This is a follow-up to AthensDAWGGA's response to KDawg59's original post below. And I am not touching on the subject of Vandy's academic majors.

I agree that UGA would like to be perceived as a Vandy. But given the different missions of a private vs. public university, do we really appreciate the difficulty of that challenge? For example, Vandy has a much smaller enrollment and thus a much smaller entering freshman class. It is a given that the more limited freshman slots are, the more select a school can be. Add to that the fact that, as best I recall, 85% of UGA's student body must come from in-state. I don't believe that Vandy is similarly limited in terms of where it can draw its enrollment from..

Granted there are public universities that rank above UGA and in the same category as Vandy [UVA and Cal/Berkeley are two that come immediately to mind].

I just think we ought to have some appreciation that as long as we are faced with the 85% requirement and a much larger student body that it will be a serious challenge to rival Vandy in terms of public perception.

I have often wished that a study could be made using Vandy's admittance requirements to a UGa application process based on a similar number of freshman slots and without regard to the state of origin of said applicant. Not saying we would equal Vandy, at least not in the short term, but am guessing the degree of separation would be greatly lessened.

Just my 2 cents worth.