<p>BC and Tufts are rather different…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Rice also has a smaller student body overall and is more like Princeton in the sense that it is undergraduate heavy. Anyways, this debate is pointless as they are all three great schools (Emory, Vandy, Rice) though Rice does have the advantage in nearly every statistical way. None of them are as great as Duke, which brings me back to my main point: Vandy is in no way the Harvard of the South. If you think so, you have a lot of school pride that is blinding your judgement.</p>
<p>brand182, there are several schools often referenced as the “Harvard of the South”. I have a Barron’s book that profiled prestigous colleges where it called Vanderbilt “The Harvard of the South”. Anyways, the term is essentially meaningless. Vandy is one of the top schools in the country no matter what you call it. </p>
<p>But you are wrong to call someone “blinded” with judgment for merely stating common belief. Even in this webpage where someone is referencing Rice as the ‘HotS’ they also acknowledge that Duke, Vanderbilt, and Emory have similiar claims:
<a href=“http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/harvard_of_the_south_rice_university_nickname/[/url]”>http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/harvard_of_the_south_rice_university_nickname/</a></p>
<p>Also – there is really no need to ■■■■■ Rice in a thread where the OP is trying to decide between Vandy, Vassar, and Boston College. If this thread is going to continue to accumulate posts, it should be to help the OP. Academically, I believe Vanderbilt and Vassar are both stronger than BC, but the schools differ greatly socially. Socially, Vassar has a reputation for being GLBT-friendly and is the most liberal school out of the three. Vanderbilt has D-1 sports, larger parties, and would be conservative by comparison.</p>
<p>HA I’m definitely not ■■■■■■■■ Rice as I have not even applied or considered going there. Anyways, it’s up to individuals if they want to call a school the “Harvard of the South.” Just because someone says something (including myself) does not make it fact, but I think the only school that deserves that title is Duke. Vandy is a great school, but it’s not as amazing as a lot of people are making it out to be, while at the same time those people are bashing Vassar because it’s an LAC/less known. </p>
<p>You’re right though. The term is as meaningless as calling WUSTL the Harvard of the Midwest. There are great schools in each region of the country: it was only when someone said “Vandy is the Harvard of the South,” as if that ended the debate, that I felt entitled to speak my opinion.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt (along with Princeton and Washington & Lee) are my dream schools. So I obviously believe Vanderbilt deserves the praise it recieves. I think when you get to a certain point with elite colleges, people should base their choice largely on fit. Traditions and undergraduate focus appeal to me, but for someone else a school like Columbia with its politically liberal student body and NYC-night life may be ideal.</p>
<p>Washingtin St louis is no harvard of the midwest…I have no idea how they’re that high up in the rankings.</p>
<p>And Vandy is the Harvard of the South because Duke really isnt considered the South…</p>
<p>ok this is just getting silly. so you consider Vandy comparable to Harvard but not WashU? I would suggest taking a look at the stats of both schools: you are very biased.</p>
<p>I think when people say “Harvard of the South” it transcends merely an academic comparison. It could also be interpreted as a social comparison of sorts. Vanderbilt, like Harvard, has a reputation for being “old money” and popular with NE Prep Schools. For instance, Phillips Andover had 17 students matriculate at Vanderbilt in the last two years while only 1 went to WashU. Data from St. Paul’s, Groton, Exeter, Deerfield, etc. all show the same trend with many students attending Vanderbilt while virtually none attending WashU. So while both WashU. and Vandy attract bright students, Vanderbilt may be a closer comparison due to the type of student it attracts. However, if the claim “Harvard of the (whatever region)” is being based solely on academic merit – I believe WashU has a strong claim of the Midwest. But as I said before these terms are generally useless.</p>
<p>Your matriculation data is interesting but not conclusive: WashU is also a considerably harder school to get into than Vandy in nearly every sense that I can think of, which may account for the fact that fewer students from the schools you’ve mentioned end up going there. If you had data that showed the # admitted to each and the # that matriculated at each, I would be more convinced. Either way, I don’t think the term is useful either. </p>
<p>Anyways, back to the original issue: I vote for Vassar (still).</p>
<p>SweetLax, you have no idea what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>"Washingtin St louis is no harvard of the midwest…I have no idea how they’re that high up in the rankings.</p>
<p>And Vandy is the Harvard of the South because Duke really isnt considered the South…"</p>
<p>“Brand, Rice and Emory would NOT be above Vandy. No way in hell.”</p>
<p>If you want to promote Vandy, good for you; it’s a great school. But it really isn’t necessary to get defensive and put down other schools when doing so. “No way in hell” is a pretty strong phrase, so I hope you have some valid, unbiased reasons (for the people who are not as passionate about Vandy as you are) on why you think Rice, WashU, and Emory are inferior to Vandy.</p>
<p>Actually I have every idea what Im talking about. Just look at OC89’s findings. People would MUCH rather go to Vanderbilt than Wash U. All of those elite prep schools (mines in there), all of my friends would much rather go to Vanderbilt than Wash U.</p>
<p>I think you missed my point. I wasn’t making a comparison on the difficulty of admission standards between the schools. Rather, that if “Harvard of the South” carries a connotation relevant to social terms that Vanderbilt would be the stronger comparison. Deerfield academy shows the data you are looking for (# admitted & # matriculates), but ZERO students even applied to WashU while 41 students applied to Vanderbilt. Every elite prep school shows similar trends.</p>
<p>Deerfield -
<a href=“http://www.deerfield.edu/academics/index.cfm?page_ID=74[/url]”>http://www.deerfield.edu/academics/index.cfm?page_ID=74</a></p>
<p>Andover -
<a href=“http://www.andover.edu/cco/matrics/default.asp[/url]”>http://www.andover.edu/cco/matrics/default.asp</a></p>
<p>Groton -
<a href=“http://www.groton.org/home/content.asp?id=580[/url]”>http://www.groton.org/home/content.asp?id=580</a></p>
<p>Collegiate (NY) -
<a href=“http://www.collegiateschool.org/program/college/matriculation.asp?bhcp=1[/url]”>http://www.collegiateschool.org/program/college/matriculation.asp?bhcp=1</a></p>
<p>At every top prep school, you will see Vanderbilt heavily represented both in terms of applications and the number who chose to attend. While WashU will be completely absent, the schools just cater towards different crowds.</p>
<p>I’ve already questioned OC’s findings: unless he/she can come up with the relevant data, they are meaningless. EDIT: TheOC - that is the data I was looking for. I understand your point then.</p>
<p>I don’t like to search for random data, but will just to support my argument. Forgive me for using some of these indicators of quality as some are subjective - most are not:</p>
<p>Rank:
WashU - 12
Vandy - 18</p>
<p>Grad rate:
WashU - 91
Vandy - 88</p>
<p>% Classes w/ fewer than 20 students:
WashU - 73
Vandy - 66</p>
<p>Student Faculty Ratio:
WashU - 7/1
Vandy - 9/1</p>
<p>SAT Midrange:
WashU - 1360-1520
Vandy - 1280-1460</p>
<p>Freshman in top 10% of HS class:
WashU - 93
Vandy - 77</p>
<p>Acceptance Rate (05):
WashU - 19%
Vandy - 35%</p>
<p>Alumni Giving Rate:
WashU - 38%
Vandy - 27%</p>
<p>Endowment:
WashU - $4.75 billion
Vandy - $2.91 billion</p>
<p>Student Body Size:
WashU - 12101
Vandy - 10303</p>
<p>As I look through this data, I realize why WashU is ranked so highly. Perhaps this data does not suggest to you that WashU is better than Vandy (it does to me) but it at least dismisses your notion that WashU is inferior to Vandy. Whatever you and your prep school friends think is fine, but I prefer supporting myself with facts.</p>
<p>“People would MUCH rather go to Vanderbilt than Wash U.”</p>
<p>That’s a very sweeping generalization. Just because the typical prep school graduate is more likely to choose Vandy over Wash U doesn’t mean everyone will. Like TheOC89 said, the schools cater to different crowds. Vandy tends to attract preppy white kids. If you were to ask an Asian, Jew, atheist, or liberal which they would rather attend, they are more likely to pick Wash U. </p>
<p>“all of my friends would much rather go to Vanderbilt than Wash U.”</p>
<p>So what. Most of my friends would choose Wash U over Vandy, does that mean Wash U is better than Vandy?</p>
<p>My vote goes to Vassar.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think you read my posts very carefully. My original post merely stated that Wash U. is a unpopular destination among students who attend elite boarding schools. You keep misinterpreting this as a criticism of Wash U. academics – its not. The discussion involved determing which school is a more valid comparison of “Harvard of (a particular region)”. If these references have an underlying connotation of social class, Vanderbilt would be the stronger comparison.</p>
<p>I actually wasn’t referring to you; sorry if that was unclear. It was directed towards SweetLax.</p>
<p>I just wonder…universities are supposed to educate and instill a spirit of discussion and open, truthful discussion, with assertions of “unquestionably”, or things like “no way in hell” being reserved for rare cases which no one can refute. Unfortunately, statistics can be twisted to fit any biased argument, and people can demand more conclusions out of stats than what they are able to provide. I still think the Harvard study is the (at this moment) the best indicator of prestige, throughout USA.</p>
<p>Yeah, jym626, I know how lucky I am =) Thanks for pointing out that we’re called Vassarians, not “Vassarites” (aren’t they also known as Brewers?) Haha! Oh man, talk about faux pas…</p>
<p>Anyway, I think just because “some” people don’t know that Vassar has gone co-ed doesn’t take anything away from Vassar. Pomona is another prime example of how people living a few minutes away from it still don’t know that such a fantastic college even exists, despite the reputation among those in the know (professors, educators, employers) What I found incredibly amusing in some other post inside another thread (see “Prestige!”) was that some didn’t even know Amherst and Williams existed! Does that mean they’re not prestigious, or does that mean something else?</p>
<p>I would make a humble plea to the many who surf here to take another look at the LACs and stop dismissing them so open-handedly as inferior without an earnest effort to compare them to the National Unis. This thread is pretty much a microcosm of this issue.</p>
<p>D.T.-
Yes, you are correct- Brewers is another term for the Vassar undergrads, with the “mascot” being a Brewer. Unfortunately, the Brewery didn’t survive a big fire a few centuries ago, but the Vassar Bros. Hospital still exists. Maybe the mascot should have been the “pre-meds” 
You are also very right about Pomona. It (and all the Claremont schools) as well as a few mentioned above (Rice, and, so it seems, even Vassar, Amherst and Williams) and many many other wonderful but smaller schools suffer from the “lack of name recognition” problem. We all know these are all wonderful schools. Maybe they just need to hire a better PR firm Does the OP equate “prestige” to “name recognition”? We don’t know the answer to that.
But I digress…</p>
<p>And your point is well taken-- this discussion about “prestige” has transitioned to “where people would rather go”, or what is and isn’t considered the Harvard of the south, or what is even considered “the south” is going from the ridiculous to the sublime, IMO.</p>
<p>I did a little checking-- it appears that the OP started several different threads about this topic. They are from Calif, and her s. got into one UC school as well as Vassar, Vanderbilt, Colgate and Boston College. Got $$$ from Vandy and they seem to be strongly leaning that way. So, I have to wonder, what was the purpose of this thread?? What is the OP’s definition of “prestige”? What criteria will they be using to make their final selection? Was the purpose of this thread to get another volley of opinions to support the decision they already seem to have made? Not sure. The OP seems to have gleaned that Vandy was “winning” in this popularity contest (this thread). Not sure I see it the same. But I guess it depends on what you are looking for. She said her s hasn’t decided on a major, so narrowing down the choices based on that won’t work for them.</p>
<p>I apologize to the OP (who must be away for the weekend or something, as she hasn’t posted since 4/3) if I sound snide. I am sure the questions and the many threads started to make their college decision are with the best of intentions. But opinions about the “prestige” of schools are arbitrary. One poster here is strongly advocating the one school they got into, and will be attending. But that poster didn’t seem to feel so strongly about that particular schoool when he/she was not accepted to the ivies. I don’t want or mean to offend anyone-- I am merely ponting out that our opinions about, and loyalty to schools can change quickly.</p>
<p>So, to the OP, I hope your s is happy with his decision. Vandy is a great school, and yes, having a degree from Vandy or Vassar (and, IMO, to a lesser degree from BC or Colgate or UCSB) will help him in the future. If he plans to go to grad/professional school, thake the $$$ from Vandy and save for grad school. I would.</p>