USC or Vassar?

College Search & Selection
1

Of the schools I’ve been admitted to, I’ve narrowed down my choices to either USC or Vassar. I’ve been making all of my choices with the intention of going pre-med, but I’m also really passionate about music and would love to do something with that. The decision is really hard for me because I’m not positive what I want to do; I could see myself going into the humanities or the sciences and know I’ll probably change my major at least once.
These are the benefits and drawbacks of each school as I see them.

Benefits of USC:
Closer to home, $50 plane ticket and a one-hour flight away
Larger school, more opportunities and things to do on campus
Opportunity to work with faculty and get experience with all sorts of thing
World-renowned music program
Strong alumni network

Drawbacks to USC:
More expensive (6k a year more)
Weaker relationships with faculty
“Weeder” classes in pre-med program
Harder to transfer between majors
I stand almost no chance of getting into the music program

Benefits of Vassar:
Close relationships with faculty, more attention paid to students
Guaranteed housing in a res. hall for four years
More affordable
Greater endowment per student (350k vs. 50k)

Drawbacks to Vassar:
In kind of a nowhere area (NYC is two hours away, not as accessible as LA)
Fewer opportunities of things to do on campus or get work experience
Far from home, takes about a day to travel and costs significantly more

Ultimately, I feel like a big part of the decision boils down to whether I want to go to a small school or a big school. Does anyone have any advice?

2

It’s May 3- how do you still have a choice for this year?

From here (ie, knowing absolutely nothing about you, just reading your post) your dilemma looks more like ‘the shiny one nearby or the little one that’s far away’.

Did you visit Vassar?

btw, $6k x 4 years= $24K. Even taking out $1k/year for travel leaves you $20K better off.

3

A lot of this depends on what kind of person you are. Can you be completely content for days at a time with just your.studies and some pleasant surroundings and seeing the same people every day ? Or do u need to be exploring things and meeting people and going to new restaurants and major sporting and entertainment. events? Vassar might feel suffocating if you aren’t the first sort of person.

4

Everything is your decision, but one thing to consider when looking at smaller schools (especially as a pre-med student) is research opportunities. Generally, larger universities have more diverse research opportunities and internships, especially schools near large cities (not positive about USC vs Vassar specifically). However, in small schools, it could be easier to get a research position, because there are no graduates to take your place in a lab.

Also, I think relationship to professors is not an important factor because I think that if you reach out to any professor and establish a relationship, you will end up becoming close with them, regardless of school size. If you go to USC, you will probably have to do more work to maintain relationships, but I don’t think the relationships will be that dramatically different.

As for transportation, a factor that you should consider is transportation to NYC. Coming from New York, I know that there are trains that go from Poughkeepsie to NYC, but they can be kind of expensive (around $24 round trip). If you want to go into the city, and plan on going a lot, you should consider that travel cost too.

Weather can also be a factor. I live in New York, and we have had one of the most snowy winters of all time. If you hate the snow, you might not want to come. If you like the snow and experiencing four seasons, come to New York.

In regards to cost, depending on how much you travel to and from your home down, flying to New York (especially shipping all of your stuff) can be more expensive than $1k a year, especially if your family wants to visit. I just recently visited California with two other people and the cost was upwards of $3000 including hotels, food, and airfare. If you want to go home a lot (probably a $600 flight roundtrip) or have your family visit (and they probably have to pay for hotels and food), the cost adds up pretty quickly, and it might not be much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Ultimately, look at the programs. If you think that the USC programs and opportunities are worth the cost, go there. If you are interested in a more liberal-arts education, go to Vassar.

5

collegemom3717, I was going to commit to Vassar on the 1st, but my mom wanted me to have more time to make a choice as I wasn’t able to visit USC until the 30th. She told me to SIR to both schools and we would just lose the deposit on one of them. I don’t feel great about doing this, but what’s done is done.

6

You can do a music minor at USC[ all it takes is an audition once you are there, or even this summer] , and the fact that you will easily have more chances to do research should be the tipping point in USC’s favor. Dont forget USC’s hospital will make that far easier to do than being isolated in NY. The ability to do research is really important to your Med School chances.

7

Make your decision NOW. Today. What you did is HIGHLY unethical and if discovered, you could lose BOTH acceptances.

8

You CANNOT SIR to both schools! I don’t know how they would find out, but if they did, they would both IMMEDIATELY rescind your acceptance. You need to pick ASAP! Like, today!