How prestigious is Vanderbilt?

[Anonymous]

A step above a community college. No one thinks it is a good school.

For those who didn't get it, this was extreme, dripping, condescending sarcasm.

Vanderbilt is one of the top schools in the country. It has one of the highest SAT averages of any school. Those who say otherwise are just plain old fashion ignorant haters.

[Anonymous]

Prestige is always going to be subjective and ever-changing. All of the top 20 schools are prestigious, and people parsing and dismissing the various schools are being ridiculous. Vanderbilt is an excellent school and has been for a long time. But we all bring biases. Some people hate the South. Some people formed their opinions in the 1970s. And so on.

My own personal biases are anti-Ivy League. I think quite a few of them are resting on reputations made decades - if not centuries - ago. And these days there's a strong cohort of non-Ivies that have real energy and attract a lot of talent - Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. And anyone suggesting that these schools aren't as prestigious as Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, or Columbia is being disingenuous or is really out of touch. Ask your children which group is more desirable these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that it is prestigious in some circles but I agree with that it doesn't have the universal name recognition of the ivies and elite publics. If I hadn't looked at the ranking before writing this post I would have thought that it was ranked similarly to BC and BU.

This is off. Vandy is top elite -- is it MIT, Uchi, HYP -- no but it is in the next tier. Rankings are all messed up now. You cannot use them for anything. There are about 40 elite schools. Yes some are more elite than others but there are about 40. BC is in there -- BU is not. Not the same kids/same results.

If I can't use rely on the rankings then how would I know that Vanderbilt is prestigious, elite or top elite. I have been told my entire life that Ivies are prestigious, that MIT and Stanford are prestigious and that UCLA, Cal and Michigan are prestigious. I have never heard much about Vanderbilt except for them being a perennial SEC football doormat.

Michigan is not prestigious. It's a humongous state school with a so-so football team.

Lol the poster whose kid got rejected from Michigan is back. The football team just won the *national championship* and kids on the east coast routinely pick Michigan over and among other top 20 schools, but whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is always going to be subjective and ever-changing. All of the top 20 schools are prestigious, and people parsing and dismissing the various schools are being ridiculous. Vanderbilt is an excellent school and has been for a long time. But we all bring biases. Some people hate the South. Some people formed their opinions in the 1970s. And so on.

My own personal biases are anti-Ivy League. I think quite a few of them are resting on reputations made decades - if not centuries - ago. And these days there's a strong cohort of non-Ivies that have real energy and attract a lot of talent - Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. And anyone suggesting that these schools aren't as prestigious as Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, or Columbia is being disingenuous or is really out of touch. Ask your children which group is more desirable these days.

Idk if that's even true anymore. I think of Chicago, Duke, Miami, Vanderbilt, Tulane as great schools but also ultra rich kid schools, much like Ivies. Rice, and Johns Hopkins I view the way you do.

[Anonymous]

Vanderbilt is in the SEC so that is a huge plus.

[Anonymous]

Yes, in the big picture, Vanderbilt is elite and prestigious.

There are 4000 four-year colleges in the US, so being in the Top 20-25 is very impressive. Test scores are off the charts. It’s consistently been in the USNWR top 25 since the late 1980s. All of its professional schools are well-ranked.

Perhaps, its reputation is stronger in certain parts of the country, but that’s true of every school, save HYPSM, and even those schools have enrollment that is skewed to their region.

The people who pushback on its reputation are mostly those who can’t imagine that a good school exists outside the NE.

[Anonymous]

No one is doubting that Vanderbilt is a great school. However, many people (even highly educated people) are not aware of how good it is.
My kids just visited and I've talked about it with about a dozen DC friends over the past week or two. All of them were shocked at how hard it is to get into Vanderbilt in 2024. No one had ANY idea that it has a 6% acceptance rate. These are all highly educated DC professionals who are hiring managers for good jobs at top companies--not people who are off the turnip truck in middle America.

I'm telling you, if you don't have a senior or you're not in academia you very likely think of Vanderbilt as being a very good but not elite school.

Remember, the Vanderbilt acceptance rate even in the early 90s was 65%! I'm 49 and I graduated from high school in 1992. So people who are now in their late 40s likely viewed Vanderbilt as a pretty sure bet when they applied to college. Not an elite school. Unless you've had a kid apply to college since there, you likely don't know (or have given any thought) to much things have changed with Vanderbilt admissions. And MANY hiring managers are in their late 40s. So I'm sure many will not be as bowled over by a Vanderbilt degree like they would by say a Yale degree (although Vanderbilt is now just as difficult to get into as Yale.)

[Anonymous]

I think Vanderbilt is often perceived as a school for wealthy students. According to a slightly dated New York Times article, 23% of Vanderbilt's student body comes from the top 1% of earners, one of the highest rates among colleges. Additionally, it has one of the lowest percentages of students from the bottom 20% of income earners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not prestigious.

+1

Trendy? Yes. Celeb flavor of the month.

Prestigious? No.

Decent school? Yes.

All correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Vanderbilt is often perceived as a school for wealthy students. According to a slightly dated New York Times article, 23% of Vanderbilt's student body comes from the top 1% of earners, one of the highest rates among colleges. Additionally, it has one of the lowest percentages of students from the bottom 20% of income earners.

Vandy actually likes/prefers rich kids. Don’t hide wealth indicators in app

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is doubting that Vanderbilt is a great school. However, many people (even highly educated people) are not aware of how good it is.
My kids just visited and I've talked about it with about a dozen DC friends over the past week or two. All of them were shocked at how hard it is to get into Vanderbilt in 2024. No one had ANY idea that it has a 6% acceptance rate. These are all highly educated DC professionals who are hiring managers for good jobs at top companies--not people who are off the turnip truck in middle America.

I'm telling you, if you don't have a senior or you're not in academia you very likely think of Vanderbilt as being a very good but not elite school.

Remember, the Vanderbilt acceptance rate even in the early 90s was 65%! I'm 49 and I graduated from high school in 1992. So people who are now in their late 40s likely viewed Vanderbilt as a pretty sure bet when they applied to college. Not an elite school. Unless you've had a kid apply to college since there, you likely don't know (or have given any thought) to much things have changed with Vanderbilt admissions. And MANY hiring managers are in their late 40s. So I'm sure many will not be as bowled over by a Vanderbilt degree like they would by say a Yale degree (although Vanderbilt is now just as difficult to get into as Yale.)

Just to be clear, in 1990, UChicago and UPenn had acceptance rates near 50%, yet they were - and still are - great schools. Admissions for ALL schools used to be much more regional than they are today, though schools even today pull most strongly from their region. But, within their region, Vanderbilt and UChicago were always considered top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a good school for premed. Other than that, it doesn't have the prestige like ivies, and doesn't have the practicality like mit/git/stanford.

If you are set for medical school, yes by all means to the Vandy. Otherwise, look somewhere else. Lots of good schools.

If you are set on medical school, get the least expensive undergrad education possible. Vandy will set a UMC family back $400k. (They do provide free tuition to families earning under $150k/year).

Everyone in the south knows that Vanderbilt is near impossible to get into without a major hook.

These schools are not for UMC families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not prestigious.

But expensive and rich people's kids go there.

Yes. Like Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prestige is always going to be subjective and ever-changing. All of the top 20 schools are prestigious, and people parsing and dismissing the various schools are being ridiculous. Vanderbilt is an excellent school and has been for a long time. But we all bring biases. Some people hate the South. Some people formed their opinions in the 1970s. And so on.

My own personal biases are anti-Ivy League. I think quite a few of them are resting on reputations made decades - if not centuries - ago. And these days there's a strong cohort of non-Ivies that have real energy and attract a lot of talent - Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. And anyone suggesting that these schools aren't as prestigious as Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, or Columbia is being disingenuous or is really out of touch. Ask your children which group is more desirable these days.

Your school sets are actually kind of strange.

I asked my kid and it's the usual suspects...Ivy schools, Stanford + Duke and yes Vanderbilt. If my kid was tech-focused, I am sure MIT and Caltech would be in there...but they are not.

The others don't really register much...Hopkins doesn't even remotely enter the conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is doubting that Vanderbilt is a great school. However, many people (even highly educated people) are not aware of how good it is.
My kids just visited and I've talked about it with about a dozen DC friends over the past week or two. All of them were shocked at how hard it is to get into Vanderbilt in 2024. No one had ANY idea that it has a 6% acceptance rate. These are all highly educated DC professionals who are hiring managers for good jobs at top companies--not people who are off the turnip truck in middle America.

I'm telling you, if you don't have a senior or you're not in academia you very likely think of Vanderbilt as being a very good but not elite school.

Remember, the Vanderbilt acceptance rate even in the early 90s was 65%! I'm 49 and I graduated from high school in 1992. So people who are now in their late 40s likely viewed Vanderbilt as a pretty sure bet when they applied to college. Not an elite school. Unless you've had a kid apply to college since there, you likely don't know (or have given any thought) to much things have changed with Vanderbilt admissions. And MANY hiring managers are in their late 40s. So I'm sure many will not be as bowled over by a Vanderbilt degree like they would by say a Yale degree (although Vanderbilt is now just as difficult to get into as Yale.)

Just to be clear, in 1990, UChicago and UPenn had acceptance rates near 50%, yet they were - and still are - great schools. Admissions for ALL schools used to be much more regional than they are today, though schools even today pull most strongly from their region. But, within their region, Vanderbilt and UChicago were always considered top schools.

The Penn acceptance rate was 41% in 1990. How is that "near 50%?