Who went to Vandy on March 24th?

[allthatjazz]

I am curious what people thought about the law school, as well as the Nashville area.  I visited Vandy back in December of last year, and I will be attending the next Admitted Students day on the 7th of April, but I am interested in hearing what other prospective students think about the school. 

Anyone?

[osu2521]

bump...I, too, am curious.

[Pupienus]

I was there, and had a blast.  I could write in a narrative everything that happened and what I thought, but I will just list pros and cons below:

Pros

The students - the students all went out of their way to talk to me and tell me their own story about how they ended up at Vandy.  I was very impressed by the Ambassador program (the program where students can stay with hosts, etc.) and it showed that the students loved the school enough to take an interest in who follows them to Vandy.  Everyone was intelligent, friendly, and definitely not lame or ueber-competitive.

Career services - I met several of the CSO people, and they were all fantastic.  Becuase of Vandy's size, they know EVERYONE and are in a much better position to give personal advice.  They stressed that while Texas's CSO may be designed to funnel people to Dallas, Houston, and NYC; Duke's to NYC and DC; Cornell's to NYC; they are designed to get you anywhere you want to go, be it NYC or Tulsa.

Bar review - I went out with the students on Thursday night and had an absolute blast. 

Academic/special programs - these programs (Trial Advocacy, Clinical, Law and Business, and International programs) were something that I didn't know a lot about before I visited, but I left very impressed.  The dean's and faculty's vision in creating these programs and their plans to create and improve others was probably what most surprised me this weekend.  I definitely feel that if I were to have a degree from Vandy, that the value of that degree will definitely increase in the coming years.

Vandy candy - If you care about girls, Vandy is definitely the place to be.  I would say they rival Ole Miss for the best in the SEC.  There were also a surprising number of attractive girls in the law school too.  And for the ladies, I have to say there were a large number of objectively attractive males around as well.  Also, the male students have mixers with the Vandy sororities.  To each his own, but I personally like the idea.

Nashville - Nashville is a lot cooler that I expected it would be.  There are a million bars in the Vandy area alone, and each of them has something cool to offer.  If you are in to going out, you definitely won't be bored.  If you are in to cultural stuff, I would say the only city in the south with more to offer than Nashville would be Atlanta.  There are also a lot of housing options: cheap, expensive, apartment, condo, house, walking distance, short commute, etc.

Cons

Vandy campus - I have to say I was a little disappointed in the campus.  It looks a lot like UT Knoxville, which isn't a compliment.  However, in Vandy's defense, the student-led tours took us to the uglier part of the campus.  If you want to see pretty buildings and quads, go to the Peabody part of the campus.  Also, the weather was kind of crappy, too, so that didn't make it look nice either.

Push

The Law Building - The law building is really nice on the inside, but looks like my elementary school from every side except the front.  I guess that shouldn't really matter, since you will be IN the law building as opposed to looking at it from outside.

Incoming students - I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with many of the admitted students.  There were definitely some cool, smart people, but there were some tools too.  I guess that will happen everywhere though, and there was this one girl in particular who colored my perception negatively, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Again, I have to say that I left very impressed.  I went in with high expecations of the student atmosphere, and was not disappointed.  I went in with low expectations of their academic programs, and left VERY impressed.  I know some people went in concerned about how "national" Vandy is, and I think this weekend did a good job of silencing those fears as well.  Perhaps most importantly, I arrived somewhat concerned about how much a Vanderbilt degree would be worth in the coming years as compared to T14 degrees, and my fears were certainly allayed.  I have several good choices (including some T14), but I think I will probably be at Vanderbilt this fall.

[jakeb1881]

I was there, and had a blast.  I could write in a narrative everything that happened and what I thought, but I will just list pros and cons below:

Pros

The students - the students all went out of their way to talk to me and tell me their own story about how they ended up at Vandy.  I was very impressed by the Ambassador program (the program where students can stay with hosts, etc.) and it showed that the students loved the school enough to take an interest in who follows them to Vandy.  Everyone was intelligent, friendly, and definitely not lame or ueber-competitive.

Career services - I met several of the CSO people, and they were all fantastic.  Becuase of Vandy's size, they know EVERYONE and are in a much better position to give personal advice.  They stressed that while Texas's CSO may be designed to funnel people to Dallas, Houston, and NYC; Duke's to NYC and DC; Cornell's to NYC; they are designed to get you anywhere you want to go, be it NYC or Tulsa.

Bar review - I went out with the students on Thursday night and had an absolute blast. 

Academic/special programs - these programs (Trial Advocacy, Clinical, Law and Business, and International programs) were something that I didn't know a lot about before I visited, but I left very impressed.  The dean's and faculty's vision in creating these programs and their plans to create and improve others was probably what most surprised me this weekend.  I definitely feel that if I were to have a degree from Vandy, that the value of that degree will definitely increase in the coming years.

Vandy candy - If you care about girls, Vandy is definitely the place to be.  I would say they rival Ole Miss for the best in the SEC.  There were also a surprising number of attractive girls in the law school too.  And for the ladies, I have to say there were a large number of objectively attractive males around as well.  Also, the male students have mixers with the Vandy sororities.  To each his own, but I personally like the idea.

Nashville - Nashville is a lot cooler that I expected it would be.  There are a million bars in the Vandy area alone, and each of them has something cool to offer.  If you are in to going out, you definitely won't be bored.  If you are in to cultural stuff, I would say the only city in the south with more to offer than Nashville would be Atlanta.  There are also a lot of housing options: cheap, expensive, apartment, condo, house, walking distance, short commute, etc.

Cons

Vandy campus - I have to say I was a little disappointed in the campus.  It looks a lot like UT Knoxville, which isn't a compliment.  However, in Vandy's defense, the student-led tours took us to the uglier part of the campus.  If you want to see pretty buildings and quads, go to the Peabody part of the campus.  Also, the weather was kind of crappy, too, so that didn't make it look nice either.

Push

The Law Building - The law building is really nice on the inside, but looks like my elementary school from every side except the front.  I guess that shouldn't really matter, since you will be IN the law building as opposed to looking at it from outside.

Incoming students - I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with many of the admitted students.  There were definitely some cool, smart people, but there were some tools too.  I guess that will happen everywhere though, and there was this one girl in particular who colored my perception negatively, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Again, I have to say that I left very impressed.  I went in with high expecations of the student atmosphere, and was not disappointed.  I went in with low expectations of their academic programs, and left VERY impressed.  I know some people went in concerned about how "national" Vandy is, and I think this weekend did a good job of silencing those fears as well.  Perhaps most importantly, I arrived somewhat concerned about how much a Vanderbilt degree would be worth in the coming years as compared to T14 degrees, and my fears were certainly allayed.  I have several good choices (including some T14), but I think I will probably be at Vanderbilt this fall.

I definitely agree with the pros here (except for the girls and bar review, as I'm married and don't drink).  I for one was very impressed with the law building...I didn't know that it had been renovated so recently but all the facilities were top-notch.  I also thought that the campus was great, but I went to an undergrad with one of the ugliest campuses I've ever seen, so I'm probably a little biased.  For the most part, I thought most of the other admits were cool.  Sure, there might have been a couple weirdos sprinkled throughout the group, but I imagine it's probably about the same mix as it would be anywhere else.

Bottom line...that visit probably put me over the edge.  I expect to send in my seat deposit by the end of the week.

[Felsen]

I'll concur with much of what is above.

The Vanderbilt Campus - The layout isn't well planned.  They seem to have undergraduate housing in the middle of campus, then put all of the colleges and classrooms out on the periphery.  This makes it a long walk to get from one location to another.

Nashville & Housing - My wife and I decided we wouldn't live withing walking distance of the University.  It doesn't look dangerous, but most of the area looks rather crappy until you get beyond I-440.  Just on the other side of 440 are some nice apartments and neighborhoods, which are within a reasonable driving distance.  Traffic in Nashville appears to be fairly light for that size of a city as well.  Kudos to the DoT that builds new streets before they've reached maximum capacity.

I'm also a non-drinker, so the ravings of one student about the weekly Friday keg parties is a big negative for me.

All in all, we liked the area, and would be happy heading there.  I'm very sure I'll pick Vanderbilt over University of Texas.  I've still got a visit to Cornell planned.  That's the only school left that could win out over Vanderbilt at this time.

[whoisjohngalt]

Agreed with all others.  I came away super-impressed with the school.

The only thing I didn't like was how enthused the students were about partying.  I'm down for some boozing, but they made it seem like that was THE LIFE of Vandy.  Some tried selling me on that point specifically, as in "you don't want to go to xxx because it's really competitive; vandy students know how to have fun!  i wanted a college where i could learn my *&^% and still go out 3x a week and have fun"

That's the only thing that I didn't like.  Seemed a little strong on the partying.  I want someplace laid back, but not THAT laid back...

I'll probably end up at Cornell if they give me money close to what Vandy did...

[AdiosLSD!]

man, now I curious about who you all were.   

[allthatjazz]

bump

Anyone else?

[Stephon Devante]

I, for one, had a great time and met a lot of cool people. Going back down mid April to apartment hunt...

[Pupienus]

I'm not a frat guy or a go out three-times-a-week guy myself, and I had a great time at bar review.  I certainly didn't get the impression that anyone would be ostracized for not drinking.  I think whoisjohngalt must have just been talking to the wilder students; I did hear some of what he did but it was by no means from a majority.  It has been my observation that single law students of traditional age at just about any school do their fair share of drinking (unless of course you go to Liberty University School of Law) and I don't think Vandy is any different.

However, as I'm sure you all know, a big part of law school is making friends and connections, and I sense that it is extra important at Vandy.  I myself have no problem not drinking while going out and socializing with those who are, but it seems like the majority of those who have expressed reservations about the social scene in this thread are married or have some objection to drinking on principle.  If that is the case, it's my opinion that you may want to think harder about your decision to attend Vandy, and perhaps consider larger schools and/or those with older students (i.e. Texas, GULC, Northwestern), where there are more people like yourself and where there are more people who aren't really there to socialize.  As I said, I don't think you will be ostracized, but if you are going to be a hermit when everyone else is going out, you probably won't make many friends and thus may feel a little left out.

As for the frattiness of the school, I didn't see any more frat guys than are present at any other law school.  The female population, however, did seem to have a higher-than-normal number who looked like sorority girls.  An "intellectual" scene is present if you want that, you just may have to dig a little deeper for it (on the student panel of four Vandy law students there was one girl who repeatedly extolled the artsy/intellectual virtues of the community).  VU as a whole may be a little frattier than some schools, but it is by no means anything like an Ole Miss or UVA.