Vanderbilt vs. Ivy league

College Search & Selection
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<p>diaosi, you missed the point. My point was, if Vanderbilt was that strong a name to the top employers, it would have rivaled the Ivies in placing graduates at the top bulge bracket firms. It would have rivaled Berkeley for grad school admissions to top grad school programs. Look at the case of Duke or Cornell vs Berkeley. Both schools can rival Berkeley in those areas. Vanderbilt, though still a very good school, is clearly not in the same league as those three. </p>

<p>And, lastly, despite Berkeley’s large size, its graduates, on average, make more / are paid more than Vanderbilt grads are, making Berkeley ranking way ahead of Vanderbilt in the 2011 ROI Rankings: College Education Value Compared. [Average</a> Cost for College - Compare College Costs & ROI](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/education/average-cost-for-college-ROI-2011]Average”>Average Cost for College - Compare College Costs & ROI)</p>

<p>[University</a> of California, Berkeley School Salary, Average Salaries | PayScale](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=University_of_California%2C_Berkeley/Salary]University”>http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=University_of_California%2C_Berkeley/Salary)
[Vanderbilt</a> University School Salary, Average Salaries | PayScale](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=Vanderbilt_University/Salary]Vanderbilt”>Vanderbilt University Salary | PayScale)</p>

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<p>BeanTownGirl, thanks for the correction. I did laugh a little after reading your comment. lol</p>

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<p>diaosi, what is your intended major, btw?</p>

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<p>I think a lot of the stats you used are deceiving RML. For one Vanderbilt is much more costly than Berkely so it’s ROI is obviously affected a lot by that. At the same time, Vanderbilt also gives out a ton of financial aid. I know a few kids from my high school that went who are going for free. From what I know about Berkely, it is more well known than Vanderbilt internationally simply because of the ridiculous amount of Asian population at the school and also the strength of its graduate programs (think Linux). But for undergrad, I can’t imagine how Berkeley is comparable to Vanderbilt. But I do agree that Duke is better, and Cornell is iffy. Btw if anyone have the cross admit data for these schools that’d be helpful, because I’ve seen it for Berkeley and Vandy a few weeks ago and it showed private schools like Vanderbilt and Dartmouth destroys public schools like Berkely and Michigan in cross admits.</p>

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<p>BTW I’m not into rankings and all but USNews, the only ranking that 99% of people care about shows Vanderbilt is ranked quite a few places higher than Berkeley, and only a place below Cornell.</p>

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<p>One has to wonder how a question about Vandy and the Ivies becomes yet another descent into a silly debate about …Berkeley. And especially silly when considering the position of some here that Vandy has no comparison to the Ivies but … Berkeley might!</p>

<p>By the way, OP you probably scared the UC fans away by uttering the words … Cross admit data. They really, really do not like data that shatters their illusions of elite status. I hope you realize that the schools that are ranked just above Berkeley are their biggest thorns in the side. Vandy, Notre Dame, and Georgetown named in a context of elite schools … is just too hard to take.</p>

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<p>It’s convenient that “the only ranking people care about” is the only ranking that ranks Vanderbilt in the top 25. In every other ranking, according to its Wikipedia page, it fails to crack the top 30 nationally (and top 50 internationally)</p>

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<p>Well, it wasn’t me who started it, xiggi, so pardon me if I got carried away. lol… But I can go on and on and would still be able to defend it victoriously that Cornell, the least prestigious Ivy I know, is more prestigious than Vanderbilt. If that is what the OP wanted to know, then there you go. Cornell > Vanderbilt. Take note that I wasn’t even comparing it to schools like UPenn or Columbia. And, can you imagine if I would try to compare it to HYP? </p>

<p>And, if the OP also would want to sidetrack his own thread a bit, I’d go far and say that, even Michigan, UCLA and Virginia (all public) have superior brand power than Vanderbilt has. Take note that I was talking about school prestige (brand power), not which school has a more personalized approach.</p>

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<p>Vanderbilt is an excellent university. Although I do not think it shares much in common with any the Ivy League (each of them is unique afterall), I would say it is comparable to schools like Emory, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Rice and WUSTL.</p>

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<p>Yawn. RML, there is a big world beyond east-coast finance and consulting firms. And many of them that are doing well today (in some cases because of government largesse) will be tomorrow’s Lehman Brothers or Arthur Andersen. The fact is, you don’t have DATA on “prestige” or brand power, only your personal opinions.</p>

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<p>RML, Cornell is not the “least prestigious” Ivy League. There is no such thing as a “least prestigious” Ivy League. HYP are obviously more prestigious. Columbia has the advantage of being located in NYC. Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn are all equally respected.</p>

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<p>diaosi, your posts contained a lot of contradictions. So, which really is more expensive between Vanderbilt and Berkeley? </p>

<p>FYI, Berkeley is quite expensive for OOS and International students. You’d need to be rich to be able to afford Berkeley. That’s one of the biggest reasons why Berkeley’s yield is lower than most of its peers. But if cost would come out the same, I’d imagine it would yield more enrollees than Vanderbilt does. </p>

<p>

If you continue to think like that, I’d imagine you can’t hack Berkeley’s entrance. lol…
HYPSM are more expensive than Vanderbilt. Dartmouth and Duke are more expensive than Vanderbilt. Caltech and Harvey Mudd are more expensive than Vanderbilt. Yet all of them have better ROI than Vanderbilt. How do you explain that? </p>

<p>

You’re making me laugh. I’m sorry about that. But were you trying to say that international means Asia? Whilst it is true that Berkeley has more clout in Asia, Berkeley is also significantly more prestigious in whole Europe, as well as, in Africa and South America than Vanderbilt. Even in Australia and New Zealand, the Berkeley name would give more thrill than the Vanderbilt name. </p>

<p>

No; Berkeley isn’t only comparable to Vanderbilt for undergrad. In fact, they don’t fall under the same league. Vanderbilt is in a league below Berkeley’s. This claim is supported by the number of Berkeley grads hired at top bulge bracket firms (employers’ view), PA score, and adcoms at top grad schools where Berkeley are always well within the top 10 in terms of representation. Like what my post above was suggesting, Berkeley has 54 grads at the Big MBA programs whilst Vanderbilt has none.</p>

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<p>

Thanks for your post, Alexandre. I’m actually inclined to believe that, but I was doing it for the OP’s case. I think that Cornell has bigger, stronger brand power than Brown, in general, though I think the OP would argue against that vigorously.</p>

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<p>RML, I don’t think it is fair to comment solely on Vanderbilt’s grad school placement in comparison to Berkeley and Cornell. If the question is whether Vanderbilt or Berkeley or Cornell carries the best brand name in Finance, the lesser is clear. Those who attend Vanderbilt are generally not pursuing a career in Finance. </p>

<p>That said, I live in the greater Chicagoland area, so I would say I’m relatively neutral in terms of location, between the Ivies, Vanderbilt, and Berkeley. </p>

<p>I would honestly say that Vanderbilt has a strong brand name, but it is not on the same level as the Ivies. Even Berkeley doesn’t have an extremely reputable name, although it is probably even/slightly above Vandy. Here, I would say, Northwestern trumps Vanderbilt, Berkeley, and even Cornell, easily.</p>

<p>I would also like to point out that students who attend Vanderbilt may care less about brand name/prestige. If they did, they might be more likely to attend say Duke, an Ivy, or Berkeley. I firmly believe that most students at Vanderbilt could attend a higher “brand name” school, if they wanted to. </p>

<p>As for whether or not the school is “better,” it really depends on major, costs, and “fit.” I don’t think it is fair to say one school is simply better than another, it is a very vague statement. Some majors may thrive at Vanderbilt and some at Berkeley (especially business). </p>

<p>I would also like to see the cross data for Berkeley and Vandy acceptances. I would guess that, out of those accepted to Vandy, over 90% were accepted to Berkeley. Out of those accepted to Berkeley, maybe only 50% accepted to Vandy. (Guessing)</p>

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<p>I would say that when it comes to cross-admits, 100 percent of the students admitted to Vandy were admitted to Berkeley. And that without guessing that 100 percent of the students admitted to Berkeley were admitted to Vandy. Think about it … That is what cross-admitted means!</p>

<p>Data about students who were accepted or rejected by A or B on a comparative basis is not available as far as I know. What is sometimes shared is the yield information and enrollment preferences of admitted students. For instance, Stanford has shared that only a handful of students admitted at Berkeley and Stanford end up attending Berkeley. Well, perhaps two handful as in a number close to 10. OTOH, we know nothing about the students who were rejected at either school or both.</p>

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<p>

I’m not sure you want to go dragging that data out, RML. </p>

<p>IPEDS informs me that last year, Berkeley had a total of 830 graduating business and economics majors. In comparison, Duke had a mere 151. Dartmouth had 138. Sending the same number of students to MBA programs seems noticeably less impressive when one has 6 times as many students.</p>

<p>

Well, that depends on what you mean. Nashville is certainly quite different from any northern city (perhaps a positive thing, as MomofWildChild would say!), and Ivy athletics pale in comparison to the excitement of SEC athletics. Vandy has a reputation for a more bustling social scene than most of the Ivies, except perhaps Penn and Dartmouth. Vanderbilt has traditionally lagged behind the Ivies and a few other schools in geographic and racial/ethnic diversity, but that is rapidly changing as the university becomes more popular. </p>

<p>Academically, Vanderbilt offers a first-rate undergrad education. It is a highly selective university (roughly on par with Cornell) with great programs in a number of areas like education, religion, music, and BME. It offers relatively small class sizes, and it is generally undergraduate-focused. In my opinion, a good education can be found at any number of colleges. I would be very proud to call myself a Vanderbilt student – or, for that matter, a student at Wake Forest, Brandeis, UCLA, Brown, Rochester, or any other excellent university. </p>

<p>Like (some of) the Ivies, Vanderbilt has a very beautiful campus, and financial aid is excellent. Vanderbilt was the second university in the country to eliminate loans for all students. </p>

<p>There was a poster several years ago named Evil_Robot who turned down Yale, Harvey Mudd, Berkeley + Regents, and other universities for a scholarship at Vanderbilt. He loved his time at Vandy, did well in his engineering classes, and wound up working for Google after graduation. I doubt there’s much you can’t do with a Vanderbilt degree.</p>

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<p>Oh, I’m sorry xiggi I completely misinterpreted that.</p>

<p>I was proposing to assess the selectivity of Vanderbilt. My point being Vanderbilt is more selective than Berkeley. Not to diminish Berkeley’s competitiveness, but I’m confident Vanderbilt students have equally strong (if not stronger) credentials. I’m not sure if this data is available… but I think it’d be an interesting find.</p>

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<p>wrong again RML, I got into Berkely early admission. Why do you highjack every thread with your Berkely propaganda? Last time I checked Berkely is not even a top 20 university, and this thread is about the ivy league, which Berkely is also not part of. </p>

<p>Arguing on an internet forum constantly is not gonna change the image of your public school.</p>

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<p>Ok, I see RML has been trolling with UC Berkeley posts since 2008. I’m almost certain you are an administrator for the school or there is no reason anyone would be devoting that much time and effort in propogating one school. Not to mention you have over 5000 posts. </p>

<p>Please, no more UC Berkeley stuff. Let’s get back to relevant schools and comparing vandy vs. ivy league like my thread is about.</p>

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<p>“I got into Berkely early admission”</p>

<p>I did not realize Cal had early admissions. I was under the impression that Cal responds to virtually all applicants sometime in mid-late March.</p>

<p>“Last time I checked Berkely is not even a top 20”</p>

<p>Actually, according to most rankings, Cal is not only ranked in the top 20, but in the top 10. Only one ranking ranks Cal out of the top 20 (#21 to be exact).</p>

<p>"…this thread is about the ivy league, which Berkely is also not part"</p>

<p>I agree. I am not sure why Cal is being discussed here.</p>

<p>“Arguing on an internet forum constantly is not gonna change the image of your public school.”</p>

<p>You make it seem like being public is bad. Your comment is no better than assigning value to a person based on gender, nationality, religion or race. Universities, like people, transcend any and all affiliation. Show Cal the respect it deserves.</p>