What colleges/universities are like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other schools have the following attributes, which Vanderbilt has; these characteristics are extremely attractive to my child:

-cohesive campus feel, with all students clustered or living on campus for 4 years
- easy to double major, even across colleges (e.g., anthropology and HOD)
- strong campus community/vibe which is not diluted by being in an urban area/neighborhood
- access to restaurants/resources outside campus
- social fun energy
- newer dorms with AC

Thanks for any suggestions. Open to SLACs

If your child is female, Wellesley has most of these attributes (the only one about which I'm not sure is whether or not the dorm rooms have AC. But the school is in MA, so it arguably has not been necessary)

Wellesley is a beautiful and great school and a cute town but it isn’t Vandy or Nashville.

DP who has a DD loosely thinking of applying to Wellesley...would you say it has a "fun social energy"...we don't have a great sense of the social situation

DD is there right now. There are events on campus, probably one every weekend which seem fun to go to but are way less 'frat-y' as she says. She found her people and is happy there, and alternates between going out and staying in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other schools have the following attributes, which Vanderbilt has; these characteristics are extremely attractive to my child:

-cohesive campus feel, with all students clustered or living on campus for 4 years
- easy to double major, even across colleges (e.g., anthropology and HOD)
- strong campus community/vibe which is not diluted by being in an urban area/neighborhood
- access to restaurants/resources outside campus
- social fun energy
- newer dorms with AC

Thanks for any suggestions. Open to SLACs

I know you stated it, but Vanderbilt is the prime example of this, especially among t20s. No other t20 has anything close to all the categories. There's a great quality of life that Vanderbilt offers. That being said job outcomes are not good. You'd be better served going to UT Austin, Northeastern, Tulane or UMich if you care about that.

What do you mean by this?

Look at this years CS grad, for example, most of them are unemployed. It is not a good sign.

Not CS.

Everyone we know graduating with the Vanderbilt business/HOD degree has a fabulous consulting gig…

Honestly there is no such thing, especially right now.

Actually even now HOD graduates from Vandy are getting good jobs, it's the CS majors that are unemployed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt can be cliquey due to the high number of frats and sororities.

Rice has no frats/sororities and seems to check all the right boxes for what OP is looking for in a college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other schools have the following attributes, which Vanderbilt has; these characteristics are extremely attractive to my child:

-cohesive campus feel, with all students clustered or living on campus for 4 years
- easy to double major, even across colleges (e.g., anthropology and HOD)
- strong campus community/vibe which is not diluted by being in an urban area/neighborhood
- access to restaurants/resources outside campus
- social fun energy
- newer dorms with AC

Thanks for any suggestions. Open to SLACs

I know you stated it, but Vanderbilt is the prime example of this, especially among t20s. No other t20 has anything close to all the categories. There's a great quality of life that Vanderbilt offers. That being said job outcomes are not good. You'd be better served going to UT Austin, Northeastern, Tulane or UMich if you care about that.

Yes that is definitely true. The whole concept of Greek Life is backwards. Why would you want to exclude your accomplished peers, it makes no sense. These competitive clubs also are no better. In the current world, Greek Life makes no sense, it should not be present at any college campus.

[Anonymous]

Davidson, Rice and Notre Dame

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What other schools have the following attributes, which Vanderbilt has; these characteristics are extremely attractive to my child:

-cohesive campus feel, with all students clustered or living on campus for 4 years
- easy to double major, even across colleges (e.g., anthropology and HOD)
- strong campus community/vibe which is not diluted by being in an urban area/neighborhood
- access to restaurants/resources outside campus
- social fun energy
- newer dorms with AC

Thanks for any suggestions. Open to SLACs

Not sure about dorms, but these Vanderbilt overlap schools may be of interest:

Duke, Northwestern, WashUStL, Rice, & Princeton. Very easy to double or triple major at Northwestern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other schools have the following attributes, which Vanderbilt has; these characteristics are extremely attractive to my child:

-cohesive campus feel, with all students clustered or living on campus for 4 years
- easy to double major, even across colleges (e.g., anthropology and HOD)
- strong campus community/vibe which is not diluted by being in an urban area/neighborhood
- access to restaurants/resources outside campus
- social fun energy
- newer dorms with AC

Thanks for any suggestions. Open to SLACs

Vassar has housing all four years, double majoring seems fairly common, and a lot of kids do a major plus minor or more than one minor (my DC did a major and two minors). DC knew people who had double majors like biology and drama, so double majoring in different disciplines is doable. The open curriculum makes that possible. Access to "restaurants/resources outside campus"--not sure what you mean by "resources" but the area around campus has a few restaurants; it's in a mid-sized city but the area near campus is fairly limited so there's no big row of lots of restaurants nearby, just a handful of them. (Up side? No bar scene across the street from campus!) Newer dorms with AC, well, not necessarily, but there is a wide variety of housing types including dorms, townhouses and apartment-style housing.

My DC would absolutely say it has "social fun energy" but at any college that really does depend on your kid's own nature, as in, how willing he or she is to go out and join things and get involved.

Of course everything really hinges on the majors/programs your student wants, and if those aren't at an ideal campus that fulfills your whole list, there are going to be compromises (like that AC in every dorm...not happening at many older schools). I really advise visits, once you narrow down a list that's based on the majors, curriculum approach, etc. Nothing replaces an in person visit, IMHO. We did not have Vassar on our radar at all, but added a day there to a few days of visiting other schools in the Northeast; the casual visit turned into DC putting it at the top of the list. I'm not saying that to push Vassar specifically, but to note that a visit can really make a difference. Other colleges that were great on paper and in other ways were knocked off the list after a visit. Best of luck to your DC!

Vassar is for the artistic types. Meryl Sheep went there. Of course, you can do STEM, CS.... You need to factor in your kid's interest, learning personality, etc. it's very cohesive cuz there's very little in town. Kids stick together on campus after hours.

To clarify, Vassar has strong departments in the arts but it's an outdated stereotype to paint it as mostly "for the artistic types" as if that's it's entire personality. The college is especially strong in biology and environmental sciences, and has a special engineering program in which students can study at both Vassar and Dartmouth and receive bachelors' degrees from both colleges.

Would love to hear more about the engineering program at vassar. Is it a direct admit or regular vassar admission? Do kids flip flop between campuses?

[Anonymous]

Id check Haverford.