Vanderbilt admissions reality check

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Your memory is incorrect. Vandy never ranked higher than 18 in the 1990s and spent most of the decade ranked 20 or higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Your memory is incorrect. Vandy never ranked higher than 18 in the 1990s and spent most of the decade ranked 20 or higher.

Just to follow up, historical US news rankings for every college available here. https://www.aronfrishberg.com/projects/usnews. Vanderbilt really started moving up around 2015.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Your memory is incorrect. Vandy never ranked higher than 18 in the 1990s and spent most of the decade ranked 20 or higher.

Just to follow up, historical US news rankings for every college available here. https://www.aronfrishberg.com/projects/usnews. Vanderbilt really started moving up around 2015.

Better link here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Your memory is incorrect. Vandy never ranked higher than 18 in the 1990s and spent most of the decade ranked 20 or higher.

Just to follow up, historical US news rankings for every college available here. https://www.aronfrishberg.com/projects/usnews. Vanderbilt really started moving up around 2015.

Better link here.

. https://github.com/frishberg/Archive-of-US-News-College-Rankings

[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.

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.

yes and corporate. All the CEOs kids go 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?

Mark Cuban’s daughter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 …. )

Jeff Bezos and Mark Cuban's kids go to Vanderbilt. And there's a considerable amount of Wall Street progeny that goes to Vanderbilt.

I don't think the athlete thing is particularly notable. They do play in the SEC. But I think the student athletes are fairly bright.

[Anonymous]

Lots of billionaires kids

[Anonymous]

Vandy grad here again. I distinctly remember the ranking, but could have been Newsweek or maybe the medical school at the time. I've looked at the linked ranking above previously and thought it was wrong regarding Vanderbilt, which was definitely a T20 when I was researching schools back in late 80's/early 90's. Has anyone ever fact checked it? I thought the Rice listing was too high for that time period and wondered if he mixed up.

[Anonymous]

Vandy is growing in popularity with children of the ultra-rich who don't really want or need to go to the most stressful schools but still want to have fun. Bezos's daughter could've gone anywhere she wanted. She picked Vandy.

[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?

Mark Cuban's daughter is there also

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vandy is growing in popularity with children of the ultra-rich who don't really want or need to go to the most stressful schools but still want to have fun. Bezos's daughter could've gone anywhere she wanted. She picked Vandy.

💯 true at our private.

The wealthiest kids got in.

[Anonymous]

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Yes to all of the above. I would also add that when you walk around campus it is filled with the most normal (non-nerdy) kids in the top 20. Huge plus.


That's because the majority of Vandy kids apply (and get accepted) without test scores.
Soooo...their student body consists of the wealthiest kids from connected families (celebrity kids, CEO kids, etc); student athletes who are pretty good students (and get scholarship money): and then a tiny handful of super duper smart (nerdy) kids ... who submitted their 1550+ SAT score, many (most?) of whom are low enough income to make Vandy affordable with need-based aid.

You're not finding some big cohort of crazy smart MC and UMC kids there. COA is nearly $100k/year.

[Anonymous]

Vandy is not ranked high enough to have a drawn out discussion about its ranking. If it lost 3 points to its overall score it would be out of the T25. The schools ranked 15-25 are the most competitive, 5 Us news points separates 12 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[

Yes to all of the above. I would also add that when you walk around campus it is filled with the most normal (non-nerdy) kids in the top 20. Huge plus.


That's because the majority of Vandy kids apply (and get accepted) without test scores.
Soooo...their student body consists of the wealthiest kids from connected families (celebrity kids, CEO kids, etc); student athletes who are pretty good students (and get scholarship money): and then a tiny handful of super duper smart (nerdy) kids ... who submitted their 1550+ SAT score, many (most?) of whom are low enough income to make Vandy affordable with need-based aid.

You're not finding some big cohort of crazy smart MC and UMC kids there. COA is nearly $100k/year.

This is really true. They have 17 D1 teams. I think this was the number shared on the tour. it's a lot of athletes.

then the kids we know from my kids' two DC privates who were admitted are across the board super wealthy, even among the private school crowd. then I know a number of kids of friends who work in finance in NYC.