<p>University of Texas' rankings by program are SIGNFICANTLY better than Vandy's (and other similar private schools). Is Vandy worth $156,000 more over 4 years? </p>
<p>Difference in size and "feel": UT is huge, Vandy isn't. My son would probably prefer the smaller environment, but he can be very successful at either. </p>
<p>Better Students? I also know that the overall quality of the student will be better at Vandy, but I don't think the quality of students will be much different once you are in classes for the competitive programs at UT like engineering, Plan II, or business honors, etc... </p>
<p>I understand how a Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, etc... might be worth the extra money, but what about schools like Vandy in the 14 - 20 overall ranking category?</p>
<p>Honestly? No. If you son gets a scholarship that brings it down to the same level as UT, then I’d make the decision based on something like “feel”. However, I don’t know anyone who can spend ~$160k more on college just for a better “feel”. </p>
<p>FWIW, my D applied to both and was accepted to UT. She’s already accepted the UT offer because of opportunities at UT that she prefers over Vanderbilt. I understand your concerns about the size of UT, as it was one of my concerns as well. However, D was accepted to the LAH program, so she’ll have the smaller group of fellow students within the larger UT. There are many similar opportunities at UT to make the large university feel smaller.</p>
<p>Depends on how you want to spend your money and what you think you are getting for it. There are some who wouldn’t pay for some of the schools you named either.</p>
<p>@texaspg
I know people have different ideas of what they get for their money. I want to hear what it is they think they are getting. I honestly want to have as much information as possible. I want to know what other people are thinking to make sure I am not missing something. Thank you.</p>
<p>@parenting3, fwiw, I have a bachelor’s degree and masters degree from state flagship schools and a doctorate from an top name school (the top in my field). I feel very strongly that the “name brand” university at the undergraduate level has very little pay off. So, I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe the extra money to get an undergraduate degree from Harvard, MIT, or Stanford is worth it. If you get scholarships - great, go for it. But don’t go into debt to do it. For an undergraduate, the quality of education at a top-tiered state university will be just as good. Save your money for graduate school. Having the “name brand” university degree at the graduate level (in my field at least) does open doors. An undergraduate degree from “name” university just doesn’t do that. I also have a niece with a bachelor’s degree from MIT, and she agrees completely.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is a very good university, but nowhere near the caliber of Harvard/Stanford/MIT, so there’s no way I’d pay more to send D there for an undergraduate degree than I can send her to UT.</p>
<p>I think it depends on what you do after college. Will your son go to grad school? If so, I think UT is the better choice bc of the value. Vandy has much better national recognition and if that’s the last school he will attend then I say go for it. </p>
<p>UT.
We went through this and took the UT option because it cost less and the programs son was interested in were better at UT. We did pause over the question of what his cohort would be like, but quickly established that he would find a group of likeminded kids at UT. (We visited a few times. Son kept running into people he knew or meeting new people and getting invited to sporting events and dinners and departmental events. It made me—and him—feel like he would be okay.)</p>
<p>For us another issue was sending son far away vs keeping him close. We wanted to send him away and let him live in a wholly new environment (! maybe not typical!) but he didn’t really want to do that. </p>
<p>It has turned out well, better than I could have hoped. S took some AP placements and so jumped into smaller, higher level, and honors classes, so avoided the huge lecture hall problem. Taking those APs put him with other more advanced and serious students. He is also enjoying the benefits of being at a big school, like many research opportunities, and many sports and leisure opportunities. I worried about him being lost at such a big school, too, he is a quiet, nerdy type, but he has made plenty of new friends. He bleeds burnt orange and I can’t imagine him at any other place now.</p>
<p>Second son may be a different story…he is more open to the idea of going somewhere new. Though he is socially more astute, he says he would prefer a smaller campus. </p>
<p>All of those program rankings are for graduate school; Vanderbilt’s undergrad is higher ranked than UT’s undergrad. Still, without any financial aid, it’s hard to justify spending that much on Vandy. UT is a great school.</p>
<p>Sometimes, people are hypnotized by the most glamorous RWS (Rear Window Sticker). Part of the decision will depend on your student’s academic plans. If it is a Bachelor degree, the analysis is different than if it is a science/math Ph.D. Since ratings of undergraduate programs are difficult to find, the best way is to compare graduate programs since that is a large determining factor for the quality of the undergraduate departments. As an example, Texas’ graduate math program ranks #14 while Vanderbilt ranks #51. It is certainly not an easy answer, but the more information you have, the better the analysis,</p>
<p>The rankings for business and engineering are undergraduate rankings, but as you correctly stated, the other rankings are graduate programs. I tend to follow @midwestparent14’s thinking about using graduate rankings to evaluate undergraduate programs when necessary. </p>
<p>It would be interesting to see what the SAT averages at schools such as UT would be if you only looked at the top 1500 freshmen.</p>
<p>My son will go either to medical school or a ph.d program. He has many years of school ahead of him.</p>
<p>For our Class of 2017 student, some of the reasons we chose to send him to Vanderbilt over UCBerkeley and UCLA (he was accepted to both):</p>
<ul>
<li>Smaller school with a greater emphasis on community.</li>
<li>A more cooperative school versus a competitive school (Son’s classes have been graded on the percentage versus his friend’s at Cal on the curve.)</li>
<li>Smaller class sizes (example…Multivariable Calculus Vandy 25 students, Cal 435 students)</li>
<li>Ability to pursue his two interests (Engineering and Music) The school of engineering was supportive of him minoring in music.</li>
<li>Residential Campus - living on campus all four years is a different experience than living on campus one year and moving to an apartment after that</li>
<li>High 4 year graduation rate</li>
<li>Vanderbilt has a more diverse student body than the UCs (My view of diversity is more than ethnicity.)</li>
</ul>
<p>If his college choice was purely a financial decision, then he should have attended the UCs. College as an undergraduate right after high school is a one time experience. We felt that the experience that was best for our son was a Vanderbilt education which goes well beyond the class room.</p>
<p>Only you and your family will know if it’s worth the money. If we needed to take loans to send him to Vandy, he wouldn’t be going there.</p>
<p>^ Agree on the last point which is why I said the decision belongs with the family - what is the perceived value and if the parent(s) feel the value add that is not visible in pure financial terms. My kid could have gotten an education for 40k at UT, 120k at Rice or 250k where she is attending and essentially the kid chose to spend the inheritance now at the highest price tag.</p>
<p>parenting3 I just went through the same calculations you are going through right now. The more I think about it the more I believe the cliche, “it’s an individual decision” is true. The are so many factors to consider. How wealthy are you? How good are the programs at your State flagship (with UT you have one of the more reputed)? Then there are those very personal things that no one but you can guage. For me, it would have been very hard to go with Vandy if I had the UT option at $156,000 less. But that doesn’t mean you would be making the wrong choice with Vandy. Best of luck to you. I hope you are able to make the decision and just move forward and forget about this phase. Hope your son (assuming it’s a son) loves his years at Vandy if that’s where he ends up.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t get why you think Vandy is better then? With the selectivity of the engineering, business, and other programs at UT, I can assure you your son will not be the brightest in the group. </p>
<p>I tell people that UT is like a large city with lots of small neighborhoods. Your son won’t see all 50,000 students at one time, except maybe on football game days, which are beyond awesome. Even when I attended UT, there were 48,000 students. I hung out at the engineering building most of the time, and had a small group of close friends. But I knew I could always find something fun to do around campus. And there are lots of opportunities available for students - my son got to work in the biomedical engineering research lab as a freshman!</p>
<p>There are programs at certain state flagship colleges that are arguably better than even Ivies: The Forty Acres Scholars Program at the University of Texas, the Jefferson Scholars at UVA, the Morehead-Cain Scholars at UNC, the Foundation Fellowship at UGA. These are full-ride plus scholarships, housed in the Honors Colleges, with research and travel stipends. The sense of community and connections are hard to beat. Out-of-state students are normally capped at 25-35% since they are state schools. Owing $0 in loans for the student and parents, with long track records of graduate and professional admissions into top 10 schools, is rather hard to beat!</p>
<p>There is very little Vandy can provide your child that Texas cannot, and there is very little Texas can provide that Vandy cannot. They are good undergraduate colleges at which self-motivated, intelligent young people have thrived for decades. There is no reason to spend $150K more for one education than another. Give the money to your kid as a downpayment on a house if you cannot think of a better way to spend it. </p>
<p>FWIW: our family had a similar decision. My son got a schol to go tuition-and-fees-free (so annual cost maybe $20k) to the state school, got a schol at an out-of-state school (annual cost $30-35k). Vandy gave a $5k/yr schol (annual cost $65k). But we’d saved the money starting when he was born, so he could go to college of his choice, and he chose Vandy. We thought it was the right decision for him, and he’s doing well, is happy.</p>
<p>I think it does depend on how big a sacrifice the cost is for you. (marginal utility for the econ types, perhaps.) If it’s giving up the Beemer and the nice lake house, that’s different from giving up a retirement nest egg.</p>