Vanderbilt University

I will be matriculating at Vanderbilt next fall after having quite singularly dreamed about doing so since I was about twelve. For background: my mother was a Kappa at Baylor as well as a Baylor Beauty, my boyfriend is an SAE at Vandy, and I have spent most of my high school career reading existentialist and post-modernist literature with my Columbia-bound best friend, quoting Tom Stoppard and WB Yeats, hunting down Che Guevara t-shirts and red Converse tennies, fostering my voice's operatic proclivities, learning all the music of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "RENT", and lamenting the fact that I've only been able to don my puffy white debutante gown once for the deb ball. One need not sacrifice one's intellect and individuality in the name of rush week conformity! Who is to say that upon the nightstand of a classic Vandy girl a copy of Cosmo cannot peacefully coexist with the latest issue of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern? A happy Vanderbilt experience need not be relegated only to those who flaunt Ferragamo flats and Prada purses or Thomas Pink ties and Cartier cufflinks. College is what you make of it, no matter where you are. I fully plan on affecting a happy union between the part of me that wants to relocate to the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico to fight alongside the Zapatistas, and the part of me that aspires to masterfully concoct the perfect chicken salad (white meat only!) from the Junior League of Atlanta True Grits cookbook while sweetly explaining that I feel a special affinity for Shelby in the flim "Steel Magnolias" because I too am a diabetic with all of the spitfire and none of the fatal lack of juice. I could not be more excited about my future at Vanderbilt, and I have every intention of both completing a Latin American Studies minor AND rushing for the sheer wash of sororital adrenaline and the amazing, multi-faceted people I know I will meet.

1st Year Female -- Class 2006

Friendliness: A, Individual Value: F

I love Vanderbilt and I hate it at the same time. It is a good place and there are good people, but it is not a place where learning comes first. Work comes first, unfortunately. I came here to learn, not to jump through hoops. I came here get learn, not to take American Studies. If you have a lot of money, come to Vandy. If they pay you to come to Vandy, come to Vandy, but be aware it'll will be hard to fit in if you don't have any money. If you want to learn to be rich this is your place.

4th Year Male -- Class 2003

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Individual Value: C-