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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A friend's kid goes there. The student population is incredibly wealthy - think USC on steroids. They have a 7 figure household income and their daughter was one of the poors there, for example....spring breaks on private islands, etc. [/quote]

DS is in a mid-tier Greek house at Vandy currently.  Exactly no one in his mostly privileged house of ~40 guys fits this description.  A few are even poor! and on scholarship (ie, Vanderbilt pays their Greek dues for them via financial aid). They even get stipends to travel with the fraternity to weekends away and national meetings.

Are there students there now like Apple Martin amd Alexis Cuban? Sure, but they are the outliers.  For better or for worse I have spent a lot of time there in the dormitory hallways, the parking lots, and even occasionally tailgating or eating in the coffee shop.  It is most certainly NOT as you describe.
[/quote]

I’m surprised because this is not what I’ve heard from my kids friends who attend there.

Four or five Greek houses  dominate the social scene and getting bids from those houses can make or break your time there.

It is a really good spot for kids who are comfortable in a very sheltered closed uber-wealthy environment.

You see a lot of tri-state… Connecticut, New York, New Jersey kids or private/celebrity LA kids. Or Chicago  private school or wealthy Chicago suburban kids.

The private high school scene there does connect a lot of kids together before they even even get on campus.

A lot of parents are here seem well intended, but your impressions aren’t necessarily what life is really like. Have your kids talk to kids from their school. Have them meet up with them on campus for coffee and ask about what their days and nights are like.

Not what you are all describing. And campus “impressions” are often wrong…[/quote]

So much depends on the kid.

If your kid cares about the socially conspicuous cliques and “top” Greek houses, that will be make or break for them. If they get in, they’ll have a great experience. If they don’t, theyll either adapt and find other friend groups and activities or they won’t and will instead feel like they’re always on the outside looking in.

Meanwhile, by definition, a large percentage (majority!) of the student body is NOT in these five Greek houses or the tri-state/private school cliques.

Are you saying that all those kids are unhappy at Vanderbilt? Are locked out of all other opportunities to make friends? To join clubs? To do activities? To go to games? To play intramural sports? To make friends???

I really do not understand people who say that a kid can’t be happy at a school of 6,000+ kids unless they’re part of the X or Y dominant clique.

Yes, if that’s the only group at the school that resonates with you and you are not accepted into it for some reason, that would feel bad. And if you don’t find other people you like among the thousands of other kids, you might be unhappy.

But PLEASE don’t assume all kids at a particular school share those social goals or inflexible mindset. [/quote]

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