<p>Vanderbilt vs. HYPS or Vanderbilt vs. [any Ivy] is a completely useless discussion. There are always going to be differences between any given two colleges, and those differences may be worth debating if you have to choose between them, but fundamentally Vanderbilt and any of the Ivies or similar universities are 90%+ the same kind of institution. And notwithstanding that I, personally, am a Northeastern snob, and think much more of HYP than I do of Vanderbilt, neither I not anyone else has any strong factual basis for suggesting that a student who could get into Harvard or Yale will be risking his future in any way if he goes to Vanderbilt instead.</p>
<p>But one of the implications of that for the OP is that getting into Vanderbilt isn’t a whole lot easier than getting into Harvard or Yale. It’s great if you can do that, but if you can’t that doesn’t mean your life is over, either. You have to be prepared to take full advantage of whatever situation you find yourself in. For any number of reasons – one of which may be simple bad luck – you could wind up at a college that IS meaningfully “worse” than Vanderbilt or Harvard. Even there, however, you can make it just as good as Vanderbilt or Harvard for YOU, but it takes more thought and more work on your part.</p>