<p>What are these ratings based on? I don't get it. What is Vanderbilt's strength and why would it be ranked over so many other U's that seem so much stronger?</p>
<p>Have you been to Vanderbilt? Have you been to these other schools that you think are stronger? What makes you think they are stronger?</p>
<p>becuz vanderbilt is uber rich priv school.</p>
<p>These are schools I would rank above Vanderbilt in U.S. News:</p>
<p>UC-Berkeley- (better research school, better engineering and business programs)
Georgetown- (better political science and journalism schools as well as better for pre-law, and as good as Vandy in pre-med)
University of Virginia- (better than Vandy in pre-law, and as good as Vandy in pre-med, better business program than Vandy, better campus)
UCLA- (better business program, better for film, better for research, better performing arts, better overall university than Vandy)
Michigan- (better business program, better engineering, top 5 econ dept, top 5 political science dept, good pre-med and excellent pre-law)
UNC-Chapel Hill- (better business program, pre-med almost as good, better pre-law)
NYU- (better business program (stern is top 5), better for performing arts, better research school, better pre-law school and decent pre-med)</p>
<p>Most schools you listed are public schools which do, in fact, have a higher peer assessment score than Vanderbilt (which I'd say is more accurate than US News's overall rank).</p>
<p>sergio, those public schools are strong at the graduate level. </p>
<p>UVA has a better campus? NYU is a better "pre-law" school? What are you basing these claims on? Have you even visited Vanderbilt?</p>
<p>Yes, I have, and I don't mean to denigrate Vandy. It is a good school, and two of my friends are currently attending. It has excellent engineering and pre-med programs. I have also visited most of the schools I mentioned and based my assessment only on the undergraduate programs. Michigan, Berkeley, and NYU have better undergraduate business (all top 5), economics, and pre-law programs. These three also are better research schools than Vandy other than medical research which Vandy has the edge over them all. NYU and Michigan also have very high quality performing arts schools and in fact NYU is the number one film school in the nation. UVA has a beautiful campus and a high quality pre-med and business program. Also Georgetown, Michigan, NYU, and UVA are top 10 political science schools that offer great pre-law programs and Georgetown has a good pre-med program too. UNC's undergrad business program is top 10 ranked and its pre-med program is slightly below Vandys, and its pre-law program is higher ranked. Most of the schools I mentioned happened to be public schools, but it is true that U.S. News greatly under ranks these great publics which are better ranked in a bunch of areas than Vanderbilt. Again, I don't mean to bash Vandy and it's a great school, but it is truly a tad over ranked.</p>
<p>Nice to know you pick a few departments to sort out. Last time I checked, these rankings weren't based on a handful of subjects. </p>
<p>Intotherain, you're an idiot. In order to "compensate" for its ranking it would have to have a ridiculous endowment. It's not even in the top 20 in terms of money buddy. Thanks for the stereotype.</p>
<p>Without USNews, people wouldn't even know about Vanderbilt. It's not in the northeast or west coast(minus UNC), which is where you list all of your so-called "better" universities.</p>
<p>P.S. Ever heard of the Peabody School of education? (notice I cited one point of reference? look/sound familiar?)</p>
<p>NYU over Vandy? You make hella no sense.</p>
<p>You're going to NYU sergio? How odd you would say that NYU is highly underrated.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt doesn't have an undergraduate business major so it is easy to write a laundry list of schools that have a better program than the non-existant one at Vanderbilt. Same thing goes for film and performing arts, these are probably not Vandy's strengths -- if these are your interests by all means go to NYU. You are clearly accentuating certain programs to make your point. At the graduate level Vanderbilt has medical and law schools in the top 20 and is strong in other areas (education top-5),etc but the main focus of the discussion is regarding undergraduate programs.</p>
<p>At the undergraduate level, Vanderbilt is elite and stronger in liberal arts courses (such as English, Economics, History, Philosophy, etc.) and has very high placement to top graduate schools. It also offers individualized attention with professors and small classroom sizes that those larger state schools could never provide.</p>
<p>College2332,
vandy isn't "elite and stronger in liberal arts courses (such as English, Economics, History, Philosophy, etc.)" at all. its all your own opinion. you seem to confuse facts with opinions. from what do you base your claims upon? your experience? solely one person's opinion is not good enough. are you going to ask if i visited Vandy? yes I did visit Vandy. Its wonderful.</p>
<p>"It also offers individualized attention with professors and small classroom sizes that those larger state schools could never provide."</p>
<p>~~~so does 90% of all the other private schools. if this is considered a strong point of vandy then that is really sad. </p>
<p>"At the graduate level Vanderbilt has medical and law schools in the top 20 "</p>
<p>~~~NO IT DOESN'T. ur confusing facts with opinion again. WHERE DOES IT EVEN SAY THAT IT HAS TOP 20 LAW/MED SCHOOL. FACTS count opinions do NOT. </p>
<hr>
<p>"Intotherain, you're an idiot. In order to "compensate" for its ranking it would have to have a ridiculous endowment. It's not even in the top 20 in terms of money buddy. Thanks for the stereotype."</p>
<p>whodunnit,
you're truly an idiot. don't talk if you have no idea what your saying. <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=99850&highlight=harvard+yale+princeton+stanford+endowment%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=99850&highlight=harvard+yale+princeton+stanford+endowment</a>
Vandy is in the top 20 in terms of endowment. ^_^. owned?
$2.26 billion</p>
<p>"At the graduate level Vanderbilt has medical and law schools in the top 20 "</p>
<h1>~~~NO IT DOESN'T. ur confusing facts with opinion again. WHERE DOES IT EVEN SAY THAT IT HAS TOP 20 LAW/MED SCHOOL. FACTS count opinions do NOT.</h1>
<p>Not that I care about rankings, but I posted the links for you:</p>
<p>Vandy Law (#17)
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/brief/lawrank_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/brief/lawrank_brief.php</a>
Vandy Medicine (#17)
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdrrank_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdrrank_brief.php</a></p>
<p>Actually I did apply to NYU and got accepted this year into the Stern School of Business, but that is not where I'm attending. I also got accepted into Northwestern, Chicago, and Cornell, but I chose to attend the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor's Ross School of Business, because I felt it provided the best opportunity to succeed in the practical setting. I in no ways wanted to offend you all, but used straight facts for my rankings. The only reason that Vandy is ranked that high is that it is a smaller private school than the ones I mentioned. The faculty at all the school's I mentioned are world-class and are easily as good if not better than Vandy's.</p>
<p>intotherain, if you look at Vanderbilt's faculty page you will quickly see that Vanderbilt has world-class professors and easily deserves to be a top 20 school. I think the small, lively classroom discussions and intimate setting are just bonuses. If you ask anyone who is very familiar with undergraduate programs they will tell you that Vanderbilt is an elite. I'm an English major and Vandy is well-known for being the birthplace of the "New Criticism" - one of the most dominant modes of textual analysis. It is also widely known in literary circles for the emergence of The Fugitives and Agrarians, some of the most influential poets and literary scholars in American history. Robert Penn Warren was also prominent in this movement and won a Pulitzer prize for his work in All The King's Men. Aside from the rich traditions, my professors have been outstanding. I have taken a creative writing class with best-selling author Tony Earley. The undergraduate liberal arts education at Vanderbilt is outstanding.</p>
<p>Because the US News editors decided so. It's really as simple as that.</p>
<p>college2332,
those USNews rankings are not relevant.... WASN'T THIS THREAD CREATED TO DISPUTE WHY VANDY IS OVERRANKED IN USNEWS?</p>
<p>intotherain, Vanderbilt being better than NYU at the undergraduate level is FACT. NYU is an excellent choice for business or the arts (not offered as undergraduate majors at Vandy). Nevertheless, if you ask people in educated circles (or even well-noted posters on the parents forum) they would rank Vanderbilt's undergraduate curriculum as a whole stronger than NYU.</p>
<p>NYU is better than Vandy in political science, economics, the performing arts, and film. I would definitely not call it a blow out.</p>
<p>I agree with film/arts, obviously. But liberal arts are stronger at Vanderbilt. I was accepted to both schools and I had to research both schools thoroughly. I'm from New York and I have siblings and a cousin at NYU. But from talking to professors, I found Vanderbilt to be more accomplished in the departments I was interested in.</p>