Vandy honors vs UT Austin honors

Faline2
Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:03:03 +0000

Vanderbilt is a medium sized research institution which serves as a leader for the entire region of the USA near it in many arenas…but inside the undergrad school are many opportunities for intimate classrooms. In other words, you can have big school/small school life at Vandy based on how you map out your four years there. You can have a liberal arts school experience similar to the intimacy in classrooms you find at a Pomona or Davidson when you opt for seminars and enroll in upper level classes in your major while still enjoying a larger more fluid social life full of variety in classmates, a decent bigger school sports scene, school spirit and an urban setting that is remarkably not stressful and is strikingly pastoral/lovely considering the short distance to downtown central from campus.

Graduate school is the time for super specialization. If you want a very rich, balanced undergraduate school life where you will know many of your professors, Vandy has a lot to offer. You will not be short changed in hard sciences…which are very rigorous at Vandy. Vanderbilt has extremely high standards in the classroom and opportunities to do research are plentiful.
However, my son is coming because he is attracted to the many “stress-reducers” that come with life on Vanderbilt’s friendly personal campus. Like most kids at Vandy now…classwork is very rigorous for them in college…my son chose Vandy for the “fun” factor in the air that he feels will lighten his heart and help him do his best in the classroom as well. He is likely going independent and after walking around the streets off campus decided that there were tons of things for him to do on weekends…he is from VA but not Nova. Nashville is a big step up in city size for him…but not overwhelming in size.
I know zip about UT Austin.