I like Nashville, but I don’t want to go to Vandy. Instead, I want to go to the Houston version of Vandy, Rice.
@awesomepolyglot Rice is great! One of my friends is a senior, and she’s going to Rice next school year. I am also officially done with my sophomore year! 
@awesomepolyglot while rice and vandy are both top southern private schools they’re actually pretty different. Vandy is dominated by frats and I think about half of students are in them while there are no frats at rice. Sports games are also much more of a thing at Vandy and religion is much more prevalent at Vandy. It is also a stereotype(partly true) that Vandy students come from old fashioned, wealthy Southerners. At Rice, there are also much fewer graduate students compared Vandy so it is very undergrad focused. Rice also tends to recruit students from mostly Texas(I think half are from Texas), while Vandy takes a much smaller percentage of students from its area.
@Max147 Wow, really? I didn’t know anything about Vandy, even though I live less than half an hour away, go to a feeder school, and have been encouraged over and over again to consider applying. I certainly had no idea that Rice was undergrad focused and frat-free, although I’ve visited. And I definitely wasn’t alluding to their similarities as well-endowed, high-ranked research universities that are popular with the high-achieving kids in the area.
Thanks for clearing that up!
Anybody else interested in any of the Seven Sisters colleges? I’m visiting Mt. Holyoke and Smith this summer.
@Max147 Do you know anything about the political climate in Vanderbilt? Also is it a diverse community?
@collegeready33 from what I hear Vandy is less diverse than other top schools. It has a lot of face diversity with the stats of about 50% being students of color and it is pretty geographically diverse but I’ve heard students self segregate more so than at other schools. And there is pressure to fit in (goth kids or other people who society would deem “weird” might not fit in and people are well dressed). And as I mentioned above Frats and Sororities dominate the school so social events pretty much revolve around them. It’s also definitely more conservative than most schools but it is a college so it’s probably in the middle in terms of political climate. However it’s still pretty diverse just maybe not as diverse as other top schools.
@trumpetmathgeek Nope, the only one I could even attend is Vassar. I also don’t think that I could go to a school that small, and most of them are in the middle of nowhere.
@nme2002 @ab2002 I live in Atlanta and I love Ga Tech. I’m really biased but everything about it is perfect. It’s in the city but not totally urban like Georgia state or Emory. Fyi if you did get accepted Tech is starting to make future students start school in the summer (in the case of my school friend, she starts school in a week or so).
@Candyblossom1245 well another thing i’m looking for in a college is a small-ish campus. i can’t walk a lot or for a very long time so a large campus would put too much stress on my body. wash u’s campus was almost perfect for me and i went there in the hot summer, which is my least favorite season. something that is walkable is very important for me even if it means i might be missing an opportunity. i don’t wanna feel like physically going to class everyday is a challenge 
georgia tech is just too big for me. the student body size isn’t what bothers me. it’s just that the campus looks huge and confusing and the mere size of the campus plus the hot weather would kill me. that’s why i’m thinking emory is a better fit for me if i was to go to atlanta for college.
@Candyblossom1245 I don’t plan on making the trip to Atlanta to visit Emory so I was wondering how urban the campus is. I know the Oxford campus is outside of Atlanta but how far is the main campus from downtown or the commercial areas?
@max147 That’s sooo not true. I am not trying to start an argument, but you are spreading incorrect information… again. Vanderbilt’s political standing is 33% conservative, 33% liberal, and 33% moderate. Those are actual statistics. Only 35-40% of students at Vanderbilt are even in Greek life. To say that it “dominates” the school is a bit drastic. I know at least ten people who go to Vanderbilt, and they have had no problems with feeling forced to participate in Greek life. The focus is mainly on education. Oxford is about an hour away from Atlanta. Emory is pretty close to Buckhead, Druid Hills, and the Peachtree area. Those are very posh areas of Atlanta. Although Oxford is great, if I got an offer there, but I didn’t get an offer from Emory, I wouldn’t go. It’s too far in terms of being able to go to Atlanta or any big city. You would have to spend two years there, so it would definitely be something to consider. I hope this helped.
@ab2002 lol ok my bad. I was busy and didn’t bother to look up the numbers. And about the political standing, I did say that it was in the middle which is more conservative than most campuses which are liberal. And while my stats may not be completely correct, frats are definitely a bigger part of Vanderbilt than most other schools. And thanks for the info about Emory.
So since we’re juniors now, we have SATs and ACTs to worry about. When do you guys plan on taking your first test?
@pineapplesSFL my first baseline sat was in March earlier this year. Planning to study over the summer and take the October SAT
Advice: take one this fall (or in August) and then one in either winter or spring
@Candyblossom1245 I plan on taking the August SAT, since I’ll spend time over break studying for it. I hope I get a good score, since the PSAT is in October, and I want to qualify for National Merit Scholar.
I always take my first week of summer to do nothing (mental recharge). I’ll probably study this summer and take it in October.
Anyone know when they will take the ACT? I live in Michigan and I know a lot of the schools here take the ACT, so that has always been a part of my plan.
@goneaway It’s up to you! Some of the people here have already taken it. Similarly to the SAT, I would take one in October and one in Janurary or March (if you don’t get the score you want).