<p>I'm pretty much torn between the two schools. Both have good, solid reputations and seem to have intelligent, outgoing students. Both offer great educations, and I could see myself going to either of them. I'm virtually undecided about my future major and could easily find my true passion while in college (although, when forced to say something more concrete in college essays, I have mentioned pre-med, pre-law). </p>
<p>Tuition for Vandy is about $48k (including the National Merit Scholarship) and tuition for UVA is about $38k. I was accepted into the UVA Echols Program, and I attended the UVA Echols Day on the Lawn yesterday. At the end of the day, I felt more confused and conflicted than when the day began. Any insight/feedback/advice?</p>
<p>I was looking at UVa for a bit too but ultimately settled on Vandy.</p>
<p>A lot of aspects are similar, but I came to the conclusion that some of the things that Vandy did have and UVa did not were for me (i.e. better football tailgating, SEC, etc…) while some of the things that UVa had and Vandy doesn’t were not for me, i.e. I was pretty sure I wanted a private school.</p>
<p>Well UVA is as close to being a private public school as you can get…one of the most prestigious and famous universities in the country, has bred hundreds of today’s and history’s greatest leaders. Vanderbilt, same, but to a lesser degree.</p>
<p>Sorry big guy, didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.</p>
<p>While what you’re saying is true, that doesn’t change the fact that as a public school, they accept in-state students some of whom would not be able to attend a private school of similar academic stature whether it be for financial, academic, socioeconomic, or any of a plethora of potential reasons.</p>
<p>Similar colleges in terms of feel, but some noticeable differences are size, source of students & overall student quality, size of athletic life and city. </p>
<p>U Virginia is a little more than twice the size in undergraduate students (14k vs 6.5k). Both have about 5-6k more in grad students. </p>
<p>U Virginia is about 66% IS (Vandy is about 16% TN). Student strength of OOS students at U Virginia is likely about same level as overall class at Vandy with IS at U Virginia likely at lower (but still very good) level. Avg SAT scores are 1200-1420 (UVirginia) and 1300-1480 (Vanderbilt). </p>
<p>As a state U with a larger student population, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that U Virginia’s athletic scene is stronger and broader than Vandy. More comparable to U Virginia is probably U North Carolina while Vanderbilt’s would be closer to Duke. </p>
<p>Charlottesville might be the best college town in America with the campus as its central focus, but with interesting other areas as well. Campus can seem quite spread out to first-time visitors, but central academic part is actually pretty small and manageable. Meanwhile, Nashville is a relatively large city (approx 1.5mm in the area) and Vanderbilt is located in a bucolic, park-like setting that is only 1-2 miles from downtown. Despite over 300 acres in size, everything seems pretty close together, including all dorms, academic buildings, and athletic facilties. </p>
<p>Both offer a great undergraduate experience and attract engaging, fun, intelligent students and graduate vocal, supportive alumni. They attract large numbers of overlapping applicants in the Southeast and, more recently, in the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern states.</p>
<p>tailgating(since a poster brought this up) is an entire weekend affair at UVA, which has a stadium holding 60,000…very hard to beat. and as far as SATs, i don’t know anyone who gets into UVA below the 700s unless athlete, etc. not to offend anyone, and altho i’ve seen some UVA threads questioning the “snobbiness” at UVA, there’s no comparison on the down-to-earth meter between UVA and Vandy. as a matter of fact, the only bad thing i ever hear about Vandy is their sense of superiority. don’t know it personally, as i do UVA, but hear it repeatedly from others. good luck to all.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt has extremely friendly and gregarious students (anyone who is very familiar with the school can confirm this). You should really visit the school.</p>