USC vs Vandy - by end of day today!

<p>Writing this on behalf of a friend's daughter who has to decide today between USC (thematic option / honors program, with scholarship) and Vandy. Her interests are English and math. Mother is USC alum, sister currently at Vandy.</p>

<p>She strongly desires to have small class sizes, get to know professors personally, and have as few TA's as possible, and is concerned that that is not as easy to accomplish at USC (given size) as it is at Vandy. </p>

<p>The thematic option / honors program would seem to make that less of an issue, but she has also heard that there is some "busy work" in the program.</p>

<p>She's really struggling and having the family relationships with USC / Vandy is probably clouding the whole thing more than if both schools were "blank slates" to the family! </p>

<p>Anyone with experience with both who could add perspective? Thanks! (cross posted on Parents Forum)</p>

<p>pizza,
Hard to say much that could be new to this family if they have direct experience with both schools. But here are some things that I might suggest considering:</p>

<p>One way to frame it is to think about post-graduate positioning as both schools will do extremely well in their home regions and then less so as you move away. </p>

<p>Second way is to consider the interest in exploring a new part of the country as part of the college experience and how LA and Nashville compare and what they contribute to an average student’s experience in those cities.</p>

<p>Third is to think about the subject areas targetted and if there are substantive differnces in how the colleges offer this (I don’t know, but I personally wouldn’t get too wrapped up in this because they could easily change their minds 6 months from now). </p>

<p>Fourth might be travel time and cost and just ease of getting there and back and having parent visits. </p>

<p>Fifth might be to consider where the other kids are coming from and if that would be a group that they’d like to be with. </p>

<p>Sixth is the degree of Greek life that exists and whether they expect to get involved.</p>

<p>She’s already got the size thing on her list (Vandy is less than half as big), but what does that mean beyond the class size, TA issues? Are there more opportunities available at one or other that have some personal appeal? </p>

<p>Again, I hesitate to say too much as this family already has an inside view of both places and obviously either can be an excellent college choice. </p>

<p>Good luck to the family!</p>

<p>Does she view the larger number of pre-professional majors at USC to be a plus or a minus? Vanderbily is tilted more heavily toward the liberal arts. USC takes tremendous pride in its schools of business, communications, etc. Some students view this as bringing a diversity of student types to campus; others feel that the liberal arts feel more crowded out.</p>