@bernie12 You seem to disagree with the idea of changing Vanderbilt’s culture? May I ask why? I personally think it’s an enormous shame that Vanderbilt has the resources and in many ways outperforms other schools in its tier, but then is relegated to being labeled as somehow subpar in comparison to Duke, Washu, Northwestern, Rice et al. The only reasons I can think of are that 1. It suffers from being in the south (which it certainly does) and 2. The party culture and ‘work hard play hard’ stereotype damages its credibility substantially, and makes people think its just some southern equivalent to a Penn State or URI party school. I think a change in the culture couldn’t come soon enough, and would be curious to know why you think otherwise (if I did in fact read your tone correctly, it can be hard through text).
I’m not talking about a UChicago transformation either (I think I would find that irritating after a while personally, and Vanderbilt has a much better QOL in my opinion) and as for Yale, no one should aspire to their campus culture given the state of affairs of their student body - I know two people who are transferring because of it to other less prestigious but still amazing schools, which is still astonishing given how hard it must be to say good-bye to a Yale diploma, and speaks volumes for how deep those problems go. But I think a greater focus on academics and interests at a deep and varied level, over just marketing to those looking for a pre-business major and a fraternity (generalizing but not inaccurate) would be a wonderful thing to resculpt in Vanderbilt’s image.