<p>I got accepted to both of them just recently, and I'm looking for some input on where I should go. I'm really conflicted; I know Vanderbilt has a higher ranking than UCSD, but I'm going in as a Physics major, and from what I've heard, UCSD has an amazing physics program. I really like both of the campuses, but I'm from Los Angeles, so I have a bit of a bias toward UCSD. Gah, I need help.</p>
<p>You’ll get lots of opinions here, maybe even some informed opinions … 
Either school will give you a good education, obviously. You already have the facts there.</p>
<p>So what other criteria matter? Cost, climate, location and culture are the ones of relevance, probably, and those are really all very personal choices.</p>
<p>I often find that in matters like this, my initial (5 second) gut reaction is the right one.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>you didn’t mention the investment financially required to attend Vandy vs UCSD.<br>
If you don’t have to spend a great deal more for Vandy over UCSD, and you are receiving a solid amount of debt free financial need aid at Vandy, you should attend Vanderbilt. Perhaps UCSD has a wonderful physics department, if so Kudos. But there are other points of comparison to consider.
Vanderbilt will give you a classical liberal arts foundation, the nationally diverse and economically diverse student body, and small classrooms on a research mid sized U campus. The Vandy campus alone is a huge draw for an old fashioned Four Season walkable campus in an inviting city with plenty of artistic venues, music venues and professional sporting events in town. Come to Vandy if you can afford it.<br>
People who get need aid at Vandy enough to bring it to the price of a fine state flagship tuition package “win” this battle.<br>
Don’t sacrifice horribly for Vanderbilt. Do sacrifice reasonably for Vandy. The alum network is wonderful nationwide…more so by the year! Everyone will have some small classroom experience at Vandy, in the best of the liberal arts traditions. Vandy as a private institution is going to spend a much much higher amount per student in all sorts of tangible and intangible ways.
Anyone smart enough to get into Vandy is capable of weaving gold at UCSD. If your vision of your future includes a graduate school education, be practical. We had to refinance our home to send first son to Duke. He graduated the year of the great recession, went into the workforce and will start a graduate school degree at night which will take 2.5 years while working full time.
I bring this up because his flagship state college, UVA has a world class undergrad business program. Another obvious path would have been to major in business in that subschool, work a couple- three years and to then have taken two years off from employment to go full time and full pay masters to a top school of graduate business study. For families like ours, full pay in undergrad will mean, you must use your wits and common sense to do grad school on a budget. Think on this trade off and how it might or might not relate to you. For people who sign up for the military or who have other smart plans to avoid debt for grad school, the final paycheck you land in the work force may not be burdened with debt. </p>
<p>In other words, if you have finite resources, something will have to give. Many professional graduate schools have very little merit money and the entire thing will be on your back taken out in loans. Duke son did win a discount merit tuition package for night school, but for him…night school is the only financially viable plan and he will still end up 50 grand in debt. Keep your eyes on the long term goals you have about your future place in the work force. Imagine writing checks on school loans and act accordingly.</p>
<p>Vandy ‘13’s frosh roommate was from Orange County. Perhaps you need to talk to him. Lots of great Cali kids at Vandy these days. He loved the four seasons and happened to be keen on being a football fan–Vandy is not exactly a football powerhouse but it is in a fun football league and he got a kick out of it. (Our son was a film fan who didn’t even follow football…so they were pretty different but got on fine). SoCal roomie majored in Econ. A tough major, like Engineering --that will bang up your GPA but long term rewards are worth it. He was selected to be a Resident Assistant, thus saving his parents his room rent many semesters. I admired his choices to reduce his parents’ debt by working as an RA. </p>
<p>well, I am blathering. come to Nashville if you can finance it. congrats on your open door.</p>
<p>Well, some good news for you is that you could receive a $32,000 per year stipend as a grad student in a science/math major. As a physics major, grad school is certainly something you should strongly consider. For some reason, students who are in business with thoughts of a grad degree in business are never told about the science gold that exists for grad students. </p>
<p>^not to mention tuition fully paid in grad school in the sciences in addition to the stipend. (The stipend typically comes out of some combination of training grant dollars to the department, teaching assistantship, and/or PhD mentor’s grant money.)</p>
<p>@Faline2 – Vandy IS becoming a football powerhouse. Last two seasons were great (bowl games both years, and we beat the Florida Gators last year!), but the coach has moved on to Penn State. New coach from Stanford looks promising.</p>
<p>@Faline2 I was offered a $25,000 grant there, so the cost would only be about 10k more than UCSD. I’m gonna go visit both of the campuses soon to see how I like them. I’m just wondering what would make Vanderbilt the “smart” decision. At this point, I could say with relative certainty that I’m not too big of a fan of the South, however, Vanderbilt is by far the best school I got into, so I could probably overlook that. I just want to make sure I fully consider everything about each school regardless of the decision I make. </p>
<p>YoungBuelo, your remarks about the South give me pause. Nashville is a super happening hipster town in a very conservative state, sort of like Austin in Texas. Full of artists, talent and a draw regionally for talented people in all professions who want culture and a high quality of life. I am a military brat who used to live in Rancho Palos Verdes but my parents were Virginians, so the south is not alien to me. Married to a guy from Jersey whose family arrived at Ellis Island in 1927. We both love love life in Nashville. Tends to draw in maverick personalities and talent. Vanderbilt is the second biggest employer in Tennessee and is a huge change agent in the region. When I was waiting tables back in the day near Vandy in Hillsboro Village, so many of my clients were Californians who were in town or living in Nashville making music deals and meeting with Music Row people. Nashville is one of America’s Third Coast cities. Whether or not your family wants to/can afford 10k times 4 years more outlay in funds for you to attend one of the greatest institutions in the country is not a question anyone can answer. But I am pretty sure that Vandy doesn’t graduate many physics majors in a year so your life there would be very intimate in the physics department as you moved forward in your discipline. Yet you would be in a state capital city known for its symphony, sports and constant festivals so close to campus. With Vandy’s graduate schools on campus, juried science journals where you could hope to publish, stunning facilities, and deep endowment to support its students’ goals, you have won the lottery kid.<br>
if you are averse to the greek culture as our Vandy son was…60% of men are not participants. Nashville itself offers great alternatives to greek activities on weekends. Not so in many college towns.
Midwest parent is correct. Only the strong survive majoring in hard sciences and going on to PhD programs but this is one of the last pathways in American graduate schools that is usually underwritten in grants. (a far far cry from the crushing debt load from top law, medicine and MBA programs). Are you informed on the recent post graduate placements of Vanderbilt’s physics grads? You should be. I am going to stick my neck out and say that the post graduate outcomes from a degree in physics from Vandy will be superior and something to strive to receive. “At Vanderbilt, active research groups are studying the physics of elementary particles; nuclear structure and heavy-ion reactions; nonlinear interactions of lasers with materials at ultrafast time scales; the behavior of electrons, atoms, molecules, and photons near surfaces; the electric and magnetic properties of living systems; the structure and dynamics of biopolymers; unusual stars, young stars; equations of state in brown and white dwarfs; and cosmology. Most professors are engaged in research, and undergraduate students can participate in this research informally or through independent study or summer work.” Which university is most likely to connect you with resume building summer work? Vanderbilt has the resources to offer summer research jobs to undergrads. <a href=“REU in Physics & Astronomy at Vanderbilt University”>REU in Physics & Astronomy at Vanderbilt University; <a href=“Fermilab Today | Vanderbilt University”>http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/universities/vanderbilt-university.html</a> NASA has awarded $4.4 million to a collaboration, which includes Assoc. Prof. Steve Csorna, Professors Andreas Berlind and Thomas Weiler to build a telescope deployed on the International Space Station for the study of extreme energy cosmic rays.<br>
Vandy son took an honors seminar with David Weintraub, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Physics, and he wouldn’t have traded that semester with him (he is brilliant) for a million bucks. Have you googled the professors on the Undergraduate physics committee to look at their backgrounds and research interests? dig in.
40 grand is about the top of what anyone should incur in undergraduate debt. You have ways to ameliorate this price difference available to you. Just as our son’s roommie took on being an RA, thus saving housing costs two of his four years. Our son had paid work one summer via Vandy in DC. Which school might have the better foreign study experience for a science major? Going abroad is certainly one way to mix it up. Our son went to Copenhagen…the other to Berlin. There is a strong community of non Greeks at Vandy, and although Nashville is decidedly southern, the student body is no longer regional. It is truly national, and our Vandy son has many friends as well from international recent immigrant families. I remember a Californian on this board back on 05…admitted to Yale but Vanderbilt was going to be almost free for him due to a CV scholarship. his handle on here was EvilRobot. He came to Vandy, got his Engineering work done in three years flat in computer science and Google immediately hired him…he is back to his life in California. wonderful guy.<br>
You have a fabulous offer. I hope you take it and run with it. best wishes.</p>
<p>I will echo the comments that Nashville is a cosmopolitan city and not a sleepy southern city. 67% of Vandy students come from outside the southeastern US. Nashville is a leader in healthcare, state capital, music city, business start ups, and the center for 22 colleges/universities. It’s not too southern and I suspect will offer more geographical diversity than UCSD.
One neat aspect of Vanderbilt is you have a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend 4 years in an academic and social community with the brightest peers in the world. They will challenge and push you in a way few other university communities can…it’s kind of cool. </p>