Rice, Vanderbilt, or Wellesley?

<p>So, I'm getting full tuition at Vanderbilt (still have to pay about 17k?), I would have to pay full for Rice, and I'm getting a few thousand at Wellesley. My parents are fine with paying and are letting me make a decision without regards to money. Ultimately, I want to go to medical school. What do you guys think?</p>

<p>I like the three schools pretty equally. Rice is really close to home and some of my friends are going there next year. I also like the quirkiness and residential colleges. Vandy because well the money is pretty hard to pass up. I wasn't sure about an all women college but I'm starting to like Wellesley more. </p>

<p>So indecisive ><</p>

<p>Vanderbilt and Rice are comparable, although Rice has better med school placement. If money is an issue (which adds up to about 80k over four years), I think Vandy is the optimal choice. This is especially good if you need to pay for medical school, since you’ll have more than a year of debt paid off when you graduate.</p>

<p>I don’t know much about Wellesley, although one friend from high school went there her freshman year, then transferred out to NYU. She said the culture there was very weird, at least relative to what she was used to, although she said Boston was a fantastic city. I can’t really help you compare it to Rice or Vandy though.</p>

<p>Honestly, I would go with that, although Rice is probably better socially, and for research opprotunities.</p>

<p>It is pretty strange that you were a good enough applicant to receive a full ride at Vandy, yet you did not receive ANY financial aid at rice. Oh well, college admissions can be weird sometimes lol.</p>

<p>Definetely go with the Vandy full ride. Rice is among the best schools in the country and I would rather go there than Vandy if money were not an issue, but Rice is not worth 4 years of tuition more than Vandy. Vandy is a great school and their football team is up-and-coming, passing up a full ride at vandy would be a a HUGE mistake.</p>

<p>Besides, Vanderbilt is about as prestigious a school as Rice, not in Texas of course, but on a national scale.</p>

<p>I didn’t apply for financial aid at either Rice or Vandy since I’m international. I was really really surprised when I got the scholarship from Vandy. As for Rice, I think I rushed my app a bit since I was trying to make the Rice/Baylor deadline. I think I improved my essays by the time I did the Vandy app.</p>

<p>did you get Rice Baylor?</p>

<p>Nope rejected from Rice/Baylor. If I did, I think the choice would be obvious :)</p>

<p>Rice and Vanderbilt are quite different social environments. Vanderbilt has a large Greek scene and an athletic culture (SEC sports). Rice has no frats/sororities and not much of an athletic culture unless there is a bowl game around the corner or the baseball team is in the World Series (but the students are gone for that anyway). My daughter graduated from Rice undergrad and is a Vandy grad student who has an on-campus job where she interacts with a lot of undergrad students, and she finds the student population to be quite different. It’s where you think would be the best fit for you.</p>