kiseika

This. Every school's administration is mired in bureaucracy, and there's always drama between the academics and the administrators. The poor administrative staff who work in the departments are the ones who get caught in the middle and who end up telling prospective grad students about drama. I'm sure there exist a few schools where it's all sunshine and lollipops, but I think the two sides will always be fundamentally opposed.

I did my undergrad at Vandy, and I'm 99% likely to be back this fall. Vandy's made a big push in the last few years to have all the undergrads living on campus, so that means that A) I can't really answer your first question, and the undergrads are fairly well contained. From what I've been researching and know from past experience, living right next to campus gets pretty pricey, but it drops off pretty quickly as you go further out. Vandy's in a nicer part of town, and there are plenty of places to live nearby. I'm planning on finding something bike- or walkable. There are plenty of places to eat nearby, but grocery options are limited unless you can drive out to the bigger stores. There's a grocery store on West End near campus, but it's nothing like the stores a suburban kid like me is used to. Of course, I haven't lived there in 4 years, so maybe it's changed? As for the rowdiness...the undergrads, like I said, are mostly contained on campus. Certain areas like frat row can get pretty bad on the weekends, but it's all on campus and not near any off campus residences. With the addition of the freshman commons after I left, I'm sure the feel of the different areas has changed now that there are more upperclassmen in formerly freshman dorms, but I can't imagine it's changed all that much. Otherwise, I have to say (having been one) that the undergrads are largely a sharp group. Lack of diversity's an issue they've been trying to tackle, and you get plenty of people from southern, monied backgrounds, but I think it's something that's been improving. (My group of friends looked like the Small World ride at Epcot, so it wasn't an issue for me.) Owing to the wealthier, southern background, the student body tends to be a little more conservative than you might expect at a private university Vandy's size, but it's not in your face (like it is at the university I work at now). Hope that answers some of your questions. I'm sure a native Nashvillian or one who hasn't only lived in the Vandy bubble has a different take on things.

I'm actually finding myself in a similar situation. My girlfriend and I are both going for advanced degrees this fall, her for speech pathology, no less, and me for a sociology PhD. Her best chance is local and my best offer is about 4 hours away. We applied to many of the same places, and knowing that she had a good chance of staying local, I extended my search here. Nonetheless, we're readying ourselves for the possibility of spending the next two years apart. We're not married either because that would add a lot of unnecessary stress to our already busy, stressful lives, so I totally understand if you've got similar reasons. Anyway, I agree with everyone else. If you're in it for the long haul, you ultimately have to do what will benefit the both of you in the future. 2 years will (hopefully) seem like a little blip in the grand scheme of things. The worst part, I think, is if you already have a shared life together, splitting that up won't be easy. I'm not looking forward to all the cheap furniture I'll have to buy (and there's no Ikea where I'm planning on going!), but at least I get the big TV? But like ej said, it might be a good, albeit lonely, last taste of independence, and it should help both of us focus on our studies. Aaaand...thank god for Skype and text messaging and all those other things that make the long distance thing much easier.