<p>I live in Nashville and work at, dare I say it—Vanderbilt! I am not a native, but have family who have lived here for around 25 years. There may be close to a million of us here,but it is a close knit kind of town. I have heard increasing numbers of stories of children of alums who have NOT been admitted despite meeting better than the mid 50% stats.
People who are much higher up than I am on the Vanderbilt medical center food chain have had their kids outright rejected or at best,waitlisted, and no amount of phone calls up the chain of command has made any difference.
Vanderbilt has also been reducing the number of locally talented graduates from both public and private schools as well. Only 1 from Ds school got in last year,down from 3 admitted, the valedictorian of a very good private school was rejected who has significant country music connections here. I could go on and on. Legacies and locally talented kids do not mean much to Vanderbilt lately.
Vanderbilt is truly trying to become more diverse to catch up with its peer schools and I applaud that. Even though my D stands a very good chance of being valedictorian at her school and a National Merit Finalist, I am not at all certain she will be accepted. But that is why she is applying to other schools as well</p>