OP wants her daughter to consider Vanderbilt, but has a lot of negative stereotypes about it. Then why bother? There are plenty of schools out there and passing up one may lead to finding another. OP and daughter need to recognize that there may be opportunities that she’s passing up because she/D has drawn a line about Greek life or clothing choices or football players. That’s okay. Lines have to be drawn sometimes to make the student happy.
There have been recent articles, linked here on CC last year, about Asians having trouble being accepted at Vandy. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vanderbilt-university/52426-asians-at-vanderbilt.html These articles may be why OP’s daughter’s friends feel that way. They have the right to their opinions even if there is no truth in them. Many students make a decision not to ‘like’ Greeks on campus even though they have never been to college so don’t know what it will be like with or without them. They don’t seem to have a problem with Greeks at Yale, MIT, USC, Michigan, but they are unacceptable at other schools?
People reject schools (or never consider them) for many reasons - school colors, sports rivalries, location, size, majors offered, so why not Vineyard Vines? It might be imagined or real, but it’s a reason. Just accept that an opportunity might be forfeited.
@BertieMom my D18 and I have visited Vandy twice and are currently waiting for an decision on her RD application. I people watched at every visit to all her schools (she applied to 11, we visited like 17-18!) and I honestly did not get this uber preppy vibe/stereotype that your daughter has of Vandy. I did get an uber academic vibe each time. I really recommend visiting personally rather than taking other people’s word for it…it’s the only way for YOU to know if a campus fits your personality. While my D18 was listening to the tour guide I was looking at the kids we were passing to see who would be her classmates/future mentors/BFFs/bridesmaids … Vandy is pretty diverse - not as diverse as Rice (we toured there too but she didn’t apply, didn’t like Houston that much). BTW my D18 is also a swimmer (6 yr Varsity-Team Captain) but is not pursuing that in college except maybe at club level for exercise. Anyway we have two from our area who are scholarship athletes at VU (golf and high jump) and they are both pretty happy… golf has a little issue with course being far from campus so not as easy to get to practices and classes considering no cars for freshman. But the high jump is a close friend and we visited with her one night for dinner and she gave us the inside scoop (I also know a good bit because my Goddaughter was on full scholarship to GA Tech for volleyball!). Note that D1 (especially SEC athletes) have a pretty rigorous schedule between classes (all before noon) and then workouts then tutoring or study sessions and if there are recruits in town them visiting with them … their days are filled with team for the most part - they even have their own dining hall. So keep that in mind… if she swims she’ll mostly be with athletes (ie people like her!) Good luck with all these decision! Would love to follow your process as our S23 will (hopefully) be looking at trying for a swim scholarship… but we have a ton of time for that!
@twoinanddone because of the good fit with swimming in addition to the excellent financial aid. It is hard to get the financial, academic, and athletic to all come together. The perception is that it won’t be a good personality fit but I think the other three items make it worth us digging past that perception to see if it is reality.
To the person who cited Vanderbilt’s position atop the survey of colleges with the happiest students, it’s worth noting that #2 was… Rice. Tulane is #4- I wonder if a relatively warm climate ups the happiness factor.
My D has applications in to both schools, but not because she’s an athlete, but because of something else they have in common- excellent music schools and excellent academics.
@NYCMusicDad : There could be multiple factors…much like any student survey including teaching evaluations (extremely dubious to interpret those sometimes). Sometimes WUSTL would be among happy and “high quality of life” metrics as well, yet it is also known to be stressful. Oddly, I think such metrics would better indicate reality if they were more volatile (because hopefully you would survey different and different types of students each year), whereas something like USNWR would not be as credible if certain areas within it were highly volatile.