Vanderbilt vs. Bowdoin vs. UVa

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

<p>I'm an asian/white girl who grew up in Asia. I want to major in Public Policy/Economics and want to eventually work in the East coast and maybe go to graduate school. I like studying but I also like to go out and have fun and party. Like, I want to be able to go to a school that knows how to let loose and have fun as well. Going to a "fun" school is really one of my top priorities. I love debating and doing scholarly things but I also love pop culture. I want a balance between these two. I also want to go to a school that has really good sports and really good academics. I also want a school that fosters really good relationships between teachers and students. I'm thinking that I want to join a sorority in college, but I'm not so sure though. How hard would it be for a US citizen who grew up abroad to join one? I'm also really looking for the traditional, American college experience with the beautiful campus and quirky campus traditions, with the college green and everything. I also want to go to a school with all 4 seasons and a great college town. I love the thought of being immersed in a school's "bubble" wherein most students stay on campus (and not go to a "commuter" school). I also want a school with a strong alumni base in the East coast.</p>

<p>Cost is not a factor. Please let me know where you think I'll have the best college experience among these 3 schools.</p>

<p>VANDERBILT
Pros:
- Big academics
- Liberal arts feel
- SEC Sports
- School spirit
- Ingram living and learning communities
- “Preppy” campus
- Research opportunities, large funding per student
- Good study abroad
- Greek life. Not sure about rushing though.
- Food
- Weather
- Fun campus!!
- Southern culture that I haven’t been exposed to
- Fun school
- Campus in the middle of a great city like Nashville
- School is expanding</p>

<p>Cons:
- Not sure about going Greek at this point, how will not being in a sorority affect me
- Alumni base and internships: is it just me or are they not as strong as the other two on the East coast? I plan on working in the East coast so I’m not sure
- Nashville: how hard will it be to adjust</p>

<p>UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Pros
- Very well known in my country
- School spirit
- Traditions!! What I really looked for in a college
- Poli Sci department good
- Alumni base in the East coast
- Fun school as well (but not as fun as Vandy, I’ve heard)</p>

<p>Cons:
- Heard that everything is super competitive here
- State funding. USA’s recession means that UVA will definitely spend less than the other two schools
- Super big size. I don’t want to have classes with over 100 or 200 people
- Study abroad is difficult?
- Food
- Freshmen dorms (no a/c)</p>

<p>BOWDOIN</p>

<p>Pros:
- Best undergraduate teaching of the 3
- FOOD!!!
- Great relationships between teachers and professors
- Graduate placement
- Hot guys
- In the east coast, so very good alumni connections</p>

<p>Cons:
- Being in a class of just 300 ish will make me feel suffocated
- Monotonous after being around the same people?
- Not much to do in Maine compared to other schools
- Seems a lot less fun than the other schools
- Weather…</p>

2

<p>This is a very easy question. You know what you want from a college, and you know the schools quite well (but I disagree that Bowdoin’s undergraduate education is best). It seems to me quite obvious that only Vandy can provide all you are asking for. Did you want a reassurance?</p>

3

<p>@doubleeternity I’m just worried about Vandy’s job placement and name brand in the East coast. How is Vandy’s alumni base in the East coast? From what I’ve read on CC, most active alums tend to stay in the South (Texas, Atlanta etc.) Also, Vandy doesn’t seem to be as strong as U.Va. and Bowdoin in terms of job opportunities. Is that true?</p>

4

<p>As a native New Yorker, I can assure you Vanderbilt has strong name recognition. Employers in NYC are familiar with the school and you won’t have any issue getting a job (check out LinkedIn and you will see a ton of NY alums at good companies). Also, Vanderbilt has a very large population of students from NY (higher than every other state other than TN). </p>

<p>Bowdoin is actually the school that lacks name recognition since its a small LAC. Both Vanderbilt and UVA are in major sports conferences and well-known in northeast.</p>

<p>Vanderbilt and UVA have very similar student bodies. However, Vanderbilt has the advantage of having Nashville right outside campus (tons of live music, parties, etc.) and better geographic diversity (meet people from all around the world rather than primarily Virginia).</p>

5

<p>Ok, I will ramble as my eldest was accepted to UVA, Bowdoin (Bowdoin Scholar), and to Vandy (back in the day when it was easier to get in) and he went to Duke. We love and honor all three of your colleges. First of all you are in the “embarrassment of riches” category. </p>

<p>Bowdoin has no Greek life. Duke son to our surprise went Greek at Duke. Vandy '13 son disliked Greek life and was part of the 55-60% of independents in the “newer Vandy” with a national footprint, very steep test scores and a big focus on diversity. He was also a Chancellor’s Scholar and tended to hang out with sons and daughters of recent immigrants to the USA…first and second generation. Second year at Vandy, he and ten friends competed for and won a ten bedroom of singles house for a year…there are ten of these I think…and he was there along with someone with roots in Pakistan, someone from mainland China, someone who spoke Polish, someone who was Jewish and a music major, a couple women who were leaders in the marching band, a doctor’s WASP son from the heartlands of Ohio…in other words…there are many ways to build a community at Vanderbilt if you are not rushing or if (Horrors) you don’t get a bid to a sorority. At Vandy, 50% of women go Greek which is interesting because this % has held true in “old Vandy” and in the “new Vandy.” I think girls bond for many reasons for support in college. Girls go to Vandy a few days before winter break is over to rush. I think it is possible to go and get no bids which I think is horrible, but I think most women are invited in to a sorority as long as you don’t go crazy re the “perceived rank prestige” of your sorority. (I do know a lovely young woman from my home town who rushed at UVA–and she got no bid…so…I am “philosophically” turned off by that myself.)</p>

<p>By junior year, no one cares that much anymore about who is in what frat etc…because a great deal of students are going abroad for a semester at all these colleges, and they are intent on things like summer jobs, summer research, applications for this or that. Reading about your personality…I would steer you to Vandy frankly. UVA OOS is also costly and I think Vandy has deeper resources to lavish on its students.</p>

<p>UVA is a great place as well. I recommend it particularly for certain majors…definitely for political science, business, English, foreign languages, film–I am sure there are other stellar departments …and you have to give credit to UVA for links to foreign services, DC jobs and internships and for having a lot of students from Northern VA and DC suburbs who are super diverse. 30% of the students are high test score OOS kids so it is a great university. Small in fact for a state flagship. The grounds are wonderful. The town is wonderful. The graduate schools are wonderful. UVA has a lot of alum power, a good foothold in NYC and DC. The students are the top students in their home high schools who obviously choose the price point of UVA over the debt burdens of private schools. Lots of school spirit, plenty of places to hang out if you are not Greek and are on the artsy hipster side of life. Self starters get good educations at UVA. If you can get into the highly ranked McIntire school of business in undergrad, you will probably have an actual job which is necessary for people who want MBAs later on. I am less excited about the money they have for sciences and research, but I know kids who managed to get into great med schools out of UVA just fine. In my opinion, the student body will be your change agent/inspiration at UVA more than your professors. That is the most important difference with Bowdoin, where your relationship to your professors will be phenomenal all four years. there is some pixie dust in Charlottesville. No one ever wants to leave for some reason. It is awesome that Jefferson designed The Lawn. You can’t buy what UVA has. That is important to understand. </p>

<p>UVA and Bowdoin both evoke deep American historical roots. Bowdoin…You can feel the spirits of the early founders and you of course have to know about Chamberlain, the hero of Gettysburg and a former Bowdoin President to say nothing of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Longfellow. Franklin Pierce. Bowdoin used to have the number one undergrad Government program in the USA. They changed all the Greek houses to weekend houses that students run and they gave them budgets. All students can attend all activities in any of these social houses. Friday night gatherings and events each week for the whole community with talent of some kind brought in. The student body is super chill there. Bowdoin Fan here. I believe in the powers of a strong liberal arts college that can multiply over a lifetime. </p>

<p>Top liberal arts schools like Bowdoin had a challenge. They wanted to diversify economically and by race but obviously people who were minorities were reluctant to attend colleges in relatively isolated locations and with traditions that seemed stuffy and not necessarily user friendly re Greek life. There were battles waged at several campuses between administrators who wanted to eliminate Greek life and alum who were outraged that their traditions were being discarded. battles like this at Hamilton and at Colgate. I think Colgate is still Greek. I think there is one frat at Swarthmore, maybe two but Swat has all sorts of unique outlooks. Oh yeah…I wanna go to Swat, too.<br>
If you want some of the aspects of Bowdoin and many of the best attributes of UVA, you will find the strengths of both traditions at Vanderbilt. Smaller classes, beautiful compact campus, no claustrophobia. Vandy will never have Thomas Jefferson and be 2 hours from DC. And Vandy will never be as cozy and intimate as Bowdoin. </p>

<p>good luck with your decision. Be humble and love all three of them. I do!</p>

6

<p>Also I fear you are referencing me re “Vandy grads ending up in Atlanta or Texas”. Let me clarify. The regional Vanderbilt had a big following in Atlanta and in Texas back in the day. Their alum chapters have parents my age in them who are broken hearted that their kids can’t get into Vanderbilt. The alum at Homecoming no longer look a lot like the current freshman class. that was my point. Vanderbilt’s academic rigor is well-recognized in graduate schools. The head of CNN in DC is a Vandy grad and you will be surprised how many Vandy grads are going to be all over the nation now. Vandy has a Maymester in DC and a summer in DC option btw. Our Vandy son had three internships in DC in his four years there. That said, the public policy program may be stronger at UVA overall due to their longer history and location. No college has it all. In grad school you can alternate into a new atmosphere. </p>

7

<p>From your wish list it sounds like Vandy is a great match for you. Elite academics plus the traditional college experience in a fantasic city. Don’t worry about Vanderbilt’s reputation in the east and northeast…it’s well known.
Vanderbilt is always in the top ten for happiest students and schools that offer the best “quality of life” according to student surveys with the Princeton Review. </p>

8

<p>Sounds like Vandy is the best “fit” but you are worried about job prospects in the Northeast.I know one option is the HOD major (Human and Organizational Development) at Peabody because it includes, as a requirement, a semester-long internship spent away from campus and you get to choose from among sponsoring companies in NYC, DC, LA, Chicago and London (I think). So perhaps that levels the playing field in terms of Vandy as a launching pad vs the other two schools. I hope some students or alums who have experienced the HOD internship will post and offer a candid perspective about it. I only know what I read on the Vandy website. Also, I’m not sure Bowdoin has much name recognition in NYC, or that UVA carries as much clout outside of the DC area (unless you go to Mcintire). That said, Vandy is still not well known in NY. If you go to a big company, their human resources department is likely to understand what a Vandy degree means. But a random small company probably will not. Of course, the school’s profile is definitely on the rise in the NYC area–by the time you graduate it will be all the more “known.” All three are phenomenal schools. Congrats.</p>

9

<p>i’m a bowdoin grad and i’ll just assure you that bowdoin’s name recognition is excellent in NYC, where i live, and in DC, where I once lived. it’s also exceptional for graduate schools (i went to a top 3 law school and many of my friends went to top flight grad programs of their choosing). the vandy folks are selling it hard, and i don’t aim to compete with hard sells, but i did want to correct the misapprehension of bowdoin’s name recognition among those who matter. for what it’s worth, i turned down UVA to attend bowdoin and didn’t think to look at Vandy. </p>

10

<p>Nice to hear a grad testify about Bowdoin’s reception in NY and DC to say nothing about Boston…and I do agree that you can get amazing support at a liberal arts college for your graduate school dreams, and that Bowdoin is recognized for excellence in grad schools. My Bowdoin admit declined Bowdoin because in the end he wanted to play in Duke’s much stronger student Symphony Orchestra. But did he know his professors the way you knew yours? Definitely not. Just out of curiosity, pb2002, tell us what is in your view indelible about a Bowdoin education and why it has been a decision you are happy you made when you were 18. </p>

11

<p>As long as third parties are making recommendations, let me make an easy one here: I am a Yale grad., and I recommend Vanderbilt…not even close!</p>

12

<p>i think Bowdoin has the perfect mix of an intelligent student body geared toward work that is meant to help the common good. the focus on the common good was constant while i was there and, at the impressionable age of 18, it influenced me greatly. beyond that, and its location on the coast of maine, there’s nothing particularly indelible about bowdoin that isn’t also shared by it’s excellent LAC peers. i had (and continue to have, 12 years later) relationships with my professors. in fact, i changed careers at the age of 25 and had support from an academic department at bowdoin from which i’d only ever taken one class, and ongoing support from the department chair, from whom i’d never taken a class. my advisors, whom i saw this past january in a trip back to maine, remember the most specific things about my time there. perhaps that’s unusual but many of my friends still communicate with their professors from our time in college, leading me to think my experience was the not exceptional. i think it’s this difference - the difference between two excellent universities and an excellent liberal arts college - that the OP should consider before eliminating bowdoin. it’s not for everyone, but it’s unmatched for those who take to it. </p>

13

<p>thanks for that statement re the quality of your education at Bowdoin. I hear the same kinds of things from a young woman at Davidson now. As wonderful as my sons’ experiences were at great mid-sized research institutions, a true liberal arts education is a foundation with many gifts that cannot be found anywhere else before you embark into the world of work and graduate schools. Vandy son carved out some of this experience by opting for many seminars at Vandy, Duke son by bonding with his foreign language experience and departments and Symphony, and both had good freshman seminars that offer some of what a liberal arts school delivers. But not the same as what Bowdoin contains as an experience. Good luck to the OP. </p>

14

<p>I’ll pitch in. All three are really great schools, as testimony here attests. I’ll just make a few comments on specific negatives.</p>

<p>You mentioned Greek life concerns at Vandy: not a concern, you’ll have great company and a comfortable existence either way. It’s a well-funded, well-managed school. It’s not an accident that students are happy. Also, the supposed lack of respect in the NE isn’t valid, as others have said.</p>

<p>You mentioned funding problems at UVa. Yes, it’s a serious concern, and it’s not going away soon. It’s partly the recession, and partly the challenges of being a state-funded school, with some recent political tussles affecting the univ board and administration. (Google is your ally here.)</p>

<p>Bowdoin: great school in a lovely part of the country. The only real negative I can think of is that it’s much colder there than it is at Charlottesville or Nashville. :slight_smile: </p>

15

<p>OP asked me some questions in a private message, mostly about graduate school placement and alumni. I’ll post my response here as well for anyone with a similar dilemma: </p>

<p>"
I don’t know the statistics on our placement into law/business schools-- I would assume they are out there somewhere. Maybe check <a href=“https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/fb.aspx?show=2”>https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/fb.aspx?show=2&lt;/a&gt; and go to the “outcomes” section under “student.” That data is fairly recent and shows nearly 40% pursuing higher education, with 71% admitted to their first choice. From the data I’m looking at, it appears something like 20% pursue graduate education at Bowdoin, but their first choice rate is not posted-- I can’t find it anywhere anyway. Based on 2012 data, I am also seeing that Vandy sends more students to most top schools-- Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Duke, Columbia, Georgetown-- but then again, Vandy has a larger student body. A ton of Vandy students end up back at Vandy, which has great medical, business, and law schools.</p>

<p>This is a pretty cool LinkedIn feature I found recently:
<a href=“https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/edu/alumni?id=19443&unadopted=false&schoolId=19443&companyCount=3&functionCount=3&trk=edu-cp-com-CC-title”>https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/edu/alumni?id=19443&unadopted=false&schoolId=19443&companyCount=3&functionCount=3&trk=edu-cp-com-CC-title&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Click “show more” to see more data. You can select a particular field like law or business and see where alumni are represented. You may want to limit the graduation year to like 2012 to exclude current Vandy students and students in transition. New York, DC, and Chicago are all in the top 5. With a larger school, we naturally have more alums anywhere you want to look in the US. I am sure Bowdoin is more concentrated on the east coast, but that doesn’t mean they have more numbers.</p>

<p>Regarding a “liberal arts experience,” Vanderbilt’s school of Arts and Sciences is, for all intents and purposes, a liberal arts college
"</p>

16

<p>Pancaked: </p>

<p>Since you say you don’t have any stats on Bowdoin’s grad school placement I’ll give you one. The Wall Street Journal did a study, and ranking, of the top 50 “feeder” schools into top law, med and business schools. Bowdoin was ranked #19. Vandy didn’t make the top 50. Also, a much, much higher percentage of Bowdoin grads pursue grad school that you state. I can dig up that figure. I wouldn’t underestimate Bowdoin’s power when it comes to placement into top grad schools. </p>

<p>Here is the WSJ ranking. <a href=“http://www.inpathways.net/top50feeder.pdf”>InPathWays - Discover latest hot new trending topic, insights, analysis;

17

<p>that top fifty feeder school list I believe is exactly the same one referred to when my son went to Duke in 2005. Do you have a date on that–I am thinking about 05? I recall sending it around to friends. Our boys applied to several of those liberal arts colleges. Anyhoo. The colleges on this list are still players and perhaps still on the list. Vandy’s outcomes are definitely on the upswing but haven’t seen any valid data on this “feeder school question.”
I would never dispute Bowdoin as a desirable undergrad school to hail from when applying to prestigious graduate schools. I think their students are viewed as people of fine character who are known intimately by their professors. Letters of reference mean a lot from a fine liberal arts school. </p>

18

<p>alum88: those results don’t surprise me. That chart is from 2010. Vanderbilt has only recently “arrived” as a choice for students who are strong enough to also gain acceptance to top schools like, say, Bowdoin! What will be interesting is to see how Vanderbilt fares in such rankings by the time the class of 2018 graduates. It would surprise me if it isn’t considered a top-50 “feeder school” by then. Will it rank higher than Bowdoin? Don’t know, don’t care, doesn’t matter but I doubt it. If that chart shows anything it is that this country’s top liberal arts colleges are phenomenal, both in the quality of the students and the education received. As for the OP, any of these three schools will do. If finances aren’t an issue then I would recommend choosing based on best social “fit” because that often determines how well students perform academically. </p>

19

<p>@Alum88, I was citing Bowdoin graduate placement data from Class of 2012, taken in 2013. It said 16% of Bowdoin graduates that year were enrolled in graduate schools. I rounded up to 20% to be nice, hehe. </p>

<p><a href=“http://community.bowdoin.edu/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Class-of-2012-Status.pdf”>http://community.bowdoin.edu/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Class-of-2012-Status.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Your WSJ ranking is nice but is very dated and based on a mere 16 enrolled students.</p>

20

<p>I should say, just to be clear, that I’m not trying to bash Vandy. It is a fantastic school and there is no wrong choice here. Rather, i wanted to add some info to the mix because too often the highly selective liberal arts schools are not given the credit they deserve because most focus on the large universities whose names we all see in the sports pages and on TV.</p>

<p>Also, one other point of reference. Last year, 11 Bowdoin grads went to law school. A similar number went when i graduated years ago. Bowdoin grads are simply not competing against dozens of classmates for grad school placement. From memory i recall that almost all of us went on to Ivy or equivalent law schools. The education at Bowdoin is highly personal, the students are very smart, and the school and faculty get behind the students 100% and want them to succeed. The combination of those things, plus the Bowdoin’s reputation among other academic institutions, makes for a powerful combination for those applying to grad school.</p>