QUICK POLL: Vanderbilt or Boston University?

[RabidMongoose]

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.

You sure Williamson is a top 5 county in wealth? I've read an article a while back that said it was 15th or so.

Nashville seems to have a horrible tech/biomed or any other advanced field industry. Since you've lived there so long, what companies have large complexes in Nashville where actual development takes place? There were almost no Nashville-based companies for engineering career fairs.

I wouldn't say that Nashville is poor, but it sucks. Maybe it's the whole country music thing

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

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. Compared to other cities its size, it lacks a lot.

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

I'm not really taking it to heart, but I think there's a flipside to just saying it's "crappy". There are negatives of course, and some of the people can be trashy, but that can be said of any city.

I've lived in Nashville my whole life but I've traveled my whole life also. I've been to approximately 40+ states, Canada, Mexico, a good bit of Europe including France, London, Spain. I just find Nashville to be home.

I don't find Nashville "Glamorous" what I like about it is that it's laid back, the people are very nice, and it's a good atmosphere. It basically has everything you need in a big city, but it's still on a small enough level. All this just adds up to a comfortable place to live. I think it's different what you value when you're married and have a children vs. a college kid.

We'll agree to disagree

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose

You sure Williamson is a top 5 county in wealth? I've read an article a while back that said it was 15th or so.

Nashville seems to have a horrible tech/biomed or any other advanced field industry. Since you've lived there so long, what companies have large complexes in Nashville where actual development takes place? There were almost no Nashville-based companies for engineering career fairs.

I wouldn't say that Nashville is poor, but it sucks. Maybe it's the whole country music thing

I'd say it was probably 2 years ago that I read Williamson County was in the top 5. I honestly can't say what it is now, but it's up there.

As far as large complexes in Nashville that actual development takes place? I don't really know because I worked in the Internet Software Development industry.

But you're going to have a wealth of development for HCA, Vanderbilt, Baptist Medical, Avanade Inc., Gaylord Entertainment, Deloitte & Touche is huge, Ingram, Central Parking.

Sprint also has a development shop downtown off west end above P.F. Changes, I interviewed there awhile ago. Dollar General Corporation headquarters is here and they do all their dev in-house.

It's not silicon valley, but there are plenty of large corporations to do in-house development for or many smaller shops that do consulting work.

So for my industry it's been just fine. Also if you have anything to do with Printing, Nashville is one of the largest printing cities in the US. This is the field I started my career in and it's pretty huge.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose

You sure Williamson is a top 5 county in wealth? I've read an article a while back that said it was 15th or so.

Nashville seems to have a horrible tech/biomed or any other advanced field industry. Since you've lived there so long, what companies have large complexes in Nashville where actual development takes place? There were almost no Nashville-based companies for engineering career fairs.

I wouldn't say that Nashville is poor, but it sucks. Maybe it's the whole country music thing

I'd say it was probably 2 years ago that I read Williamson County was in the top 5. I honestly can't say what it is now, but it's up there.

As far as large complexes in Nashville that actual development takes place? I don't really know because I worked in the Internet Software Development industry.

But you're going to have a wealth of development for HCA, Vanderbilt, Baptist Medical, Avanade Inc., Gaylord Entertainment, Deloitte & Touche is huge, Ingram, Central Parking.

Sprint also has a development shop downtown off west end above P.F. Changes, I interviewed there awhile ago. Dollar General Corporation headquarters is here and they do all their dev in-house.

It's not silicon valley, but there are plenty of large corporations to do in-house development for or many smaller shops that do consulting work.

So for my industry it's been just fine. Also if you have anything to do with Printing, Nashville is one of the largest printing cities in the US. This is the field I started my career in and it's pretty huge.

I'm not doubting the printing industry at all, just the tech industry there. From what you've listed, I guess I was right. It's not that I'm expecting it to be Silicon Valley, but it doesn't seem to have much in the tech/bio/advanced industry at all. It just seems to have almost no visible large corporations doing advanced work.
I'm talking about something besides small inhouse programming.

 

[LikeLinus]

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose

Originally posted by: LikeLinus

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose

You sure Williamson is a top 5 county in wealth? I've read an article a while back that said it was 15th or so.

Nashville seems to have a horrible tech/biomed or any other advanced field industry. Since you've lived there so long, what companies have large complexes in Nashville where actual development takes place? There were almost no Nashville-based companies for engineering career fairs.

I wouldn't say that Nashville is poor, but it sucks. Maybe it's the whole country music thing

I'd say it was probably 2 years ago that I read Williamson County was in the top 5. I honestly can't say what it is now, but it's up there.

As far as large complexes in Nashville that actual development takes place? I don't really know because I worked in the Internet Software Development industry.

But you're going to have a wealth of development for HCA, Vanderbilt, Baptist Medical, Avanade Inc., Gaylord Entertainment, Deloitte & Touche is huge, Ingram, Central Parking.

Sprint also has a development shop downtown off west end above P.F. Changes, I interviewed there awhile ago. Dollar General Corporation headquarters is here and they do all their dev in-house.

It's not silicon valley, but there are plenty of large corporations to do in-house development for or many smaller shops that do consulting work.

So for my industry it's been just fine. Also if you have anything to do with Printing, Nashville is one of the largest printing cities in the US. This is the field I started my career in and it's pretty huge.

I'm not doubting the printing industry at all, just the tech industry there. From what you've listed, I guess I was right. It's not that I'm expecting it to be Silicon Valley, but it doesn't seem to have much in the tech/bio/advanced industry at all. It just seems to have almost no visible large corporations doing advanced work.
I'm talking about something besides small inhouse programming.

Ah then youre asking the wrong person then. I know nothing about the bio/advanced industry. It's just not my field and I've never read anything into it. Sorry I just know about my industry.

 

[CanOWorms]

It's just that most Vandy students dislike Nashville So just ignore these comments from us!

 

[Gibson486]

If you want conenctions, go to NOrtheastern, they have COOP. I must warn you though, NU would have nothing if there was no COOP. They do not have the academics ot back themselves up, especially against Boston University.

 

[MrDudeMan]

if you think the areas around nashville arent rich, you obviously havent been to brentwood. brentwood is a little suburb about 10 miles south of downtown (i lived there for 10 years, the high schools have more money to spend on each kid than most county school systems country wide) and you will never see as many HUGE (10,000+ sq. ft.) houses unless you are in a celebrity neighborhood. if by chance you ever get to see brentwood and drive around, make a stop in the Governors Club. some of you may know DTYN on the AT boards...he lived there.

my point is, dont influence his decision with opinions of no substance. i do know what some of you mean when you say it is "trashy" because if you lived in vandy, it may have appeared that way in certain places. also, i hate country music and that is one thing i HATED about nashville lol

as far as tech industry goes...it is there, it just isnt absolutely huge. if you are looking to be anything in the medical field, however, it is the place to be.

p.s. i think last year williamson was number 8

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
if you think the areas around nashville arent rich, you obviously havent been to brentwood. brentwood is a little suburb about 10 miles south of downtown (i lived there for 10 years, the high schools have more money to spend on each kid than most county school systems country wide) and you will never see as many HUGE (10,000+ sq. ft.) houses unless you are in a celebrity neighborhood. if by chance you ever get to see brentwood and drive around, make a stop in the Governors Club. some of you may know DTYN on the AT boards...he lived there.

my point is, dont influence his decision with opinions of no substance. i do know what some of you mean when you say it is "trashy" because if you lived in vandy, it may have appeared that way in certain places. also, i hate country music and that is one thing i HATED about nashville lol

as far as tech industry goes...it is there, it just isnt absolutely huge. if you are looking to be anything in the medical field, however, it is the place to be.

p.s. i think last year williamson was number 8

Yeah, I know Brentwood is nice. To me, Nashville just felt like a much smaller city than it actually was. That probably appeals to some people though.

I think my opinion is useful. He's asking for opinion on Vanderbilt & BU and I have experience with both

 

[astroview]

As a CWRU alumnus, I strongly recommend against going there, unless you're pretty anti-social, don't mind the slight no-name factor of Case, don't mind that it is NCAA Division 3, and don't mind that its in Cleveland.

I personally think I got a decent education, and made some good friends. But... the school isn't responsive to the student's needs, most of the students prefer to study rather than enjoy life, and there are a lot of annoying anti-social people with strong nerdy tendencies.

In retrospect I wish I had gone to a Big 10 school or to school in Boston or NYC.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Voted BU, even though they suck.

however, because they're in boston, and even though the weather is magnificent and sucky at the same time, it's an awesome college town.

as for northeastern, we do have coop, but we also have assloads of red tape and the commuter school stigma. not to mention there's no BME, so that goes out the window.

 

[phatj]

Originally posted by: astroview
As a CWRU alumnus, I strongly recommend against going there, unless you're pretty anti-social, don't mind the slight no-name factor of Case, don't mind that it is NCAA Division 3, and don't mind that its in Cleveland.

I personally think I got a decent education, and made some good friends. But... the school isn't responsive to the student's needs, most of the students prefer to study rather than enjoy life, and there are a lot of annoying anti-social people with strong nerdy tendencies.

In retrospect I wish I had gone to a Big 10 school or to school in Boston or NYC.

A lot of reviews that I have read about CWRU said the same thing.

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
Voted BU, even though they suck.

however, because they're in boston, and even though the weather is magnificent and sucky at the same time, it's an awesome college town.

as for northeastern, we do have coop, but we also have assloads of red tape and the commuter school stigma. not to mention there's no BME, so that goes out the window.

You NU guys sound like you hate BU as much as us BU guys hate BC.

 

[Gibson486]

You NU guys sound like you hate BU as much as us BU guys hate BC.

We do, even though they kill us in academics (NU is ranked high in coop and....ummm...hmmm...I think, it will come back to me later). I think we NU kids hate BU because we envy them (well, not the campus).

 

[Storm]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

You NU guys sound like you hate BU as much as us BU guys hate BC.

We do, even though they kill us in academics (NU is ranked high in coop and....ummm...hmmm...I think, it will come back to me later). I think we NU kids hate BU because we envy them (well, not the campus).

They are jealous because we usually have a better hockey team than they do... Btw who won the Beanpot this year? I honestly dont know.. .

 

[imported_Tomato]

My lil sis is at Vandy right now. She likes it.

I was accepted to BU with a scholarship, but chose to go to U of M instead.

Personally, I'd go to BU... what are you looking to major in? There's a LOT more to do in Boston than Nashville... :\

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: Dezign
My lil sis is at Vandy right now. She likes it.

I was accepted to BU with a scholarship, but chose to go to U of M instead.

Personally, I'd go to BU... what are you looking to major in? There's a LOT more to do in Boston than Nashville... :\

I thought you went to Smith?

 

[Lager]

Originally posted by: Dezign
My lil sis is at Vandy right now. She likes it.

I was accepted to BU with a scholarship, but chose to go to U of M instead.

Personally, I'd go to BU... what are you looking to major in? There's a LOT more to do in Boston than Nashville... :\

Damn, you must be smart.

 

[imported_Tomato]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog

Originally posted by: Dezign
My lil sis is at Vandy right now. She likes it.

I was accepted to BU with a scholarship, but chose to go to U of M instead.

Personally, I'd go to BU... what are you looking to major in? There's a LOT more to do in Boston than Nashville... :\

I thought you went to Smith?

I went to the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for 2 years, Smith College for 2 years. Accepted to Georgetown, Vandy, BU, Northwestern, UPenn, etc... rejected from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.

 

[pmark]

I say BU (graduated from BU undergrad myself) because of the location. BU has lots of connections because they are right in Boston and finding a job after your graduated should be much easier (BU is well respected in the area). Also BU is putting a lot of money in building tons of new buildings (new sports complex, new dorms, new engineering building, new law school building, new Communications building, new Bio-tech building in the south end, etc.) so they should have state of the art facilities. Picking a school is a lot more then just the ranking....

Oh and doesn't BU always win the Beanpot?

 

[phatj]

For those of you that went to BU: Did you find the extremely urban campus distracting? I like the fact that Vanderbilt has a large green campus (lots of trees and grass). Did any of you find the hustle and bustle of a big town like Boston distracting? Thanks

 

[Gyrene]

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.

w00t to Brentwood, that's where I live right now. It's not a surprise that Williamson is ranked high on wealth, as everyone and there mother drives a $50K+ car, and lives in a 1mil + home. Nashville is most definately not a dump, and whoever says that it is obviously never lived there long enough to form an accurate opinion.

 

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
if you think the areas around nashville arent rich, you obviously havent been to brentwood. brentwood is a little suburb about 10 miles south of downtown (i lived there for 10 years, the high schools have more money to spend on each kid than most county school systems country wide) and you will never see as many HUGE (10,000+ sq. ft.) houses unless you are in a celebrity neighborhood. if by chance you ever get to see brentwood and drive around, make a stop in the Governors Club. some of you may know DTYN on the AT boards...he lived there.

my point is, dont influence his decision with opinions of no substance. i do know what some of you mean when you say it is "trashy" because if you lived in vandy, it may have appeared that way in certain places. also, i hate country music and that is one thing i HATED about nashville lol

as far as tech industry goes...it is there, it just isnt absolutely huge. if you are looking to be anything in the medical field, however, it is the place to be.

p.s. i think last year williamson was number 8

I didn't live there Tony, that was Mitch. I lived across the street from Governor's Club, next to Derek Mason and Travis Tritt.

 

[phatj]

Anyone else? (evening bump)

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: phatj
For those of you that went to BU: Did you find the extremely urban campus distracting? I like the fact that Vanderbilt has a large green campus (lots of trees and grass). Did any of you find the hustle and bustle of a big town like Boston distracting? Thanks

I'm from NYC so Boston to me is a small town.

I prefer the urban environment to a rural environment. I'm not much of the outdoorsy type.