<p>i have narrowed my ed choices down to these two schools, and really want a couple opinions. i think both are on par, if not very close, in academics, but the main things I'm thinking about are:</p>
<p>social life -- is vandy TOO southern (not that being southern is a bad thing)? in other words, is southern culture suffocatingly dominant/are most of the people there very southern? (ps I'm from the nyc area) does northwestern not have many cool (aka not incredibly geeky) guys/attractive girls? is there a big party scene at northwestern? </p>
<p>internships -- will going to vandy put me at a disadvantage if i want to get an internship/job in NYC?</p>
<p>weather -- will the northwestern winters be completely unbearable if the nyc winters are already uncomfortable?</p>
<p>greek life -- is the hazing brutal at vandy (as one would expect at a southern school)?</p>
<p>According to Bain & Co recruiting page, looks like almost every Vandy grad is in the Dallas office, whereas NU grads are in Chicago, NYC, and DC. I also don’t see how NYC firms would prefer Vandy when NU is significantly more highly ranked in all business related/relevant fields (econ, finance, management science & engineering) and Chicago is closer to NYC and there are many more flights between Chicago and NYC.</p>
<p>^The theater program enrolls 100 freshmen a year; just because NU has a great program there doesn’t mean NU is any less “balanced” or full of theater type. NU has world-class econ and mangement sciences departments too; got a world-famous b-school that offers an undergrad certificate program; you should say NU has more business and finance types too then.</p>
<p>Social life: Both have diverse students , you should be able to find what you’re looking for at either. 66% of Vandy students are not from the south.
Internships: Both offer internships to their students. These tend to go to the geeky kids with 4.0 GPA’s, not to the cool party kid with a 2.5 GPA. IB jobs are hard to come by. Unless you have connections make sure you have a backup career plan.
Weather: It is what it is. Visit both schools in January and see for yourself.</p>
<p>Just one more thing: that Vandy has more athletic type was probably true a while back when it was less selective and the student body was more homogeneous. But its test score and HS class-rank for the freshmen class jumped by a lot in the past few years and these days, it has the same test scores as NU and Ivies like Dartmouth/Penn. Its student body is just as academically inclined.</p>
<p>I’m fine with academically inclined – in fact i am academically inclined myself. by nerdy i meant more artsy/“out there” (like the eclectic theater types)</p>
<p>People keep calling Vanderbilt “southern.” It’s really just a big illusion. I’m not sure what you picture when you think “southern” but it’s not something that’s prominent at all and not something to be afraid of. Vanderbilt certainly has a unique culture but the only southern part about it is we dress nicely and are attractive.</p>
<p>We are from the midwest. D visited both NWU and VU, and she preferred VU. She lives in Chicago now & loves it … and she may attend grad school at NWU in the future. Both schools are excellent, but they have different vibes at the undergrad level. I would suggest visiting both, if you can. Also - if you have an idea of your career interests, you may find that one school is more suitable than the other.</p>
<p>Obviously both are outstanding schools and I am sure you would be happy and successful at both institutions.<br>
If your primary worry is that Vanderbilt is “too Southern” I think it is misplaced–yes, Vanderbilt is in the South but that is not a bad thing (The majority of the students at Vandy are not from the south and even those who are might not be what would fit the stereotype-- one of my daughter’s friend from TN actually grew up in Indiana and another from TN was raised in Miami, FL and even though on the map my daughter would be considered “from the South” she was raised by parents from north of the Mason Dixon Line.) I think people worry way too much about the “southern” stereotype.
Having lived in Connecticut and northern Indiana (during one winter) and Nashville, I would far rather have a Nashville winter than one in the upper mid-west, the wind was brutal; even southern Connecticut was better than that
A brief anecdote–when the families were eating at the freshman Commons the day of move-in, I was in line next to a young man who was an older sibling–he looked around the cafeteria at the Commons and said something like: “wow, this is great, I wished I’d looked at applying here to Vanderbilt” He was wearing a Northwestern tee shirt.</p>
<p>Regading “southern,” it’s that darn Fiske Guide. It perpetuates this “Southern” sterotype. Statements such as,
“Sure, football games here continue to require coats, ties, pearls and dates…”<br>
Really!? Because that is not what I am seeing on the televised games.
And
“More ‘Southern’ than Emory or Duke, Vandy has traditionally been a preferred choice in the Deep South suburbs of Atlanta and Birmingham…”
This is from the 2011 Fiske Guide! </p>
<p>Here are data from the Class of 2016:</p>
<p>“Increased interest in Vanderbilt is a nationwide trend. The Class of 2016’s geographic breakdown is as follows: 34.4 percent hails from the South, 19.5 percent from the Midwest, 16.6 percent from the Middle States, 9.1 percent from the Southwest, 8.3 percent from the West and 5.8 percent from New England, according to data provided by Christiansen’s office. Students who graduated from international high schools comprise 5.9 percent of the Class of 2016.” (From [Degree</a> of difficulty: Competitiveness in undergrad admissions on the rise - InsideVandy: Administration](<a href=“Inside Vandy: Vanderbilt University's student news source”>Inside Vandy: Vanderbilt University's student news source)) So yes, a lot of students are from the south but twice as many are from all over.</p>
<p>I was at the game, too, and saw some guys in ties, some without. Even those in ties had on shorts, though. Most of the girls, however, were in sundresses.</p>
<p>FWIW, my son really liked Vandy, didn’t like NW, isn’t even applying there. One thing that turned him off was the “two separate campuses” thing at NW. The other was the weather. We live in Mass, and he likes snow, but given a choice …</p>
