What’s A Vanderbilt Student Anyway?
Okay, so, here’s the thing. Vanderbilt is hard. It is harder than a lot of schools. Our classes are more challenging than average. There’s no denying that. This is a school for people who enjoy a challenge. This is a school for people who love learning. This is a school for the driven.
Getting into Vanderbilt is hard. We are a top 20 university with a serious reputation. Our acceptance rate is under 10%. So one would think that Vanderbilt students have a certain confidence factor. I mean, if Vanderbilt is such a prestigious school then one would think that a Vanderbilt student might consider themselves prestigious in some sense of the word.
This does not seem to be the case. In fact, nearly the opposite. Most students at Vanderbilt, at least the ones I hang out with, seem to think their acceptance into Vanderbilt was a mistake–some sort of an oversight. I hear, all too often, that students don’t think they are worthy. They don’t see their own potential, and they don’t believe in their own accomplishments.
I am definitively one of these students. All too often I find myself wondering “Why me?”
Too often, I find myself questioning whether or not I actually deserve to be at Vanderbilt. It’s a horrible affliction, but not an uncommon one. So many of my classmates, even the most accomplished amongst us, find themselves questioning whether or not they are good enough to be at one of the best universities in the nation.
I find this phenomenon inspiring. I know, I know, we should have confidence in ourselves, and, most of the time, we do, but it’s that questioning nature that drives us. That feeling that we need to fight for our spot at Vanderbilt even after we’ve been admitted is what makes us worthy to be here.
Vanderbilt students never get enough. We keep accomplishing bigger and better things. It is because of that occasional doubt that we are driven to be the best that we can be.
It’s what has made me the student I am today. Seeing my amazingly passionate and talented classmates accomplish so much so quickly has always pushed me to try to do the same.
I went from a town of 4,000 in Kentucky to a city of over 600,000 in Tennessee, but I did not fade. I am a perpetual Dean’s List student, a radio DJ, a marketing intern, and I am a student leader in three organizations. I mean not to brag, but merely to remind myself and others that I do deserve to be at Vanderbilt because I am constantly fighting to show that I deserve to be at Vanderbilt, and I am not alone in that fight.
Being a Vanderbilt student is a truly powerful thing, and I am loving every second of it.
Heather out.