It is whiter than most. Most schools are now hovering around 50-55% or lower when you throw in internationals. Vanderbilt may still be closer to 60% even after the addition.
2. That is not a good way to measure that. Financial aid packages at the schools with high endowments (including Vandy) off-set how many, say, middle and upper-middle income have to pay vs. the tuition. A more accurate way of finding out is doing what someone found out about Harvard and seeing where a student in a 40-50k household would fall % wise. I imagine Vandy would pretty much be the same (like middle of the pack) as everywhere else as indicated by the post I made above.
3. They stay outside of the SE…I am wondering if Texas counts as Southwest, I suspect so (and I also suspect that a huge chunk of the SW category would come from there). Throw that in, it comes closer to 45% (which is alright). Also, I don’t think people are referring to the demographics more so than the “feel” of the school which may remind people more of UVa, Chapel Hill, and Wake than some other elites. Often this feel along with the fin. aid was indeed an attractant. It won’t shed the stereotype until people agree that it also feels very different from those schools. Again, I don’t think Vandy is in the “Duke phase” yet where most students actually want it to feel different from that way. Either way, I imagine you will not hear the end of that stereotype for a while.