I'm attending UVa next year and was waitlisted at Vanderbilt. I had a fantastic time when I visited Vandy for my interview and considered it my top choice for a bit, but after finishing interviews and reflecting on what I want from medical school, it dropped on my list.
Some cool things I liked about Vanderbilt: the hospital system was connected on one campus, the fancy anatomy lab (even though we didn't see it), a chill and happy student body (two friends are first years, so I got to chill with a lot of people downtown the night before), very friendly and supportive administration (the Wellness retreat is a cool idea), enthusiastic lecturers and facilities (sat in on a couple classes), some neat programs in the curriculum, Nashville was actually pretty decent, great Step 1 scores, the global health program seemed pretty good. Vandy's price is pretty good for a private school, too. The only immediate hesitations I had was about Nashville's location (I'm a big beach person, being that far from the coast and in CST is meh) and the fact that they limited the number of first years who could get funding for an international project this summer (I think to ~20 people).
However, I found a number of these positive qualities at other schools. The biggest draw I had to Vandy was how happy and chill the student body was, but I found they were equally chill at Emory when I interviewed. I didn't meet students at UVa (didn't stay with a host), but Second Look showed me the same thing with them. UVa's administration and faculty seem just as supportive. The biggest thing for me is UVa's switch next year to the 1.5 curriculum. If it wasn't for us being the first ones to go through the changes, I think the curriculum would be my favorite in the country. Condensed pre-clinical, Step 1 before rotations start, you choose when you want your research time during the fourth year, and best of all, as much elective time as you want. Vandy's 3rd year is actually relatively rigid. For someone who has no idea what they want to do (me), a great deal of elective time appeals to me. I could also do a global health project that'd last much longer than Vandy's 1st summer. The new building and teaching style is pretty sweet, too. The away rotations are a drag, but you get better training there and they set you up with housing / food, so that's nice.
I think it comes down to the flexibility of UVa's curriculum / more Eastern location versus the conveniently connected Vandy hospitals / higher Step 1s / more tested curriculum. What factors do you like more? For me, it was UVa's.
(For transparency, Emory and UVa were my favorite schools after interviewing / reflection. Location and the condensed curricula were the main reasons - I have mixed feelings about Duke's 1 year strategy.)
Good luck.
