Duke vs. Vandy w/ full Tuition

MOMofknowitall
Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:54:44 +0000

Obviously everyone’s situation is different and unique. With that being said, I fully support the OP’s decision as my son was in a very similar situation except we were offered no need based aid at all. So, my son was faced with Stanford at 53K per year, Duke at 53K per year, and Vandy at about 17 based on a Chancellor’s scholarship.

All 3 schools were visited on multiple occassions over a two year period, my son definitely saw himself fitting in at all 3 and he believes law school is in his future. We spoke with just about anyone who would listen about the dilemna including professors and law school admissions folks. The bottom line, at least for my son, was that none of the three schools would necessarily open or close any doors for him regarding admissions at a top law school. Based on our discussions, the primary factors remain LSAT score and GPA. IF he did well at any of the three, presuming his LSAT score would be comparable regardless of which college he attended, he’d get into a top law school. IF he didn’t do well, he wouldn’t. The only caveat to this is that Stanford apparently has a bit more grade inflation than the others so that may make a slight difference.

With all that being said, even though we could afford full freight, my son made the decision to go to Vandy because the money we would save on college would basically pay for law school. He just turned 18 and we left the decision completely up to him and in my opinion he made a wonderful “adult” decision.

So to come full circle to the OP’s decision, congrats and I’m sure you made your parents very proud.