<p>Vanderbilt is not a safety school, even with your lovely stats. Put heart into your essays and apply for merit aid.</p>
<p>Also, I wouldn’t worry about the Southern Culture at Vandy or the lower percentage of Asians. Tons of my son’s friends are Asians, including two different students whose families he has already visited in NYC and NJ. He is southern. That is what college is for…Wait till you see what your options are before fretting about the lower number of Asians. Asians at Vanderbilt are excelling and Vanderbilt has so much to offer. You can decide in April if you would rather be on the West Coast with many Asians at a place like UC Berkeley or in a New England Ivy. Merit money also is so elusive. And you just never know. Our son took his merit offer at Vanderbilt and never looked back even though he had little interest in Vanderbilt based on what he read in books.</p>