<p>yeah pre-med and econ might be a tough act to balance at vandy. i would think that vanderbuilt has a better reputation, but UM has been rising fast (last year they weren’t even top 50). as for graduate school, there’ll probably be less competition for higher GPAs at UM, and you will have the flexibility to tailor your classes (and subsequently professor recs) to what you want to do as a foote fellow. It’s true that Coral Gables isn’t much of a college town, but I personally find that better. In college towns, people get bored easier. Plus as a latin jew, Nashville might be a bight of a culture shock. For grad schools, if you work hard in any top school, you’ll get in places. This isn’t UF we’re talking about…
All of this is pretty biased towards UM, but then again, you are on the UM board.
In the end, understand that you’ll essentially be learning the same major and subject matter at both schools. What should separate them would be the subtler things: the quality of life and stress level of the student, city v collegetown atmosphere, presence of sports and spirit, ability to connect to your teacher, find diversity or close friends in the student body, flexibility of curriculum, work and internship opportunities.
At the end of the day, coming from a big UM family and area, I have never seen anyone regret the decision to go to the U</p>