Vibe on campus: Vanderbilt versus Wake Forest versus Davidson versus Washington & Lee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vandy campus tour was such a disappointment. Bland campus, even blander environs.

Yeahhh. That's exactly how the public views Nashville. So 'bland'

W&L is one of the most isolated campuses I've ever seen. Wake is safe and sedate and in the equivalent of McLean.

While on campus, Wake, Vandy and Davidson look so similar. Vandy has a giant medical center attached to campus -- giant -- and an arterial road abutting campus.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t find W&L to be isolated at all, VMI is down the street, and a cute little town right outside campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USNews has W&L and Davidson ranked a lot higher than Richmond. Personally, I'd pick Vandy out of these schools if choosing for my kid though would be happy to pay for W&L or Davidson.

The ranking mentioned earlier in this thread has Richmond way above Davidson and Wake Forest, and not far behind Vanderbilt. It just depends what criteria you use.

[Anonymous]

I dare say 90%+ would choose Vandy, Davidson, W&L and Wake over Richmond. Not in the same class as the others and the Richmond booster must be dreaming...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think any of them are diverse. I’m assuming OP and all the PPs are white.

LOL I work at Vandy and it is quite diverse. It's Top 15 so not just a bunch of fratty white kids.

Good to hear! How important is Greek life at Vanderbilt? Our college advisor told us that it dominates the social scene. My son is not opposed to joining a frat but definitely doesn't want to feel as if he needs to do so in order to have a social life... TIA for your insight!

Sorry--I dropped off. I honestly am not an expert on this, but way less than it used to. In the 80s and 90s it was so very Greek. This has really diminished. I led a first year orientation group this year and only 1/15 even mentioned rushing to me (although we did not discuss it officially as a group).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t find W&L to be isolated at all, VMI is down the street, and a cute little town right outside campus.

You want your kid hanging out with VMI guys? I have 2 daughters and this would be a neg. W&L is in a small town and when I used to go see friends there, we went to parties in literal fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t find W&L to be isolated at all, VMI is down the street, and a cute little town right outside campus.

You want your kid hanging out with VMI guys? I have 2 daughters and this would be a neg. W&L is in a small town and when I used to go see friends there, we went to parties in literal fields.

You realize you were in college several decades ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vandy campus tour was such a disappointment. Bland campus, even blander environs.

Yeahhh. That's exactly how the public views Nashville. So 'bland'

W&L is one of the most isolated campuses I've ever seen. Wake is safe and sedate and in the equivalent of McLean.

While on campus, Wake, Vandy and Davidson look so similar. Vandy has a giant medical center attached to campus -- giant -- and an arterial road abutting campus.

"Wake is safe and sedate" = Is this accurate ?

Although not a dangerous campus, WFU has had crime on campus from non-students. Doesn't WFU have guarded gates ?

Again, not suggesting that WFU campus is unsafe, just that it is not fairly labeled as "safe and sedate".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t find W&L to be isolated at all, VMI is down the street, and a cute little town right outside campus.

You want your kid hanging out with VMI guys? I have 2 daughters and this would be a neg. W&L is in a small town and when I used to go see friends there, we went to parties in literal fields.

Lexington is actually a very cute town. It’s an hour to Harrisonburg and Charlottesville so not too bad. I went to school where the nearest city or even decent sized town was in the next country. That’s remote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vandy campus tour was such a disappointment. Bland campus, even blander environs.

Yeahhh. That's exactly how the public views Nashville. So 'bland'

W&L is one of the most isolated campuses I've ever seen. Wake is safe and sedate and in the equivalent of McLean.

While on campus, Wake, Vandy and Davidson look so similar. Vandy has a giant medical center attached to campus -- giant -- and an arterial road abutting campus.

"Wake is safe and sedate" = Is this accurate ?

Although not a dangerous campus, WFU has had crime on campus from non-students. Doesn't WFU have guarded gates ?

Again, not suggesting that WFU campus is unsafe, just that it is not fairly labeled as "safe and sedate".

the gates went up while I was there in the mid-90s. It happened because a student was held hostage in her dorm room by a drug dealer and assaulted. The drug dealer was in the wrong place - he was there for a different student who had screwed him out of money, iirc. It was quite shocking because the campus was already fairly secluded. We also had electronic keycards on all dorms and lounges on campus.

I very, very rarely felt unsafe on campus. I did work in the law library sometimes until late at night, and I would call the campus ride people to come pick me up to drive me to my dorm at that point, but again, it is already a fairly secluded and self contained campus. Now, I haven't been there since all the new construction that expanded the size of the student body. That said, the location is not in the city, so any crime is likely either student on student OR guests of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vandy campus tour was such a disappointment. Bland campus, even blander environs.

Yeahhh. That's exactly how the public views Nashville. So 'bland'

W&L is one of the most isolated campuses I've ever seen. Wake is safe and sedate and in the equivalent of McLean.

While on campus, Wake, Vandy and Davidson look so similar. Vandy has a giant medical center attached to campus -- giant -- and an arterial road abutting campus.

"Wake is safe and sedate" = Is this accurate ?

Although not a dangerous campus, WFU has had crime on campus from non-students. Doesn't WFU have guarded gates ?

Again, not suggesting that WFU campus is unsafe, just that it is not fairly labeled as "safe and sedate".

the gates went up while I was there in the mid-90s. It happened because a student was held hostage in her dorm room by a drug dealer and assaulted. The drug dealer was in the wrong place - he was there for a different student who had screwed him out of money, iirc. It was quite shocking because the campus was already fairly secluded. We also had electronic keycards on all dorms and lounges on campus.

I very, very rarely felt unsafe on campus. I did work in the law library sometimes until late at night, and I would call the campus ride people to come pick me up to drive me to my dorm at that point, but again, it is already a fairly secluded and self contained campus. Now, I haven't been there since all the new construction that expanded the size of the student body. That said, the location is not in the city, so any crime is likely either student on student OR guests of students.

Thank you for your response. Not sure about the accuracy of your last sentence--probably true, but when a non-student/non-guest commits a crime on campus it gets more publicity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vandy campus tour was such a disappointment. Bland campus, even blander environs.

Yeahhh. That's exactly how the public views Nashville. So 'bland'

W&L is one of the most isolated campuses I've ever seen. Wake is safe and sedate and in the equivalent of McLean.

While on campus, Wake, Vandy and Davidson look so similar. Vandy has a giant medical center attached to campus -- giant -- and an arterial road abutting campus.

"Wake is safe and sedate" = Is this accurate ?

Although not a dangerous campus, WFU has had crime on campus from non-students. Doesn't WFU have guarded gates ?

Again, not suggesting that WFU campus is unsafe, just that it is not fairly labeled as "safe and sedate".

the gates went up while I was there in the mid-90s. It happened because a student was held hostage in her dorm room by a drug dealer and assaulted. The drug dealer was in the wrong place - he was there for a different student who had screwed him out of money, iirc. It was quite shocking because the campus was already fairly secluded. We also had electronic keycards on all dorms and lounges on campus.

I very, very rarely felt unsafe on campus. I did work in the law library sometimes until late at night, and I would call the campus ride people to come pick me up to drive me to my dorm at that point, but again, it is already a fairly secluded and self contained campus. Now, I haven't been there since all the new construction that expanded the size of the student body. That said, the location is not in the city, so any crime is likely either student on student OR guests of students.

Thank you for your response. Not sure about the accuracy of your last sentence--probably true, but when a non-student/non-guest commits a crime on campus it gets more publicity.

hence why I said "likely" - I can't be 100% certain, obviously. The shooting that happened there was a campus guest of whatever group (I think it was some sort of BSA party) was holding the event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t find W&L to be isolated at all, VMI is down the street, and a cute little town right outside campus.

You want your kid hanging out with VMI guys? I have 2 daughters and this would be a neg. W&L is in a small town and when I used to go see friends there, we went to parties in literal fields.

Lexington is actually a very cute town. It’s an hour to Harrisonburg and Charlottesville so not too bad. I went to school where the nearest city or even decent sized town was in the next country. That’s remote.

Yes that was my thinking. If you can walk half a block off campus and be in the middle of town, it isn’t remote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dare say 90%+ would choose Vandy, Davidson, W&L and Wake over Richmond. Not in the same class as the others and the Richmond booster must be dreaming...

Exactly. Richmond is really good school but if you got into any of the 4, you’re not choosing Richmond. Be real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vandy campus tour was such a disappointment. Bland campus, even blander environs.

Yeahhh. That's exactly how the public views Nashville. So 'bland'

W&L is one of the most isolated campuses I've ever seen. Wake is safe and sedate and in the equivalent of McLean.

While on campus, Wake, Vandy and Davidson look so similar. Vandy has a giant medical center attached to campus -- giant -- and an arterial road abutting campus.

I don't know if you're being facetious but I actually was really disappointed by Nashville and Vanderbilt. The pictures make it look gorgeous but it was not a great setting IMHO. Nashville has Broadway, that one street that gives the whole "Nash Negas" vibe but otherwise, it doesn't exactly have a great urban character. Something about the Vandy campus also feels much more "Bible school" or "megachurch", for some reason.