<p>Reading this, I wonder how much a person has to be self-confident about her looks to be a student at Vanderbilt - especially because even very attractive young women are often insecure about their appearance. (This is why the cosmetics, apparel, and plastic surgery industries make big bucks.) Wouldn’t you be a successful student at Vanderbilt if you were confident in your intellectual ability? It seems to me that a truly confident person could roll out of bed in sweats and go to class without caring whether half the people there would see her in a negative light.
It’s a component of success in many fields to be well turned out, and it’s smart to realize that. If the OP was wondering if a student has to be a Miss America contestant-type at Vandy, I’d say definitely not, though there are such students there.</p>