@charlipearl
“As a minority student, I am afraid that people will be reluctant to interact with me. While I have seen some forums say that there is nothing of the sort and how “my son/daughter has a friend from Africa/Asia/Latin America that is not true”, I have also seen many posts that claim that there is both self-segregation and a wariness (probably unconscious) on the part of local Vandy students to interact with international or minority students.
I have also seen posts on the internet and even on the Vanderbilt site where students claim that they have a hard time adjusting to Vanderbilt.”
I am tired of people saying: “I read a variety of opinions on the internet about this issue”. Chances are if there is a variety, then the place at least can be for you and should be good enough. I am very confused with people who expect students at a medium sized or large university to have monolithic viewpoints and experiences. Schools are full of humans, not robots (I think?). They are not programmed to have or produce the same experiences. If there are plenty of people claiming they have no problem interacting with others and others interacting with them, go find those people and figure out how they do it. In addition, since there is a sizeable “Independent” population which is likely largely minority at VU, I doubt there should be as much trouble outside of Greeklife having a more “multi-cultural” experience. A lot of the experiences of students at remotely diverse schools is determined by themselves and how they choose to behave.
Also, those things you saw reported are extremely common at any school with diversity.
I take issue with the following:
" have also seen many posts that claim that there is both self-segregation and a wariness (probably unconscious) on the part of local Vandy students to interact with international or minority students."
Uhmm…minority students are “local Vandy students”…so are internationals. Have you also considered that it is the other way around as well, where international students, for various reasons feel comfortable among each other and me be prone to self-segregating themselves regardless of how open domestic or “local” Vandy students are to interacting with them? I attended a school with a fairly high international population (sometimes hitting around 20%) and most efforts and programming were focused upon getting them to feel a sense of belonging in the general student body and specifically were to get them to interact with more domestic students. Such interactions did not necessarily come naturally to them (language barrier, foreign place, etc. If there are plenty more like them, there is likely a tendency to run to a comfort zone). Either way, I implore people to use more nuanced judgement about this and not become overly “concerned” over some neutral or even slightly (or completely) negative experiences they hear about on “the internet”, especially if there are many positive experiences to counter it. Just try to contextualize it instead of immediately thinking “it must be the school and the non-minorities and domestics that control the atmosphere”. Again, the fact that you saw a variety of opinions indicates that you should be alright or that it should be easy to put yourself in the position you desire. They were not all negative.