UMich [full ride] vs Vanderbilt for MechE

MWolf
Fri, 03 May 2024 19:36:10 +0000

First, huge congratulations - these are both amazing choices.

If you are looking for the better Engineering program, there is no question that UMich. Vanderbilt is an amazing college, but in ME, it isn’t in the same league as UMich.

That being said, reputation, rank, and rating are meaningless if you’re unhappy, and, if you’re looking for a job, generally any ABET accredited college will provide you a degree that is more than good enough for any engineering company in the world.

So Vanderbilt look like it will provide more of the non-academic activities and opportunities.

Your career will not be where you study, and engineering companies are lining up to recruit engineering interns and graduates from UMich. Top engineering companies are constantly holding job fairs at UMich, so distance from these companies is not a factor that should be a consideration.

There are more than 8,000 Engineering undergrads at Michigan, so you don’t have to worry about knowing everybody. However, while there are only around 1,500 engineering undergraduates at Vanderbilt, you don’t have to hang out just with engineers, there are over 7,000 undergraduates, and your social life doesn’t need to be limited to engineering. Moreover, there is also an entire city out there. It’s not like high school where you are limited to your school campus all day long.

However, as @tsbna44 asked - what is “full need met”, versus “full ride”? If UMich’s “full ride” assured, so long as you are doing well at your classes, or is it dependant on your family income? Is Vanderbilt’s “full-need met” also a full ride, or are you required to pay or work? What do either cover? Do either cover study abroad? These are also considerations.

Do you know these, and can you share them.

My advice is that if you are pretty certain that ME is the direction that you will go, and UMich provides the best financial packet, that is the one that you should choose. If there is no difference, or if Vanderbilt only has a slightly better financial packet, choose the one that you like th ebest. If Vanderbilt offers a clearly better financial offer, you should choose Vanderbilt.

If you are not certain that you will continue in engineering, Vanderbilt may be the better choice, providing that the financial packet that UMich offers isn’t clearly better.