<p>If the writer is interested in Vanderbilt then I’d strongly suggest a visit to Sewanee, which is about 90 miles away. Sewanee’s admission profile is not as competitive as Vanderbilt’s, it is a true LAC and has a rural/small town campus versus an urban environment. Wonderful academic/community setting if you don’t need the stimulus of shopping malls and chain restaurants.</p>
<p>I love Sewanee, but it really isn’t very similar to Vanderbilt. It has a big drinking culture, too. Great outdoors activities. No D1 sports. No Nashville.</p>
<p>Absolutely agree that Sewanee and Vanderbilt are different schools. But it might make sense to visit both in order to understand the differences and see which one feels right. Similar to combining a visit to W&L (another excellent school that fights a reputation for a drinking culture) and UVA.</p>
<p>What about U. Memphis?
i also agree with Rhodes, Sewanee, Clemson, USC. Vandy is probably going to be a real reach for you.</p>
<p>MODS - Could we please get Sewanee: The University of the South changed from being listed under T for ‘The’ in the alphabetical listing on this site. It doesn’t even start with ‘the’ yet schools that do like The Pennsylvania State University or The Ohio State University are not listed under ‘the.’ Maybe then there will be more active discussion there. </p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Sewanee other than it seems to have some increasing buzz to it in my neck of the woods. Makes me curious about it.</p>
<p>
[quote=]
Not quite. If you are looking at rankings, then Texas falls behind Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, UNC, William and Mary, Wake Forest, and Emory…
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Uh, actually YES QUITE. You’re referring to the overall USNWR undergraduate rankings which considers non-academic criteria, does not consider academic program rankings AT ALL, and only weighs peer reputation 25%. However, despite this, UT’s <em>undergraduate</em> peer reputation score is greater than W&M and Wake Forest and tied with Emory and Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>However, I was referring to perception in academia - which is based on quality of faculty, research, grad programs, etc. If you look at individual ACADEMIC department/program rankings (i.e., scholarly rankings like the NRC, London Times, AWRU… even the USNWR individual program rankings in the grad school rankings), UT-Austin is stronger than every school on that list except Duke. Looking at individual program rankings, the only school that comes close to UT’s academic depth and breadth is Duke. While UNC and UVA have some strong individual programs (especially professional schools in UVA’s case), neither has as many highly ranked programs across as many disciplines as UT. (This isn’t really debatable since UVA itself recognizes this and has made a concerted effort to increase faculty of UT’s caliber by hiring away NAE members, etc. Someone has posted a detailed internal report from UVA on here a few times before).</p>
<p>Some more data
average PhD score for grad programs (based on peer reputation rankings)
- Berkeley - 4.8
- Stanford - 4.8
- MIT - 4.8
- Princeton - 4.6
- Harvard - 4.6
- Yale - 4.4
- Michigan - 4.4
- Wisconsin - 4.3
- Chicago - 4.3
- Cornell - 4.3
- Columbia - 4.3
- UCLA - 4.2
*13. Texas - 4.0
Where are the other Southern schools?</p>
<p>professional schools by mean rank:
- Stanford - 1.8
- Berkeley - 5.0
- Michigan - 6.4
- Harvard - 7.0
- Northwestern - 12.3
- Columbia - 12.6
*7. Duke - 13.0
*8. Texas - 13.2 - NYU - 14.5
- UCLA - 14.6
- Wisconsin - 15.2
*12. Virginia - 16.5 - Illinois - 16.5
- Indiana - 17.3
- Pennsylvania - 18.6
At least other Southern schools show up here!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publications/pdf/usnews_rankings_2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publications/pdf/usnews_rankings_2008.pdf</a></p>
<p>The current USNWR PhD rankings are surprisingly consistant with the more rigorous NRC rankings from over a decade ago:</p>
<p>Average of nonzero scores across all ranked disciplines:
1 MIT
2 Berkeley
3 Harvard
4 Princeton
5 Caltech
6 Stanford
7 Chicago
8 Yale
9 Cornell
10 UCSD
11 Columbia
12 Michigan
13 UCLA
14 Penn
15 Wisconsin
*16 Texas
17 Illinois
17 Washington
19 Northwestern
*20 Duke</p>
<p>Average of all 41 scores
1 Stanford
2 Berkeley
3 Michigan
4 Cornell
5 Wisconsin
6 UCLA
*7 Texas
8 Columbia
9 Illiois
9 Penn
9 Washington
12 Harvard
13 Minnesota
14 Princeton
15 Chicago
16 Yale
17 Ohio State
*18 Duke
18 Johns Hopkins
20 Penn State</p>
<p>Really the only schools on your list that can compete with UT are Duke, UNC, and UVA. I agree at the undergraduate level something can be said for more selective admissions favoring smaller/private schools, but that doesn’t change the fact that UT’s academic programs are, if not the strongest, certainly among the absolute strongest in the South.</p>
<p>that list doesn’t include smaller schools (LACs) like Davidson</p>
<p>There are most defintiely excellent smaller schools and LACs like Davidson - no question!! But the reality is that the research universities tend to get the most attention internationally and within academia just by the nature of their mission. My point was UT is clearly a leader in this regard, so it should be included when other research universities are mentioned.</p>
<p>actually i’m really interested in research universities
i’ll be interning at one of the medical research centers at vanderbilt this summer
so im hoping that’ll increase my chances of getting in (rec from the scientist)
also college hook: immigration, dad had cancer- led me to medical research, & my brothers influence of being a drug addict & i’m first generation</p>
<p>what should i aim for on the ACT that would help my chance of getting in a school like vanderbilt?</p>
<p>i heard elon’s reputation isnt that good?
but after reading replies i did become interested in washington & lee and university of richmond!</p>
<p>i also don’t want to go to a school as big as UT austin or University of Florida</p>
<p>thanks for the help everyone!!</p>
<p>If you are looking for a school not as big as UF or UT yet is a research university strong in the sciences, I’d highly recommend Clemson as a likely to safe school. Clemson is a public school so it’s cheap, it’s rising in the rankings every year, it only has 13,000 undergrads compared to 30,000 at UF or UT so it’s a lot more personable than some large publics</p>
<p>which schools do you guys think have a great alumni relationship?
and great reputation… like getting help for a job</p>