The Vandy Admissions Blog

Thom March 26th, 2009

Decision letters for the next great incoming class at Vanderbilt University have officially left 2305 West End Avenue!

Last year’s incoming class was historic.  For a year now, the Vanderbilt class of 2012, the first Commons class, was able to boast about being the most diverse, best prepared group of incoming students ever seen at Vanderbilt.  After this coming Fall, the class of 2012 will not be able to say that anymore. 

In several ways, Vanderbilt’s applicant pool had a breakthrough year in terms of the overall quality, depth of character, diversity, and intellectualism.  Some highlights of this amazing applicant pool include:­­­

• 19,350 applications received, up 16% over last year and setting a new Vanderbilt record.
• Vanderbilt’s geographic diversity continues to expand as students from around the United States and overseas consider Vanderbilt an academic destination. This year’s applicants hail from all 50 US States, 13 US Territories and Military Bases, and 97 foreign countries, up from 77 just two years ago.
• The exploding growth in the ethnic diversity of Vanderbilt’s applicant pool continued yet again this year, with all underrepresented groups registering double-digit increases in applications over last year:
  • African-American: Up 15%
  • Asian: Up 20%
  • Hispanic: Up 18%
  • Native-American: Up 33%
  • Other Minority: Up 10%
  • International: Up 38%
• This year’s applicant pool featured the highest level of academic preparation in Vanderbilt’s history as evidenced by students enrolling in the most demanding curriculum offered at their high school.
• Most impressively, our applicant pool set a new standard of engagement and leadership at the high school, community, regional, national, and international level.

As a result, our staff had the difficult task of selecting the students who will make up another historically accomplished and diverse incoming class at Vanderbilt.

Statistically, below is a breakdown of the students admitted for the Vanderbilt class of 2013.  It is critical to understand that these figures are provided to assist you in contextualizing our decisions, and have never been, and never will be, firm cut-offs in our process.  The middle 50% standardized testing bands mean that, for example, 25% of students admitted had below a 1400 SAT (M+CR) or an ACT composite below a 31, and 25% had above a 1560 or a 34. We believe strongly in the merits of a truly holistic review process for admission, and these numbers cannot fully capture everything that gets considered - leadership, character, intellectual verve, and overall fit with Vanderbilt, for example. 

• Admit Rate: 18.9%
• Middle 50% SAT Reasoning (M+CR): 1400 - 1560
• Middle 50% ACT Composite: 31 - 34
• Percent of admitted class in top 10% of their graduating high school class: 92.15%*
• Gender breakdown:
  • Female: 49.1%
  • Male: 50.9%

*Figures only represent admitted students for whom we have official rank information from their high school.

Our office will be closed to the public tomorrow (Friday, 3/27).  We will not release decisions over the phone until Wednesday, April 1^st.  If you have not received your decision by then, please feel free to call our office (800.288.0432).

Congratulations to the newest members of the Vanderbilt community!

• Application Process , VU Admissions Statistics
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Brad February 9th, 2009

To the Vandyblogger Community:

It was a great weekend. We all got a brief chance to relax between mailing ED 2 letters on Friday and finding freshly stacked, unread bins of regular decision applications Monday. As promised, here are some are some statistical data points regarding the 2009 Early Decision pool. Remember, it is our practice to report both ED rounds together.

Middle 50% SAT (CR+M): 1330-1480
Middle 50% ACT: 30-33
% in Top Ten % of Graduating Class*: 87.4%
Average Rank in Class*: 5.5
Overall Admit Rate: 37.9%

* Data reported only from students enrolled in schools that provide exact rank information.

This was the most talented and diverse group in Vanderbilt history. We are delighted to welcome such remarkable students into the class of 2009. This year, due to the academic depth and unprecedented diversity of the ED pool (ethnically and geographically), we took a few more than last year. For those awaiting for ED 2 letters, remember that all ED letters come in standard sized envelopes. For those admitted, congratulations and welcome to the Vanderbilt community.

Regular Decision Application Update

As of today, we have received a total of 19,244 applications for the Vanderbilt entering class of 2009, the most ever received at Vanderbilt.  We are humbled and excited by the growth of our applicant pool over last year, and we are looking forward to the tough task of evaluating this next Vanderbilt class. While the full scope of the quality of the pool is still being sorted out, I can tell you that similar to our ED pool, the RD pool looks like the most competitive and diverse we’ve ever seen. We are looking to enroll an incoming class of between 1550 to 1570 first year students.  Our target date for mailing those decisions is currently late March.

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Thom December 13th, 2008

Happy December,

The Early Decision letters have officially left 2305 West End Avenue as of noon today. I speak for our whole office when I say that this was a very impressive pool both academically and personally.

Overall, the ED 1 pool was larger (albeit slightly) than in years past and while we were excited to see the pool grow in numbers, we were even more thrilled to see an increase in both depth and talent. Indeed, this was the largest, most talented, and most diverse Early Decision group in Vanderbilt’s history. Regarding diversity, Vanderbilt had significant increases in ED apps from African Americans (up 62%) and Asians or Asian Americans (up 72%). Applications were stable among Latino and American Indian populations. Keep in mind that it is generally our practice to not publish academic quality statistics until the entire admitted class is complete (at the end of regular decision).

Consequently, we had some very interesting and difficult discussions. Ultimately, we admitted slightly more than 45% of Early Decision 1 applicants.

Please remember that we always have, and always will conduct a holistic, need-blind admissions process. So many students augmented their academic performance with co-curricular involvement, leadership, commitment to diversity, intellectualism, creativity, musical talent, and service. We value these, and many other attributes when building a class.

All letters are sent in regular envelopes (i.e., the small ones) with first class postage. Weather, distance from Nashville, and holiday mailing volume all affect arrival times. Our office will release decisions by phone starting next Wednesday.

Congratulations to the newest Commodores, we are delighted that you chose to apply to Vanderbilt.

• Application Process , Diversity at Vanderbilt , Early Decision , VU Admissions Statistics
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Thom September 17th, 2008

Recently, the annual “10^th day” came and went here on Vanderbilt’s campus.  Tenth day, uncreatively referring to the 10^th day of the Fall semester when we line up all the students on alumni lawn and physically count them all.  Well, not really, but we do take a final snapshot of the current state of Vanderbilt’s enrollment (much like the one taken above of the new class of 2012).  It is also when the data on that incoming class becomes final.  In nearly every sense, this year’s Vanderbilt’s incoming class was historic.

 We wanted you to have the final Vanderbilt stats for this year, so here you go:

• Vanderbilt’s Undergraduate Enrollment: 6,637
• Incoming Class of 2008-09: 1,569

Admissions-related statistics for the incoming class of 2008-09:

• Total Applications: 16,944 (up 31% over last year, and nearly doubled since 2000)
• Percent Admitted Overall: 25%
• Percent of incoming class in the top 10% of their HS graduating class: 84%
• SAT (M + CR) Middle 50%: 1330 - 1500
• ACT Composite Middle 50%: 30 - 33
• Different High Schools represented in incoming class: 934
• Percent of incoming class identifying as a student of color: 23%

News you can’t use

In a recent Trendtopper Media Buzz analysis, Vanderbilt University ranked first among national Colleges and Universities in “media momentum,” defined as having the largest growth in references in worldwide media (traditional press and in the Blogosphere) in the past year.

• Diversity at Vanderbilt , Freshman Commons , Standardized Testing , VU Admissions Statistics
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