<p>I'm a senior who only has 3 days left to decide between schools and am unfortunately at a dead stop in my selection process. As a New Jersey student interested in mechanical engineering, I have visited both schools and have had a very difficult time figuring out which one I'd rather go to. The engineering schools are of similar quality, but I'm also interested in studying outside my major. Money is not of concern in my process, and I'm just looking for some overall opinions and answers to some questions:
1) Would you say Charlottesville is a good place to go to school?
2)How is the housing and food?
3)How does the size of the school affect student life?
4)Is the social scene all party based?
5)Do you enjoy your professors?
6)Lastly, if you know about both schools where would you go and why?</p>
<p>I believe this thread posted by a student facing the same dilemma last spring will be helpful. FWIW, he chose UVA. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/1109157-uva-vs-vanderbilt.html?highlight=vanderbilt[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/1109157-uva-vs-vanderbilt.html?highlight=vanderbilt</a></p>
<p>I also chose UVA over Vandy, you will not regret that decision</p>
<p>vanderbilt=private, ranked higher</p>
<p>I also chose UVA over Vandy.</p>
<p>Both are great schools. They were my final 2, I went to Vanderbilt because:</p>
<p>Private 5,800 students > public 16,000
Vandy’s more selective
Vandy’s ranked higher
Peabody school ranked # 1
city campus > rural grounds
Vandy offered merit aid > none at UVA
UVA sticks it to the OOS students… 3.2 times the tuition of in-state rate
At Vandy 18% of its students are from TN > UVA has 70% of its students from VA
Nashville > C.ville
Vandy Campus felt like a better fit for me.</p>
<p>UVa is the stronger university overall (stronger professional schools except Medicine, stronger graduate programs overall). They are fairly equivalent in terms of undergraduate experience and strength, although Vanderbilt is smaller. Similar Greek life emphasis. Quaint college town (Charlottesville) vs. mediocre city (Nashville). ACC vs. SEC. UVa. has more tradition. Both southern but UVa. carries a bit more cache in the Northeast and on Wall Street.</p>
<p>NICK5494:</p>
<p>SELECT UVA : Prestigious - competitive - excellent environment - well rounded</p>
<ul>
<li>will prep you for getting along and working with people</li>
</ul>
<p>i am going to UVA but if i had the opportunity to go Vandy, i would definitely have taken it up. Both of my brothers go there and it is absolutely gorgeous, prestigious, has really good sports, and has a really good balance between academics and social life. UVa definitely has the balance too, but also, c-ville is a college town and even though the school population is much larger than Vandy’s, Vandy is in the heart of Nashville so it is considerably urban which gives it less of a “small private” school feel. But go with your gut feeling. If you choose uva, i’ll see you there haha :)</p>
<p>ps. a really good strategy is to flip a coin. while the coin is in the air you secretly hope for one. choose that one :)</p>
<p>^ Bud123. On the Furman site you said you went to Furman. Where did you really go to school? Come clean please.</p>
<p>Furman-UG, Vandy-G</p>
<p>I think there are some great comments here, but I have to point out that Charlottesville is not rural. In Virginia, towns are part of counties and cities are independent. Charlottesville is a small city, independent of Albemarle County.</p>
<p>Bud,
What are your graduate and undergraduate degrees in? Rankings are very different in graduate school-depends more on the department/school.</p>