The Social School

Introduction
We have over 300 organizations on this campus – everything from are Hustler, which I our main newspaper that comes out 3 days a week to a lot of groups like community service groups for different things within Nashville and on campus. There’s a lot of club sports here I think we have 40 club sports – a lot of intramural teams which are all really popular. We have a lot of singing groups – I’m in Swing-A-Dores, which is Vanderbilt’s female accapela group. We have the Dodecs, which is the male acapella group and a lot of other groups like that. There’s so many different locations on campus to eat like Satellite locations that you can use your meal plan at. Also, starting next year – actually it started this year, starting this year we can use our Vanderbilt card which has like money on it which our parents put on there – we can use it off campus locations like Chili’s and Alpine Bagel and Bread and Company and things like that so that’s a really nice addition they’ve put onto that. All freshmen are required to have a lunch plan and a dinner plan.

Campus Life and Social Life
I lived in Branscom my freshman year which I don’t know I’m a little partial to it. It’s where all the double rooms are and I had a really easy time making friends. I went to all the summer academic orientation programs and the pre orientation programs and so by the time I got here I already knew a few people and I think everybody’s really friendly. Because everyone here is coming from all over the country and no ones coming with a lot of people from High School, everyone’s here trying to make friends and trying to meet new people. I think because people are from literally all over the country and there not coming with a bunch of people from your high school – everyone’s here trying to make friends and get to know everybody because no one else knows anyone any better. Advertisement
Academics
I think the academics are great. I’ve really enjoyed all the stuff, all the classes that I’ve taken. My major is – I’m choosing to focus a lot on the public speaking aspect of it. I’d like to go and get a joint JDMBA which is a business degree and law degree in 4 years. So kind of with my communications I can do a lot of public speaking law business, kind of anything I want to do with that. The academics are nice because it challenges you but at the same time it provides you with an opportunity to still be able to go out and have fun and stuff like that. You’re not gonna have to spend 24/7 with your nose in a book. I think students are really good about balancing their academics with their social life. I think were the only school that’s a top 25 academic school and a top 25 party school.

Student Body
It’s a really geographically diverse campus so my friends literally span the entire United States and its fun because you get to take trips and see them and stuff like that, I think all of the different geographic backgrounds bring a lot of different diverse views and opinions and things like that so its really fun to just get to know people and – we are in the south and I think the Southern Hospitality kind of rubs off on people. We have a lot of conservatives but at the same time we do have a lot of liberals and it’s not a campus where every one is liberal. Because you have a pretty good balance of liberal and conservative – you probably do have more conservatives but – because there is that balance or more of a balance, you get a lot more debating and political views on that – where as a lot of other colleges’ campuses, especially Ivy League Schools and stuff, everyone’s a liberal. I have friends who were at Brown and she says that there’s 1 conservative on campus and to me that’s not a diverse political environment at all. Greek life here is 40 % of campus – 50% of women are Greek and about 30% of men are Greek and I personally am Greek – I love it. It’s a huge part of my life. But at the same time I have friends who aren’t Greek so it’s really just a matter of what’s important to you and what you enjoy. If you are involved in Greek life – all the houses are great – it’s really. It’s a pretty good community – there’s always lots of service events going on and parties and things like that, Fraternity parties are also really fun. There open to everybody most of the time, so that’s a lot of the social scene is the Fraternity Life and Greek Row.

In Closing...
I think there’s a lot of music in Nashville – this is a music city that’s not just for country music although there is obviously a lot of country music in Nashville. There’s always things going on both at our big Gaylord Entertainment Center and at Starwood, a lot of the places where the big concerts take place. There’s also a lot of local venues like the Bluebird Café and Exit In where a lot of like groups will come and sing and you can enjoy. And campus is really good about bringing music on campus as well. We have had everyone in the past from Maroon 5, Better Than Ezra, Brad Paisley, we have, this week, we have Hootie and the Blowfish coming and even back a few years ago we had The Rolling Stones a lot of fun people like that, So, campus is really good about bring music too. About half the campus will come and be in Vanderbilt gear and attire and cheer at the games and the other half, a lot of them will take dates to the football games, and they’ll get dressed up in Sun Dresses and the guys will wear a Frat-Trastical look, which is Seersucker shorts and a tie and stuff like that and we all go to the games. Sometimes we go late or leave early. We’ll tailgate before hand. That’s kind of football – we still go and cheer them on but it’s not like a big state school where football is everything. Basketball on the other hand is a different story – a lot of people show up for basketball teams – our basketball teams is good so we really enjoy basketball. Baseball’s fun. We have a lot of athletics. I think the ideal student for Vanderbilt is someone who is pretty academic and knows how to study and is willing to forward the work and is really wants to do something. Someone who’s shown they’ve been successful in the past in academics. Also someone who is gonna be pretty social and enjoy going out and having a good time. I think its someone who’s gonna be involved in a lot of stuff,