QUICK POLL: Vanderbilt or Boston University?

[phatj]

Just a quick poll to see which college you prefer. If you have had any experiences with these colleges, post! Thanks

edit: Vanderbilt

Boston University

2nd edit: I am going to choose between either of these 2 colleges or Case Western Reserve to study biomedical engineering (undergrad). Any info you guys have regarding Vanderbilt or BU would be great

 

[phatj]

bumperz

 

[RabidMongoose]

It depends on what kind of person you are. If you're rich, conservative, preppy, a frat type of person, etc. then go to Vanderbilt.

I've been/go to both Vandy and BU. If you have any questions about Vanderbilt undergrad, feel free to ask. I'm at BU grad now.

Undergrad reputation wise - I'd go to Vanderbilt.

 

[Doggiedog]

I'm partial to BU since I went there.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Vanderbilt pros: Top 20 presitgious school, small classes, beautiful campus, nice buildings
Vanderbilt cons: very greek oriented, must be rich, Nashville isn't a nice city IMO, 95% of the people are the same

Keep in mind that I wasn't an undergrad at BU.
BU pros: Boston is cool, tons of students, a lot more variety of students
BU cons: classroom student size is a lot bigger than Vanderbilt from my view, no real campus, I guess tons of students can be here too

Lots more, but that's a quick rundown. I know that Vanderbilt gives out a lot of money. They gave me a huge amount of money to go there. If the costs are the same, I don't think that BU would be worth it.

 

[Gibson486]

BU is a good school, but the campus consists of buildings on 1 street.....

 

[phatj]

I didnt know that Vanderbilt was a top 20 school... that's definitely a plus.

I have a few months to decide so Im not in a rush, but I appreciate the info. If anyone else has experiences or suggestions, lemme know!

Case Western is a great school for biomed engineering but no one really knows about Case or knows how good of a school it is. Not ver prestigious.

That kind of sucks that BU is basically a street of buildings I wasnt aware of that.

 

[RabidMongoose]

I believe that Vanderbilt overall is ranked #18...BU undergrad isn't even in the top 50.

People that know about universities KNOW that Case Western is a good school.

 

[CanOWorms]

I went to Vanderbilt, it's a top 20 school. Case Western is also very prestigious. Just because nobody knows about it doesn't mean that it's not prestigious - everyone that needs to know knows what it is. When I went to CA, nobody really knew what Vanderbilt was, which is normal for any university outside of its region except for a few schools like Harvard, Stanford, etc. The average person probably doesn't even know anything about Dartmouth (people don't even realize that it's an Ivy), but that's still a prestigious school!

BU is basically on one street, and some side streets. It's an urban campus.

I'd go to Vanderbilt or Case Western over BU if the only thing I was considering was overall undergrad academic reputation. But of course other factors come in. Overall, I think if you go to any of those places, you're well off.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Another thing that I should say is that while Vanderbilt is a top 20 ranked school, I've never met so many people that lacked common sense than I have at Vandy...sometimes I wonder how any of those people got accepted into a university.

 

[fyleow]

Case Western? Quick search on collegeboard.com only gives one result and it's like 80% admittance rate

Vanderbilt is one of the schools I'm applying too and I'll probably go there for engineering if I'm accepted.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: fyleow
Case Western? Quick search on collegeboard.com only gives one result and it's like 80% admittance rate

Vanderbilt is one of the schools I'm applying too and I'll probably go there for engineering if I'm accepted.

80%? Are you sure? That sounds way too high.

Vanderbilt has a pretty high acceptance rate for a top 20, but it's deceiving - it's everyone's backup school for the Ivys & Duke. It's nobody's first choice. Or you go there because they give you a ton of money so you go there instead and feel depressed So basically they have to accept a lot of people and only a fraction go!

It's pretty easy to get into Vanderbilt. I believe it's even easier to get into engineering, but the incoming stats for the engineering class are pretty high.

What type of engineering are you applying for? I was an engineer, too.

 

[phatj]

I just read that Vanderbilt's campus is 316 acres large. I knew it was big, but damn!

Case Western Resrve is ranked #5 for BME and I know that BU and Vandy are in the top 20 for BME. Im not overly concerned with prestige, although it is nice to go to a prestigious school. Can O Worms and Rabid, what was your test scores/gpa in high school? Just curious. I should be getting my acceptance letter in a week or so.

Oh and for CanoWorms- how are you doing now that you have graduated from Vanderbilt? Good job, did you go to grad school?

Thanks everyone

 

[CanOWorms]

Oh yeah, as an example of how crappy/poor Nashville is & how rich Vanderbilt is: Vanderbilt is the largest employer in middle Tennessee (where Nashville is). This small university is the largest employer there

 

[PlatinumGold]

if it were me, i'd base it on where i want to live after i graduate. how you network with people during college is ALMOST as important as which college you choose to attend.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: phatj
I just read that Vanderbilt's campus is 316 acres large. I knew it was big, but damn!

Case Western Resrve is ranked #5 for BME and I know that BU and Vandy are in the top 20 for BME. Im not overly concerned with prestige, although it is nice to go to a prestigious school. Can O Worms and Rabid, what was your test scores/gpa in high school? Just curious. I should be getting my acceptance letter in a week or so.

Oh and for CanoWorms- how are you doing now that you have graduated from Vanderbilt? Good job, did you go to grad school?

Thanks everyone

I think I had around a 4.0 GPA weighted (from a good HS that was well known by Vanderbilt), 1400 SAT back then. However, their entrance requirements have been increasing now and I believe that the engineering school entering class usually has around a 1420-1450 average SAT.

Also, even though it says that the campus is 316 acres, a lot of that is the medical campus.

 

[phatj]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
if it were me, i'd base it on where i want to live after i graduate. how you network with people during college is ALMOST as important as which college you choose to attend.

Well I live in cleveland now, and after undergraduate I'll most likely go to graduate or medical school. Im not exactly sure where I would want to live after I graduate since Ill be going to graduate school

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: phatj
I just read that Vanderbilt's campus is 316 acres large. I knew it was big, but damn!

Case Western Resrve is ranked #5 for BME and I know that BU and Vandy are in the top 20 for BME. Im not overly concerned with prestige, although it is nice to go to a prestigious school. Can O Worms and Rabid, what was your test scores/gpa in high school? Just curious. I should be getting my acceptance letter in a week or so.

Oh and for CanoWorms- how are you doing now that you have graduated from Vanderbilt? Good job, did you go to grad school?

Thanks everyone

I go to grad school @ BU, too I know RabidMongoose

My highschool GPA was close to 4.0 and my SAT was like 1360 and my ACT was 33 or 34.

They're actually trying increasing their acceptance standards. I swear, most people only go there because it's in the top 20

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: phatj
I just read that Vanderbilt's campus is 316 acres large. I knew it was big, but damn!

Case Western Resrve is ranked #5 for BME and I know that BU and Vandy are in the top 20 for BME. Im not overly concerned with prestige, although it is nice to go to a prestigious school. Can O Worms and Rabid, what was your test scores/gpa in high school? Just curious. I should be getting my acceptance letter in a week or so.

Yeah, Vanderbilt has a pretty big campus. That 316 acres includes the main campus, medical campus, and Peabody campus (school of education, sophomore dorms). They're all attached to each other though, so it's one big campus. Well, there's a small road that separates Peabody from the medical/main campus, but they built a bridge over it.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: phatj

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
if it were me, i'd base it on where i want to live after i graduate. how you network with people during college is ALMOST as important as which college you choose to attend.

Well I live in cleveland now, and after undergraduate I'll most likely go to graduate or medical school. Im not exactly sure where I would want to live after I graduate since Ill be going to graduate school

If you're going to Vandy, Case-Western, or BU then you're pretty much well-off job aspects wise and graduate-school prospects wise.

One thing I've noticed is that BU seems to have better connections with companies for jobs, but I think that's because they're in Boston. Nashville is a dump and not a tech/rich city. Like I said, Vandy is the largest employer there :Q

Vandy: 10k students total (6k undergrads)
BU: ~30k students total :Q

 

[phatj]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: phatj
I just read that Vanderbilt's campus is 316 acres large. I knew it was big, but damn!

Case Western Resrve is ranked #5 for BME and I know that BU and Vandy are in the top 20 for BME. Im not overly concerned with prestige, although it is nice to go to a prestigious school. Can O Worms and Rabid, what was your test scores/gpa in high school? Just curious. I should be getting my acceptance letter in a week or so.

Oh and for CanoWorms- how are you doing now that you have graduated from Vanderbilt? Good job, did you go to grad school?

Thanks everyone

I go to grad school @ BU, too I know RabidMongoose

My highschool GPA was close to 4.0 and my SAT was like 1360 and my ACT was 33 or 34.

They're actually trying increasing their acceptance standards. I swear, most people only go there because it's in the top 20

Thats awesome that u 2 know each other. I have simliar stats: over 4.0 gpa, act is 32 (would have been higher but I didn't have a damn calculator! lol).

I'll be scheduling a visit pretty soon. Do the people you know that graduated from Vandy have good/secure/well-paying jobs? Or did most of them go to grad school? Thanks for all the help.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Most of the people I know went to some sort of graduate school. I know people there that are graduate students now - it seemed that if you did decent in undergrad at Vanderbilt and actually wanted to go to grad school there, then they would accept you pretty easily and give you a full scholarship/TA position....well for EEs at least...again, not sure about the BME grad program.

Have fun visiting Vanderbilt. It's a beautiful campus. You have an good choice of schools with CWRU, Vandy, and BU...they're all so different.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: phatj

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: phatj
I just read that Vanderbilt's campus is 316 acres large. I knew it was big, but damn!

Case Western Resrve is ranked #5 for BME and I know that BU and Vandy are in the top 20 for BME. Im not overly concerned with prestige, although it is nice to go to a prestigious school. Can O Worms and Rabid, what was your test scores/gpa in high school? Just curious. I should be getting my acceptance letter in a week or so.

Oh and for CanoWorms- how are you doing now that you have graduated from Vanderbilt? Good job, did you go to grad school?

Thanks everyone

I go to grad school @ BU, too I know RabidMongoose

My highschool GPA was close to 4.0 and my SAT was like 1360 and my ACT was 33 or 34.

They're actually trying increasing their acceptance standards. I swear, most people only go there because it's in the top 20

Thats awesome that u 2 know each other. I have simliar stats: over 4.0 gpa, act is 32 (would have been higher but I didn't have a damn calculator! lol).

I'll be scheduling a visit pretty soon. Do the people you know that graduated from Vandy have good/secure/well-paying jobs? Or did most of them go to grad school? Thanks for all the help.

I think an extremely large percentage of people at Vandy go on to graduate school, which is probably common for top-ranked schools. All my friends went to graduate school or not looking for jobs right now/ on vacation.

I think you'll get in unless they increased their standards an ungodly amount. Like I said, they have to accept a lot since it's usually not a first-choice. You'll probably get a nice financial package, too. It was cheaper for me to go to Vandy than Georgia Tech! I hear BU gives a ton of money out, too though. One of my friend's (who went to Vandy) brother got accepted to Vandy and BU, but he went to BU b/c BU gave a lot more financial aid.

Overall, you have a nice list of schools there. Vandy, CWRU, and BU will set you on a nice path, but of course you have to work to make sure you don't stray away

 

Just a quick note about the CWRU campus...I used to live in a suburb of Cleveland, and I know for a fact that University Circle (the area where CWRU campus is) is quite unsafe. It's very dangerous, and there's lots of violent crime there. It's a great school which sucks, since the campus is so unsafe.

 

[gopunk]

i would go with BU because boston is one of the cities vying for a prominent position in bio-whatever... MIT and harvard are opening some huge joint research center together and there are already companies there. so it'll be easier for you to get internships, make connections, etc.