I am a CA native looking to make a choice between UC San Diego and Vandy, Financially, Vandy will be twice as expensive.
UCSD
- Higher CS Ranking
- Weather / Closer to home
Vandy
- Smaller school
- Easier access to resources. Better experience ?
Twice as expensive is not enuf for a comment. ie…Vandy is worth 20 grand a year vs 10. We don’t know what your family estimated cost of attendance is at either school.
UCSD will be $30-35k and Vandy will $65-70k. Thank you for your feedback and expert opinions.
Full ticket at Vandy should give you pause. Remove the beer googles that are not really on your face— but perhaps on your parents’ faces regarding afffordability in your particular family. I call this “I want to give my wonderful, hard working deserving son or daughter a pony syndrome” for those of us who really can’t afford the full ticket that our CSS Profile and FAFSA indicate. Not that many families saved properly. All families are immensely proud of a high school senior admitted to Vanderbilt on their own hard work and talent. In other words, this is really a time for your parents to look at their long game and if possible to look at your long game as well (if your vocation is solidly in CS…many students are rather amorphous at age 18 as it should be). If you feel that you are def going to land a degree in a quantitative or engineering dept at Vanderbilt, I feel that the risk of the full ticket pricetag is possibly worth the investment.
In my family, we sent eldest son pre recession in the bubble that was 2005 to Duke (a place he thankfully loved and appreciates as an alum now). Full price. We ended up with a pretty hefty second mortgage and we were too stubborn and uninformed to take out Staffords till the final year. Also, we didn’t know that schools of law and medicine often require parental income when calculating your pricepoint! Till you are 28. Getting a graduate degree in engineering is another story entirely. Outlooks are better for this pathway re costs.
We did not have sons overlap in college. This decision’s long term impact post recession altered the private pay options for second son in 2009 and put Duke son working full time while getting an MBA at night. It is a lot more fun to get an MBA full time for two years --but a job is a job in this economy and he got a decent job that one might be happy to land if they had an MBA. He didn’t feel he could quit. MBA schools don’t want you till you have worked for a few years anyhow.
So, are their consequences to full ticket in your family? Do you perhaps have another sib coming on behind you in an overlap that would decrease your family Estimated Cost of Attending during your four years?
Are you going after a degree that would land you an actual job? Sounds like it. This means that your parents would be free of you financially for a few years before you considered a masters (possibly!) In this scenario, you might be making a wise decision to put it all behind your undergrad experience. (Vandy is going to be a very great overall community, future alma mater type experience from ages 18-22)
I have a Bminus nephew grad from Va Tech who landed a decent job immediately in the bowels of 2009’s recession as a civil engineer. While working, he earned some necessary credentials. In 2014 he entered a masters in engineering program: paid for by his employer.
Why couldn’t this be you? After all, getting into Vanderbilt already says a great deal about your ability to knock out rote learning and applied learning.
Look at your income from your first job post Vandy and ask yourself this question: Can I pay back on Stafford Loans out of my own pocket to take a little sting out of this for my parents? I think people who go into the work force for a while can enter grad school with these Stafford loans paid off, and I think you could handle taking a couple/three of these out to help your parents a little. Congrats on your entry to Vanderbilt. I agree with you: the overall experience would be worth it if you can afford the outlay!!! And I bet you can do graduate school in a very cost effective manner even back in California.
@debatechamp My Vandy son had a similar decision 2 years ago - Vanderbilt vs. Cal, UCLA or UCD with a similar financial situation. If attending Vanderbilt would have required more than a small loan amount, he would be attending a UC.
For our family, the Vanderbilt experience was something we were willing to pay more for. The amount a family pays for a college experience is personal and a discussion you will need to have with your parents.
So why Vanderbilt over a UC
- 4 year residential campus - There is a strong sense of community at Vanderbilt as a result of students living on campus all 4 years.
- In general smaller class sizes - In comparison, Vandy son’s math class freshman year had 22 students, his friends at Cal had 450 students for the same class.
- Diversity of the student body - Vanderbilt students come from all over the country and the world. UC students almost all come from California.
- Vanderbilt has an extremely high 4 year graduation rate. Some of our son’s UC friends are already talking about an extra quarter to graduate.
- New living experience - living in a city (Nashville) with 4 seasons is very different from where our son grew up
- Ability to pursue different interests with his major and minor between different schools: Mechanical Engineering and Music.
- Although in some cases, the UCs were higher ranked in engineering, the difference is not that big. Vanderbilt is just a smaller school of engineering. There are around 80 mechanical engineering students in his class.
- And most importantly, he felt like he belonged at Vanderbilt.
Two years later, it has been an excellent choice. As parents we have enjoyed the opportunity of exploring Nashville. It’s a great city with a lot to do. We’ve already spent several weeks there and plan to spend more over the next 2 years.
Let us know what your decision is.
Thank you for your comments. You have given me a lot to think about. I have interest in pursuing a law degree from a top school post undergrad. Do you think choosing Vandy or UCSD at this stage would have an impact on my admission to a law school ?
I’ll discuss the affordability in the family. If it is affordable, is it still worth it ? Even if it is affordable, it’ll be a stretch. I don’t know of any Vandy graduates in california and it is not as well known here as in south. Even after spending a fortune, do I get an education or degree that is not as good as what I would have got in UCSD ?
I am familiar with both schools and you have a difficult decision as they are both great. They are very different, however. A poster above mentioned diversity: there are many more asians at UCSD, as well as other minorities. The fact that most are from California is not a negative for you if you are also a Californian—it will just feel normal. Although Vandy has about 40% from the southeast, there are significant numbers from California, Florida, New York, etc., so it is diverse in that sense.
Without looking it up, I would bet the rankings for CS are close. Have you looked at specific course lists recommended by the two schools? They both have good websites for that kind of research. I agree that you might need an extra quarter to graduate from UCSD, but that is still a lot cheaper than going to Vanderbilt for four years.
Are you looking for school spirit? Vandy probably beats UCSD for this, given the athletic programs. This may seem small, but going to baseball or basketball games is a way to meet people that UCSD kind of lacks. Vandy has an exceptional first year living situation that helps build community (the Commons). Are you considering going greek? It’s a bigger force at Vandy than it is at UCSD. About 60% of guys don’t go greek, so you’ll find your tribe either way.
Weather: Both schools have good weather; Vandy has four seasons but UCSD has the ocean.
Graduate school: Both schools are prestigious. Would you be more comfortable asking for letters of rec or intern possibilities at a mid-size school or a very large one? The UCs feel like you have to fight to get your share of time/opportunities. Some people relish this fight, and others might prefer smaller classes. Also, would you prefer Nashville or San Diego as your base for summer jobs and first job post-graduation?
It’s hard to justify the extra money for Vanderbilt unless the fit is significantly better, or you want a place that will push you to grow. The factors above should help you.
Either way you are going places! Congratulations!
We just finished the law school cycle with Vandyson who has been working for two years post grad. If you have a computer science/quantitative/engineering degree undergrad, you still have to aim for a high GPA for law school although your major and college reputation are definitely factored in. (law schools send your transcripts to a place where your GPA gets sort of standardized). And it is a shame when students are afraid to take classes they might not ace because of GPA preoccupations. But I will say that engineers are in demand in law school practices. Have you ever tried to take depositions from engineers when you were a political science major? My spouse does this all the time. Also, patent law is a field that people with engineering or quantitative backgrounds can pursue.
The law school pathway is a tricky path. Everyone believes they will be the exception to the decline in the profession for entry level jobs. There was a brief upsurge in law students in 2009 after the recession when jobs were scarce and since then a steady decline in people taking the LSAT and entering law schools. You have to be very tough on yourself when evaluating your prospects. Since you are a debatechamp, perhaps your verbal/logic skills on the LSAT will be excellent. Even so, job placement was less than 55% at graduation
It is more important than ever to go to a T-14 law school if you want decent prospects for Big Law jobs that pay enough to help you pay large law school loans down. And with a derth of jobs, ranked law school grads are more likely to get job interviews. Berkeley is still an excellent law school in your state. Check out the actual costs. UVA law costs at least 60 grand a year. Instate students get a minor break. This minor instate discount may also be true of Berkeley-- but I hope not…check it out. You can learn a lot at toplawschools dot com and law school numbers dot com.
Merit money …now that Vandyson has finished…it is clear to me…is really pretty plentiful and available for those hitting a high LSAT with commensurate high GPA. If you don’t get a merit discount, you should probably regroup and take the LSAT again and try another cycle because the borrow figures are just too high for the salaries in general. Also, check the fine print --at say Berkeley. How old before you are not required to have your parents file a FAFSA and a Need Access (like CSS Profile)? Many top law schools including the University of Virginia require parental income till you hit the age of 28. I think Vandy Law was 27.
I would guess that you can win merit discounts just because standardized test excellence is common among Vandy admits. even so, often the discount is about one third of the entire three years of costs.
The question of would Vandy give you a leg up in admissions? In general, perhaps yes. But I think any student who got into Vandy and has good discipline can get the same good results in graduate school placement even if they go to their instate flagship colleges. That is what the MCAT/LSAT/GRE/GMAT are for. Just make sure your “softs” stay interesting as you age up (things you do outside of class).
Thank you all for sharing your experience and valuable insights. I decided to pursue the UCSD option.
Congrats on your offers and best wishes to you!