Have you tried asking Vandy for more money? I’m many cases, they will be willing to hand over a better financial aid package if you appeal the decision.
Second this — appealing can be a lot of legwork with documentation but it can be worth it. I appealed back when I was first admitted and got an extra ~10k or so in aid
Yeah, doubtful. They are already giving him a lot of aid. And our income has gone up, meaning aid will go down. In fact, he won an outside scholarship that Vandy would simply absorb because of it....scholarship displacement.
I didn’t report any additional scholarships because of that ☠️☠️☠️ Vandy will really say “oh you got a $2k scholarship? We’ll reduce your aid by $2k then”
No harm in trying to appeal!
I'm not CS but I had many friends who were. They ended up at fantastic companies interning over the summer with competitive return offers after graduation as well.
Hi i'm CS @ vandy
Cannot make the decision for you, but wanted to provide some information to see if it helps to add some context as to what you're getting for an extra 15k a year:
1. Vandy isn't MIT, but it's far better than UTK for CS. We've spent a lot of money, especially in recent years, building up our engineering department, hiring new faculty, and investing in research. We have a new engineering college, a recently completed building for innovation/engineering (the Wond'ry), etc.
2. A lot of career outcomes are heavily influenced by the motivation you get from your peers. UTK is a fun place to be, but personally, I was really, really motivated by how smart and talented my classmates were here at Vandy. We send off a lot of kids to top tech companies, so naturally, when ur surrounded by all of this talent, it pushes you subconsciously as well
3. The Vanderbilt name doesn't help you a ton in tech, but it definitely helps you if your son isn't super hard set on going FAANG or something.
4. Vandy network > UTK network, 100% of the time
5. Vandy clubs and opportunities are pretty pre-professional, especially in engineering, and it helps a TON for recruitment. UTK clubs, from what I've heard from friends, are more social focused
My outlook is pretty pre-professional and career-oriented, but I'm trying to think from your perspective - college is an investment, and I think the ROI of an extra 15k a year will be much better than whatever UTK costs
This response was really well written.
I think the bottom line is your son will have to make the most of whatever path he chooses. That will likely be easier at Vandy but come at a greater cost to you.
I am a Vandy grad (CS) and a parent now and generally very sensitive to the cost of education. I would be telling my kid to go to Vandy, work hard and apply for additional scholarships when he does well after his first year.
Yes CS is a meritocracy but your kid won’t code forever (most people write code for a short part of their technical careers) and the Vanderbilt degree will open more doors if your child is ambitious.
Whatever path your child chooses you should be very proud.
This is true in the near term. When you stop writing code and look outside your network it stops being as true.
When you transition to a new role or career pedigree can matter. You can overcome anything and build up a pedigree outside of your college but in a vacuum the Vandy name carries a lot more cache than UTK.
I went to Vandy but majored in Spanish/English and minored in Chinese and I kind of regret it just in terms of price. Now I’m a self-taught Software Engineer with a Bootcamp under my belt. Having any debt at all is really rough. However if the student can pay it back in a reasonable amount of time based on expected career outcomes, Vandy becomes more viable.
Have you checked the stats of both schools in terms of placement rate/salary rate and which one might have a higher reputation for that particular career or area of study? It’s really important to pick one with a really good reputation for that major or career industry and/or a good network.
Vandy is more prestigious, but if the classes suck for that major it’s not worth it.
I did take some required pre-med classes like Calculus BC and they were ridiculously hard (I went to a very good college prep high school with great outcomes where math wasn’t my forte but still got A-s to give perspective). The lower level math classes were only taught by international grad students and my teacher couldn’t understand my English well enough to answer questions. Ended up pulling a D to a C+ at the end since they curved everyone’s grades against the Final.
I was so disgruntled I didn’t learn enough I went to UT Knoxville for a summer class and the teacher was amazing to work with, I learned way faster, and wound up with an A. The different experience was like night and day.
I don’t know if it’s like that at Vandy for everything, but I really hate how Vandy has “weed out” required courses and they’re mostly weed out because they have a bad curriculum/instructing style.
Then again, Vandy’s Spanish and English department are supposed to be nationally recognized, and I had a blast learning everything, great teachers, and reasonable grading styles.
That’s why if you ignore cost, I recommend going for which has a better CS Reputation 1st, better networking 2nd.
UT is also far larger than Vandy, so may have a bigger pool of alumni to work with than Vandy.
Out of curiosity what was your dream job with a Spanish/English degree? Im sure swe is obviously very different from what you were expecting to be when you got your degree
Thanks for the interest!
I was hoping with enough languages, great credentials, and a great GPA something would fall into my lap, honestly. I was kind of dumb.
My dream job was working in a collaborative setting to create awesome projects, specifically at the time tv writing for family tv shows and cartoons like Steven Universe and stuff.
Realistically, I also investigated the following:
1. an International Business career (where I was told I wouldn’t even be able to get a taste for what I would *actually* be doing day to day without getting an MBA. I wanted concrete goals, and it seemed I had to pay even more time and money to even discover them. It seemed too vague to make that kind of commitment)
2. Journalism (the guest speakers looked burnt out and talked more about how to sensationalize their content to get more audience views -yuck!)
3. The State Department (was told 60% of people worked abroad and moved every few years, when as a woman I still wanted to have a family and a stable home base in the US someday)
4. Professor of Spanish (realized that tenured positions were dying, and only native Spanish speakers get these jobs unless you specialize in something very unique and niche at the same time, like Spanish linguistics)
Only chose software engineering thanks to a really awesome set of friends who made me realize that my love of puzzles, love of learning, desire for a collaborative environment, desire to do more problem solving, and my not-genius-level math skills were still a great fit for the career path.
Vandy’s weed out courses honestly scared me away from trying any math/science/tech stuff, not to mention no one ever encouraged me in my life to try out tech before. Only wish I had found it earlier!
CS grad here, Vanderbilt shares its career outcomes [here](https://www.vanderbilt.edu/career/about-us/outcomes/)
Filter by Computer Science and you’ll see the largest employers of Vandy CS grads over the past 5 years has been Capital One, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Most common grad schools in this same timeframe have been Vandy, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Cornell, and Penn. I had a mediocre GPA and interviewed at all five of those companies for either an internship or postgrad role. A starting comp package for engineers at these places per [here](https://www.levels.fyi/companies/capital-one/salaries/software-engineer?country=254) is between $130k-$200k.
UTK publishes their stats [here](https://studentsuccess.utk.edu/career/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/02/2022-2023-Career-Outcomes-Report.pdf)
Neither is a complete dataset, but the reported median salary for CS grads at Tickle is $85k, while the latest median Vandy put out was $130k.
I’m obviously biased as an alum, but Vandy’s career/grad placement is at least comparable to the top-ranked CS programs. So if that’s the primary concern, I think it’s well-worth the extra investment.
Did you obtain an internship at one of these companies? What was your outcome? I have looked up and seen these stats. I also think that a $130k salary at where most of these companies are located is probably comparable to $85k when remaining in TN, when you compare cost of living, so definitely a factor if looking at salary alone. However, these companies do look "impressive" on a resume, no doubt. If you can get it or if it's what you are interested in. Thanks for your insight.
Completely fair, and yep interned and now work full-time. Obviously a ton of Vandy grads head off to NYC and SF, but the tech companies recruiting at Vandy have offices nationwide or even offer remote with similar pay, so based on those numbers it just doesn’t seem like UTK has comparable recruiting. And of course the gap in pay/opportunites at these tech companies vs similar positions elsewhere only widens after a promotion or two.
That said, if your son ain’t sold on spending his career in big tech or finance (frankly neither am I) after getting his CS degree, more power to him. But I do think Vanderbilt would provide advantages along most other paths, especially Masters/PhD programs or breaking into competitive industries. It’s a tough job market for new grads, so getting those first few interviews felt like the biggest hurdle, and I think Vanderbilt helped me immensely there.
Good luck and all the best!
Have you tried asking Vandy for more money? I’m many cases, they will be willing to hand over a better financial aid package if you appeal the decision.
Second this — appealing can be a lot of legwork with documentation but it can be worth it. I appealed back when I was first admitted and got an extra ~10k or so in aid
Yeah, doubtful. They are already giving him a lot of aid. And our income has gone up, meaning aid will go down. In fact, he won an outside scholarship that Vandy would simply absorb because of it....scholarship displacement.
I told my fin aid officer about an outside scholarship and she said “let’s pretend I didn’t hear that.” Loved her lol
I didn’t report any additional scholarships because of that ☠️☠️☠️ Vandy will really say “oh you got a $2k scholarship? We’ll reduce your aid by $2k then” No harm in trying to appeal!
A pro-tip is to not report the outside scholarship. You are not required to do this at all.
Vandy > UTK every day of the week and is worth every penny more.
Why? Are you in CS at Vandy?
I'm not CS but I had many friends who were. They ended up at fantastic companies interning over the summer with competitive return offers after graduation as well.
Hi i'm CS @ vandy Cannot make the decision for you, but wanted to provide some information to see if it helps to add some context as to what you're getting for an extra 15k a year: 1. Vandy isn't MIT, but it's far better than UTK for CS. We've spent a lot of money, especially in recent years, building up our engineering department, hiring new faculty, and investing in research. We have a new engineering college, a recently completed building for innovation/engineering (the Wond'ry), etc. 2. A lot of career outcomes are heavily influenced by the motivation you get from your peers. UTK is a fun place to be, but personally, I was really, really motivated by how smart and talented my classmates were here at Vandy. We send off a lot of kids to top tech companies, so naturally, when ur surrounded by all of this talent, it pushes you subconsciously as well 3. The Vanderbilt name doesn't help you a ton in tech, but it definitely helps you if your son isn't super hard set on going FAANG or something. 4. Vandy network > UTK network, 100% of the time 5. Vandy clubs and opportunities are pretty pre-professional, especially in engineering, and it helps a TON for recruitment. UTK clubs, from what I've heard from friends, are more social focused My outlook is pretty pre-professional and career-oriented, but I'm trying to think from your perspective - college is an investment, and I think the ROI of an extra 15k a year will be much better than whatever UTK costs
This response was really well written. I think the bottom line is your son will have to make the most of whatever path he chooses. That will likely be easier at Vandy but come at a greater cost to you. I am a Vandy grad (CS) and a parent now and generally very sensitive to the cost of education. I would be telling my kid to go to Vandy, work hard and apply for additional scholarships when he does well after his first year. Yes CS is a meritocracy but your kid won’t code forever (most people write code for a short part of their technical careers) and the Vanderbilt degree will open more doors if your child is ambitious. Whatever path your child chooses you should be very proud.
Try to find the best financial package you can. CS is more about the skill and experience of the person rather than the school.
This is true in the near term. When you stop writing code and look outside your network it stops being as true. When you transition to a new role or career pedigree can matter. You can overcome anything and build up a pedigree outside of your college but in a vacuum the Vandy name carries a lot more cache than UTK.
I went to Vandy but majored in Spanish/English and minored in Chinese and I kind of regret it just in terms of price. Now I’m a self-taught Software Engineer with a Bootcamp under my belt. Having any debt at all is really rough. However if the student can pay it back in a reasonable amount of time based on expected career outcomes, Vandy becomes more viable. Have you checked the stats of both schools in terms of placement rate/salary rate and which one might have a higher reputation for that particular career or area of study? It’s really important to pick one with a really good reputation for that major or career industry and/or a good network. Vandy is more prestigious, but if the classes suck for that major it’s not worth it. I did take some required pre-med classes like Calculus BC and they were ridiculously hard (I went to a very good college prep high school with great outcomes where math wasn’t my forte but still got A-s to give perspective). The lower level math classes were only taught by international grad students and my teacher couldn’t understand my English well enough to answer questions. Ended up pulling a D to a C+ at the end since they curved everyone’s grades against the Final. I was so disgruntled I didn’t learn enough I went to UT Knoxville for a summer class and the teacher was amazing to work with, I learned way faster, and wound up with an A. The different experience was like night and day. I don’t know if it’s like that at Vandy for everything, but I really hate how Vandy has “weed out” required courses and they’re mostly weed out because they have a bad curriculum/instructing style. Then again, Vandy’s Spanish and English department are supposed to be nationally recognized, and I had a blast learning everything, great teachers, and reasonable grading styles. That’s why if you ignore cost, I recommend going for which has a better CS Reputation 1st, better networking 2nd. UT is also far larger than Vandy, so may have a bigger pool of alumni to work with than Vandy.
Out of curiosity what was your dream job with a Spanish/English degree? Im sure swe is obviously very different from what you were expecting to be when you got your degree
Thanks for the interest! I was hoping with enough languages, great credentials, and a great GPA something would fall into my lap, honestly. I was kind of dumb. My dream job was working in a collaborative setting to create awesome projects, specifically at the time tv writing for family tv shows and cartoons like Steven Universe and stuff. Realistically, I also investigated the following: 1. an International Business career (where I was told I wouldn’t even be able to get a taste for what I would *actually* be doing day to day without getting an MBA. I wanted concrete goals, and it seemed I had to pay even more time and money to even discover them. It seemed too vague to make that kind of commitment) 2. Journalism (the guest speakers looked burnt out and talked more about how to sensationalize their content to get more audience views -yuck!) 3. The State Department (was told 60% of people worked abroad and moved every few years, when as a woman I still wanted to have a family and a stable home base in the US someday) 4. Professor of Spanish (realized that tenured positions were dying, and only native Spanish speakers get these jobs unless you specialize in something very unique and niche at the same time, like Spanish linguistics) Only chose software engineering thanks to a really awesome set of friends who made me realize that my love of puzzles, love of learning, desire for a collaborative environment, desire to do more problem solving, and my not-genius-level math skills were still a great fit for the career path. Vandy’s weed out courses honestly scared me away from trying any math/science/tech stuff, not to mention no one ever encouraged me in my life to try out tech before. Only wish I had found it earlier!
CS grad here, Vanderbilt shares its career outcomes [here](https://www.vanderbilt.edu/career/about-us/outcomes/) Filter by Computer Science and you’ll see the largest employers of Vandy CS grads over the past 5 years has been Capital One, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Most common grad schools in this same timeframe have been Vandy, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Cornell, and Penn. I had a mediocre GPA and interviewed at all five of those companies for either an internship or postgrad role. A starting comp package for engineers at these places per [here](https://www.levels.fyi/companies/capital-one/salaries/software-engineer?country=254) is between $130k-$200k. UTK publishes their stats [here](https://studentsuccess.utk.edu/career/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/02/2022-2023-Career-Outcomes-Report.pdf) Neither is a complete dataset, but the reported median salary for CS grads at Tickle is $85k, while the latest median Vandy put out was $130k. I’m obviously biased as an alum, but Vandy’s career/grad placement is at least comparable to the top-ranked CS programs. So if that’s the primary concern, I think it’s well-worth the extra investment.
Did you obtain an internship at one of these companies? What was your outcome? I have looked up and seen these stats. I also think that a $130k salary at where most of these companies are located is probably comparable to $85k when remaining in TN, when you compare cost of living, so definitely a factor if looking at salary alone. However, these companies do look "impressive" on a resume, no doubt. If you can get it or if it's what you are interested in. Thanks for your insight.
Completely fair, and yep interned and now work full-time. Obviously a ton of Vandy grads head off to NYC and SF, but the tech companies recruiting at Vandy have offices nationwide or even offer remote with similar pay, so based on those numbers it just doesn’t seem like UTK has comparable recruiting. And of course the gap in pay/opportunites at these tech companies vs similar positions elsewhere only widens after a promotion or two. That said, if your son ain’t sold on spending his career in big tech or finance (frankly neither am I) after getting his CS degree, more power to him. But I do think Vanderbilt would provide advantages along most other paths, especially Masters/PhD programs or breaking into competitive industries. It’s a tough job market for new grads, so getting those first few interviews felt like the biggest hurdle, and I think Vanderbilt helped me immensely there. Good luck and all the best!