<p>I am not going to continue the discussion about who said exactly what that I thought was less than classy, and I respect what you have to say in your posting above. It is surprising how many families have kids at both schools, I have personally “met” about a dozen over the last few years, so there must be many more.</p>
<p>I do rather disagree, though, that Vanderbilt’s “higher status” will help her more in finance than Tulane’s presumably lower status. What do you base that on? Tulane has an outstanding finance department and has programs like the Burkenroad Reports, the Energy Trading competitions, and now the Altman Program that are absolutely known nationally. Well, the AP probably isn’t yet but the experience a student will have in that program will lead to an outstanding resume. Also, reputations don’t change that much in five years as far as the general public goes, although I readily agree Vandy’s is outstanding anyway. But that is hardly the point. Because actually in her post #5 she said she really wasn’t that interested in Finance. So I am not sure why you focused on that.</p>
<p>What I am saying is that a student coming out of Tulane with a great GPA and excellent test scores will have opportunities for grad school that are just as good as someone graduating from Vanderbilt with the same stats. I see it all the time. And grad school seemed to be the goal she was more sure about, although obviously those are fluid for most entering freshmen, whether they know it going in or not, and she seems to readily acknowledge that hers are fluid. A university’s “status” is overrated as a factor, especially for grad schools, but elsewhere as well. Personal performance and accomplishments inside and outside the classroom, along with networking and similar factors, are what get attention.</p>
<p>What I won’t disagree with is that more students in the Vanderbilt entering classes are higher achievers academically than those entering the Tulane freshman class. That is obvious to anyone looking at the numbers. That doesn’t mean, as you say, that there are not a lot of very bright students at Tulane, many of whom have other outstanding attributes that are also important to the making of a great peer group and the future of our communities.</p>
<p>So that is all I am saying. Yes, Vanderbilt is awesome. But you know what? So is Tulane, and this shouldn’t be a debate that involves denigration. It should, instead, stay classy and focus on what are the best attributes of both schools, rather than trying to make it look like one school is the “poor step-child”. It is easy to tell a stranger to just go to one school over another, but what is more useful is to tell them why their school might fit them best, and that doesn’t have to involve casting irrelevant aspersions (not that you did) about the other school.</p>