I am currently in Nashville recovering after a dinner and night out visiting with the Vanderbilt MSF staff and current students. What a great program. I’ll try and lay out my opinions in order, but go easy on me if things are all over the place.
1) Location
Vanderbilt is maybe a 3 hour plane ride away from NYC. Probably 2.5 hours. Easy as can be. The city is really growing and the university is maybe 20 minutes from downtown. Nashville is interesting in the fact that all the bars are jammed into one street. Creates a density that you’d find in a much bigger city. Think NYC on one street, DC everywhere else. Very cool atmosphere to live in for a year or more.
2) Program
Great, great, great. Admissions staff is on point. Super smart, international and personable. We all went to dinner and it was warm and welcoming. It was great meeting people I’ve talked to for years and the experience was perfect. I also ate dinner with three current students. All of which were incredibly smart, personable and going on to careers each and every perspective MSF student wants. For the foodies out there, Nashville has a solid food scene and you will be pleasantly surprised that a smaller city can pack the punch it does.
3) Students
Awesome people. You get very bright students at Vandy and they have a personality. I was remarking with a guy I know that I don’t think I’d have as much fun at a MIT event. If you want pure brand name, go MIT. If you want a great program with great recruiting and a fun year, go Vanderbilt.
Guys (and gals), Vanderbilt is pretty awesome. I have some people to meet with today and will post again when I get back, but everything is really solid here. This isn’t revolutionary as the program has been top of peoples list for a while now, but you absolutely need to visit this place before you make your MSF decision. Once you get here you might not be able to leave.
Here is a link to the Vanderbilt University Masters in Finance Program
