Hi everyone! My D recently got admission and full scholarships for both UMD (full B/K) and Vanderbilt (CV). She loves both the schools and is very excited about both opportunities. Currently, she is planning to pursue a pre-med track. Could someone familiar with both the colleges and scholarships please help us understand the pros and cons?
Vanderbilt is more elite, less diverse, and more Greek-Life-centric (Greek Life is HUGE there).
@p0k congratulations! Your D must be very accomplished to get both of these extremely difficult full scholarships. In my opinion for pre-med it’s best to pick the school where you think you will be able to perform best compared to your peers—because high gpa is so important for med school admissions. It will be more difficult for your D to maintain high gpa necessary for med school at Vanderbilt than at Maryland. Reason being that the caliber of student at Vanderbilit will be higher —like olympians—whereas the caliber of student at Maryland is more varied. The ACT 25/75 percentile at Vanderbilit is 32-35. The ACT 25/75 percentile at Maryland is 27-33. Her competition amongst pre-med peers at Vanderbilt will me more difficult than at Maryland. For last year Maryland supplied 364 applicants to medical school versus 268 for Vanderbilit. But considering that the size of the student body is almost 5x larger at Maryland than at Vanderbilit, it is understandable why. Checkout this table from the association of American medical colleges. https://www.aamc.org/download/493728/data/factstablea2.pdf
@trackmbe3 Thank you for your insight! This is very helpful information; I will definitely have her check out the table and consider GPA impacts in her decision.
For economic diversity, a respectable 21% of UMD students are Pell Grant recipients. 14% of Vandy students are Pell Grant recipients, sandwiching it between elite public universities like UVA (12%) and Michigan (15%).
Vanderbilt wins handily in geographic diversity. 90% of students are from out-of-state, and 63% come from outside the South. Only 23% of Maryland students are from out-of-state.
The two are pretty comparable in racial/ethnic diversity.
Vanderbilt
45.4% White, Non-Hispanic
13.9% Asian
10.8% Black
9.97% Hispanic
8.76% International
5.61% Two or more races
4.78% Race/ethnicity unknown
Maryland
49.7% White, Non-Hispanic
17.5% Asian
11.6% Black
9.61% Hispanic
4.75% International
4.42% Two or more races
2.29% Race/ethnicity unknown
Good point on geographic diversity. However, Pell grants % are only a small part of the picture of socioeconomic diversity. 22.8% of Vandy students (more than 1 in 5 students) come from the top 1% (family income of $630k+ a year), while less than 15% come from the bottom 60% (family income lower than $65k a year). The median family income for a student at Vandy is an astounding $204,500/year. There is no getting around that Vandy is a school with a disproportionate number of wealthy students. It is actually the 14th highest offender for biggest positive difference in percentage between top 1% income students and bottom 60% income students.
Overall, Maryland will be a much more socioeconomically diverse school, slightly more racially diverse school, and much less geographically diverse school. It depends on what is important for the OP.
Considering how much bigger Maryland is than Vandy, it looks like Vandy dies quite well for Med school. If your daughter is a hard worker and has a track record of getting good grades (which she must getting these 2 awards), to me, Vandy would be the easy choice. She’d have more personal attention (for recs and research) and there should be good shadowing and volunteering opps in the city (MD is not close to a city). As for frats/societies, she doesn’t need to be involved if that’s not her interest.
Hello,
My DD (Class of 2023 College) also received both of these scholarships. She is weighing this with offers from Harvard, MIT, and Princeton (all likelys). However it is nice that your daughter enjoyed her high school.
Cheers,
@LoveMyDD2023 congrats to your daughter!
It is wonderful to have so many great options. Wishing her all the best!
One of my sons (and many of his friends) got the full Banneker-Key. It’s a terrific scholarship and it opens doors on campus. There are plenty of top students there; we personally know folks who turned down Ivies for the B-K. Those students went on to top grad schools, med schools, etc. Research opportunities are excellent.
The campus and culture is very different from Vanderbilt – if the money’s all the same, look at opportunities, culture, support for pre-med applicants, and sit in on classes if you can visit.