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by alephnerd 152 days ago
A case can be made for Atlanta and Richardson/DFW because there is a fairly large preeexisting community already, but you can't deny that Vandy's yield protection is an issue.

Additionally, the CHE article is primarily talking about southern public flagships like UT, Georgia, etc which are targeting a different demographic compared to a Vandy - a university that continues to try and market itself as the "Harvard of the South" and tends to benchmark itself against Ivies, UChicago, and other T15 programs.

> The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse

Yeah no. I'd say the Bay Area and NYC remains the primary hubs for the Desi community, and that's reflected in demographics as well. I don't have complete visibility into the Bangladeshi community, but based on the handful of Bangladeshis I know (families affiliated to BAL or the Army) they and their family ended up in the NYC or DMV with the tech-minded or Hindu Bangladeshis ending up in the Bay.
1 comments
rayiner 152 days ago
Vanderbilt's yield is over 60% in recent classes: https://vanderbilthustler.com/2025/04/11/record-low-4-7-of-a.... That's right around Cornell and Columbia: https://www.ivywise.com/blog/college-yield-rates/. That's entirely consistent with Vanderbilt's ranking and relative lack of international recognition. Nobody in India or China knows what Vanderbilt is, but they know what Cornell and Columbia are. And the "Harvard of the South" framing doesn't mean they think Vanderbilt is comparable to Harvard. It means it's as good as Harvard in the South.

>> The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse > Yeah no. I'd say the Bay Area and NYC remains the primary hubs for the Desi community, and that's reflected in demographics as well.

I mean the southern U.S. is more culturally similar to India/Bangladesh than other parts of the country. SF and NYC remain the hubs because the vast majority of the U.S. Desi population is post-H1B migration and chain migration from that, and those places are where the H1B jobs are. NYC also has the ethnic enclaves and support networks. Bangladeshis don't go to Queens because they love freezing their asses off in winter.

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