<p>^I am not sure how UCLA got injected into this thread. But Vanderbilt is more of a target than UCLA for recruiting from top management consulting firms.</p>
<p>I would tell the OP to pick just based on feel and cost at this point. They are in the same ballpark undoubtedly, and it is really a discussion on which one is slightly better than the other. In real life, that slight edge is insignificant no matter which school has it, and doesn’t translate to much if anything at all so it’ll depend on how much you like the south vs. LA and how much you are going to have to pay for each.</p>
<p>Actually, that “slight edge” may not be so insignificant. Most people would say that a school like UPenn has only a “slight edge” over a school like WashU, and yet, if one were to compare graduate school placement statistics between these two schools, they would notice that UPenn is several times as successful as WashU at placing students into top graduate schools. </p>
<p>Also, your point about the two being in the same ballpark is debatable. In terms of total institutional caliber, yes, they are arguably peers. However, at the undergraduate level, many would draw a distinction between the two (key word being “many”; one can include as many universities as they desire within their own university’s peer group). A short list of Vanderbilt’s peers might consist of Rice, Cornell, Emory, and Notre Dame, with Vanderbilt’s truest peer probably being Rice. A short list of USC’s peers, on the other hand, would probably include something along the lines of Wake Forest, Boston College, and NYU (probably USC’s truest academic peer).</p>
<p>So, I’m not really sure if you understand the point that I was making with that sentence…regardless, I don’t see how the quality of Vanderbilt’s business school is relevant to this discussion. The point I’ve been making is that Vanderbilt is the superior undergraduate institution.</p>
<p>One of the things the OP said he’s interested in about USC is that it’s up-and-coming, which means that it’s reputation/quality is increasing. Part of what that includes is the quality of things like a professional schools, like business schools, since they add to a universities prestige. These things aren’t separate issues. </p>
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<p>That may be. However, that’s hardly a convincing reason to pick one school over another. It’s arguable that Dartmouth is a “super undergraduate institution” compared to Harvard, yet i’d bet most people would still pick the latter.</p>
<p>Harvard vs Dartmouth is completely different from USC vs Vandy:</p>
<p>1.
Dartmouth is ranked <em>lower</em> than Harvard while
Vandy has always been ranked <em>higher</em> than USC as far as the USN college ranking goes. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Harvard is universally viewed as more prestigious than Dartmouth while
USC is probably regarded as <em>less</em> prestigious among those in the knows. While USC is up and coming, Vandy has long been among the top schools in the South.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard has superior graduate programs across the board whereas
it’s not clear whether Vandy or USC has better graduate programs in arts & sciences. USC has marginally better b-school while Vandy has better med school. Their law schools are about the same.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard has stronger undergrad student body than Dartmouth while USC has weaker undergrad student body than Vandy. In fact, as far as test scores go, the gap between Vandy and USC is greater than that between Harvard and Dartmouth/Vandy. Interestingly, though USC is often labeled as the “up-and-coming”, it’s Vandy that got a bigger leap in stats in the past few years. Vandy’s stats is virtually identical to Dartmouth’s these days.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think that Sam Lee makes some very good points, but I’ll add a couple more of my own to address Beyphy’s post.</p>
<p>-The OP may have his or her priorities out of order. Picking a school based on its prestige is one thing (and in itself is not advisable), but picking a school based on its potential to become more prestigious is a really bad idea. Even if the school were to improve as one expected, it’s unlikely that one would benefit from many of the improvements during their time at the school. It takes time to change, and it would certainly take more than the OP’s two or three remaining undergraduate years for USC to close the gap between itself and Vanderbilt. That said, the OP is free to choose as they wish; I choose to post on a thread because others read it and can take advice from it, regardless of whether or not they are a member of CC. </p>
<p>-As Sam Lee mentioned, you’ve introduced a large selection bias to your argument. You purposefully targeted Vanderbilt’s business school because of a statistic that you came across on wikipedia, and ignored its other professional schools. Ironically, Owen (which is, admittedly, not one of Vanderbilt’s premier programs) has been improving rather quickly in its own right. Furthermore, given that the law schools of each are of nearly equal standing, one might still give an edge to Vanderbilt for professional education. The gap between USC and Vanderbilt in the business school rankings (I don’t know what the exact numerical difference is) is probably 5 spots or less. It’s fair to assume that neither is spectacular, especially as an educational investment in this economy. The gap between the two medical schools is much larger, however. IIRC, Vanderbilt’s medical school is rated near #14 or #15 on US News, while USC’s is somewhere around #35. Truthfully, a comparison between the two schools based on a ranking, such as US News’s, will always be charitable to USC (despite the already large difference of nearly 20 spots). There’s simply a larger gap between the two than the rankings can convey. The top 20 medical schools are in an entirely different league – with regard to research – than the remaining medical schools. The difference between Vanderbilt Med and USC Med (which is still a superb medical school; all medical schools are of good quality) is much larger than the difference between USC Business and Vanderbilt Business.</p>
<p>I meant ‘dead last’ in the universities listed in the ranking.</p>
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<p>obviously they’re different. My point was that in comparing two schools, there’s much more to the picture than simply which university provides the best undergraduate education.</p>
<p>I’ve heard a lot of talk that Vanderbilt is more prestigious, but i haven’t seen it by any quantifiable metric (outside of USNEWS)</p>
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<p>LOL! that’s quite an accusation (which you have zero evidence for.) Actually what happened is i ran across that ranking on Vanderbilt’s wikipedia page, and wanted to examine it further. In the article, it was essentially listed the worst of the best.</p>
<p>But fine, Vanderbilt has a great medical school, i’m not contesting that.</p>
<p>I suppose a big thing i’m wondering is how is Vanderbilt perceived in the east/west coast? Its matriculants from both of those areas seem pretty low (in terms of percentages) and much higher in the south and midwest. I wonder if that has anything to do with its reputation in those areas.</p>
<p>"I found this on their wikipedia page. Their business school comes in dead last in this ranking (which, i assume, isn’t “research-oriented”):</p>
<p>The Best U.S. Business Schools: No. 30: Vanderbilt University - BusinessWeek</p>
<p>It also scores pretty low wrt diversity, with over 70% of the students there being Caucasian."</p>
<p>Why would you be interested in reading ONE random article that you came across on wikipedia, which also lists information about each of Vanderbilt’s other professional schools? Why didn’t you post anything about Vandy’s law or medicine? </p>
<p>Anyway, regarding your argument about Dartmouth and Harvard. Your logic makes sense but the comparison to the USC/Vandy scenario does not hold up. Harvard is a special case; it has a network that can provide its undergraduates with virtually unparalleled opportunity, and it is more than likely the most prestigious school in the world. Most people faced with Harvard vs. Dartmouth probably either just pick Harvard because of its prestige, or they weigh the advantages of Dartmouth (undergrad experience) against those of Harvard (global appeal, more opportunities after graduation) and decide that Harvard more than makes up for its deficiencies regarding its undergraduate experience. </p>
<p>USC has nothing at all comparable to the advantages offered by Harvard. By comparison, Vanderbilt offers more in the way of both undergrad experience and opportunity after graduation. </p>
<p>“I suppose a big thing i’m wondering is how is Vanderbilt perceived in the east/west coast? Its matriculants from both of those areas seem pretty low (in terms of percentages) and much higher in the south and midwest. I wonder if that has anything to do with its reputation in those areas.”</p>
<p>I’m not sure how anyone could find USC’s campus depressing. It’s the nicest campus I’ve seen, nicer than Northwestern, UCLA, UChicago, Michigan, Wisconsin, and others. The area surrounding the campus is depressed though, but it’s not any worse than Michigan’s or UChicago’s.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure how anyone could find USC’s campus depressing. It’s the nicest campus I’ve seen, nicer than Northwestern, UCLA, UChicago, Michigan, Wisconsin, and others. The area surrounding the campus is depressed though, but it’s not any worse than Michigan’s or UChicago’s.”</p>
<p>Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In the meantime, I suggest a trip to your local optometrist. How anyone could compare the very worst area of Ann Arbor, which is far from bad, to the “depressed” areas around USC is beyond my abilities of comprehension. Why don’t you just admit it packattack23, you’ve never been to the campus of The University of Michigan. If you have and feel the area around the campus is depressed, then I guess you are clueless about what a “depressed” area really looks like. I’m sorry to have to be so blunt, but there are many readers here at CC who have never seen Ann Arbor and need to be made aware of ridiculous comments.</p>
<p>Well, guess what, I find it depressing. I dislike the gated set-up, I find the neighborhood depressing, and far worse than U of Chicago’s immediate surroundings. Chacun a son gout, as they say.</p>
<p>USC is in a real bad area! Vanderbilt is a beautiful school in a great area! Nashville is one of the up and coming cities! the entire state of CA is about to go down the toilet! I vote for VANDY!</p>