Hey everyone! I’ve narrowed down my college choices for next year to Vandy and Barnard (the women’s school in Columbia) and am having an extremely difficult time deciding which is better for me.
My biggest factor is money, as I’m receiving absolutely no support from my parents. Vandy will cost me around $6k a year and Barnard will be about $10k, so both I can manage with some loans, but my Vanderbilt aid is entirely a grant while Barnard gave me an additional $3k in loans per year. Then, as far as location goes, I love NYC and already live near Nashville, so Barnard would be more exciting but more difficult to travel to.
I’m nearly confident Barnard would provide a better fit. I’m not interested in Greek life and I’m not the partying type, both of which are big at Vanderbilt. Sports don’t matter to me, I’m very very liberal, and I’ll probably be involved in political activism and the arts. I’m worried that Vanderbilt will be a bit too southern for me.
However, I want to do pre-med, and Vanderbilt probably is the better choice academically for the sciences. As far as prestige goes, Barnard might be a Columbia degree but it still isn’t Columbia, so I’d assume they’re pretty even.
I’m having SUCH a difficult time trying to decide- any advice?
“I’m nearly confident Barnard would provide a better fit.”
Then go there. Your description of yourself aligns with Barnard more than Vanderbilt. You seem more like a LAC student than a research university one, and if you do decide to do sciences for real after your first year of weed out classes at either place, you’ll have options. Of course, Vanderbilt has much better aid, and no loans is a huge plus for us, but you sound like you want to go somewhere like Barnard, so the fit here seems to outweigh that to an extent. I would go with your gut on this.
I had a very liberal student son at Vandy who did very little with Greek life over four years. There are many “Vanderbilts” despite the high (50%) Greek participation among female students and less among men. And Vanderbilt with it’s midsize and great variety of academic pathways is very diverse. Not only that, the Vanderbilt student body should not be underestimated in regards to the true diversity of race, religion, economic background and geographic origins. In other words, living near Nashville doesn’t mean that you won’t be immersed in diversity of people. You will be challenged socially and emotionally by Vanderbilt for four years as you make your way through. The faculty is so wonderful as well. The quality of the facilities is wonderful. Nevertheless, if you feel oppressed by Nashville as a host city for four years, perhaps you should take on the larger debt at Barnard. Emotional preferences re location matters but never should be overly indulged when debt is the price.
Debt in undergrad is to be avoided like the plague, and I am impressed with the excellent need student aid offers you have received. Barnard is really not that much more debt than Vanderbilt-- unless you are being less than honest with yourself about other expenses you will incur in the NYC area (books are costly, transportation costs, storage, summer job housing rentals and etc. Perhaps you should engage someone in the Barnard staff regarding expenses that should be factored in. Perhaps they do things for students to help them out–offer free storage units over summers so you don’t have to haul all your things home every year? (Allowing students to stay on campus for instance during spring or winter breaks to eliminate travel costs and housing costs on breaks–this is offered at Vandy by request and approved when truly needed–otherwise dorms and dining hall shut down).
We can assume you are a super student re your admission to Vandy. Vandy does have information on how many students were admitted to med school first try. Get ahold of these stats for both schools. Vandy has a strong premed program. Make sure Barnard has strong med school advising. The MCAT is a deal breaker. And getting into med school- if that is your goal --is not easy. Don’t underestimate how carefully you must run that race and how much you will need strong advisors and strong peers around you in class and in labs. Are you are person who is fabulous at things like memorization and can you project that grades in courses likke Organic Chem will be easy for you? Be honest about these matters in your private assessment of yourself. A strong MCAT will do a lot of talking for you when that day comes.
I would never talk you out of NYC location or of access to NYC artists or from being a political activist. My son was once a leader in a political group on Vandy campus and wrote for the paper often. He also landed two summer jobs in DC and went abroad for a semester. Your Vandy money will be applied to your approved semester abroad (I believe!). Make sure Barnard permits you to put your $ on foreign semesters as well. You really will not have to be in Nashville all the time is my point if you go Vandy. Life at Vandy is not always on campus. Son also did Alternative Spring Break for three years…I can’t speak to Barnard’s classrooms or if you have easy access to the medical communities that Vandy offers. I do think that schools like Vandy and Duke offer a secondary learning aspect: your peers are all your equals or betters and that adds a certain great energy all around you.
Barnard has many pre-med students and plenty of opportunities for student going into sciences, particularly life sciences. I’d also add that, in part because of the urban location, there are a lot of opportunities for Barnard students to earn money, in addition to campus work-study opportunities. So I think the added cost of NYC living is counter-balanced by increased student earning capacity – though as a pre-med student, you might be not be as comfortable working extra hours.
While I understand your reluctance to take on loans, if you do continue to med school, your undergraduate loans will be dwarfed by your med school loans – so as long as you are only taking subsidized loans they probably won’t make a difference to you long term. (I mean, if you graduate from medical school with $200K of med school loans and $20K of undergraduate loans… you aren’t going to be stressing over the debt from undergrad).
Although Barnard isn’t Columbia, it does afford access to Columbia resources, which could include opportunities to work or do research via Columbia department or facilities. So it is probably quite common that an application or resume submitted by a Barnard student will include Columbia EC’s, jobs, or research experiences. Just as an example, Columbia has an undergraduate science journal (CUSJ) which is open to participation from Barnard students who want to be part of the editorial board. The editor-in-chief for the current year is a Barnard student.
This is one reason why debate over the Barnard/Columbia distinction is kind of silly – by the time Barnard students graduate, most have built up some sort of resume with the name “Columbia” sprinkled all over it. And more important, for a pre-med student, while you enjoy the benefits of an LAC style education, you have full access to the resources of a major research university.