Last-minute Decision: Vanderbilt vs. IU-Kelley (undergrad)
I posted once earlier, but now I've narrowed my choices down to Vanderbilt and direct admittance to the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University (and KLLC membership). I would graduate Vanderbilt with up to $50k in debt and leave IU without any. Also, I love to travel internationally, so this would become very difficult if I attend Vandy. I want to go into BB IB or PE, but I also want to enjoy my four years as an undergrad. I would rush at either, but I'm concerned about the social experience at Vandy (I want a solid party scene) and the increasing amount of liberal intolerance on campus. Also, I'm not sure if Vanderbilt is as strong as its career center projects. Is Vanderbilt a semi-target or not? If a have a decent chance of the IB workshop at Kelley, does that make IU the smarter choice? I'm pretty confident that IU will be a good time, but I don't want to pass up Vanderbilt if it will open more doors for me in the future. Can anyone please weigh in on the undergraduate experience at Vanderbilt and its placement opportunities in comparison to IU to help me make this last-minute decision?
IU is the safer, smarter choice. Go Big Ten. :)
Vanderbilt is a better school
vanderbilt social scene is pretty damn goood as well. nashville is lit, greek life is strong, and the weather is 10x better. much more prestigious as well. i wouldn't bank on getting into the IB workshop.
still the money factor makes this a tough choice.
IU ONLY if you got into the workshop, otherwise it's vandy hands down!
Apples to Apples: 100% Vanderbilt. It is just a better undergraduate program - I do not think this can be argued. With IU free and Vandy not, then less clear. If add on just want to do IB, then I think IU can make sense.
Disagree. IU has an awesome CS program. Same with their IB Institute. Provocatively, it's also cheaper for OP-- he would not graduate with any debt from IU.
My thinking on this is that everyone promoting Vanderbilt is from the East Coast. Everyone plugging IU is from elsewhere. They're equal schools, but one is going to carry less debt.
If OP is fine with working at a Chicago prop shop and starting at double the pay of NYC IBD for half the work, IU is a perfectly fine choice.
taking IU over Vandy is insane
OP, like you said, you want to do IB in NYC. And Illini (who I have a lot of respect for btw) said as well that Vandy is the clear choice for IB in NYC. I think the reason you're asking WSO is that you're trying to find a reason to pick IU over Vandy because of the social scene, but you know that Vandy is probably better for your future.
If you are dead-set on NYC IBD, if you believe the banks won't get eaten by fintech, if you would turn down an offer from Citi Chicago IBD or Jump Trading to wait tables in NYC on the hopes of eventually landing an NYC job, the answer is Vanderbilt.
If that's not the case, for $50K in debt, the answer is IU.
College changes you. All else being equal, Vanderbilt will make you more sophisticated but also more worried about prestige than IU. In my view you are stacking the deck against yourself with that approach.
In any case, you should be putting more weight on your parents' advice and your own feelings about the campus visits-- which students you like more; where you fit in more.
Vandy all day.
Vandy you'll meet people from all around the country who are high achievers. At IU you'll mostly meet people from Indiana. Some will be smart, but many will be lazy. With a Vandy degree you can move anywhere and it will be immediately obvious to your employer the strength of your school, you won't be confined to the midwest. This "Vandy kids have a chip on their shoulder as a bunch of Harvard rejects" thing just isn't a thing. Vandy's a top tier school and most people who go there are proud as shit of going there. Advising you to put yourself in a worse situation so you'll learn grit is insane, give yourself the best chance of success possible. If you're estimating about $42k in loans, you'll be able to pay that back easily as long as you can find a way to make $65k+ out of college. You'll be out of debt by 26/27 if you get into IB and throw a large portion of your bonus at that debt, and 30 at the latest if you go into corporate finance or something else entirely. At Vandy you won't have to get into some workshop, and arguing for the workshop is an IB specific argument. If you end up deciding you want to do something else, that workshop won't mean anything to anyone. I went to a Vandy peer school, did OK, and got into a MM IB right away. I also took about $50k in loans to do it. I'm 27 now and been out of debt for a few years. My other option was going to my bigass state school that sometimes places into IB for free as some kind of "presidential scholar" or whatever - not as good as IU, but many alumni on the street, definitely the kind of school where if I had worked hard I would have made it. Lots of people advised me to save my money and work hard at the state school, but I know for a fact that if I had went there I would have no chance in hell of moving around the country into increasingly elite jobs. In retrospect, I made by far the right choice because I opened up myself up to a national network and a significantly higher caliber of peers. Go to Vandy, you won't regret it.