Hey everyone!
I’m a high school senior and I’m trying to figure out how to choose which college to attend. I want to study science but am honestly not set on that and may switch to subjects as diverse as math or even econ.
So far, I’ve been accepted to Vandy, Wash U, and U Chicago. I’m still waiting on a few more schools but I wanted some advice on the factors to consider when making this choice. I’ve been lucky enough with financial aid that all of these schools are affordable for my family.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
" I’ve been lucky enough with financial aid that all of these schools are affordable for my family."
Very lucky indeed.
Visit all of them and get a feel for the campus. Go for the place you love the best. They are all top-notch schools. Personally I would choose Vanderbilt but that’s me and my bias. 
@TheDidactic if you don’t mind, can you explain your bias toward Vanderbilt? It’s the only one of the three I haven’t visited yet and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to, so I’m looking for as much information about it as possible.
I feel that while WashU and UChicago are good schools with strong academics, they are also infamous for being really pushy with the whole Student Search Service thing and are just trying to boost their rankings by seeming selective and attracting more applicants. Vanderbilt has that subtle taste imo, beautiful campus with a mix of both worlds (the rolling grassy quads and its location in Nashville), great programs, and top-notch research.
Nashville is a nice city with an artsy/musical scene, but I also like that Vandy has that “green” to its campus. WashU and UChicago have some of that too, but Nashville is a nicer city than St Louis or Chicago. Again, just my personal opinion. Also, if you want to go into science, Vandy has the research and the medical center to boost your possible experience in the practical field of things.
As someone with experience at Chicago and who grew up in Nashville, I’d recommend Chicago. WashU and Vanderbilt are both strong for sciences, but both (WashU to a lesser extent) weaken when you leave those field. Chicago stays fairly strong, and is stronger than either of the other two in almost all of the sciences anyway (biology being a notable exception, where WashU is marginally ahead of Chicago and Vandy).
@TheDidactic A few disagreements. All three have plenty of grassland; Vandy’s is more contiguous, but Chicago has more small quads in addition to the Midway, Washington Park, and Jackson Park. Can’t speak for WUSTL, sad to say.
Also, I’ve dealt with the marketing aspect a few times, but you don’t get to a 7-8% acceptance rate and a 60% yield rate without selling a really good product. Besides, it’s hard to inflate the ranking with acceptance rate when it makes up 1.5% of the score.
Also, while I think Nashville on the whole is a nicer city than either Chicago or St. Louis, Hyde Park is, at least to me, better than the area around Vanderbilt (and downtown Chicago is much better than downtown Nashville, and there’s function public transportation in Chicago). Once again, I don’t know enough about WUSTL’s area to compare.
I see Wash U and U Chicago as being much more similar than Vandy. Do you like DI Sports? Vandy has that big time. You wont find that at the other two schools. How do you fell about frats? Much bigger deal at Vandy. Vandy is also much more “southern” in terms of its student population, its geographic location in Nashville, and its culture.
I think you owe it to yourself to visit Vandy before making that decision. I have a feeling you will either really like Vandy, or not like it nearly as well as the other two contenders.
But you can’t lose with those options, that is for certain.
Good luck!
Chicago is the only one I have visited. I really like it, loved Chicago (we spent 3 days, just one on a visit day in Chicago.) The students were very interesting to me. Kind of earnest and brainy. I think you can do quite a bit of exploring through the core, look at it in detail. Although it is certainly restrictive in some ways, it does impose the discipline to get a few classes in, in a variety of subjects. I may be wrong but my sense is the student body would be very different between Chi and Vandy and you may prefer one type. I could see my daughter at Chicago, but she would not at all be into a frat and sports scene.
I would strongly recommend trying to get to Nashville if you could. I love both Chicago and Nashville but they are very different!
@tryingtoskiphw: First, my sincere congratulations on your acceptance by three truly outstanding universities.
With this said, I sincerely fear you may be missing a very fundamental and important point. Undergraduate school – especially in the arts and sciences – is supposed to be all about broad intellectual exploration. You are deeply blessed with the certainty of matriculation at a superb institution that will facilitate this basic liberal arts mandate EXTREMELY well. You do not need to know NOW what science – or even if it really is science – in which you should eventually focus.
This is the precise reason excellent universities (including Vanderbilt, WU/StL, and Chicago) have “general or distribution curricular requirements,” which specify exploration of the humanities, the sciences, the social sciences and much more. I suggest you principally use your first three or four semesters to ascertain where “your heart” – any your passion – truly reside; it certainly could be in one of the sciences, but it just might be in economic. or history, or literature . . .
Your academic advisor, at whichever fine university you opt to attend, can surely assist you in this quest; however, please don’t cheat yourself by feeling you need to have selected a clear concentration from the moment you arrive on campus.
Thanks for all the advice! I’m going to visit Vandy during my spring break before making a choice.