Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not prestigious.

+1

Trendy? Yes. Celeb flavor of the month.

Prestigious? No.

Decent school? Yes.

+2

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you people are really mentally disturbed.

No, I think you're mentally disturbed for commenting like this.

The question makes a lot of sense to me (especially as I consider paying $90K/year.) What is the perception of the world-at-large (not the parents of rising seniors who are looking at admissions numbers) of Vanderbilt (or any school)?

No, you should be thinking about what your child is actually getting for your money, not what random people in the world who don't actually know anything about the school think of it (or what they think they have been told to think of it via marketing).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that it is prestigious in some circles but I agree with that it doesn't have the universal name recognition of the ivies and elite publics. If I hadn't looked at the ranking before writing this post I would have thought that it was ranked similarly to BC and BU.

This is off. Vandy is top elite -- is it MIT, Uchi, HYP -- no but it is in the next tier. Rankings are all messed up now. You cannot use them for anything. There are about 40 elite schools. Yes some are more elite than others but there are about 40. BC is in there -- BU is not. Not the same kids/same results.

If I can't use rely on the rankings then how would I know that Vanderbilt is prestigious, elite or top elite. I have been told my entire life that Ivies are prestigious, that MIT and Stanford are prestigious and that UCLA, Cal and Michigan are prestigious. I have never heard much about Vanderbilt except for them being a perennial SEC football doormat.

Michigan is not prestigious. It's a humongous state school with a so-so football team.

To be prestigious it would have to be well known and I don't think that it is well known. It's known just as much for being bad at football as it is for excellent academics.

Elite school with international reputation

T10s > Vandy > Cornell = Georgetown

this ^

it’s a second tier school but still above the Cornells and Georgetowns of the world

signed,
Cornell alum and hubby is Georgetown alum
DC will be ed’ing at Vandy

You people...

...the school is ranked #18 out of 3,000 or so colleges, and it is not prestigious?

You need to all stop posting here. You don't know your a$$ from your elbow.

If you consider South as elite.

Anonymous wrote:Not prestigious.

But expensive and rich people's kids go there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that it is prestigious in some circles but I agree with that it doesn't have the universal name recognition of the ivies and elite publics. If I hadn't looked at the ranking before writing this post I would have thought that it was ranked similarly to BC and BU.

This is off. Vandy is top elite -- is it MIT, Uchi, HYP -- no but it is in the next tier. Rankings are all messed up now. You cannot use them for anything. There are about 40 elite schools. Yes some are more elite than others but there are about 40. BC is in there -- BU is not. Not the same kids/same results.

If I can't use rely on the rankings then how would I know that Vanderbilt is prestigious, elite or top elite. I have been told my entire life that Ivies are prestigious, that MIT and Stanford are prestigious and that UCLA, Cal and Michigan are prestigious. I have never heard much about Vanderbilt except for them being a perennial SEC football doormat.

Anonymous wrote:It's a good school for premed. Other than that, it doesn't have the prestige like ivies, and doesn't have the practicality like mit/git/stanford.

If you are set for medical school, yes by all means to the Vandy. Otherwise, look somewhere else. Lots of good schools.

If you are set on medical school, get the least expensive undergrad education possible. Vandy will set a UMC family back $400k. (They do provide free tuition to families earning under $150k/year).

Everyone in the south knows that Vanderbilt is near impossible to get into without a major hook.

Anonymous wrote:In the South, it is prestigious.

So called the Harvard in the south. Yes, it's a regional school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you people are really mentally disturbed.

No, I think you're mentally disturbed for commenting like this.

The question makes a lot of sense to me (especially as I consider paying $90K/year.) What is the perception of the world-at-large (not the parents of rising seniors who are looking at admissions numbers) of Vanderbilt (or any school)?

Isn't this pretty much impossible to get an answer for? Especially on a discussion board made up of individuals caught up in the admission process? The world is ~8 billion people and how many people does each of us know? And how many of them (that aren't in the admission process) do we discuss their perception of schools? I can guess at other people's perceptions, but how is that valuable? How is that any better than your guess?

I do understand the idea/belief that a school's brand may have some halo effect for its graduates and may at times provide some opportunity or connections. But that is never a guarantee. The better question, in my opinion, is how well does Vanderbilt set your child up with an environment to thrive, opportunities for personal growth and development, an education that is right for them? Is that worth $90k? Only you can decide that. Doesn't matter what folks on this discussion board thinks.

I graduated in the 90s and live in CA, work in tech. If anyone finds out that's where I went, they're impressed and usually have a lot of questions. It's a recognizable big name no matter what people here think about it (or my feelings about it and my experience). But I'm still holding a grudge that in the 90s, this girl in my Spanish class asked me, "Oh, is that a fashion school?"

My husband's extended family is from TN and in some circles in the South it carries a lot of weight. Whether those circles are part of your or your child's personal Venn diagram is another question.

In the South, it is prestigious.