<p>Hey guys I'm applying to Vandy regular and am really stuck on whether to apply to Engineering school or college of arts and sciences. In engineering I'm mainly interested in biomedical, although open to others, and in the college I'd be interested in majoring in Biology, Political Philosophy/Science, Economics. Anyway I was curious 1) as to what Vanderbilt's strongest departments are. I haven't been able to find this anywhere. And 2) How strong is engineering at Vanderbilt? Is it considered a good school by employers? What is it's reputation, but also how is it as a school, i.e. how are the teachers, peers, and is it compared to other engineering programs. Thanks.</p>
<p>Vandy’s undergrad engineering is ranked like 30 nationally. Program is rapidly expanding; university is building a massive new engineering facility to be completed in like 3 years.</p>
<p>Couldn’t tell you what the strongest programs are… Vanderbilt is a pretty well rounded school and has great grad school placement in a number majors.</p>
<p>It’s hard to say with undergraduate programs, but among the stronger ones I would probably say neuroscience (mostly because the Society for Neuroscience has recently ranked Vandy’s grad program the best in the country for the year). From my friends in PoliSci and Econ, I gather that we have really strong departments there too.
Like Pancaked said, Vanderbilt is pretty well rounded, so you can’t go wrong with any of the programs. They’ll all prepare you really well.</p>
<p>We have a number of top ranked grad school programs but I’m not really sure how that affects undergrad strength in those areas.</p>
<p>If memory serves, Vandy’s undergrad biomedical engineering program was ranked 17th nationwide by U.S. News & World Report in the 2010-2011 school year, when I was applying. It’s a top-notch program and is only getting stronger – the administration seems to be pushing this expansion, as biomedical engineering meshes quite well with the highly ranked Vanderbilt Medical School (14th nationwide in terms of research).</p>
<p>I believe, if you want to pay a premium, you can gain full access to the U.S. News & World Report rankings of other specific majors/undergrad programs/grad programs (<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/vanderbilt-university-221999/overall-rankings[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/vanderbilt-university-221999/overall-rankings</a>).</p>
<p>BME is definitely the strongest engineering major, and it was actually ranked 13th in the country by US News a year or two ago. I’ve also heard that computer science is really good and very underrated.
Most majors in A&S are pretty solid, especially because the undergrad lecturing is phenomenal and professors are very open and accessible. I think Vandy is lower on the graduate rankings because it allocates most of its resources to the medical school, and then most of its remaining resources to its undergraduate programs.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I ended up applying to the Engineering school and put my preferred major as biomedical engineering. The application also asked for my “alternate” school for which I put arts & sciences. Does this mean if I don’t get into engineering they consider me for A&S? or what? Just wondering what this means and thanks for all your help.</p>
<p>Yes, my sister applied for Blair and set A&S as her alternate and she got into A&S and not Blair because she messed up on the audition</p>