<p>
[quote]
What else confers prestige if not:
... alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, articles published in Nature and Science, articles indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>alumni connections. old money is prestige. like it or not...it's a fact.</li>
</ul>
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[quote]
Vandy and Chicago are both very well known in academic circles. However, when it comes to social life Vanderbilt is one of the best and Chicago is one of the worst.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>would agree with vandy being one of the best. don't know enough about chicago to say it's one of the worst though. </li>
</ul>
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[quote]
Vanderbilt? Are you people serious? Social life has absolutely nothing to do with prestige. Academically UC blows Vanderbilt out of the water
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</p>
<ul>
<li>sorry...it really does. 1) success in life generally coorelates with connects. social life = networking. 2) companies hire personable people, not world of warcraft heroes.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
if you read my post carefully, I only said I would personally pick Vanderbilt. Social life obviously doesn't make a school prestigious. But when comparing two top-20 schools it comes down to fit. Chicago probably has more Nobel-Prize winners or whatever, but you can obviously get a great job as a Vanderbilt grad. If I was an introverted-nerd I'd pick Chicago in a heartbeat. But since I want a solid undergraduate education with a thriving social life, Vanderbilt would be the clear choice between the two.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>agreed.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
People are forgetting college is four years of your life and you must choose wisely. I think Chicago is a little more prestigious, but none of my friends would be caught dead there. Schools like Vanderbilt or Duke offer more of a complete social life with solid academics. Obviously, Vandy isn't more everyone. If you are socially awkward, you probably shouldn't fill out the app. But social skills are very important in life and it gives you the environment to improve them while getting a degree from a top institution. But to each his own.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>absolutely agreed.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
I have to agree with semiserious and orangeisland83's posts.</p>
<p>In very affluent communities Vanderbilt seems to have more prestige. When I used the word "prestige", I use it to mean respect or social standing. I live in a rich suburb of New York, and people would be more impressed with the Vanderbilt name in my town aswell. It has a certain reputation that is very respected in WASPy well-connected towns.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>absolutely agreed. vanderbilt is about as old money as it gets in the south. that coorelates to people in the "nicer" parts of the world wanting to hire you. it's obviously changing (for the better or worse, whichever you argue) as all other top private universities have done in the past or are doing (duke in the 80s was exactly where vanderbilt is now...like it or not folks, that's just the way things are).</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
I agree that Nashville is overrated. I'm from NY and think its too small. Vandy kids only go downtown on Thursday to Printer's Alley. The coolest place to go. Most kids stay on campus on the weekends because the parties are amazing and there is no reason to go anywhere else.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>tuesday is also a big night. i'm a member of a fraternity and we usually do both.</li>
</ul>
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[quote]
My friend went to Vanderbilt in the 80's. She said there were many Arabic students there. Does that make for prestige?
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</p>
<ul>
<li>back to the old money comment. vanderbilt has never really had a lot of international students due to its former WASPic nature. it has always accepted the mega affluent with open arms of course, those arabics were the sons of Oil Gods.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
Whose do? Those of recruiters and graduate school admission officers; and I think it would be fair to say that just about all would look more highly upon Chicago. Sure, if I got into both, I would go to Vanderbilt for the reasons argued by semiserious. Vanderbilt's a great school; it just has the misfortune of being compared to Chicago in this thread. In reality, very few can be compared to Chicago.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>disagree...heavily. reference old money comment and fact that alumni do better in the corporate world due to mix of legacy and personable traits.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
Chicago may be 'nerdy', but it is by far more esteemed in academic circles than Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is a 'hot' school. Right now it's trendy, and it has good academics, so it is enjoying an influx of people. Trendy, however, is not prestigious. NYU is a hot school as well. Many people at my school would choose it over Chicago, but that doesn't make it more prestigious. Just my two cents.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>here's a quick way to figure out of a school is prestigious. was it founded with the money of a corrupt and evil corporate tycoon that made their money through exploiting the poor? hey, sweet, yours was John D. Rockeller and mine was Cornelius Vanderbilt...both of whom were the richest man in the world at times and New Money themselves.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
but vanderbilt is rarely mentioned among the middle-class, especially out west, and how well-regarded usc is also varies in different locations (if you're not asking just usc alums of course).
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</p>
<ul>
<li>agreed.</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
Besides, if we were looking at girls/social life as prestige, U. Hawaii or UNC would be the most prestigious school.
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</p>
<ul>
<li>matter of opinion. our women are always well dressed and can usually be found bathing in the sun. hawaii has a bunch of surfers and UNC isn't all that great, it's just southern and all southern schools have good looking women.</li>
</ul>