Help me choose a pre-med undergrad: Vanderbilt full-tuition vs. UPenn

[stressedstudent2020]

I'm very new to this forum, so I hope I'm posting this thread in the right place! But I'm a high school senior having a really stressful time choosing between two schools for undergrad: Vanderbilt and UPenn. I feel very lucky to be able to choose between two great schools, but the decision is becoming very hard for me and making me pull my hair out, so I would really really appreciate any insight from here since there's so many experienced members on this forum.

I'm hoping to major in neuroscience and potentially double major or minor in something related to data science. Here's my pros and cons list:

Vanderbilt
Pros

• Full-tuition scholarship here, so my price per year would be around 20K. I'd graduate debt free from undergrad since my family can afford that price, and if I go through with medical school or even grad school, my parents would be able to help me pay for that.
• The Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship I received means auto admission to their honors program, small-sized honors seminars, and a 6K stipend for a research project
• Pretty easy access to the Vanderbilt Medical School and also hospitals on campus
• Haven't been able to visit because of COVID-19, but the student environment generally seems more collaborative than hyper-competitive and cutthroat
• Established/pretty strong neuroscience department

Cons

• Intense difficulty of intro STEM weedout courses: I've seen MANY stories about grade deflation and how awful Gen Chem is. I have very little background in chemistry from high school, so I'll try to maybe prep over the summer, but I'm afraid that this will completely change my path and make me regret choosing a school with pre-med in mind.
  • My high school was pretty competitive and I took tough IB and AP courses, so I have some alright study habits in place, but college seems like a whole different ballpark
• No data science or statistics major, and the department in general doesn't seem that strong
• Not as much prestige as Penn, my parents are immigrants, so they've really never heard of Vanderbilt and think UPenn is leagues ahead.

UPenn (CAS)
Pros

• The course difficulty and grading curves seem a little better here. Not easy, but no horror stories from where I've asked around.
• Bigger prestige factor, which my parents/family care about. UPenn was also my dream school for a lot of high school, so I'll feel somewhat sad letting it go
  • If I jumped ship on pre-med, it would be probably be easier to find success straight out of undergrad here
• Research opportunities seem amazingly accessible, and the medical school and hospital is close by on campus (the same may apply for Vandy though, but this was brought up a lot when I talked to Penn students)
• Pre-med advising seems very strong, and a higher med school admissions rate than Vandy (but this may be due to a lot of different factors)

Cons

• Cost: Penn is a lot more expensive (with aid, it's around 50K per year), and it would be a strain on my family. My parents have told me that they'll make it work wherever I choose, but I'm assuming there will be at least a little debt. And I'll have to pay for med school/grad school mostly on my own
• Overall environment seems pretty competitive and pre-professional. There seems to be less of a culture of forming study groups here too, and more fighting for the grade solo
• Not in Wharton, so double majoring in statistics/data science will be difficult
• Not in any special programs like Huntsman or Vagelos

Honestly, the fear of failing the intro STEM classes is the biggest thing holding me back from Vanderbilt right now. I'm also not really caught up on the debate of undergrad prestige, so I don't really know how that would affect med school admissions. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this!! I really appreciate it.

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[Westcoaststudent95]

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.

 

[Wolvvs]

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.

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?

 

[ajk97]

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?

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.

 

[efle]

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!

 

[stressedstudent2020]

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!

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

 

[efle]

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

I have no internal source for that, I just know that Vandy has a massively inflated admit rate for its own undergrads and as a Cornelius scholar, you should be leading that pack.

 

[deleted1005514]

Vandy...take the full ride, be prepared to grind from the get go and if it turns out easier it'll be a blessing.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

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.

 

[JoaoMoutinho]

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!

 

[longhaul3]

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!