Have visited both. They are both nice campuses in great cities. Tulane feels less southern. Tulane will cost 1/2 of what Vanderbilt will cost. Will major in business at Tulane, economics at Vanderbilt. Tulane appeared to be friendlier and less serious. Will take more of my AP credits. Vanderbilt was smaller and probably more intellectual . Concerned about job placement at graduation. Also concerned about grade deflation at Vanderbilt. The $$ is there for either school. Any advice?
grade deflation as an economics major? “Grade deflation” usually occurs in STEM courses.
You described what you felt at each school, but failed to describe your values and what you wanted in a school…though admittedly a much lower cost at a good school is definitely tempting regardless of how much better Vanderbilt may be.
There’s no grade deflation in Econ courses at Vanderbilt. Even intro courses with Buckles (which I found more challenging than some of my intermediate ones!), don’t have grade deflation, and have generous curves.
I’m not sure your perceptions of Vandy are in line with what the school is actually like. I don’t think Vanderbilt is particularly serious or intellectual. I actually had a similar situation - I received a full tuition scholarship from Tulane and nothing from Vandy. I applied ED to Vandy so my choice was made for me, but had I been able to choose I would have been in a similar pickle to you. I actually think the schools are quite similar, but from your post it seems as though you’re leaning towards Tulane.
Actually leaning towards Vanderbilt. Just a little intimidated by the much higher ACT scores and much higher GPA. Don’t want to of be able to get a job because my GPA is not a 3.5. How is the career services offices and job interviews on campus?
@question18 : That doesn’t matter as students beyond a certain threshold are considered academically elite anyways . Only the level of the courses in the dept of interest matter and often, even at elites, it doesn’t correlate with the supposed abilities of the students more so the teaching culture and curriculum structure and goals in each dept Ideally, the courses you take should not give exams reminiscent of an SAT/ACT anyway or HS for that matter, so the playing field gets leveled at most elite schools (typically prior experience and work ethic while in college will differentiate many students along with things like AP credits and SATII scores in certain subjects. Without extra experience, everyone in a class at an elite college is a noob and a person with a lower score can outperform those with higher stats. After all, many HS GPA’s were heavily inflated and most will admit to not having to really study much. Also, unlike an SAT/ACT, you cannot take the same or a very similar midterm 2 or more times in most classes I know).
At any normal school with extremely good students (median/mean beyond 1300 or and UW GPA mean 3.7+), regardless of the score range, you should assume the students will mostly work hard and you should do likewise and you’ll do fine for a good part. Typically your success is not dependent on others. In the case of a hard course, grades are curved upwards/recentered meaning that it is mainly you versus the exam (which is typically not MC. Tough instructors at any university, but especially at elites have found a way to challenge or “beat” those who are overly comfortable with the level and types of problems on standardized exams. The high scoring students in these courses will naturally have to adjust like everyone else does in that situation. Students with more experience in the subject beyond tests will adjust the easiest). The incoming scores may only be relevant in the rare cases where scores are fit to some pre-fit distribution when the course is easy (like maybe it is a simple MC or regurgitation/recall/algorithmic problem solving type of test) and exam means high (meaning grades can be curved down versus normal standards for A, B, C, etc. ). This is more typical of UG business schools and not courses in liberal arts entities. I would not let scores at any top private scare you. Worry more about the program or departments reputation when it comes to teaching quality and difficulty. Do not conflate ability to take ACT/SAT with ability to handle much more challenging exams perhaps a bit more open ended than in HS exams (some college instructors are far more likely to call on thinking at the middle and even the top of this pyramid/taxonomy: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm )
I wouldn’t describe Vandy’s atmosphere as serious and intellectual. Econ is an easy major here, it shouldn’t be much of a problem to get a 3.5+. I personally didn’t find the career services that helpful, although I’m sure some would disagree. They do bring some decent companies to campus, although Vandy is not a target school for many Wall Street firms. I don’t think your career options would be affected by what college you go to.
Another thing to consider is that Econ and business are two very different majors. Vandy has a financial economics and a corporate strategy minor, but no undergrad business school or degree.
For most people 35k/year is a significant chunk of money. Unless that isn’t the case for you, I’d seriously consider Tulane.
This particular choice appears annually so I suppose there are cross applicants often. Are you very good at standardized testing? If so, keep in mind that the GMAT, GRE, LSAT and MCAT will matter again. Perhaps you are going to ace one of them…if testing is a strong suit of yours. Will acing a graduate professional school exam result in a reasonable cost factor for grad school or Not?
Now examine if you can afford a fine business MBA, law school, med school --where merit dollars are very elusive. In some professions, the more selective the school, the more likely you are to get job interviews (law). In other professions, this sort of issue where you must pursue selective and expensive grad schools is a non issue.
In other words, can you afford Vandy without seriously depleting your ability to fund graduate school dreams? Borrowing all of grad school is a terrible idea if you have undergrad debt.
debt management is an important factor. 35 times 4 is a very fine merit offer.
I hope you can come to Vandy and have that experience. But play your long game. Weigh it out. There is always Vandy for grad school or perhaps…there is a way for a more reasonable pricetag for graduate education.