Just Livin’ the Dream

Chris Adkins October 1st, 2008

Tuition: $36,100
Housing: $7,828
Meals: $4,200
Books and Supplies: $1,208
Fees: $905
Personal: $2,062
Grand total for a year at Vanderbilt: $52,303

At the same time:
60% of undergrads receive some form of financial aid.
39% receive need-based grants.
Over $28 million was awarded in the form of grants or scholarships to this year’s freshman class.

Vanderbilt has been extremely generous. Without the scholarship that Vanderbilt gave me I wouldn’t be here right now. Many people I know are in the same situation; students from middle class families are often in an awkward position where they don’t qualify for the best types of aid available (such as grants instead of loans) yet can’t really afford to take out the loans that they are offered. For Vanderbilt students, that’s about to change.

Last night at midnight, Chancellor Zeppos announced Vanderbilt’s new expanded aid program to current students (copied below for your perusal). With this announcement, Vanderbilt is committing to reduce the debt of students by meeting all of their financial need with grants instead of loans. This move makes Vanderbilt more affordable for a significant portion of current Vanderbilt students and opens the doors to four years here for many potential applicants.

We’ve been lucky enough to be a need-blind institution already for quite some time now, which obviously helps us be able to admit some of the best and brightest students here without regard for their financial standing. Now, as Vanderbilt becomes cheaper with this switch to grants in lieu of loans, hopefully more and more of those students will be able to attend without any reservations stemming from their ability to repay loans after graduation.

These are exciting times. And it’s doubtless that even more changes are right around the corner. That’s the great thing about Vanderbilt; as I heard someone describe a few weeks ago, some top schools expect you to be honored to attend whereas Vanderbilt is honored to have you. This attitude leads to constant innovation on the part of the administration resulting from reflection on student life and input from students themselves, ultimately leading to changes like this and the realization of other revolutionary ideas such as the Commons. It seems like the quality of life at Vanderbilt improves year by year, and for that I am deeply grateful.

Chancellor Zeppos’ letter:

Dear Vanderbilt Students:

I write today to share with you some exciting news about an initiative that will make a Vanderbilt education more accessible to talented undergraduate students. Beginning in fall 2009, the university will eliminate need-based loans and replace them with Vanderbilt grants and scholarships for all undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need. This step is in keeping with Vanderbilt’s commitment that ability, achievement and hard work - not a family’s financial circumstances - should determine access to a great education.

For our current seniors who will graduate in May 2009, this new initiative will be extended for the 2009 spring semester, and any need-based loans in your financial package for the spring 2009 semester will be replaced with institutional grants. Eligible seniors will receive revised financial assistance letters by mid-November.

Over the past seven years, Vanderbilt has worked aggressively to reduce student loan debt, and this enhanced financial aid initiative is the pinnacle of that strategy and represents the foresight of our Board of Trust.

Funding for this new initiative will come from a combination of strategic internal allocations and increased scholarship endowment, including an additional $100 million in gifts and pledges that will be sought through the university’s Shape the Future campaign, which already has allowed us to reduce students’ loan debt by 17 percent over the past several years.

You will hear much more about this new initiative in the coming weeks and months, but I wanted you to be among the first to know about this very significant moment in the life of your university. This bold step will allow Vanderbilt to continue recruiting the most highly achieving students in a very competitive way and will strengthen our mission of nurturing a student body composed of young men and women of all economic, cultural and geographic backgrounds. For when our campus population is reflective of our greater society, it further enriches the Vanderbilt experience for all of us. To read more about the new initiative, please visit the Web site Vanderbilt University: Expanded Aid Program.

Sincerely,

Nicholas S. Zeppos
Chancellor

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Chris Adkins September 22nd, 2008

Hey all! Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. These past few weeks have been a little bit crazy.

First off, I’ve had my hands full with crew activities. Since the team seemed to evaporate at the end of last year, what with people graduating and others going abroad, we decided to reduce the number of officers from seven to four. Unfortunately, we were four officers very committed to an aggressive recruitment strategy at the beginning of the season so now we have about thirty five people on the team, all to be managed by us four! Even though it can be a bit overwhelming at times, it feels great to look out at everyone in the pre-dawn hours out at Percy Priest Lake so excited to be rowing.

The other thing that’s been keeping me so occupied (besides tests and papers, those unrelenting burdens) is medical school interviews. As the UC Berkeley career website says so matter-of-factly, “applying to medical school is costly and time consuming.” Preparing for them - not to mention actually getting to them - has proven to require much more time than I had imagined. Just like so many people rowing, though, this “problem” is more of a blessing in disguise. It’s not even October yet and I’ve already received six interview invitations, so I’m feeling really loved right now. And, maybe even luckier for me, my parents are being awesome enough to pay for all the travel costs associated with the interviews. Given that the average cost of applying to med school is around $3,000 to $5,000, I couldn’t be happier!

I’ll try to think of a good Vandy issue to delve into next time a la my previous alcohol post. Let me know if you want to hear about anything!

And, last but not least: Go ‘Dores! 4-0!

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Chris Adkins September 1st, 2008

Pledging - the process of becoming a member of a fraternity - is a big topic at Vanderbilt. Last week, however, a different kind of pledging was making the news here on campus. This one concerned an “Alcohol Abstinence Pledge,” drafted by Tony Brown, head of Hank Ingram House at the Commons. Dr. Brown presented this pledge during orientation week to the nearly 300 residents he oversees in Hank Ingram. When only about 1/3 of the students agreed to sign, Dr. Brown posted this satirical letter from “John B. Firstyear” in response. Essentially, Dr. Brown criticized - rather harshly, in my opinion - 200 of his residents for failing to sign the pledge. An excerpt from the letter:

As an 18 year old, it is important for me to fit in with the popular students at all costs. Everybody knows that underage drinking is rampant at Vanderbilt, and that it’s sexy and cool.

As you may have guessed, this letter stirred up some emotions on campus. The campus newspaper, the Vanderbilt Hustler, published an editorial soon after in which they asserted that “Brown’s passive-aggressive response is irresponsible.” They continue:

While Brown’s principled stance and desire to change the culture is admirable, his self-described sharp critique of what he perceives as a Vanderbilt culture hung up on binge drinking seems to undercut the voluntary spirit of the pledge. Should Brown use his position as a faculty head of house to speak out against underage drinking? Absolutely. But was it responsible to expect students to sign a voluntary pledge and then criticize and stereotype those who chose not do so? Probably not.

I find myself joining with the Hustler’s editors in criticizing Dr. Brown for potentially alienating a good portion of his residents right at the start of the year when it is he who is should be available for them to discuss just such issues. After this letter, it is hard to believe that a student struggling with the decision of whether to participate in drinking will feel that he can find worthwhile counsel in his Head of House.

Frank Wcislo, Dean of the Commons, responded to both Dr. Brown’s letter and the Hustler’s editorial. While he writes that, “I will admit that I would not have written the letter,” he also says that he does not disagree with the pledge or, it seems at a fundamental level, the letter. From the paragraph beginning with that sentence, Dean Wcislo presents a nuanced view of the conditions surrounding the pledge and the reaction to it. He later writes that, “Life in The Commons, and really at Vanderbilt, is much more complex than some drink, some don’t, some are greek, some aren’t.” I could not agree with him more.

I feel that many incoming students picture a bifurcated Vanderbilt: a Greek life and an independent life, a drinking life and an abstinent life. Like Dean Wcislo says, things just aren’t that simple. While there are certainly binge drinkers and teetotalers here, just as at nearly all other colleges, I’ve found that most people fall somewhere in the middle. Do freshmen drink? Sure, but not nearly all of them. Do people need to drink alcohol to have fun or to “fit in with the popular students” as Dr. Brown writes? No, I know plenty of people who chose not to drink and had just as much fun as anyone else.

Being a part of the Vanderbilt community entails accepting and respecting others’ choices, even if they clash with your own values. However, this does not mean that disagreement and constructive discussion have to be suppressed simply to maintain a veneer of pleasantry. Dr. Brown pushed these boundaries with his letter and, while I think he went too far, I am glad to see that it has sparked an honest discussion of this important issue for our campus.

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Chris Adkins August 24th, 2008

There is a sign on the Jewish Life Center here on campus that says “Welcome Home to New and Returning Students.” When I was an incoming freshman, I think I would have considered this sign to be edging on the ridiculous. Home? That’s back in Florida. This is Vanderbilt; this is school. After three years here, though, I can’t help but feel like it’s the truth. Last night I was catching up with one of my friends and she commented that it feels like she never left for summer. I think that’s the true indication of how much Vanderbilt becomes a home for its students. The situation reminds me of old friends: if you feel really comfortable with a person, it doesn’t matter how much time passes between conversations. When you reunite you instantly click, able to joke and talk without missing a beat.

The fact that this is my last year at Vanderbilt - my last year at home - is affecting me more than I thought it would. One of the secondary essays for the Vanderbilt School of Medicine asks for an autobiography. I’d like to share part of that essay here because I think it is a great description of how I feel about Vanderbilt.

This process continued more or less the same throughout the first eighteen years of my life, punctuated by involvement in activities as diverse as my time in Model Student Senate to being Vice-President of the student body of my high school. And then it happened. One fateful day in late March I received a thin letter in the mail from Vanderbilt. I was crushed, thinking that the thinness of the envelope equated to a rejection. Morosely opening the letter prepared for the worst, I got what may be the most important single piece of news of my life to this point: I had gotten a scholarship which, along with my National Merit scholarship and a few other community funds, would defray the formidable cost of Vanderbilt enough to allow me to attend. It was the beginning of what has turned out to be the three most exciting, rewarding, and fun years of my life so far.

Born and raised in a largely homogeneous community in terms of both race and socioeconomic status, I reveled in the chance to meet other students who hailed from all over the country, from California (my roommate sophomore year) to New York (my roommate this year). I have met students who are the first in their family to attend college and students whose great-grandparents walked the same sidewalks at Vanderbilt that we are walking today. I have met students who are here thanks to a full financial need scholarship and students who fly into Nashville on private jets. Despite these seemingly vast differences, we are all able to come together, united by our passions; whether for engineering, medicine, art, or economics, we are actively involved students. This fact has not passed me by lightly. I have come to treasure the unifying environment Vanderbilt offers that allows students from incredibly diverse backgrounds to form a community so seamless that the differences all but disappear, superseded by the commonalities that bind us together.

Along with the other activities in which I have become involved that I have described in my other essays, I believe that Vanderbilt both as an institution and as an experience has played the most important role in shaping me as a maturing young adult. I could not have asked for a better past three years and hope that you grant me the opportunity to continue to grow as a person and as a physician here for the next four.

That I would devote such a large part of my autobiography to Vanderbilt is telling. This place has come to be so much more than just school; it has grown to be an important part of who I am. I hope for their sake that in three years these new freshmen can see that “Welcome Home” sign and feel the same way.

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Chris Adkins August 15th, 2008

No ands, ifs, or buts about it: home life is boring. After three years of Vandy life, one grows accustomed to excitement on a daily basis. From the huge number of clubs eager for your membership to your friends right down the hall, college life is an exercise in juggling twenty different activities at once. Home life, on the other hand, is a little bit slower with long summer days stretching out, filled with leisurely completion of med school secondaries, endless hours of Olympics coverage, and lots of naps. Luckily, Vandy kids hail from all over the country, making visits possible to break up the summer doldrums.

My friend and teammate came to visit me last week, giving both of us a good diversion from summer jobs and hanging out with parents. Although my hometown of Melbourne has earned the nickname of “Melboring” among the younger crowd due to the dearth of fun, I took Isa’s visit as an opportunity to try to show my city in the best and most thrilling light. The best I could come up with was a trip to the pool, the ice skating rink, my high school, and a baseball game. Upon learning of our schedule, Isa momentarily questioned my idea of a “packed itinerary” that I had proclaimed I had in store. I responded that in Melbourne during the summer a day involving a journey to the library represents a day worth remembering. Despite the lack of activities, we made the most of our time, having fun regardless of what we were doing. I can’t say, though, that her visit didn’t make me want to return to campus that much more to see everyone else.

Luckily, I’ll be going back to Vanderbilt in just a few days, so my next post should be substantially more exciting. Until then, keep hanging in there.

P.S. - I tried to upload some sweet pictures of my week but there’s some sort of HTTP error. I’ll work on getting it figured out so you can enjoy the sights of Melbourne.

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Chris Adkins August 7th, 2008

Trying to think of how to start off this reincarnation of my old blog, I went back to Commodore in Spain to take a look at how I introduced myself a little less than a year ago when the Vandy Blogs were just starting off. With another year of life under my belt including nearly four months in Madrid, I thought that I would be a changed man. I guess I was a little too ambitious…

Crew team? Still doing that, although now that I’m an officer and a van driver, my mornings start closer to 4:30 than 4:38 (big change, I know). Research with Dr. Friedman? You guessed it; I’m still chugging away at the lab bench, producing data on telomerase mutants like none other (except for all the other undergrads and grad students in my lab, I suppose!). In fact, I just returned home from Vanderbilt where I continued my research over the summer as well as mentored my wonderful rising sophomore intern Jessica so she can develop her own research project over the coming years. And, as for that paper I was so excited about, it finally made it to print (caution: link not for the faint of heart)! Interpreting at Matthew Walker? Well, pretty close. Instead of interpreting at the low-cost Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, I now interpret at the free Shade Tree Clinic, a facility operated nearly entirely by Vanderbilt medical students. It’s been an unbelievably rewarding and educational experience and is one that I hope to continue until the day of graduation.

While I dabble in a few other activities on campus, these remain my big three, the ones that have already made me homesick for Vanderbilt after being at my real Florida home for only about a week. Over the next year, then, you can expect to hear a lot about them, hopefully giving you a better idea of the myriad activities available to Vanderbilt students (and hopefully it might just convince a few of you to give crew a shot!).

Another theme that you can expect to read about over the coming months is medical school. Or, better said, applying to medical school. Since it has consumed my life over the past month and secondary application essays are likely to consume it for the next month, it will inevitably sneak into this blog. If lady luck is on my side, I might even get to write about all the great cities and schools I travel to for interviews. Wish me luck; heaven knows anyone going through this process can use as much as they can get!

Until next time.

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