Vanderbilt Thriving In Trump Era With Apolitical Atmosphere: Bloomberg

[Anonymous]

Sure let’s bring back Joe, Dr Jill, and Hunter back to Penn Ave. PLease take your liberal political views to the Political forum and put the anti-Elon sticker on your Teslas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strange Vandy boosterism on this thread. It has good football for sure

If you follow Vandy football, you'll know they are always one quarter away from disaster,

We are all confused by this last year. Vandy with good SEC football is bewildering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like Vandy is trying to carve a niche as an Ivy-alternative for politically moderate or conservative families that want elite academics without the intense left-wing political atmosphere. The incessant protests at many elite colleges spooked a lot of families, especially Jewish families.

Vanderbilt is leaning into their southern, apolitical, athletic, socially balanced image because they know it's an asset in an era where people are tired of being inundated with progressive agendas.

These same people are those who are dumb enough to believe that all of the Ivies are non-stop protests and activism. Yes, it happened, but it wasn't constantly in your face like Fox News would lead you to believe. I think the Ivies are in some ways better off without these people as they are too dumb to think critically and evaluate news sources. And I say this as a Jew with an ivy league degree - not thrilled with how my alma mater handled things, but that is just one of many data points and it wasn't that bad.

I know plenty of conservative kids and Jewish kids at Ivies that say it isn't truly as bad as the news made it out to be. However, the non-stop coverage and disruptiveness of the protesters tainted the image of these schools in the eyes of many people. Seeing students proudly sporting flags of foreign terrorist groups made these schools look horrible.

💯
The Hezbollah flag flying at these schools…
What?!?!?

And the fact that these schools never enforced their own permitting/ gathering/ loitering rules….
You can’t disrupt other people’s lives at college with your protest in favor of terrorism.

[Anonymous]

Let’s start reporting the political please. Kick them out of this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Regarding duke, it's still top on many kids lists. But as a parent, a few things stood out. Duke is trying to create a college-house system and get rid of greek life.
I didn't like the fact that freshmen live on a different campus a bus ride away from classes and main campus. Also, Duke pushed greek orgs off campus so we hear that parties are now held in fields and are a bus ride away? Maybe it's fine, but doesn't sound great to me. Duke has great basketball but Durham isn't that interesting and not easily accessible to other cities.

From what I understand, Duke is actively selecting for students that wouldn't be into Greek Life and as a result interest in fraternities and soririties has plummetted among freshman this year

Hmmm. What’s your source? And how would they possibly assess this? Are there specific traits unique to the small percentage of Duke kids who choose Greek Life that the rest of the kids don’t share?

And on the flip side, are there other traits they’re actively selecting for instead? Like traits they think are contrary to interest in Greek life?

I’m not trying to be argumentative. I’m a Duke alum who was in a sorority. We were a diverse bunch (“we” being all the kids who rushed sororities abd fraternities.) So I’m genuinely curious how a school like Duke could try to select for this variable (anti-Greek).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Regarding duke, it's still top on many kids lists. But as a parent, a few things stood out. Duke is trying to create a college-house system and get rid of greek life.
I didn't like the fact that freshmen live on a different campus a bus ride away from classes and main campus. Also, Duke pushed greek orgs off campus so we hear that parties are now held in fields and are a bus ride away? Maybe it's fine, but doesn't sound great to me. Duke has great basketball but Durham isn't that interesting and not easily accessible to other cities.

From what I understand, Duke is actively selecting for students that wouldn't be into Greek Life and as a result interest in fraternities and soririties has plummetted among freshman this year

Funny. I know several very Greek-type kids in the current freshman class. Greek life is less than it used to be and is much less visible since it is no longer on campus, but there is definitely a significant contingent of them.

Duke has gotten a lot more polar. There are the very Greek kids who are athletes, legacies, etc. - again, not as many as there used to be but still plenty. Then there are a lot more nerds, combined with FGLI's who aren't interested in the traditional social scene. It wasn't well-publicized but Duke used to have a lot of kids in the middle - fairly social, liked to go to parties, but not typical frat boys/girls (I was one of them). They have been squeezed.

What do these “nerds” and FGLI’s choose to do with their time outside of class? How does it affect student life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-09-05/vanderbilt-university-thrives-under-trump-amid-attacks-on-higher-ed

According to the Bloomberg article, Vanderbilt University has seen their stock rise meteorically by branding themselves as apolitical and fun instead of an activist hotspot like the Ivies. they're seen huge increase in interest from families across the country that want their kids to evade left-wing monoculture at the Ivy League and are now getting kids that in other years would've gone to HYP.

No one is turning down HYP for Vandy. No one.

I think Vandy has a small number of full merit scholarships. Some kids might take those.

Kids actually pick Vandy over HYP when they have a scholarship offer. Free Vandy is worth it over full pay HYP.

Vandy is a great option for non-HYP tier kids. My kid has absolutely loved his experience. Wishes finance recruiting was a bit easier, but will be fine in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Smart, unlike my stupid Alma Mater, Harvard, which chose -disastrously - to leak private negotiations with the administration which would have set it up better than Columbia University - and now has to sue and settle for $300m. No, Trump was not the bully. Alan Arbor disastrously envisioned himself as the tool of the left and champion of American universities. Sure, Harvadd won at the district level -it did so in front of the SAME judge - as in the Fair Admissions case (an Obama appointee who should have recused herself). Ask any lawyer in Mass. Case will be affirmed by liberal pro-Harvard first circuit and reversed SCOTUS

I don't understand why Harvard did what they did. They didn't need to go public and they could've handled it a lot quieter. Instead, they grandstanded for liberal pundits. But they're going to have to settle with the administration anyways when it's all said and done.

What's wrong with keeping things open and transparent? Only corrupt people are scared of their dealings being made public. I'm sure the right has a HUGE LIST of reasons to support keeping things secret, but as a member of the public I prefer transparency from anything relating to the government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let’s start reporting the political please. Kick them out of this forum.

What is the point of pretending the politics did not just cost this University in a lot of other universities, millions and millions of dollars?

Vanderbilt University is projected to pay $40.7 million in endowment tax for 2026 and an estimated $65.2 million for 2030. All of that is new and all of those millions are not available for other things for Vanderbilt University and the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s start reporting the political please. Kick them out of this forum.

What is the point of pretending the politics did not just cost this University in a lot of other universities, millions and millions of dollars?

Vanderbilt University is projected to pay $40.7 million in endowment tax for 2026 and an estimated $65.2 million for 2030. All of that is new and all of those millions are not available for other things for Vanderbilt University and the students.

And it seems clearly punitive. It's not enough to do anything to affect the budget of the United States of America, but it is absolutely enough to do damage to Vanderbilt University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Regarding duke, it's still top on many kids lists. But as a parent, a few things stood out. Duke is trying to create a college-house system and get rid of greek life.
I didn't like the fact that freshmen live on a different campus a bus ride away from classes and main campus. Also, Duke pushed greek orgs off campus so we hear that parties are now held in fields and are a bus ride away? Maybe it's fine, but doesn't sound great to me. Duke has great basketball but Durham isn't that interesting and not easily accessible to other cities.

From what I understand, Duke is actively selecting for students that wouldn't be into Greek Life and as a result interest in fraternities and soririties has plummetted among freshman this year

Funny. I know several very Greek-type kids in the current freshman class. Greek life is less than it used to be and is much less visible since it is no longer on campus, but there is definitely a significant contingent of them.

Duke has gotten a lot more polar. There are the very Greek kids who are athletes, legacies, etc. - again, not as many as there used to be but still plenty. Then there are a lot more nerds, combined with FGLI's who aren't interested in the traditional social scene. It wasn't well-publicized but Duke used to have a lot of kids in the middle - fairly social, liked to go to parties, but not typical frat boys/girls (I was one of them). They have been squeezed.

What do these “nerds” and FGLI’s choose to do with their time outside of class? How does it affect student life?

Shocking that this is a real question. You think frat parties are the only social thing to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is really torn between Penn and Vandy. Vandy ED1 is so much easier than Penn.

If they like both, I'd try Vandy ED1. It's like a 30% admit rate compared to far lower chances for Penn.

Not anymore. Closer to 15%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why does Harvard receive more applications…and Penn receives 40% more applications…and when given the choice, kids pick every other top 20 school against Vanderbilt except Cornell.

Remember, nobody should trust parchment data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Test optional in a world of the elites going test required. They get a lot of the rich that can’t get the scores.

Most of the Ivies were test optional last admission cycles. Which is the period discussed in the Bloomberg article. Next!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why does Harvard receive more applications…and Penn receives 40% more applications…and when given the choice, kids pick every other top 20 school against Vanderbilt except Cornell.

Remember, nobody should trust parchment data.

Why not? It’s the only data out there that provides this information. They are even up-front if they don’t have statistically significant data for certain comparisons.