QUICK POLL: Vanderbilt or Boston University?

[fyleow]

Yup 80% acceptance rate but the selectivity rating is high so I think only the smart people apply there Check the link.

I'm not sure which Engineering I'm going into yet

 

[CanOWorms]

Oh yeah, if you go to Vanderbilt, there's a 99% chance that you will see some guy driving around naked looking at the girls jog around the campus The email crime alerts are hilarous because they're dominated by these types of things. But overall, it's pretty safe.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
Oh yeah, if you go to Vanderbilt, there's a 99% chance that you will see some guy driving around naked looking at the girls jog around the campus The email crime alerts are hilarous because they're dominated by these types of things.

Yup! I remember the one about the guy stripping and 'enjoying' himself in one of the student studying lounges' window...one of the students ran out, chased the naked guy down, and pinned the naked guy onto the ground until campus police came.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: 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.

Yeah, BU seems to have better business connections since it's in Boston.

Nashville is a dump. I don't think many people from Vandy even get jobs in Nashville, they go all around the country. It's not like you're restricted to getting a job within Nashville.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: 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.

Yeah, Nashville sucks for tech/bio jobs. But if he's a BME, he'll probably have to go to graduate school anyways.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
Oh yeah, if you go to Vanderbilt, there's a 99% chance that you will see some guy driving around naked looking at the girls jog around the campus The email crime alerts are hilarous because they're dominated by these types of things.

Yup! I remember the one about the guy stripping and 'enjoying' himself in one of the student studying lounges' window...one of the students ran out, chased the naked guy down, and pinned the naked guy onto the ground until campus police came.

haha, yeah, true story! It's like a rite of passage there.

 

[phatj]

Originally posted by: jumpr
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.

That's one of the factors that is shying me away from case. I live in cleveland and have been to case many times. I walked around the campus. I saw plenty of homeless people and people who looked like they would liekly commit a crime in the next 48 hours. A lot of people from CWRU have told me that no one walks around campus at night. That sucks

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: phatj

Originally posted by: jumpr
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.

That's one of the factors that is shying me away from case. I live in cleveland and have been to case many times. I walked around the campus. I saw plenty of homeless people and people who looked like they would liekly commit a crime in the next 48 hours. A lot of people from CWRU have told me that no one walks around campus at night. That sucks

Well, there's homeless people around Vanderbilt (Vandy is really close to downtown Nashville), too, but it's not too bad, and they're not even allowed on campus or anything. Vandy has its own police force which actually has normal police powers and enforces the streets nearby Vandy.

 

[CanOWorms]

Oh yeah, another good thing about Vandy is that the vast majority of freshman dorms are singles. You don't have to deal with a pokemon-playing, never showering roommate. But, everyone keeps their doors open and socializes, so it's awesome. The freshman dorms are REALLY crappy though (except for one dorm, which is really nice but hard to get), but that's like a rite of passage for most college students!

 

[phatj]

how accessible are the profs? The guys that I know from case say they never get to see their profs outside of class.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: phatj
how accessible are the profs? The guys that I know from case say they never get to see their profs outside of class.

Very accessible. They setup office hours that you can go to and usually TAs have office hours, too. Same with BU, too.

I'm surprised they said that at Case-Western.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Accessibility is OK...they have office hours or you can just stop by...but the question is would you even want to have access to some of them!

Some (obviously not all) of the Vanderbilt engineering professors are cranky old men...one of them calls the undergrads 'the little bastards'.

 

[phatj]

lol @ "the little bastards". A fwe of the guys from Case said that the profs are only there for research so they never see their students... just teach class and go to the lab.

 

[CanOWorms]

Yeah, one of them would call undergrads 'the little bastards', insulted our gradeschool teachers, etc. He had a course once where the average grade was a 3. He made them write an essay about how they would never tell anyone that they took his course. He also supposedly stapled drop-course forms to a test if you did poorly, change-of-major forms if you did bad, and drop-out-of-vandy forms if you did horrible. Not sure how much of that is true, but it's a legend in engineering

A lot of the professors are really nice, too though.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: phatj
lol @ "the little bastards". A fwe of the guys from Case said that the profs are only there for research so they never see their students... just teach class and go to the lab.

Professors at Vandy never go to the lab sessions (at least in EE). They use TAs for that. I think it's like that at most places. Professors are probably there for research too, but they still hold office hours and you can talk to them and stuff.

 

[MrDudeMan]

no to ruin the "nashville is a dump" party, but i lived there for 10 years and it is far from a dump. if you go to the nearly-ghetto suburbs, then yes, its a dump, but tell me a major city that doesnt have those? lol, that is just funny to me how you guys will make it seem so much worse than it is. every major city has the exact same problems. nashville is no different. vanderbilt is an awesome school, its not in a bad part of town, and it is in the top 20.




oh, and whoever made that assinine comment about "how poor tennessee is because vanderbilt is the biggest employer" needs to do some reading. maybe, just maybe, its the biggest employer because it is an enormous hospital with TONS of satellite clinics and research labs. my friends dad is the head scientist at the DNA mapping (or whatever they call it) center and it is far from small.


if you are deciding which college to go to, you need to just visit them instead of listening to biased bullsh!t from people on here. everyone on AT made a 1600 on their SAT and every college but the one they attended is only so-so. college is what you make of it. if you go to harvard and slack off, you can still make good grades but you wont know sh!t. if you go to a half decent university and go the extra mile on everything, you wont be behind the first guy.


p.s. nashville does have its low points...anyone who knows the area knows where not to go, but explain to me how new york or dallas or atlanta are any different? georgia tech is way more dangerous than any part of nashville could ever hope to be. my sister and her husband lived on campus, so im not speaking from no experience. i would still highly recommend the school, but basing your decision on stupid stuff like that is just that - stupid.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
no to ruin the "nashville is a dump" party, but i lived there for 10 years and it is far from a dump. if you go to the nearly-ghetto suburbs, then yes, its a dump, but tell me a major city that doesnt have those? lol, that is just funny to me how you guys will make it seem so much worse than it is. every major city has the exact same problems. nashville is no different. vanderbilt is an awesome school, its not in a bad part of town, and it is in the top 20.

oh, and whoever made that assinine comment about "how poor tennessee is because vanderbilt is the biggest employer" needs to do some reading. maybe, just maybe, its the biggest employer because it is an enormous hospital with TONS of satellite clinics and research labs. my friends dad is the head scientist at the DNA mapping (or whatever they call it) center and it is far from small.

I'm the one that said Nashville was a dump. Maybe I was being too harsh, but I brought up the points that Vandy is the largest employer, etc. because it's not too much of a tech-city, not a rich city. I went to Vandy. Everyone I knew there thought Nashville was pretty bad compared to their home cities. It's not a rich city. It has its nice parts, but a lot of the other parts are pretty junky. Most of the students don't particularly like Nashville.

 

[ed21x]

I'm not quite sure where Vanderbilt is located, butI personally love Boston University. The cambridge area is second to none in terms of college communities.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: ed21x
I'm not quite sure where Vanderbilt is located, butI personally love Boston University. The cambridge area is second to none in terms of college communities.

It's in Nashville, TN.

A lot of people think it's in New York because there's some sort of Vanderbilt estate place there

 

[KarenMarie]

I lived in Nashville for five years. My daughter would have went there if we did not move. From what I gather.... a degree from Vanderbilt and you can write your own ticket.

My daughter went to Penn State University Park for a year. She hated it and decided to go to York University in England. She loves that, but it is too far away from home for this mommy!

 

[Storm]

Well I went to BU undergrad for engineering not bme though...

BU is located basically on Comm Ave. Its got a ton of students from all over the world. A lot of foreign students come to BU. There is a lot of new construction going on for BU a lot of new buildings are being built. Even some for grad students CanoWorms and RabidMongoose .

As for engineering undergrad, BU weeds out people like any other school. I think BME gets a ton of grants for projects and I believe they just built a new building.

Fenway Park is nearby and so is Landsdowne St.

Keep posting questions here, I'll try to answer them.

The best advice I can give is to make the best choice for you. It really doesnt matter which school as long as its right for you and you do well. Then any grad school will want you.

 

[phatj]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
I lived in Nashville for five years. My daughter would have went there if we did not move. From what I gather.... a degree from Vanderbilt and you can write your own ticket.

My daughter went to Penn State University Park for a year. She hated it and decided to go to York University in England. She loves that, but it is too far away from home for this mommy!

I have applied to PennState:UnivPark as a safety school. I've heard a lot of good things about both Vanderbilt and Boston U. Im really liking the campus and weather @ vanderbilt though

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
no to ruin the "nashville is a dump" party, but i lived there for 10 years and it is far from a dump. if you go to the nearly-ghetto suburbs, then yes, its a dump, but tell me a major city that doesnt have those? lol, that is just funny to me how you guys will make it seem so much worse than it is. every major city has the exact same problems. nashville is no different. vanderbilt is an awesome school, its not in a bad part of town, and it is in the top 20.

oh, and whoever made that assinine comment about "how poor tennessee is because vanderbilt is the biggest employer" needs to do some reading. maybe, just maybe, its the biggest employer because it is an enormous hospital with TONS of satellite clinics and research labs. my friends dad is the head scientist at the DNA mapping (or whatever they call it) center and it is far from small.

I'm the one that said Nashville was a dump. Maybe I was being too harsh, but I brought up the points that Vandy is the largest employer, etc. because it's not too much of a tech-city, not a rich city. I went to Vandy. Everyone I knew there thought Nashville was pretty bad compared to their home cities. It's not a rich city. It has its nice parts, but a lot of the other parts are pretty junky. Most of the students don't particularly like Nashville.

Just because you might not consider Nashville a "tech" city, doesn't mean that Nashville isn't a rich city. If you did any reading you'd know that Williamson County is one of the top 5 richest counties in the nation. Williamson borders Davidson county = Nashville. Nashville is also the printing capital of the US (maybe the world). Vanderbilt is the biggest employer for the reasons stated above. There are so many subsidiary companies of Vandy and the fact that its Hospital system is pretty damn large.

To your point that people say their hometowns are better than XCity....well DUH, 90% of the people think their hometown is better than anywhere else. That?s not a non-bias opinion.

I've lived in Nashville my whole life and the problem with your thinking Nashville is poor and crappy is you've obviously never taken the time to learn and go around the actual city and the towns outside of it. You stay on campus and don't learn about the real Nashville.

As far as tech jobs, there?s plenty if you know where to look. I worked for Microsoft for a few years (they have a MSC office) and several other MS Gold Partners around town. The industry has taken its hit since 2001, but it has basically everywhere. It?s turning around now.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
no to ruin the "nashville is a dump" party, but i lived there for 10 years and it is far from a dump. if you go to the nearly-ghetto suburbs, then yes, its a dump, but tell me a major city that doesnt have those? lol, that is just funny to me how you guys will make it seem so much worse than it is. every major city has the exact same problems. nashville is no different. vanderbilt is an awesome school, its not in a bad part of town, and it is in the top 20.

oh, and whoever made that assinine comment about "how poor tennessee is because vanderbilt is the biggest employer" needs to do some reading. maybe, just maybe, its the biggest employer because it is an enormous hospital with TONS of satellite clinics and research labs. my friends dad is the head scientist at the DNA mapping (or whatever they call it) center and it is far from small.

I'm the one that said Nashville was a dump. Maybe I was being too harsh, but I brought up the points that Vandy is the largest employer, etc. because it's not too much of a tech-city, not a rich city. I went to Vandy. Everyone I knew there thought Nashville was pretty bad compared to their home cities. It's not a rich city. It has its nice parts, but a lot of the other parts are pretty junky. Most of the students don't particularly like Nashville.

Just because you might not consider Nashville a "tech" city, doesn't mean that Nashville isn't a rich city. If you did any reading you'd know that Williamson County is one of the top 5 richest counties in the nation. Williamson borders Davidson county = Nashville. Nashville is also the printing capital of the US (maybe the world). Vanderbilt is the biggest employer for the reasons stated above. There are so many subsidiary companies of Vandy and the fact that its Hospital system is pretty damn large.

To your point that people say their hometowns are better than XCity....well DUH, 90% of the people think their hometown is better than anywhere else. That?s not a non-bias opinion.

I've lived in Nashville my whole life and the problem with your thinking Nashville is poor and crappy is you've obviously never taken the time to learn and go around the actual city and the towns outside of it. You stay on campus and don't learn about the real Nashville.

As far as tech jobs, there?s plenty if you know where to look. I worked for Microsoft for a few years (they have a MSC office) and several other MS Gold Partners around town. The industry has taken its hit since 2001, but it has basically everywhere. It?s turning around now.

If you say so. Everyone I know basically agreed it wasn't a nice city (and not everyone liked their hometown)... people at Vandy actually call the locals NashTrash. I've been all over Nashville during my 4 years there and even before. I think your problem is that you've lived in Nashville your whole life and so now it has this glamorous appeal for you.

Williamson County, if that's where Brentwood and Franklin is, is a nice place. So is the area around Vandy and Green Hills area.

I don't mean to say it's a crappy city, but it certainly isn't fun or impressive. Compared to other cities its size, it lacks a lot. It feels like 5 smaller cities that combined into one, but lack the features of a large city (except for the downtown buildings) if you know what I mean.

I would probably say that 99% of the cities in the US are crappy, so don't take it too much to heart.

 

[Lager]

Boston University.