Financial Aid Letter?

mirimom
Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:25:40 +0000

By coincidence, I spoke to my daughter (a sophomore) just after reading this and told her about it. She said essentially: “There is snobbism of all kinds at Vandy – all kinds except on the basis of whether you get financial aid. Kids who have merit scholarships can be snobs, kids who are in Engineering or A & S might be snobs toward Peabody, kids who have tons of money for cars, vacations, and clothes might be snobs, but nobody has ever expressed any resentment toward people being here for an education thanks to need-based financial aid.” As we spoke further, she said: Tell the cc people that the students here are very serious about education, and they only people they “resent” are people who are here despite not being smart enough, or serious enough about studying, to be here. Based on other debates we’ve had, I think she means athletes and beneficiaries of “affirmative action.” They don’t care how rich you are as much as how smart you are. Another, perhaps more serious, problem in attitude at Vandy. How typical are my daughter’s views? I have no idea.