Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% Test optional

Do you think my DC’s 35 ACT will help with RD admissions? Or are they rejecting the 1550/35+ kids for TO kids?

Did your kid touch on civility, collaboration and discourse? Seems like a big IP.

Yes, these themes were mentioned in the supplemental essay.

all the kids who in the past few years wanted to apply TO to Ivy+ schools, turned to Vandy this year. They're among the few schools remaining TO

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% Test optional

Do you think my DC’s 35 ACT will help with RD admissions? Or are they rejecting the 1550/35+ kids for TO kids?

95 percent of the Vandy ED admits came from the top 10 percent of their classes. Presumably, the other 5 percent were mostly athletes. Vanderbilt is a big sports school these days. I'm not sure why Vandy is still officially TO. They obviously get great students. For RD, it looks like it will be about a 2 percent acceptance rate this year. I don't think test scores are a huge factor one way or another when 98 percent of applicants are rejected.

Anonymous wrote:Regarding the essay prompts, Christiansen said in recent years he has seen an increase in students writing about collaboration and civil discourse in response to a prompt about potential campus contribution, which he said has also translated into extracurricular involvements. In addition to this emphasis, Christiansen said they are also looking to see how the student will contribute to the Vanderbilt community.

“We’ve seen writing about the importance of civility and of [how] I may disagree with you, but I need to be able to do that respectfully. We see more clubs like that in high schools now,” Christiansen said. “When we’re selecting the class, we’re saying, ‘how will they fit into the Commons? What will they bring to campus? What is the background and experiences they have that will help Vanderbilt grow?’”

So many other universities were asking questions about civility this year—savvy students were reusing essays for other schools (or realizing that this was the trend, so why not write about it?)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% Test optional

Do you think my DC’s 35 ACT will help with RD admissions? Or are they rejecting the 1550/35+ kids for TO kids?

Did your kid touch on civility, collaboration and discourse? Seems like a big IP.

They will prompt ChatGPT to do so when they "write" their essays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% Test optional

Do you think my DC’s 35 ACT will help with RD admissions? Or are they rejecting the 1550/35+ kids for TO kids?

Did your kid touch on civility, collaboration and discourse? Seems like a big IP.

Anonymous wrote:50% Test optional

Do you think my DC’s 35 ACT will help with RD admissions? Or are they rejecting the 1550/35+ kids for TO kids?

Anonymous wrote:50% Test optional

Think it went down this year

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard ED was exceptionally hard this year but this is T10 level early rates (or harder)?

Early decision acceptance rate down to 11.9% for Class of 2030
From last year, the admit rate decreased by 1.3%, with 14.3% more applicants applying via early decision.

https://vanderbilthustler.com/2026/02/17/early-decision-acceptance-rate-down-to-11-9-for-class-of-2030/

They are big on TO and ED. Should move down.

+1

Trust me they are doing anything and everything to move up whenever possible. I worked there and they seemed obsessed with the rankings. Felt thirsty.

50% Test optional

From that article - pay attn if your kid’s applying next year:

We have so many students that have high rigor, great grades, high GPAs [and] high testing that really the differentiator now in the admissions process is their essay, their short answer and their extracurricular leadership and engagement,” Christiansen said.

Regarding the essay prompts, Christiansen said in recent years he has seen an increase in students writing about collaboration and civil discourse in response to a prompt about potential campus contribution, which he said has also translated into extracurricular involvements. In addition to this emphasis, Christiansen said they are also looking to see how the student will contribute to the Vanderbilt community.

“We’ve seen writing about the importance of civility and of [how] I may disagree with you, but I need to be able to do that respectfully. We see more clubs like that in high schools now,” Christiansen said. “When we’re selecting the class, we’re saying, ‘how will they fit into the Commons? What will they bring to campus? What is the background and experiences they have that will help Vanderbilt grow?’”

Anonymous wrote:I heard ED was exceptionally hard this year but this is T10 level early rates (or harder)?

Early decision acceptance rate down to 11.9% for Class of 2030
From last year, the admit rate decreased by 1.3%, with 14.3% more applicants applying via early decision.

https://vanderbilthustler.com/2026/02/17/early-decision-acceptance-rate-down-to-11-9-for-class-of-2030/

They are big on TO and ED. Should move down.

Rankings aren’t based on selectivity.

I heard ED was exceptionally hard this year but this is T10 level early rates (or harder)?

Early decision acceptance rate down to 11.9% for Class of 2030
From last year, the admit rate decreased by 1.3%, with 14.3% more applicants applying via early decision.

https://vanderbilthustler.com/2026/02/17/early-decision-acceptance-rate-down-to-11-9-for-class-of-2030/