<p>I visited Cornell and Amherst…i will visit Dartmouth soon</p>
<p>Lets not diss on any of these schools, they all deserve more respect than they get on CC</p>
<p>At Dartmouth and Cornell you major in “Government”. Amherst has a Political Science major. They are all similar in curriculum, covering American Politics, Comparative (international) Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory. Amherst offers special areas “Gender and Politics” and “Public Policy”.</p>
<p>I am not sure what you want to do after you graduate. Dartmouth and Amherst lack graduate programs in Political Science so you would not be exposed to graduate students (which is an advantage if you want to pursue graduate work yourself) and the faculty would probably be less engaged in scholarly activity. There would probably be less opportunity at Dartmouth and Amherst to get involved in scholarly activity.</p>
<p>The Poly Sci department at Amherst is quite small. The departments at Dartmouth and Cornell have about the same number of students and are much larger than Amherst.</p>
<p>I would choose between Dartmouth and Cornell and drop Amherst for this particular major.</p>
<p>Dartmouth and Cornell Arts and Sciences students are about the same in quality based on SAT scores.</p>
<p>Cornell is, of course, much larger than Dartmouth overall. I am not sure how important size is to you. Some feel claustrophobic at small schools, others say they like the intimacy. But, again, the number of Government majors is about the same at Cornell and Dartmouth. Despite having the same number of students, the Cornell Government Department has 38% more permanent faculty than Dartmouth (36 versus 26). Cornell has a PhD program and active faculty scholarship.</p>
<p>Cornell seems to do a much better job than Dartmouth at preparing undergraduates for graduate work. About 650 Cornell undergraduates have gone on to earn PhDs in Social Sciences compared with 235 from Dartmouth (1995-2006 time period). The graduate program in Political Science at Cornell is ranked 18th in the country by US News.</p>
<p>Cornell offers a unique program in international labor if you have an interest in the global marketplace.</p>
<p>I would try to appeal the aid offer at Cornell, but Cornell is probably still worth the extra money.</p>
<p>For whatever it’s worth, if money weren’t an issue, I’d be leaning towards Cornell in this situation. It’s such a dynamic campus with so much going on. That’s more my style.</p>
<p>dilksy, I take it you went to UMichigan, Ann Arbor?</p>
<p>[UM</a> Mathematics-Undergrad Courses](<a href=“http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/courses/undergrad.shtml]UM”>http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/courses/undergrad.shtml)</p>
<p>I see no significant discrepancy between what UMich offers to undergraduates and what Amherst offers to its students.</p>
<p>If you are referring to the number of advanced and specialized math courses, and graduate courses, well, I would imagine those would be a compelling reason that one might consider graduate school in Mathematics.</p>
<p>If you’re the kind of person who would be capable of, and who would enjoy, taking something like Math 55 at Harvard University, it would be better to hone your very specific and special talent at a research university like that.</p>
<p>Exceedingly niche studies like that which I believe you are referring to defeats the purpose of a broad and deep liberal arts education at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>You’re exaggerating, and your implication that “professors at Amherst wouldn’t be knowledgeable about” certain topics in Mathematics is asinine, as is your implication that Amherst is a “bad” school.</p>
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<p>Not entirely true. Faculty simply don’t have the terrifying spectre of “publish or perish” hanging over their heads.</p>
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<p>On the contrary, it is far easier to collaborate directly with accomplished scholars, the professors themselves, to partake in “scholarly activity.”</p>
<p>When you use the word “probably,” are you attempting to be polite with your criticisms, or are you expressing uncertainty about them?</p>
<p>For the past two decades, Political Science has been among the most popular majors at Amherst. The faculty is well-published and strong, and the course offerings are diverse and manifold.</p>
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<p>No, there’s a significant discrepancy between the SAT scores of the two enrolled student bodies…</p>
<p>“I see no significant discrepancy between what UMich offers to undergraduates and what Amherst offers to its students.”</p>
<p>I’d get your eyes checked. No significant discrepancy between offering ~5 upper level courses a semester and offering 20+ upper level classes per semester in addition to graduate courses?</p>
<p>“If you are referring to the number of advanced and specialized math courses, and graduate courses, well, I would imagine those would be a compelling reason that one might consider graduate school in Mathematics.”</p>
<p>I wouldn’t expect somebody to know if they’re interested in graduate school for math or really even be prepared for graduate school if they’ve only seen the bare essentials in undergrad.</p>
<p>“Exceedingly niche studies like that which I believe you are referring to defeats the purpose of a broad and deep liberal arts education at the undergraduate level.”</p>
<p>I didn’t know math and science constituted an exceedingly niche area.</p>
<p>“You’re exaggerating, and your implication that “professors at Amherst wouldn’t be knowledgeable about” certain topics in Mathematics is asinine, as is your implication that Amherst is a “bad” school.”</p>
<p>I don’t think I said Amherst was a bad school, just not a good one for certain things. Things I did at Michigan that I probably couldn’t have taken classes for at Amherst: theoretical linear algebra, multilinear algebra, analytic number theory (x2), algebraic number theory, lie groups, lie algebras, differential geometry, general/differential topology, complex analysis, algebraic topology, Schubert calculus, combinatorial representation theory, Coxeter groups, coding theory, complex systems, representation theory, commutative algebra (x2), algebraic combinatorics (x2), combinatorial game theory. I don’t think the handful of faculty at Amherst would be experts in all of those fields.</p>
<p>SAT 25th and 75th percentile</p>
<p>1320-1510 Cornell Arts and Sciences
1320-1530 Dartmouth</p>
<p>I used the term "probably’ because i wasn’t 100% certain, although I am pretty confident, that there is more scholarly activity at Cornell. I didn’t compare publications and presentations directly. Faculty have more incentive for scholarly activity at research universities.</p>
<p>amherst is a hip little town with lots of college students and the five campuses provide tons of options academically and socially. dartmouth is very isolated and much colder. do you like winter sports? if i didn’t enjoy skiiing and skating, i might feel isolated at a small school like dartmouth. but the point about kids pulling together to make their own fun is a good one.</p>
<p>"SAT 25th and 75th percentile</p>
<p>1320-1510 Cornell Arts and Sciences
1320-1530 Dartmouth"</p>
<p>Collegehelp, Dartmouth also has “engineering”. To cover stats for all comparable majors, Cornell engineering college stats were 1360-1520. CAS students : Engineers= 58:42.</p>
<p>Dartmouth’s engineering program is pretty small, but if you factor engineering into Cornell’s SATs then the comparison looks like this:</p>
<p>1337-1515 Cornell Arts and Sciences and Engineering
1320-1530 Dartmouth</p>
<p>“Not entirely true. Faculty simply don’t have the terrifying spectre of “publish or perish” hanging over their heads.”</p>
<p>This is just not true, though similar statements are often made in these forums. My partner is a junior (not yet tenured) professor at one of the schools being discussed; the faculty at liberal arts colleges are most definitely under enormous pressure to publish. A book (and sometimes two) is a firm prerequisite for tenure, as well as scholarly articles, conferences, etc. etc, depending upon one’s field of study. There is, however, a difference in how much value is placed upon teaching: at the liberal arts colleges, including Dartmouth, one’s teaching is a crucial part of your tenure evaluation. But, believe me, without the publications one will never, never advance. And the “terrifying spectre” is, indeed, hanging over their heads.</p>
<p>dilksy,</p>
<p>The academic reputation of Amherst is not a joke! If you were lucy to have a chance to study at Amherst, you would change your opion about Amherst!</p>
<p>“I’d get your eyes checked. No significant discrepancy between offering ~5 upper level courses a semester and offering 20+ upper level classes per semester in addition to graduate courses?”</p>
<p>This is what some people just don’t seem to get. My D1 didn’t get it. Until she got interested in a particular sub-area of her field, in her upper-class years, and then found out that her LAC offered zero courses in it.</p>
<p>You can reasonably decide to choose one environment over another, but in doing so do not be deluded into believing there are no tradeoffs involved.</p>
<p>The consortium arrangement may ease this issue to an extent at Amherst, but transportation time involved will likely limit how much you want to do this.</p>