Vanderbilt Education

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Vandysmith
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Vanderbilt Education

Post by Vandysmith »

How important is a Vandy degree. Only a few will ever play in the pro. What is the reason, the playing time or doing the class work? It three time harder to get a team to gel together. This why the blue blood school are getting left behind.


dore74
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by dore74 »

I've wondered the same. Do kids who play major sports at VU do better (have better career opportunities, not necessarily just make more money) than kids in state schools. I'm not sure if this has ever been or could ever be measured.
Clearly a motivated kid at UT (there i said it) could get a great education on par with a VU education. All major state schools offer quality educations. But does the VU experience or does the type of athlete VU draws make a difference.
Very, very interested in what others think.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by Foreverhopeful »

I think it does make a difference. Of course, there are a lot of other factors in play- how motivated is the student, what is the field of study, how "academic" was the student-athlete when he/she arrived, etc. Look at Festus- I think his degree and the communication skills he developed at Vandy helped him after his pro career ended. The internship opportunities that are provided are a real plus, too. I think we do attract student athletes who appreciate the academics, but it does make it harder on them. A couple of the parents of athletes have told me that it really is a challenge- not just the rigor of the courses, but the time commitment as well. One current grad student had a final due at midnight the night before a big game. There is some latitude, but it is still a challenge and wears them out a bit.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by LawoftheWest »

Foreverhopeful wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:19 pm I think it does make a difference. Of course, there are a lot of other factors in play- how motivated is the student, what is the field of study, how "academic" was the student-athlete when he/she arrived, etc. Look at Festus- I think his degree and the communication skills he developed at Vandy helped him after his pro career ended. The internship opportunities that are provided are a real plus, too. I think we do attract student athletes who appreciate the academics, but it does make it harder on them. A couple of the parents of athletes have told me that it really is a challenge- not just the rigor of the courses, but the time commitment as well. One current grad student had a final due at midnight the night before a big game. There is some latitude, but it is still a challenge and wears them out a bit.
Good points, but not 100% on target with the original post.

If you were an employer, or admissions officer at a graduate school, who would you rather take? Someone who graduated first in their class from a lower level academic school, say East Tennessee State, or last in their class from Harvard?

Me, I would take the East Tennessee State graduate all of the time. They have shown discipline, hard work, organization, determination and so many other positive qualities. The Harvard graduate just shows that he/she had enough brains to get into Harvard, but never used their talents.

Does this mean that the Vandy education for athletes is useless? Of course not. An employer/admissions officer has to look at the entire person. Graduating from Vandy is a plus, especially while playing a major sport. The type of major also is meaningful. Let's face it. We do have a few majors geared towards athletes. Those majors are less rigorous. Contrast them with QMB who is working on a masters in engineering.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by Vandysmith »

I just like to say that I value everybody opinion on this subject. I'm sixty-seven and didn't have a college education experience and don't know about this.
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Seadog73
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by Seadog73 »

2 points. It is exceptionally rare to hear about a former VU athlete getting in trouble with the law (yes, I know about Zac). While not common, athletes from our SEC brethren seem to have more post-departure problems of one sort or another.

Personal story. The admissions director at a law school told me point blank that he would rather have a C student from VU than most A students from other SEC schools. Not all, but most.

FWIW, Al.com has an article from time to time comparing average wages/income for graduates of colleges in Alabama, and I think it compares starting income and then 5 or 10 years out. If they can figure it out, someone in Tennessee can.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by historybill »

It's been a while, but I still shake my head that Keegan Bell transferred from Vanderbilt to UT Chattanooga after his freshman year. The guy was getting a lot of playing time on a top-20 team as a true freshman and had a full ride at Vanderbilt, which I would have thought was a pretty good deal.

I guess if you want to coach basketball, it really doesn't matter from where you get your degree.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by Obvious »

I didn’t attend Vanderbilt but I know the requirements to get into the school. Anyone care to share their academic experience at Vanderbilt. What’s the course work load? Are the athletes in class? Can you quantify how hard it is in the classroom? I’ve always thought of the University with the utmost respect but I don’t know what a day in the life is for a Vanderbilt student.
If some kids just want to play basketball then they’re free to pursue playing time elsewhere and I respect that too.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by VirginiaDore »

The idea that a C average at a highly prestigious institution of higher learning trumps an A average at a more ordinary college or university has consoled many a mediocre undergraduate at elite schools—right up until senior year, when the rejection letters from med, law, and grad programs begin to arrive.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by charlestonalum »

Well, I was dean of a medIcal school and our admissions folks valued applicants from prestigious schools and athletes from any school higher than from lesser schools or non varsity sthletes. But they did have to have decent grades and MEDCAT scores. Everthing equal they got in.
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mathguy
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by mathguy »

Something that I don't think I've seen mentioned here is ... consider the degree and the career field.

Peabody is great. As near as I can tell, it deserves its lofty ranking. As a classroom teacher, my Vandy degree has not opened up more job opportunities for me, nor has it led to better pay. Now if I had an interest in education policy at the state or federal level I might tell a different story.

VU may help in getting into med school/law school ... but likely not to the point where a Vandy grad can get into a med/law school while a non Vandy grad just has to pick an entirely different career. Now, if your goal is to practice corporate law or work on federal cases and intern with the Supreme Count or work for the Mayo clinic as a research doctor on the medical end then yes ... that Vandy education is apt to put you on a path towards a more competitive law/med school to help you get that. If you are wanting to become a GP or even a specialist that focuses on patient care instead of research or wanting to go into family law ... well, not sure that Vandy degree is unusually beneficial.

Social work. Psychology/mental health counseling. Small business owner. There are a whole host of professions where that Vanderbilt degree doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot except for possibly making you 5-10% more employable, and certainly doesn't really affect future earnings.

So what is the value of the Vandy degree? Honestly, the answer is "it depends".
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by Seadog73 »

I was at VU 69-73. There weren't many athletes majoring in English. But I did see them regularly in other classes.
As for law school, there were some quirks to my experience, just as there were in my undergrad admissions process. Undergrad, I was admitted at VU (no legacy), wait-listed at UNC (never admitted as I recall) and admitted at Auburn (family school). Law school was odd because I applied I think 3 years in a row while trying to get the Navy to transfer me to JAG and send me to law school. That never happened. I know that one year I was wait-listed at VU and rejected at Alabama. Go figure. When my commitment to the Navy was up, I went to Cumberland because all my family was in Birmingham, and, since I was paying my own way, living at home was a big plus.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by vandy05 »

I can tell you from experience that the type of student-athlete that Vanderbilt attracts is different from what other schools attract. Its true that not every VU player can play at other SEC schools, but from an academic perspective they can all hack it there. When you see a player choose VU over a Kentucky, you can almost guarantee that he did so because he is interested in academics in the long haul. Because of that, he is going to "do better". Of my friends from VU who were scholarship athletes and with whom I speak regularly, one is a CFO, one is a doctor, another is an attorney, one is a software developer, one is a financial advisor, another is a department director at a major health insurance company, an investment banker, one works on special programs for the DoD. I could keep going, but you get the point. They're really successful people. They majored in HOD, econ, engineering, various A&S majors. Its a potpourri of everything you'd be proud of as a Vanderbilt fan.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by Minoadoc »

Seadog73 wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 3:22 pm 2 points. It is exceptionally rare to hear about a former VU athlete getting in trouble with the law (yes, I know about Zac). While not common, athletes from our SEC brethren seem to have more post-departure problems of one sort or another.

Personal story. The admissions director at a law school told me point blank that he would rather have a C student from VU than most A students from other SEC schools. Not all, but most.

FWIW, Al.com has an article from time to time comparing average wages/income for graduates of colleges in Alabama, and I think it compares starting income and then 5 or 10 years out. If they can figure it out, someone in Tennessee can.
The same thing happened when my daughter, class 2011, applied to medical school
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by historybill »

I went to Vanderbilt in the 1980s and am convinced that both me and about 4/5 of the friends I had then would not have gotten into the university today. Also, my son had a higher ACT score (33) than I did and a much higher GPA than I did, but there was no way he was going to get in, because he wasn't president of his class or a concert pianist or whatever.

But I've followed his academic load closely and can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is working harder on his biosystems engineering/environmental engineering degree at UT-Knoxville than I did when I doubled majored in Math/Russian at VU all those years ago. It's not even close. He's working his ass off.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by FayetteDore »

Three very interesting articles on colleges in today's NYT:

We Talked to 10 Gaduates About Their College Regrets

There's Only One College Rankings List That Matters

Build Your Own College Rankings

EDIT: These are PREMIUM articles.
Last edited by FayetteDore on Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by volemtine »

Vandysmith wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:04 am How important is a Vandy degree. Only a few will ever play in the pro. What is the reason, the playing time or doing the class work? It three time harder to get a team to gel together. This why the blue blood school are getting left behind.
Blue bloods don’t graduate their players anywhere near the rate of Vandy and other highly ranked universities. Vandy recruits have an appreciation of their careers after basketball. Where you earned your degree definitely matters.
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by commadore »

None of which we can read because they are all PREMIUM!
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FayetteDore
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by FayetteDore »

commadore wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:11 am
None of which we can read because they are all PREMIUM!
Funny, I read them all. Did you work for free?
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Re: Vanderbilt Education

Post by Obvious »

FayetteDore wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 8:36 am
commadore wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:11 am
None of which we can read because they are all PREMIUM!
Funny, I read them all. Did you work for free?
I have a ny time’s subscription. It’s extremely cheap in your first year.
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