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Take the full ride and don't look back. I know as a high schooler prestige may look extremely important now, but in 10 years nobody is really going to care where you went to undergrad, and probably even med school. They'll care that you're a doctor. Save the 200k (50k x 4 yrs) and future you will thank past you for not throwing that much debt on yourself.

EDIT: Whoops, just noticed that you said you don't care for prestige much. In that case I would still vote for Vandy due to significantly less debt. Can't vouch for class difficulty, as I did not attend either school. Hopefully someone else can chime in.
 
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Westcoaststudent95 said:
Take the full ride and don't look back. I know as a high schooler prestige may look extremely important now, but in 10 years nobody is really going to care where you went to undergrad, and probably even med school. They'll care that you're a doctor. Save the 200k (50k x 4 yrs) and future you will thank past you for not throwing that much debt on yourself.
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The biggest concern IMO is the risk of not doing well in prerequisite classes. I still think you're right, but for getting into medical school, maintaining a good GPA is essential. Is anyone able to speak to the difficulty of prerequisite courses at UPenn and Vanderbilt?
 
Wolvvs said:
The biggest concern IMO is the risk of not doing well in prerequisite classes. I still think you're right, but for getting into medical school, maintaining a good GPA is essential. Is anyone able to speak to the difficulty of prerequisite courses at UPenn and Vanderbilt?
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A friend of mine from high school played on the football team at Vandy and still managed to get A's in his pre-reqs so it doesn't sound impossible.
 
Vandy and it isn't even ****ing close. You'll save >$100,000 in high interest loans, while being immersed in a student body just as smart as Penn's, and with all the premed resources you could desire from an attached top 20 medical school. As one of their Cornelius chosen ones, you'll essentially be an autoadmit to Vandy Med if you put together the standard med school application, which is a fantastic medical school that also gives extremely generous financial aid (75% tuition scholarships are very common).

And this is UPenn, not Harvard or Stanford. People from the rest of the country think it's a state school/confuse it with Penn State. Paying that much extra for the insignificant prestige bump is crazy talk!
 
efle said:
Vandy and it isn't even ****ing close. You'll save >$100,000 in high interest loans, while being immersed in a student body just as smart as Penn's, and with all the premed resources you could desire from an attached top 20 medical school. As one of their Cornelius chosen ones, you'll essentially be an autoadmit to Vandy Med if you put together the standard med school application, which is a fantastic medical school that also gives extremely generous financial aid (75% tuition scholarships are very common).

And this is UPenn, not Harvard or Stanford. People from the rest of the country think it's a state school/confuse it with Penn State. Paying that much extra for the insignificant prestige bump is crazy talk!
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Is the admit rate at Vandy Med actually higher for Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholars if you maintain an okay GPA? That's really interesting actually, I didn't know that
 
Vandy...take the full ride, be prepared to grind from the get go and if it turns out easier it'll be a blessing.
 
I attended Vandy and multiple members of my family attended UPenn. I think Vandy is the right choice, without a question. Strictly for premed, Vandy and UPenn are probably comparable, with both premed curriculums being pretty rigorous. Both schools try to have class averages in the premed prereqs around a B-, and the people you're surrounded by will likely be similar so the curve will be similar at both schools.

But outside of premed, I'll say that Vandy was without a doubt the best 4 years of my life. Anything I could say about Vandy, my brother (attended Penn), couldn't believe. The administration really cares about its students and the facilities are nicer than many places. There are countless things to do, no matter where your interests lie, and people are generally happy. Oh, and coming from a Philly native, Nashville is the greatest city for a college student.
 
As someone who chose a cheaper (but still good) option for college, save yourself the money and don't look back. When I look at friends and family members who have lots of student loans and compare it to my own situation (I was able to graduate debt free thanks to cheap school, scholarship, lots of work, and a little bit of help from parents), I don't have any doubt I made the right decision. It is so much less stressful to not have that debt hanging over my head. Vandy is a great school, and you would save $120,000 going there vs going to Penn. Congratulations on being in the situation you're in!
 
Vandy for sure. Nashville is 1000x better than Philly, for one, and I've spent a lot of time in both cities. As much as you were sold on how close the hospital is to the UPenn campus (odd selling point, but ok), the Vanderbilt medical center is even closer to its undergrad campus.

Not that Vanderbilt is a small pond, but in this game it's better to be a big fish in a small pond, or at least to have a relatively high fish-to-pond size ratio. With this scholarship and special track you are getting a big head start in that regard. And like someone already mentioned, pond size doesn't matter if it's Harvard, but Penn isn't Harvard.

People are just way nicer in Nashville, too. Philly people pride themselves on being rude and unwelcoming, probably even moreso than NYers when it comes to true, dyed-in-the-wool natives. Whatever floats their boat.

Edit: forgot the most important point—congrats on a great accomplishment!
 
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