glschneck

how do u guys think vanderbilt stacks up against the ivies. vanderbilt vs hyp (hyp obviously), but what about vandy v penn, v dartmouth, cornell, etc.

TheOC89

I turned down lower-Ivies for Vanderbilt (Cornell, UPenn) because the school was a better social fit. However, I think 'HYP' are in a league of their own.

FLVADAD

They are all great schools. You can't go wrong with any of them. Go visit, do some due diligence, and just pick the one you like best.

Native NJ

I've always thought of Vandy, Duke, Emory & Tulane as "Southern Ivies"

Knights09

The Southern Ivy League is generally thought of as Duke, Emory, Rice, Vandy, UVA, UNC, Wake Forest, and W&M.

applejack

This chart made by someone on another thread might give you some help in this regard. It's for common graduate programs as assessed by USNWR (I believe), so might not accurately reflect an undergrad focused institution. Still, gives you some idea of overall institutional value when comparing apples to apples. Good luck in your decision!


No. of programs in top 10 (1-10)/top 20(11-20)/top 30(21-30)
Stanford 14-0-0 (14)
Harvard 13-0-1 (14)
Berkeley 13-0-0 (13)
Yale 9-4-0 (13)
Chicago 9-3-1 (13)
Princeton 8-3-0 (11)
MIT 8-1-0 (9)
Michigan 7-7-0 (14)
Columbia 6-7-1 (14)
UCLA 6-7-0 (13)
Penn 6-5-3 (14)
Caltech 5-0-0 (5)
Cornell 4-10-0 (14)
Northwestern 4-6-4 (14)
Illinois 4-2-5 (11)
Johns Hopkins 4-1-5 (10)
Wisconsin 3-8-2 (13)
Duke 2-6-4 (12)
WUSTL 2-2-1 (5)
NYU 2-1-3 (6)
Virginia 1-3-3 (7)
UNC 1-6-4 (11)
USC 1-1-1 (3)
Texas 0-9-3 (12)
Vanderbilt 0-2-2 (4)
Emory 0-1-5 (6)
Georgetown 0-1-1 (2)
Rice 0-0-4 (4)
Notre Dame 0-0-1 (1)

TheOC89

applejack, those numbers are inaccurate. Vanderbilt has many departments that are in the top 5 (education, audiology, etc). Nevertheless, there are big differences between graduate school rankings and undergraduate rankings. Graduate programs are way more specialized, and you shouldn't penalize universities that cater more to undergraduates. For instance, LACs like Williams and Amherst don't offer many graduate programs but they are still among the best undergraduate programs in the world. Similarly, universities like Rice, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, etc. are also more focused on their undergrads.

Also, for graduate school if you want to be a dentist do you really care if your school has a top-notch law school? Probably not. At the graduate level, you should judge them on your interests and not from aggregate data.

vc08

I don't think Vandy is quite on par with any in the IL, but still it's obviously a great institution on its own.

glschneck

i, personally usually put hyp and stanford as top. than penn and columbia, than dartmouth on its own. (brown is a little quirky but up there with dartmouth. than uof chicago vandy and cornell. (im not counting specifiuc programs like engineering, like cal tech or mit)

NewEngSocSciMan

Vanderbilt is no worse than any of the Ivies. It is certainly equal to HYP, in its own right. What's wrong with Vanderbilt? Nothing – it has similar academic strength and just as much regional prestige. It might not have as large endowments, but that's not really very relevant...

danas

NewEngSocSciMan, you are a minority of one.

GoNavyXC

Vanderbilt fits in nice with many of the HYP type schools and can actually be better depending on what field you're getting into and WHERE you're going to be working. Some people may have never heard of a Columbia or think that Dartmouth is just UMASS Dartmouth or think that UPENN means Penn State. Vanderbilt is one of the top schools in the South. In the South, a Vanderbilt grad could probably mean more than an Ivy grad because of name recognition. Name recognition and reputation is everything my friends.

danas

Okay, a minority of at least two.

GoNavyXC

danas,

I've counted more than two so far.

Milkmagn

Personally, in the NE, I've never heard of vanderbilt until I was a senior in high school... Ivies are much better known there...