The Vandy Admissions Blog

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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Brad February 6th, 2009

Hello Vandy Admissions Blog Readers,

The allegations are true. Early Decision II letters are in the mail. We are in the process of compiling the statistical data and will release the information in the coming days.

Best of luck to all applicants and congratulations to all new Commodores.

• Application Process , College Application Guides , College Confidential , Uncategorized
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Thom January 20th, 2009

Here’s some calendar items that are going on behind the scenes in our office and at VU:

• Today several of us will meet to discuss the upcoming Early Decision II committee, and get an early aggregate look at the pool.  Based on this we will set our committee schedule (how often we will meet and when . . . it’s really not that exciting). 
• Also today, The Commons Center and the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center will be having public viewings and discussions of Barack Obama’s historic inauguration.
• This weekend is the first of several Blair School of Music audition weekends - good luck to all who are participating.
• Early Decision II committees start a week from this Thursday and will run through that following weekend.

The essential cool things you need to know about the famed music scene in Nashville:

• You can keep up with the newest artists from Nashville and around the U.S. through  The Nashville Scene’s Digital Jukebox. 
• You can literally hear great live music every night in Nashville, and for pretty cheap when you do.
• The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, in addition to possessing a staggering classical composer and symphonic collection also maintains a large rock, blues, and pop music collection.  From the Beatles, to Radiohead, Chuck Berry to The Shins, it’s all yours for checking out free if you’re a Vandy student, faculty member, alum, or VU staff member (score).

• Admissions Committee , Application Process , Balance , Blair School of Music , Commons , Early Decision , Freshman Commons , Music , Nashville
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Thom December 19th, 2008

Q&A Time:

Q - How do I check the completeness of my application (i.e., do you have my stuff)? 

A - Call 800-288-0432 between 8am-5pm CST or email us at admissions@vanderbilt.edu.  We started running double shifts with our processing staff a couple weeks ago to be able to handle the mountain of paper (remember last year?).  Postmarked deadline for both ED2 and RD is Jan 3 (and yes, we know that’s a Saturday).

Q - What about merit scholarships and financial aid, when are the applications for them due?

A - The postmark deadline for both the Cornelius Vanderbilt and the Chancellor’s Merit Scholarships are also Jan 3.  For our need-based aid we use both the CSS PROFILE, which is available now and the FAFSA which goes live on Jan 1st.  The preferential deadline for Vanderbilt receiving both of those is Feb 1 for RD.

Q - Several months ago VU announced a big enhancement to student aid where need-based student loans in financial award packages will be replaced with gift aid starting with the next incoming class (2009).  With the worsening economy, are you still going through with that?

A - Yes, absolutely.  [We have actually heard this question a handful of times and we're proud to give the answer]

Q - I was just admitted at ED1.  What’s my next step? 

A - Well, I suppose you join the VU 2013 facebook group and write “I’m so stoked!” on the message board, thank your mom and dad for all their sacrifice and toil in raising you, enjoy the holidays, keep your grades up (seriously, its called a contingent offer of admission for a reason), cheer on the ‘Dores in the Music City Bowl on Dec 31, and look for the bigger admit packet to be sent around April 1 when it goes out to the entire admitted class (but maybe not in that order).

Stats you can’t use - even if you tried:

According to the Social Security Adminstration, the most popular baby names for the years of 1990 and 1991 (the years when most of the newly minted incoming ED1 class of 2013 were born) were the following:

1990 & 1991:

The top names of the 2009 VU ED1 admitted class?

There are 160 different female names and 130 unique male names in the incoming ED1 class. 

• Application Process , Early Decision , File Reading Explained , VU Admissions Statistics , Vandy Athletics
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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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