<p>I have already paid my deposit to Claremont Mckenna, but today I was accepted off the waitlist to Vanderbilt, and now I have no idea what to do. By the way, I am still on the waitlist in Wesleyan and Northwestern, which have always been two of my top choices. I think I do have a decent chance in at least one of them. I am interested in economics, politics, English and media(communication) studies. I need to say that I love both schools academically (probably CMC a bit more as it offers international relations major), but I am not completely happy with the social aspect. I do party and drink but I don't want it to be prevalent in campus life, whereas both CMC and Vandy are known to be party schools. Vandy's Greek life is a huge turn-off too, just because for some reason I believe it means lack of other parties/activities. I do not care about diversity as well as Vanderbilt being called an elitist university. I think I love Vandy's location better because it is much closer to home (I live in Europe). Besides, I like the fact that it offers much more arts courses. I have no preference right now, and I do not have a chance to visit, so share any thoughts you have, it is really important. I did not apply for financial aid, so I believe that financially they are approximately the same. If I didn't include something you find particularly important to my decision, please tell!</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about proximity to Europe -flying directly to Los Angeles will be much easier, and probably cheaper, than to Nashville.</p>
<p>Although there aren’t art majors offered at CMC - you can take classes in any of them at any of the other four colleges, including as a major.</p>
<p>There are also plenty of non-partying students at CMC and the other four colleges, and plenty of activities which do not center on drinking. Vanderbilt, with its fraternities and Southern culture, will be much more of a traditional ‘party’ school.</p>
<p>Your other wait-listed schools are not really that different from CMC - certainly not enough to anguish over. Wesleyan will be a bit more liberal overall in both student body and professors - but that is just because CMC has some of everyone there. Vanderbilt has the reputation of being alot more conservative than Wesleyan, and will be socially more conservative than CMC.</p>
<p>A significant difference, however, between CMC/Wesleyan and NorthwesternVanderbilt - is that they are much larger universities with graduate students rather than liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>Go to CMC. I sat in on an IR class there and the professor was outstanding.</p>
<p>SpiritManager- you are completely stereotyping Vanderbilt. Also, it is quite easy to fly to Europe from Nashville and not expensive. </p>
<p>CMC and Vanderbilt are very different. There is plenty of social life at Vandy that doesn’t involve Greek life. SEC sports are really fun.</p>
<p>Congrats on your choices. As said above, traveling from London to California might be easier than to Nashville or Memphis.** It is a shame you cannot visit because I believe your heart would have spoken to you. Academically, you cannot go wrong. Vandy is an amazing school and, for your targeted majors of Econ/Pol-Govt/IR, there are simply no better LACs than CMC. </p>
<p>CMC will offer a more intimate setting, but you will not have the Commodore games to enjoy. Then, you might compare the entertaining world of Nashville to LA’s. That is a very subjective element. Raccoon hats versus bling-bling … Just joking, here.</p>
<p>Short of a visit, I would encourage you to search for videos of the schools, and perhaps check the possible classes you might take at both schools. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>** Responding to comment above. checking flights for duration and prices is super easy. I think it takes just a bit less time to LAX than to BCN or whatever Nashville is called. All in all, that is a moot point. The question is really what you do when you are there. Surf and ski on the same day in Nashville? Not sure! But then they have the Grand Ole Opry! </p>
<p>As far as Greek life, that IS the biggest deterrent to Vandy. Without a doubt! Just as it is everywhere Greeks dominate.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild - yes, you’re right I was stereotyping - which is why I carefully said Vanderbilt had the ‘reputation’ - which it does. If the reality is that it’s not actually more socially conservative than CMC and more of a traditional college experience with a Southern cultural feel, that’s good to know.</p>
<p>(Btw. one son graduated from CMC - another almost applied to Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, and a couple of Southern cousins are currently attending Vanderbilt.)</p>
<p>I have another CC account, but in the interest of privacy, I decided to make another account to give you the viewpoint of a person who was in your situation.</p>
<p>I was accepted to Wesleyan, Vanderbilt, and CMC (and a bunch of other top 20 schools) and ended up choosing CMC. I am a premed and CMC isn’t well known or anything for their sciences (doesn’t meant their sciences are weak though), but I still chose it. I’m not particularly into partying either like you OP and the small size may be a little disconcerting (it still is for me) but I feel like the consortium definitely makes up for size and CMC does have a diverse student body that makes it very possible for you to find other non-partiers/drinkers. </p>
<p>One significant reason I chose CMC was its Financial Aid which seems to be an irrelevant factor for you. Its FA was simply amazing and essentially an “offer I couldn’t refuse”, so that definitely swayed me…so take my words with a grain of salt. However, FA wasn’t everything in my decision process. When I visited, it seemed like a very relaxed and easygoing environment and as a born and raised SoCal kid, staying in SoCal was a tremendous plus because of proximity to my family and the great weather.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is no doubt a great school. It’s name value and prestige is better than CMC’s (in fact every other school I got into has a lot more name value than CMC). Unfortunately, CMC tends to lack name value (lots of LACs do), but the good thing is everyone who needs to know CMC knows it e.g. Graduate schools and employers. If having everyone and their mothers know your school is something you want, then CMC might not be a good decision, but honestly it really shouldn’t be a factor in your decision.</p>
<p>You say you are interested in IR, econ, politics, etc. all areas CMC excel at. The professors are very distinguished in these fields and research, internship opportunities, study abroad opportunities, and more are abundant for people in these areas of study (and for premeds haha). I was also a little turned off by the lack of diversity at Vanderbilt and the prevalent Greek life at Vandy. Though CMC may have the reputation of a party school, the parties are school-hosted and as such they are open to the entire student body–something Frats and Sororities tend to make impossible.</p>
<p>Basically I think what it comes down to in your case is do you want the smaller more intimate college experience (CMC) or the medium-sized across-the-board research university experience (Vanderbilt). Both have their pluses and negs, but for a premed like me who needs great letter of reccomendations, abundant research opportunities, and no grade deflation which Vanderbilt seems to suffer from a little bit, choosing CMC wasn’t a difficult decision.</p>
<p>If you have any more questions feel free to PM or post on this thread.
Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>Thank you all! I know that all people on CC say it, even when the comments that have been given are just dumb and obvious, but this isn’t the case : you gave some truly wonderful feedback.
1 I have family and friends in NYC and would like to visit them before schools,maybe thanksgiving etc, so flying is easier from Nashville, but I am not going to base my decision on this, I am not crazy. Apart from flying, being in a city rather than suburbs is a slight advantage.
2 I can’t make up my mind on the size of the school I want. I understand that the difference is huge, but I believe I can do well in both environments and I have no idea which one is better for me.
3 My family is probably leaning towards Vanderbilt and here is why:
I know that CMC is well-known where it matters, but I am not sure if this statement is completely true in Europe. I mean in many countries here ‘college’ is not even higher education(obviously unlike university), so I already see myself explaining how good education in CMC is, and that it is higher education but for undergrads only. Vandy is well-ranked and pretty respected (although not a lot of people heard about it here, but it’s common for the majority of schools; people are likely to have heard of HYPS only).
4 I think y’all slightly misunderstood me : I go to parties and I am pretty social, but sometimes I may want to go to a cafe and just talk with my friends, or go to a concert or sports game. I want to have many options apart from partying, and it is truly important. Can you elaborate on this part?
5 And to be completely genuine, I don’t think that either is a perfect fit for me. It’s not that I don’t like them, I do, I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t, but it really is a hard decision as I undersand that cons are relatively big for each school.</p>
<p>And if I choose to go to Vandy, lose my deposit to CMC (I haven’t chosen yet), will I be able to enroll if NU or Wes accepts me?</p>
<p>^^You can always “un-enroll” from one sschool if another accepts you off their wating list. However, if Vandy isn’t one of your top choices (as evidenced by the degree of ambivalence in your posts), rather than waste another deposit, I would wait until you hear from Wesleyan or NU.</p>
<p>So, basically, I chose CMC over Vanderbilt ,but now I have been admitted to Wesleyan. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Why don’t you look at the course lists for the fall for CMC and Wesleyan and make up a tentative class schedule for yourself. You can usually find full descriptions of the courses in the actual catalogs. You could also compare this current semester’s course list to compare what you might be able to take next spring. This is often very helpful in making clear the differences between schools. Also compare the requirements for graduation - I believe that Wesleyan may have many fewer distribution requirements. (But I may be wrong.)
The Claremont College course schedule: <a href=“Portal”>https://portal.claremontmckenna.edu/ICS/Course_Schedule/</a>
Wesleyan’s:
<a href=“Wesleyan University”>Wesleyan University;
<p>Well, just referring back to the original post, Wesleyan has all the advantages of CMC (except weather); they offer an IR certificate. And, you won’t have to deal with a transcontinental air trip. And, like Vandy, it certainly has strong art and music offerings. Unlike CMC, Wesleyan is an all-purpose, stand-alone liberal arts college where your first-year hallmates will have a variety of academic interests and you don’t have to feel like your “visiting” a rival campus every time you want to take a course in the sciences or in the arts. All in all, I just think that despite the material perks of having multiple dining halls to choose from and several versions of organic chemistry to pick and choose from, that at the end of the day, you probably have more options at Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Unlike CMC, Wesleyan is an all-purpose, stand-alone liberal arts college where your first-year hallmates will have a variety of academic interests and you don’t have to feel like your “visiting” a rival campus every time you want to take a course in the sciences or in the arts.</p>
<p>I can assure you that a great many students at Claremont take classes at various colleges. The only time it ever is presented as a negative is by a few people on this CC board who go to a great extent to differentiate between two great programs such as Economics or trying to differentiate between Science departments. In reality kids feel very comfortable using all the college facilities to their own purpose. If you had the opportunity to chose from five colleges, wouldnt you?
You cant go wrong with CMC. My daughter goes to one of the other colleges, not CMC BTW.</p>