sports, note baseball won a NCAA championship in 2019, but beyond that bowling is the only successful sports program.

There are many students that want to go to a prestigious college without being force-fed aggressive, left-wing politics 24/7. Many students that have more moderate or even conservative values are more wary of attending the Ivies because of the politicized environments they've exposed themselves having over the past year.

A lot of kids want to go to football games, tailgates, fraternity parties, and have regular college-aged fun. They don't want to be forced to pretend to care about Israel-Palestine, fossil fuel divestment, or other hot-button political issues. Moreover, at these schools, there's an unspoken expectation that students must only support one side of the issue.

Schools that have school spirit, sports, and Greek life (Vandy, Duke, etc.) will gain interest from students that want a respected degree without all the drama we currently see at Columbia and Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Columbia, Northwestern, Yale, Penn, Harvard

Predictable DCUM attack on the same schools that continue to receive high # of applications and admit 4-9%. Yale class of 2024 had record applications (57,465 applied, 2,146 admitted), Harvard (40,248 applied 1,980 accepted), Columbia (40,084 applied, 2,465 accepted), UPenn (42,205 applied, 3,404 accepted), Northwestern (50,000 applied for a class of 2,100). We have friends at Yale, Penn & Northwestern. As PP noted, there are no current issues at these schools and clearly plenty of kids still are interested/applying. I agree there are kids who want sports and Greek life so choose other schools (my kid included). But, stop with the nonsense about "being force-fed aggressive, left-wing politics 24/7." It's not happening and you're not helping people who come to this site looking for current, credible information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

yes, i don't think it's a conspiracy of College Counseling trying to funnel certain kids there (at all!). At our "Big3" the top kids have tried in recent years but they dont get in. They will even sail into HYP but not Vandy. It's just weird. I've seen the Naviance.
I have a very strong kid this year and CC is completely supportive of him/her trying but it's hard to justify if you see the data vs the data for amost 15 other top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

yes, i don't think it's a conspiracy of College Counseling trying to funnel certain kids there (at all!). At our "Big3" the top kids have tried in recent years but they dont get in. They will even sail into HYP but not Vandy. It's just weird. I've seen the Naviance.
I have a very strong kid this year and CC is completely supportive of him/her trying but it's hard to justify if you see the data vs the data for amost 15 other top schools.

The challenge for me is that so many people are responding that it is near impossible to get in, harder even than Ivies, but the reality is that people ARE getting in and people who are not accepted to "higher ranked schools." At my DMV public, the Naviance shows that about 25% of those that apply are accepted, and they aren't at the tippy-top of GPA or test scores.

Makes me think that this is a private school issue. Could be that Vandy is actively trying to diversify the pool across schools/locales, or just that the proportion of people applying from privates is much higher making it statistically less likely. Helpful to remember that AOs are comparing to applicants in the same school or school cohort, and the majority of applicants aren't coming from privates. So individual experience/perspective is not all that useful in the general sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

I think this is generally right. I have a kid at Vanderbilt. From what I've seen, Vandy students are very much the go-getter type - class presidents, editor of the paper, that kind of thing. And that energy needs to come through on the application. I wouldn't bother applying if you don't have that. You need to be president of something.

I would say a very high proportion got in ED1. The regular decision acceptance rate is only 3.7 percent. Vanderbilt is no one's back up. RD is a genuine lottery for almost everyone. The thing I don't like about Vanderbilt admissions is that there really are too many big names there - the offspring of the rich and famous. It's actually very noticeable. They need to move away from that. That being said, kid is having a great experience. No regrets. I think it's a fantastic school for certain kinds of kids - bright, social, ambitious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

yes, i don't think it's a conspiracy of College Counseling trying to funnel certain kids there (at all!). At our "Big3" the top kids have tried in recent years but they dont get in. They will even sail into HYP but not Vandy. It's just weird. I've seen the Naviance.
I have a very strong kid this year and CC is completely supportive of him/her trying but it's hard to justify if you see the data vs the data for amost 15 other top schools.

The challenge for me is that so many people are responding that it is near impossible to get in, harder even than Ivies, but the reality is that people ARE getting in and people who are not accepted to "higher ranked schools." At my DMV public, the Naviance shows that about 25% of those that apply are accepted, and they aren't at the tippy-top of GPA or test scores.

Makes me think that this is a private school issue. Could be that Vandy is actively trying to diversify the pool across schools/locales, or just that the proportion of people applying from privates is much higher making it statistically less likely. Helpful to remember that AOs are comparing to applicants in the same school or school cohort, and the majority of applicants aren't coming from privates. So individual experience/perspective is not all that useful in the general sense.

I don’t think this is what everyone is saying. At our private, Vandy prefers kids with hooks to those with the highest stats—predominantly legacy (parent or sibling) and urm. Sibling legacy is big. This makes it less predictable than some other schools where generally top stats kids are aren’t passed over. Not sure who makes up the half to of the class getting in test optional. But again, it isn’t the highest stat kids making the process unpredictable.


Said this earlier, but will say again, outcomes from Vandy lag behind the other T20, maybe a function of it moving too far or too fast up the rankings over the past decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

I think this is generally right. I have a kid at Vanderbilt. From what I've seen, Vandy students are very much the go-getter type - class presidents, editor of the paper, that kind of thing. And that energy needs to come through on the application. I wouldn't bother applying if you don't have that. You need to be president of something.

I would say a very high proportion got in ED1. The regular decision acceptance rate is only 3.7 percent. Vanderbilt is no one's back up. RD is a genuine lottery for almost everyone. The thing I don't like about Vanderbilt admissions is that there really are too many big names there - the offspring of the rich and famous. It's actually very noticeable. They need to move away from that. That being said, kid is having a great experience. No regrets. I think it's a fantastic school for certain kinds of kids - bright, social, ambitious.

Our private CCO said basically this. They only want leaders, do-ers. Should be clear what you will do (without explicitly even saying) when you get to campus. That's how LOUD the leadership should be. LOR should speak and validate it as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don't want to be forced to pretend to care about Israel-Palestine, fossil fuel divestment, or other hot-button political issues.

There is no school where this is true, Ivy League included. Large political presence and being "forced to" care, pretend or not, are very different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

I think this is generally right. I have a kid at Vanderbilt. From what I've seen, Vandy students are very much the go-getter type - class presidents, editor of the paper, that kind of thing. And that energy needs to come through on the application. I wouldn't bother applying if you don't have that. You need to be president of something.

I would say a very high proportion got in ED1. The regular decision acceptance rate is only 3.7 percent. Vanderbilt is no one's back up. RD is a genuine lottery for almost everyone. The thing I don't like about Vanderbilt admissions is that there really are too many big names there - the offspring of the rich and famous. It's actually very noticeable. They need to move away from that. That being said, kid is having a great experience. No regrets. I think it's a fantastic school for certain kinds of kids - bright, social, ambitious.

Besides the Stephanopolos girls and Gwyneth Paltrow/Chris Martin’s daughter, what celebrity kids are there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

I think this is generally right. I have a kid at Vanderbilt. From what I've seen, Vandy students are very much the go-getter type - class presidents, editor of the paper, that kind of thing. And that energy needs to come through on the application. I wouldn't bother applying if you don't have that. You need to be president of something.

I would say a very high proportion got in ED1. The regular decision acceptance rate is only 3.7 percent. Vanderbilt is no one's back up. RD is a genuine lottery for almost everyone. The thing I don't like about Vanderbilt admissions is that there really are too many big names there - the offspring of the rich and famous. It's actually very noticeable. They need to move away from that. That being said, kid is having a great experience. No regrets. I think it's a fantastic school for certain kinds of kids - bright, social, ambitious.

Besides the Stephanopolos girls and Gwyneth Paltrow/Chris Martin’s daughter, what celebrity kids are there?

It's finance.

That's the real hook at Vanderbilt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current Vandy parent here - I didn’t read everything but baseline you need a prestigious national award and basically like 4.0UW. TO only for hooked these days it seems. 1530+ if submitting.

We usually get 3-4 admits annually from our private and last year we had 0 (my younger rejected) with like a bunch of ED1 and ED2s. All rejected, no waitlists, high stats kids not unlike prior years. Vandy does seem to be a crapshoot these days, I don’t see how ED1 even makes sense because anyone getting in could get into a top/better school. May as well shoot your shot at a higher ranked school.

I read some of these posts and the cynic in my thinks they are parents trying to dissuade others from applying so their child has a better chance.

PP is speaking the truth. It is a really, really hard admit from my DC’s DMV private. There is occasionally an athletic recruit (lacrosse). Other than that, it is one admit a year, usually a high stats student who applies ED2 after a deferral in ED1 from Duke or another similar school. It is always a top student with a BIG leadership position (student body president, yearbook editor, founder of a non-profit that makes the news, etc.) and I don’t know if legacy is involved.

yes, i don't think it's a conspiracy of College Counseling trying to funnel certain kids there (at all!). At our "Big3" the top kids have tried in recent years but they dont get in. They will even sail into HYP but not Vandy. It's just weird. I've seen the Naviance.
I have a very strong kid this year and CC is completely supportive of him/her trying but it's hard to justify if you see the data vs the data for amost 15 other top schools.

The challenge for me is that so many people are responding that it is near impossible to get in, harder even than Ivies, but the reality is that people ARE getting in and people who are not accepted to "higher ranked schools." At my DMV public, the Naviance shows that about 25% of those that apply are accepted, and they aren't at the tippy-top of GPA or test scores.

Makes me think that this is a private school issue. Could be that Vandy is actively trying to diversify the pool across schools/locales, or just that the proportion of people applying from privates is much higher making it statistically less likely. Helpful to remember that AOs are comparing to applicants in the same school or school cohort, and the majority of applicants aren't coming from privates. So individual experience/perspective is not all that useful in the general sense.

I don’t think this is what everyone is saying. At our private, Vandy prefers kids with hooks to those with the highest stats—predominantly legacy (parent or sibling) and urm. Sibling legacy is big. This makes it less predictable than some other schools where generally top stats kids are aren’t passed over. Not sure who makes up the half to of the class getting in test optional. But again, it isn’t the highest stat kids making the process unpredictable.


Said this earlier, but will say again, outcomes from Vandy lag behind the other T20, maybe a function of it moving too far or too fast up the rankings over the past decade.

Athletes and children of massive donors (finance). Both categories are apparently huge. Plus famous people’s kids. (Curious who else that includes, other than Gwenyth Paltrow’s kid and the Stephenopolis girls …. )

[Anonymous]

I'm an early 90's grad from Vanderbilt. In DC and the South a degree absolutely got me in the first round of interviews when I was younger. When I was looking at colleges around 1990 it was rated 16th on US News.

Vanderbilt has been very consistent with the students it picks from my recent tour there with my senior. The very best grades and test scores may not be the best class. They want future leaders which might be told with sports involvement, activities and leadership positions.

I think the recent popularity is because other parts of the country have discovered the school. The South has always treated Duke and Vandy as our top schools. I didn't even apply out of the South when I applied to schools. Many Southerners still feel the same.