Opening the Right Dore
As we approach April 1 and all those acceptance letters come flooding in, my pitch on why I (and you) should pick Vanderbilt.
As May 1st approaches, many of you will have to make the difficult decision of where you want to call home for the next four years. Its going to be one of the most difficult decisions you make as a teenager. I’m sure, “you’ll do great wherever you go” but the question is, where will you be best off? I can’t tell you where you should go (Well, I can: Vanderbilt) but I can tell you about my thoughts.
So, why did I choose Vanderbilt? What brought me to these green pastures? How did I know which school was right for me? I wish it came down to a coin-flip, that would have been much easier but alas, I came down to three schools making any kind of coin-tossing folly. I guess I could have rolled a die. Hm… (Unfortunately, I am not allowed to tell you the schools I picked from.) I liked these schools because of size, academics and, most importantly, athletics. I’m big into school spirit and sports, so I definitely needed good athletics. My final three were these schools because they were all relatively on the same level in all three categories.
A lot of factors came down into deciding Vanderbilt. Since size, academics and athletics were all about the same among the three, the different factors that it came down to were: financial support, research/internship opportunities and location.
Financially, Vanderbilt does a great job in offering students great financial aid. This factor was a major decider in choosing Vanderbilt. The Undergraduate Admissions prides themselves in offering 100% of your demonstrated need which means that no matter what, you’ll receive the money you need to attend Vanderbilt. Also, in that financial package that Vanderbilt gives you, none of that will be in loans. So, when the school says they will give you a certain amount, they do not expect it to be paid back. Although my other schools were also good in offering financial aid, they just did not come close to how well Vanderbilt’s Financial Aid policy worked.
Another factor was that I entered Vanderbilt as a pre-med student and the Vanderbilt Hospital coupled with the Vanderbilt Medical School are one of the bests in their respective categories. Between these two, the amounts of research and internship opportunities are boundless. As long as you can find these opportunities, you can take part which all sums up to a great education. Even as a Freshmen, I am already involved in a research opportunity in the Vanderbilt Organ Transplant Center. (I’ll talk about it another time). The other schools just did not match up in this category.
The last factor (less important) was location: Nashville, TN. Or more specifically, Taylor Swift lives next door to me. (Well, kind of across the street and down a few blocks,) We’re pretty much neighbors. But seriously, Nashville is a great city to live in. Its always vibrant and there’s always something going on somewhere. The locals are friendly and they will greet you with Southern Hospitality. When I visited the other schools, it just did not float my boat.
So after many weeks of pondering the situation, I picked Vanderbilt and so far, it has turned out to be a great choice.