<p>I thought Vandy was generous w/fin. aid. I’ve heard that Stanford and Duke are known to be stingy from everyone here who has considered them. Auburn seems to has a nice campus and both are decent options, but I wonder who has the edge in coursework and rigor (not to say that a person who mentioned that they were rushing at both in the 2nd sentence wants this). Is Auburn also known as a party school w/decent academics? Because I already know it’s unfair to consider all public shools at the same level in terms of coursework, rigor, and academic motivation. Ideally, if the student body has changed (in a good way) at both, you would hope that the coursework changes to challenge the newly, more qualified student bodies (like we already know public schools grade harder, but is the work actually useful/challenging). There are many idiots here who are so sheltered that they think all public schools are “easy”. They think that Georgia Tech, for example, is easy simply because it is public. It would help if someone knew something about it (Auburn) other than rankings/statistics I guess. Like what programs are done really well and what makes them that way? I would guess the OP would have to take science courses. Which school would prepare more in those areas? Generally the school w/a more rigorous science curriculum, but w/o it being overbearing wins?</p>