<p>It wasn’t me who said finishing school, but I did say that I hadn’t heard of Vanderbilt because I’m “from the west coast.” </p>
<p>I had heard of Dartmouth, Williams, and Brown. Nothing about Swarthmore until CC. I don’t think that name recognition necessarily equates to prestige, but it is part of it. I don’t feel that my post patronized Vanderbilt, and if it did, I apologize. I am sure that Vanderbilt is very well known in academic circles, and I have a great deal of respect for the institution. It’s an amazing school. Some other people had mentioned prestige, and I agreed with them. </p>
<p>But I don’t think that prestige should be a large part of this decision, though it certainly will be. Vanderbilt is an amazing school, and I recommend choosing it over Princeton because it offers everything Princeton does - great resources, brilliant students and faculty, etc.</p>
<p>The Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship is quite a prestigous catch. Congrats! Save the $200K for med school and send her to Vandy. This is a no brainer. Do a search for an old poster “evilrobot” who turned down Yale for Vandy. Read his follow-up thread. He never, ever looked back and did quite well for himself.</p>
<p>Let me ask oliver007 and others this: Why do you suppose that Vanderbilt offers the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship and Duke offers the AB Duke Scholarship (which I was the proud recipient of) and places like Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford–much wealthier schools–do not have equivalent merit-based scholarships? It is because Vanderbilt and Duke are trying to buy something (students) that the other schools already have (or already have plenty of). There is no other way to look at it that I can think of. That does not mean someone should intrinsically choose Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. over Vanderbilt or Duke–different students have different needs and desires, and I can imagine a student “needing” or “wanting” Vanderbilt over Princeton or Harvard for various reasons. But, Vanderbilt and Duke are clearly buying these students because of some sense of need for the institution–something those other schools clearly already have (or already have plenty of).</p>
<p>leah…you are confused. Please read the posts again. They were clearly addressed to the intended poster correctly. “snarky”? Don’t imagine things that are not there.</p>
<p>Medman, I think you can also look at it as a matter of yield protection. Do people that are Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarships have massively higher qualifications than those that don’t? Not really – just look at the median ACT/SAT scores for the class as a whole. There is perhaps a marginal difference. What these kinds of scholarships do, however, is increase the number of cross-admitted students who pick Vanderbilt over other schools, i.e. something to sweeten the deal, increase yield, and in turn, increase rankings – not necessarily because the institution is worried that it is desperately “lacking” the kinds of students that go to HYP. Especially with admissions to Vanderbilt as competitive as they were this year, the admitted class statistics are nearly identical.</p>
<p>^Totally agree. The CV scholarship gives people who likely got accepted into top 10 schools more incentive to come to Vanderbilt and increase the school’s yield. Vanderbilt doesn’t “need” the students because of how high quality they are- I assure you that removing the CV scholars would not change the class’s average statistics or intellectual community at all. Vanderbilt knows that their best applicants are being accepted at other great schools, and is just trying to limit the number of acceptances that get turned down.</p>
<p>I can’t read titles on my phone, where I generally go on CC. They are rarely used so I hadn’t thought to check them. They are usually irrelevant anyway. But I do find your tone somewhat rude. </p>
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<p>I don’t find this very polite either. I don’t find it hard to believe at all. Have you heard of every single great school on the west coast? Probably not. It’s a regional thing. </p>
<p>Anyway, glad that we agree that Vanderbilt is an excellent school and that we would both recommend it to the OP.</p>
<p>OK, fair enough. It was merely hard to believe that anyone with cause to be at CC would not have heard of one of the handful of top schools in the country. And yes, I have heard of every single top school on both coasts and in between. I have even heard of Chico State.</p>
<p>Undergraduate school is not very important for medical school. At Princeton or Vandy she will be pushed as she is surrounded by hard working smart kids. Some of these gifted kids will not make it to med. school. She could go to your state public honors school and breeze by with a 4.0 GPA with one arm tied behind her back and never be pushed. As for the MCAT, kids like her could spend 4 years traveling the world, come home and take a Kaplan class and ace the MCAT.<br>
My advice is to visit the schools. See where the students seem happy and where she would be happy and fit in the best. Trust her gut feeling and go for it.</p>
<p>^“Undergraduate school is not very important for medical school”–absolutely untrue. Now whether that undergraduate school is Princeton or Vanderbilt as it relates to medical school is a different story–both are solid institutions with great opportunities and support for a premed. But to say that undergraduate school is not very important is just simply not the case.</p>
<p>If you are only talking about being accepted to any medical school, Bud123 is mostly right in his “undergraduate school is not very important for med school” statement as long as you have excellent grades, undergraduate research, and high MCAT scores. I know many medical students at Yale who attended state schools (though if two students with identical credentials (GPAs and MCATs) apply to a med school, the one from the more prestigious university would probably be accepted.)</p>
<p>Lack of importance of undergrad education is especially true if you are going to practice clinical medicine, and do not plan on a research career. Yesterday, an OB-GYN colleague of mine was commenting that she had attended undergraduate and medical school at a state university (followed by a good, but not great, residency program), while her partner had graduated from Harvard undergrad, NYU medical school, and U Penn residency. They are in the same OB-GYN practice.</p>
<p>Frankly, most patients and colleagues only care about where you finished your highest level of training whether it be residency, or fellowship (if they care at all). Your clinical skills and judgment and your bedside manner will be most important factors in your clinical success. There are quite a few MDs with great credentials who are poor physicians.</p>
<p>Since it is so competitive, any student who is accepted to medical school in the US is probably intelligent and prepared enough to flourish in any med school. If you can afford a private school, and medical school, great. But you can do just as well with a public university undergraduate degree, followed by a public or private med school, if you work hard enough. </p>
<p>My alma maters are Vanderbilt (undergrad and medical school), and Columbia Medical Center in NYC for residency and fellowship… but college and medical school were much cheaper in the past.</p>
<p>Just found this thread. My son was selected for a CV scholarship this year and along with a need based grant, he would have gone to Vandy for about $1,000 a year. I guess I regret that we were never able to visit because he (and I) could not see him attending a college he hadn’t been to; so, he turned down the fantastic offer. He’s chosen to struggle to pay for the school (it won’t be outrageously expensive-somewhere between 3-8K a year, but still not basically free like Vandy) that he thought was the best fit, MIT. Hopefuly, he’ll work hard and come out with around 10K worth of debt after 4 years.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see your kid turn down several full rides and a fantastic deal at Princeton, but he’s the one going to school and paying for it so we support him.</p>
<p>Nice to know what your son decided, sbjdorlo. MIT for a ten grand loan debt is a gift and a very reasonable debt load considering his potential hires in the work force or boost in prep for grad school alternatives. With that small size of a loan package, your son was right to pick his best fit. Sorry he never came to visit Vandy…whether or not he attended…it is a wonderful place in the pantheon of fine colleges in our nation.<br>
Congrats to your son!
Our son is paying back his Stafford loan on his own two feet and doing fine 3 years post grad in the work force.</p>