Vandy, wow…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rank these schools in order of student social life/fun/balance?

Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Stanford
Duke
Cornell
Penn
BC
Wake
Rice
Emory
WashU
Michigan
USC

Ugh. Lists. I do like them.

You're missing the academic side, so it's kind of pointless. Social life/fun/balance = Arizona.

But if you were to include a great education and a good social vibe for most students and some fun sporty things, and understanding that you will always find a school that is better in one or the other, it'd be this:

Notre Dame
Michigan
Vanderbilt
Duke
Northwestern
USC
Stanford

Space

Rice
Wake
Emory
WashU

Big space

Penn, Cornell

Of course Stanford is the most highly ranked school. But it's absolute garbage when it comes to "balance" and quality of life. 18 year olds make their choices. There's a lot of space these days

This is a strange list. NW, Stanford use to be fun, but no longer are. Wake is very social and has power 5 sports, including soccer and baseball teams that are ranked in the top 10 and a basketball team that beat Duke last year. Penn, as the biggest Ivy, is a mix and shouldn’t be at the bottom of the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rank these schools in order of student social life/fun/balance?

Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Stanford
Duke
Cornell
Penn
BC
Wake
Rice
Emory
WashU
Michigan
USC

Ugh. Lists. I do like them.

You're missing the academic side, so it's kind of pointless. Social life/fun/balance = Arizona.

But if you were to include a great education and a good social vibe for most students and some fun sporty things, and understanding that you will always find a school that is better in one or the other, it'd be this:

Notre Dame
Michigan
Vanderbilt
Duke
Northwestern
USC
Stanford

Space

Rice
Wake
Emory
WashU

Big space

Penn, Cornell

Of course Stanford is the most highly ranked school. But it's absolute garbage when it comes to "balance" and quality of life. 18 year olds make their choices. There's a lot of space these days

This is a strange list. NW, Stanford use to be fun, but no longer are. Wake is very social and has power 5 sports, including soccer and baseball teams that are ranked in the top 10 and a basketball team that beat Duke last year. Penn, as the biggest Ivy, is a mix and shouldn’t be at the bottom of the list.

I dont think Penn is the biggest Ivy - that's Cornell. But agee with you.

WashU/Rice/Emory are bottom. Agree Stanford goes to the very bottom too. I hear NU is known as Nerdwestern these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:insane win - what the mom and dad dcum strivers on this site don’t realize is that yes, as intended ur kid going to an ivy would impress your work colleagues, old college friends, and people in town - however, most cool/smart kids want to enjoy their college experience - unless you’ve brainwashed ur mini me into thinking tunnel vision ivy or bust, or your
progeny is a total nerd. My daughter told me that her friend group from top DCUM private were all sending around the vandy partying / goalpost in nashville videos last night. Will 100% impact applicants

This really doesn't change anything. There are less than 10 kids at my kid's top DC private who have the stats that Vandy wants and they were already applying (or in many cases-not). it doesn't matter whether the kids in the lower 90% of the class are now on the Vandy bandwagon--they're not getting in (they get rejected from our school each and every year like clockwork.)

Kids who might have ED to northwestern or Penn might pivot to Vandy.

Nnnnoo. Not going to happen. Students who want a top10 that is slightly more social than other T10s might pick Penn or NU or Duke over other t10. No one who was leaning ANY top10 will now be leaning Vandy. Vanderbilt is fine, but let’s be real: it’s peers are Emory, WashU, Rice,Georgetown, ND. Not ivies, not Northwestern, not even Duke(head to head admit data shows Vandy is never picked over any ivy or Duke , barring a free ride).

Northwestern and Vanderbilt get the same kids. Duke students tend to be a little nerdier. And all three schools get students who are not fixated on Ivy League or bust. Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Duke typically get a large percentage of their class in the early decision round. Which means the schools were their first choice. And all of those admitted students are more than qualified for any Ivy League school, but they clearly have different priorities and wants.

Among 18 year olds, Vanderbilt more than holds its own against any school. There remains some generational bias from older people, but times change. And beating Alabama and having a fun big time sports moment is something that is very appealing to a lot of smart and social students. Watching your school beat Alabama on national television is far more exciting than yet another desultory game between Columbia and Penn. It's a vibe that's very appealing to a lot of people. And the difference in prestige or opportunities between Vanderbilt and Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Columbia, or Penn outside of Wharton is negligible. A lot of students today would choose Vanderbilt over the Ivy League. And yesterday's game will only cement that.

this describes our kid, at Vandy now. Parent #1 (ivy / ivy) took some time but they finally came around to full support for what was inevitable anyway.

Some kids really don't want ivy at any cost, just to be able to say 'ivy.' I will probably be pilloried for this. but it has been my experience that very high achieving white, non-FGLI kids are the ones who are more likely to be comfortable in their choice to skip the ivy-or-bust mania that seems to grip other demographics. Like the not-small group of kids that apply to all 8 ivy schools for some reason, as if dartmouth and columbia had similar vibes or did the same things well in similar physical environments.

+1000 Especially after touring a handful of ivies and see a TON of nerdy, bookish kids everywhere. Some smart kids want fun, sports and parties too.

Vandy has an increasing number of nerdy, bookish kids as well.

This. The cohort of bookish(thought provoking intellectuals ) at Vanderbilt is increasing. If they want to be seen as T15-20 this will need to increase a bit more. The level of intellectual intensity is strong at ivy-plus. WashU is on track to capture this vibe before Vanderbilt, and may have already done it. With two at top 10 (Hopkins, ivy) Iam biased toward the ivy-type nerd who is a thinker first, social being second. I think the push of Vanderbilt toward ivy-+ will only help it. Let UNC and USC and UVA continue the smart but not brilliant social life counts more vibes: Vandy should chase almost ivy students to increase their perceived worth and rank. Football presence is counterintuitive to these goals

Quick reminder. Vandy has a 4.3 reputation score while WashU has a 4.1

[Anonymous]

Emory is ranked #1 for quality of life by Princeton Review
I think people have a very narrow and gendered point of view of what fun is. Emory is 65% female, and I'm sure the vast majority of them aren't interested in sports and don't think it's "fun". Emory is just more niche doesn't mean it's boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Emory is ranked #1 for quality of life by Princeton Review
I think people have a very narrow and gendered point of view of what fun is. Emory is 65% female, and I'm sure the vast majority of them aren't interested in sports and don't think it's "fun". Emory is just more niche doesn't mean it's boring.

65%?!? Wow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Emory is ranked #1 for quality of life by Princeton Review
I think people have a very narrow and gendered point of view of what fun is. Emory is 65% female, and I'm sure the vast majority of them aren't interested in sports and don't think it's "fun". Emory is just more niche doesn't mean it's boring.

That’s extremely sexist. Going to a school with good spectator sports was important to my daughter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a great day for Vanderbilt. That was the biggest college football upset in decades. New coach. New QB. And wow, Vanderbilt is good at football. I don't think they're Notre Dame or Michigan just yet, but it's not often that you see a smart school knock off the number 1 team in the country. This is very new experience for Vanderbilt. Very exciting though if you like college football. And I'm sure it's good for the Vanderbilt brand.

Hmmm. Debatable.

It’s definitely up there.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/t891un/every_unranked_team_that_has_upset_1_since_world/?rdt=46153

objectively and factually, Vandy toppling Bama was not the largest or greatest upset of a #1 ranked team by an unranked team. Was it absolutely fantastic? Heck yes. Was it great for college football? Double heck yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Demographics at Vandy vs Yale
Asian 18.6 vs 16.8
Hispanic 11.9 vs 11.5
Black 10.4 vs 6.88
Two or more races 5.9 vs 5.38

Not really sure why your white kid is soo much more comfortable at Vandy, but .. whatevs. On our Vandy tour, the guide was Indian and said they had a more robust Indian community than the more prestigious schools she considered.

What I actually said was that, IME, very high achieving, white non-FGLI students form the cohort that is very comfortable skipping any applications to Ivies. This is the demographic that is chill bypassing the 'ivy at any cost' terror that seems to grip some other demographics, IME.

You just cut-pasted a bunch of stats. What we don't know is whether those non-white enrolled students applied elsewhere first. Such as, for example, Yale. or Brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ACC is the only legitimate conference that has great academics and athletics. Ivy athletics outside of Hockey, fencing, and other obscure sports is weak. ACC:
Stanford
Duke
Cal
ND
UVA
UNC
GATech
VATech

Saying "the ACC" should be like saying "the Ivy League."

OK, I'll see your ACC and raise you a Big 10.

Northwestern
Michigan
UCLA
Maryland
Illinois
Wisconsin
Washington
Ohio St.
Rutgers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ACC is the only legitimate conference that has great academics and athletics. Ivy athletics outside of Hockey, fencing, and other obscure sports is weak. ACC:
Stanford
Duke
Cal
ND
UVA
UNC
GATech
VATech

Saying "the ACC" should be like saying "the Ivy League."

OK, I'll see your ACC and raise you a Big 10.

Northwestern
Michigan
UCLA
Maryland
Illinois
Wisconsin
Washington
Ohio St.
Rutgers

+1

ACC and Big 10, for sure.

(I’d add Boston College to the ACC strong academics + athletics list, by the way. They can hang with football and basketball and completely dominate women’s lacrosse.)