<p>Oh, wait a minute, Pizzagirl. I don’t think that’s what I was saying. I was talking about Vanderbilt graduates (those who have already gone there) not those high school aspirants who are eyeing to get to college. I have never disputed the claims that Vanderbilt students are talented. They are. Their student profiles would rival those of the lower Ivies’, from what I’ve seen it. But we’re talking about the school (Vanderbilt University) here, not those incoming students of the school. I was talking about how Vanderbilt – the university – could turn their graduates into becoming competitive enough to knock those Ivy grads out at the top companies and / or best grad schools competitions. In short, I was talking about Vanderbilt’s output.</p>
<p>RML are you seriously suggesting michigan and uva are better than vanderbilt? LOL.
michigan accepts like half of its applicants mostly from instate and virginia accepts 1/3. vanderbilt is tied for the most selective college in the south with duke. go back to trolling the berkeley forum please, you seem to hate on these elite private schools like vandy emory and gtown because they own public schools. after the california budget cut berkeley is finished.</p>
<p>LSAT scores matter, the “prestige” of your undergraduate school not so much. And don’t underestimate the impact of merit $$ in law school choice- a full ride at UVa is a very attractive option.</p>
<p>Well, first of all, these top schools couldn’t absorb as much students. You couldn’t possibly expect all the 6k grads of Berkeley taking every single slot at those schools. Harvard, Yale and Stanford, for instance, couldn’t even do that to their own graduates. At most, they’re 20% of their grad school student bodies. </p>
<p>Now, what you didn’t see here is that these schools (top grad schools: Harvard Law, Harvard Med, HBS, Yale Law, Stanford Law, Stanford GSB, JHU Med, etc, etc) could have a set of schools (a list) that they perceive to be “best of the best” aside from their own. These schools could have been sending the most qualified students in horde, time and time again, so their reputation meter is likely higher than that of Vanderbilt’s, who, time and time again, isn’t sending many qualified candidates (3 at Yale Law, zero at Harvard Business School, zero at Stanford GSB, Zero at Wharton, etc, etc). For Yale Law, for example, you’re not just talking about ordinary graduates of Vanderbilt competing for that elusive spot. You’re talking about Vanderbilt’s best candidates (not making able to compete against the Ivies’ best and top publics’ best, time and time again.) That’s how I see it. Saying this does not mean I’m saying Vanderbilt is not a good school. Again, for the millionth times, it is a very good school. Though prestige-wise (which is largely determined by 1. the top employers, 2. academic people and 3. adcoms of top grad schools) it is not of Ivy’s level. All the numbers would indicate that it is not.</p>
<p>For undergraduate level, I’d say they are comparable, though they offer different atmosphere, set-up…, due to their nature, one being private and the others, being public. But in terms of academic quality at the undergrad level, I’d say they are even. </p>
<p>Where Michigan and UVa have a leg up is at the school brand power. All indicators that matter here would say that to be true. </p>
<p>Michigan and UVa > Vandy by the academic people.
Michiagn and UVa > Vandy by the adcoms at the top grad schools.
Michigan and UVa > Vandy by the meployers, specifically in the banking and finance world.
Michigan and UVa > Vandy for grad school, in general.
Michigan and UVa’s professional schools > Vanderbilt’s. (This heavily influences prestige too, I guess)</p>
<p>I think it’s more like this:
Michigan and UVa > Berkeley by the academic people.
Michiagn and UVa > Berkeley by the adcoms at the top grad schools.
Michigan and UVa > Berkeley by the meployers, specifically in the banking and finance world.
Michigan and UVa > Berkeley for grad school, in general.
Michigan and UVa’s professional schools > Berkeley. (This heavily influences prestige too, I guess)</p>
<p>This thread exhibits the worst of cc. It’s so sad that this blew up into such a big deal. This is all I will say on this topic: with the exception of the so-called Big 3, Stanford, and MIT, almost any T35 school is going to be looked at equally.</p>
<p>Every school has their strengths and weaknesses. For example, Vanderbilt has an elite medical school, but its law school is squashed by UVA. Berkeley has a top business school, but Penn’s is better. Harvard has an awesome school of Public & Global Health, UNC’s is better. UCLA has a distinguished history department, but Columbia’s is best…see where I’m getting at? </p>
<p>To make broad generalizations about major research universities is, frankly, stupid. These universities consist of dozens and dozens of individual departments and colleges. Trust me, to the people who matter, one isn’t going to make a broad generalization between Berkeley and Michigan or UVA and Duke. News flash: they’re all peers. </p>
<p>Also, please stop using admit rates to determine a school’s worth. Under such criteria, Chicago would be chicken shlit compared to Vanderbilt five years ago. But, of course we know, this isn’t the case.</p>
<p>I am a lawyer and I went to a top 3 (at the time) law school. Today I would pick UVa law school over Yale or Harvard in a heartbeat. I realize some of you can’t comprehend career options yet, but someday you will. I hope…</p>
<p>and also it makes sense vanderbilt grads to onto duke law and uva law instead. as i said a million times before, most of them decisions are influenced heavily by locality. south to south and north to north.</p>
<p>The school losses cross-admits to Harvard Law and Stanford Law. It seldom losses to Duke Law or even Columbia Law. Duke Law’s stats are just as good as Michigan Law’s, at the very best.</p>
<p>^ what has any of this got to do with Vanderbilt other than spouting BS knowledge</p>
<p>So far you have talked about wall street and less 5% of Vanderbilt grads seem interested, law school and most of them seem to prefer their own grad schools to other grad schools and you are off comparing other law schools.</p>
<p>No wonder OP is so peeved. They come here asking for opinion and all they seem to be receiving is inane bullcr*p.</p>
<p>That is entirely just your own personal opinion. As what the numbers have indicated though, those four schools you’ve mentioned, are peer schools to each other. The only difference is that Duke is private whilst the other three are public.</p>
<p>Berkeley is a peer of Duke in terms of pure academics but not Michigan and UVa.</p>
<p>I have no clue why RML scoffs so much at Vandy but it’s sickening because based on the middle 50% of the incoming class SAT score, Vandy could rival half of the Ivys.</p>
<p>RML, you continuously ignore the fact that Barclays, BAML, and GS recruit at Vanderbilt. For consulting, Accenture, Bain, Deloitte also recruit on campus. If a student is interested in these fields and maintains their GPA, they will be competitive. </p>
<p>If a student has the grades to get into Vanderbilt, they would very likely easily get into UC-Berkeley, UMich, etc. If what you are saying is true, why are so many students turning down the publics to attend Vanderbilt? Many of them likely find Vanderbilt more prestigious (or find something about the school equally rewarding) or they would just “settle” for UMich/UC-Berkeley? </p>
<p>Also, based on your post history you frequently bring UC-Berkeley into conversations where it is not about the original discussion. If Berkeley was as prestigious as you claim, wouldn’t it be more like Harvard where everyone sort of just accepts its value. I don’t see posters from Princeton or Stanford coming into random threads looking for validation.</p>
Oh, you’ve got a poor reading comprehension. Let em help you refresh your memory. </p>
<p>Yale Law has gotten into the picture because I cited it to boost my claim that Vanderbilt has a weak prestige compared to the Ivies’. At Yale Law, Vanderbilt is still under-represented. Again, it has zero admit at the top 3 business schools, and now, it only has 3 at Yale Law, regarded as the best law school in America. Meanwhile, the schools that the OP were trying to pit it against have over 10 representatives each. And, you couldn’t reason out Vandy’s location, because, Duke, which is located in the same region as Vanderbilt’s, has shown it that it can compete with the Ivies, in this aspect.</p>
<p>Who cares what you did. I am pointing out that OP never asked about law schools or any of the bullS&*t you keep bringing into the discussion.</p>
<p>I pointed out there were 38 out of 840 people even interested in your wallstreet angle and most of the vanderbilt students seem to like their own grad schools fine. So not sure why you want to make this thread about whatever c*#p you want it to be rather than what OP wanted.</p>