(Vanderbilt) For years people have been saying

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Date: Aug 20 2006
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
For years people have been saying

You will either love or hate this place within the first week.

Vandy has always been and forever will be an extension of the wealthy private school, and for some this is heaven and others, hell.

Think hard about who you are and what kind of people you enjoy being around before you accept a slot here.

The most common major is HOD, so that should tell you something about the intellectual interest on campus. You will not make friends through your classes. The campus culture places classes as something to be endured.

A vast majority of students rely on parental and greek system contacts to get their first job. At Vandy, your GPA at graduation means a lot less than who you know. Success at Vandy is defined in terms totally alien to a kid from a public middle class high school.

Its not like Princeton where alumni donations create an endowment that allows the university to purely admit students based on merit. Vanderbilt will forever be in the

white, wealthy, pretty

trap, so if you aren't all three of those, put Vandy on your alt list.

About the social life - if you don't have a car of your own (ie parents bought you one for HS grad present) you can forget Nashville. There's no convenient public rail system. You will have to network around your freshmen year (the only year you will have a chance to make friends) into a circle of friends with cars. Like the greek system, each circle of friends only has so many slots, which is why people describe the social life as "competitive." Each circle wants the smartest, funniest, or prettiest people it can get.

Finally, if you are currently trapped at Vanderbilt because its the highest ranked school that gave you a great financial aid package, my advice is to stick it out and graduate. Whether you love or hate the people at Vandy, you WILL get a great education if you put forth the effort. After you graduate, get the heck away from the Vandy crowd and move on with life.

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