<p>I'm planning on majoring in psychology or biology. Which one would be a better choice? Any suggestions would be appreciated.</p>
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<p>The better choice is one at which you can be happy and productive for four years. You have some very different schools on that list. There isn’t much similarity between the environment at USC and that at Notre Dame. While Notre Dame and Vanderbilt have some similarities, they have some big differences as well (have you been to South Bend, IN?)</p>
<p>Is money a factor here?</p>
<p>No, unfortunately I haven’t been to South Bend. I study in a boarding school in Canada so it’s kind of hard for me to tour campuses in the U.S. I used to live in Nashville though, so I know the environment there. Leaving the money factor out of this, which school will provide the best education in psychology/biology?</p>
<p>wow, i also got into USC, notre dame, and vanderbilt. well, i lived in south bend for about 4 years before and university of notre dame is really beautiful campus. ok Well… in my perspective, the location of the school, academics, and social scences come into play when I choose the college. I would recommend Notre Dame if you want some SERIOUS environment and education. USC and Vanderbilt is quite a party school; they have really high percentage of fraternity and soririety (it sounds rite…) and it is crazy down there. Meanwhile, UCSD is more of known as great chemistry department and such. Notre Dame, as a catholic school, is not much of a party school (no fraternity and such, hard liquuor is banned).
But the problem is both vanderbilt and notre dame do not have good graduate school while USC and UCSD have great graduate program which i am pretty sure it does reflect in the departments of undergraduate.
So education wise, i would recommend UCSD or USC for bio/psych.</p>
<p>UCSD for biology, best program in the state.</p>
<p>UCSD for bio… 3rd best program in the country.</p>
<p>I would choose Notre Dame or UC San Diego, but honestly you can’t make a bad choice here you have some very solid choices. I would consider environment. Vanderbilt, is not a “party” school in the way Chico State or Florida State is. </p>
<p>Here are the NRC rankings</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings in Each of 41 Areas](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41indiv.html]NRC”>http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41indiv.html)</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is not a “party school”. I actually would find it entertaining to see a lot of those who post such nonsense on this forum try to make it through a semester of coursework there.</p>
<p>My husband was, for a short time long, long ago, on the faculty of Notre Dame. I took some undergraduate courses as a “post graduate” student. I found the teaching to be exemplary, and the students extremely nice as well as hard working and smart. They tolerated the older comrade with great good humor, even though there were almost no other “non-traditional” students around. South Bend, though, had very little to say for itself, which was a major reason for our departure. Students who don’t care if they ever go into town, and who are completely satisfied with campus life, love their time at Notre Dame. That is one way in which ND differs a lot from Vanderbilt. While VU has an active, lively campus, it is surrounded by a the amenities of an urban area–bookstores, coffee shops and restaurants, stores–and is a little more than a mile from the downtown and music venues.</p>
<p>Unless you are a Catholics, don’t go to ND. Your worldviews and persepctives will be widened at other schools.</p>
<p>OP, you might find the rankings in the five broad areas easier to get your hands around than the 41 specific areas… here is that link:</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html#RANKBYAREA]NRC”>http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html#RANKBYAREA)</p>
<p>There you will find UC San Diego #4 in “Biological Sciences”, as you did not specify which area of bio you’re most interested in (for example it is #1 in Neurobio, and lower than #4 in some other specific areas). From the 41 areas link you will find UC San Diego Psychology #10.</p>
<p>^^^On the other hand, the NRC rankings depend a lot on strength of graduate programs, and there is a good deal of debate about how much that affects undergraduate education. I, personally, would not make a decision based only on rankings of that sort–although I would take them into consideration.</p>