Yes indeed, seemingly higher chances don’t really mean a lot to mean. Thanks for the evaluation. I will carefully look at several of these schools and talk to my school counselor.
Financial aid does make a big difference but I am not applying for financial aid, so most of the tuition seems equal (equally expensive). I will take a more careful consideration on the ED ones. Thanks for the quote, it helps a lot!
I am very grateful that I received many helpful responses for the past weeks or so, thank you guys! School is going to start in a few days, and I will have the chance to meet my counselor to talk about my ED school. Hopefully we would decide soon!
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Check out Vanderbilt’s new dorms on West End…they’re residential colleges.
Nashville is more like Austin compared to Houston which is more like LA
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HI Guys! I met my counselor and based on her assessment on my academic performance and all the other stuff, she thinks Vandy and Emory are better fits for me than WashU or Rice. She is pretty experienced with schools and admission, so I trust her a lot. Can you provide more information about Vandy and Emory so I can learn about them? (Of course I will go on their websites and do researches on my own, but I want to hear different opinions!)
Your GC has given you two great analogs for WUSTL & Rice (except this time the pre-professional one has the bigger airport & the all-rounder has the regional airport).
Emory, like WUSTL, has a rep for being ‘pre-professional’: it’s not that every student is planning to go to med/law/business grad school - it just feels like it! Vandy has it’s fair share of those students- but it doesn’t feel as dominant: there seem to be more students with a wider range of interests. That is not entirely fair to Emory, which does have a highly ranked writing program, for example, but based on your posts in this thread, my guess is that you will enjoy the overall experience better at Vandy (which is why I asked about Vandy back in post #20!).
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You started with 2 schools you weren’t sure about and now you have 4 schools you are not sure about and know little about. I don’t think you should apply ED.
Flying internationally, Emory’s airport will prob have the most travel options.
Greek life at Vandy is pretty big doesn’t seem like the perfect match. It’s pretty big at Emory too but not as traditionally Southern.
Honestly it seems like Wash U and Rice make more sense. All 4 are great places where you can thrive academically. Maybe see where you get in and the. You can focus on specifics and decisions. ,
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Greek life at Vandy is real but not dominant these days.
Have you considered Northeastern? It has unbeatable urban (and airport) access in a fantastic student city, almost no Greek life, progressive politics, tons of international students, and pretty good school/sports spirit (although hockey is the biggest spectator sport; they got rid of football a few years ago). Terrific flexibility to combine interests and majors. For example, there’s a Design+Business combined major Business Administration and Design, BS < Northeastern University that you could certainly augment, i.e. with a sociology minor. I like your chances there as an ED applicant.
I also think you’re over-focused on private universities, when the kind of environment you are looking for is more commonly found at public flagship universities. It may be that your school community is focused on the prestige factor at highly-ranked private U’s… but if you’re full-pay and not eager to cough up 80K/year, a public flagship could give you exactly the experience you’re looking for at a less ridiculous price. There are so many great options, even if you narrow it to those in cities or narrow further to blue states.
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I haven’t consider NU yet, and I don’t know anyone who went there… But since you mentioned, I can go to their website and take a look, sounds interesting!
A lot of you said Vandy has a big Greek life. As an international student, I really don’t know much about that. I know there are social fraternities and professional fraternities and their differences. Please don’t be offended, but I have received a lot of negative information about Greek life (eg. excessive partying, bullying, forcing people to eat dog food to test their loyalty…) Is that what Greek lives are about, partying and socializing? And why are people so into it?
Greek life varies a lot more than you might think from one sorority or fraternity to another, and from one university to another. All of them have a strong socializing function, but not all are about hard-partying. Most have some grade requirements (ie, you have to have / keep a certain GPA). Some have strong community service or philanthropic missions.
The negatives can be real: reputations for misogyny, racism, elitism, alcohol abuse, privileged bad boy / mean girl behavior stereotypes are not without some foundation. Fortunately, the worst of those are fading away.
Equally, the positives can be very real: many people make true, life-long, friendships. IMO, the biggest benefits are found at big universities, as the sorority/fraternity gives new students a smaller community within the large one. IME, at smaller universities and colleges Greek involvement frequently drops off sharply after the first or second year, as students broaden their social involvement in the community.
Greek life is strong but not dominant at Vandy. You might find this article, by a Vandy student, interesting: Being a Non-Greek Life Student at Vandy | Inside 'Dores | Vanderbilt University
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While I agree Greek life at Vandy might not be dominant, this OP seems to have very negative impressions of The Greek system. I have no problem with that- it’s controversial and many people are opposed to it. He has no compelling reason to choose Vandy or any other school so far- if it was me I would narrow my search to schools that have no Greek life at all.
Can you provide some color as to why your GC believes Vanderbilt is a better fit than Rice?
At one point Rice and Washington Univ were considered superior to Vanderbilt rankings wise but it seems like Vanderbilt has recently caught up.
It was not a long discussion though so it might not be into every detail. She looked at the schools largely based on my school performances and the students who were admitted to these universities. While maybe it is not true that the university likes a certain type of students, but the stats and descriptions from my schools show that they do have some certain preferences to select students. It seems like WashU really look at academic performance and research abilities, and Rice likes international students with their own distinctive culture backgrounds.
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I see this is an older thread, but I just stumbled across it – was curious where you ended up applying?
My daughter is a current freshman at Rice, and she absolutely loves it. The residential college system alone is a perfect fit. She also wasn’t interested in Greek life, so this system provides some social structure that’s helpful. O-week is incredible, especially for an introvert like my kid.
That said, she didn’t ED. Among her top choices were Rice, Emory, WashU and Northwestern – but she had pros and cons at each, so decided to apply reg decision to all.
She was accepted to Rice and Emory and waitlisted at both WashU and Northwestern, so her choice came down to those two. There’s an extensive thread you can search on debating Rice vs Emory, lol.
The acceptance rate last year at Rice was something ridiculous less than 9% – but I think two things helped her. One, she’s interested in linguistics, which is distinctive at a school where everyone else is more tech-focused. And two, she got lucky with her interview – normally it’s done by a local alum, and unless you completely bomb it, it doesn’t hold much sway. But her interviewer had a last-minute conflict, so an admissions director actually did her interview – and she must have done well.
Good luck to you!
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Hi there! Thanks for sharing that! She must be a brilliant applicant! I might look at Emory as a choice for ED2 if needed though, lol.
I forgot to tell you guys that I ended up applying ED to Rice! I went back 3 weeks before the ED deadline and did more school research on Rice and absolutely loved it. I have completed the interview and am now waiting for the result.
I know a couple of more students at my grade applied to Rice too, and they outstanding students. This year is definitely a competitive year. I didn’t expect too much from Rice and I am almost settled with my RD school list and working on my RD essays.
Anyway, fingers crossed!
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Hi Guys! Rice just released its Early Decision today. Unfortunately, I was rejected… Sad sad.
I don’t know if I should EDII because for the schools who have EDII, I like them but maybe not to the level of my love for Rice (lol). And since this year is a really competitive year, almost all of my RD schools are not Top 20 or something like that.
My D22 did not get into Rice last year. She did get into 2 T25 schools and a few T50 schools. She chose a far less selective school that she loved from the moment we visited. She just finished her first semester today and has had a wonderful experience socially and academically. We will also have money left over to fund her grad school. This is my long winded way of saying there are tons of great options out there so be true to yourself, keep an open mind and don’t get discouraged.
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Thank you for your kind words 
! I will look at more schools and there are definitely many great options!