Duke vs. Vanderbilt vs. University of Miami

Hi there,

I am a high school senior trying to decide what college I will be attending next year. I am deciding between the University of Miami, Duke University, and Vanderbilt.
It is important to note that I want to do premed, and also got a full tuition scholarship at the University of Miami. I don’t know yet what my financial package will look like for Duke or Vanderbilt.
If anyone could give their opinion or experience with these colleges, that would be very helpful - maybe on things like diversity, opportunity, the professors, the party scene, etc.

How do you know you will be accepted at Duke and Vanderbilt?

Why not wait to see if you are accepted at Duke and Vanderbilt?

I already received an invitation to the MOSAIC event at Vanderbilt, and with that invitation they told me that I had been accepted. For Duke, I was invited to the Black Student Alliance Invitational Weekend, which only accepted students get invited to.

Congrats! I think you should wait until your FA packages come in from Duke and Vanderbilt. It’s unlikely that anyone can get full ride at all three, so your exact tuition per college will factor heavily into your decision.
Also, depending how much FA you need (will you be able to attend if you don’t get full ride?), the culture at Vandy might be off-putting. It’s quite a rich/preppy school, imo.

Did you attend scholarship weekend at the University if Miami this past weekend? I attended with my daughter. Assuming you did not go, I can tell you that UM is extremely diverse - lots of different cultures there - and UM is very proud of this. My daughter is not premed, but I did hear some things that may be of interest. The teaching hospital is just a 20 minute Metro ride from the main campus. There are so many UM doctors there that you will not have trouble finding someone to shadow. Although the administration couldn’t nail down an exact number, I believe they said just over 50% of UM students applying to UM med school are accepted and about 30% of each UM med school class is made up of UM graduates (the others in the 50% who were accepted probably choose to go elsewhere). They also mentioned something about the hospital recently being certified as some sort of cancer center (sorry I can’t be more specific) and that it is 1 of 2 in the state (which is a big deal). Hope this helps!