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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Thom March 26th, 2009

The day is finally here.  The letters are stuffed, sorted, packed, and checked.  This morning, we will put the finishing touches on all of the decision letters and finally get them out the door later today.

Mailing day is the single greatest day in the yearly cycle of our office, hands down.  It is a celebration of all of the hard work of the great students that have applied as well as of that our dedicated and hard working staff.  Today mostly consists of finalizing letter checking, making last minute corrections, and double checking to make sure everyone who applied for financial aid has info about their aid offer.  All of this culminates in one raucous stripping party.  Hey . . . mind out of the gutter there chief . . . .

The OUA stripping party tradition centers around the hurried and hilariously frantic removal of the paper strips on the priority envelope tabs in order to finally seal them for mailing.  It is a virtual blizzard of flying paper, cheering, laughing, and flash photography.  It is one heck of a catharsis after all the many months of reading. 

After that, it’s a firemen’s brigade from the file room to the waiting USPS truck, last minute group photos, and waving to the truck (and an often bewildered driver who had no idea what he was getting into when he drew this assignment) as it drives away .

I’ll be posting photos taken throughout the day, as well as a more detailed description of that admitted class once the letters have officially left the building.

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Brad March 17th, 2009

Hello Friends.

Committee is in full swing and decisions are getting finalized. Meanwhile, our staff is gearing up for letter printing, decision checking, and mailing. Of course, as March Madness is upon us, several of our hoops meistros have taken the time to discuss the nuances of bracket seeding. There is also a lively debate about the comparative quality of ACC and Big 10 teams. A big congratulations to the Vanderbilt Women who earned a #4 seed and another SEC Tournament championship.

We are on track to mail on Thursday, March 26th. Check out the photos below.

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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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