<p>Was accepted at all three and I’m trying to decide. Williams offered me the Tyng Scholarship which is a huge plus. I’m posting the question in all three threads. Looking for Pros and Cons, differences, similarities, etc.</p>
<p>Of course, they are all excellent schools. Everyone has their own biases, but I’ll tell you what my son and I thought. Dartmouth is larger than the other two, which has its pros, but it does not have that small liberal arts college feel, where you can really get to know your professors well and work with them closely. Also, it has a fairly high percentage of students in Greek life, a pro for some but a strong con for my son. My son adored Williams but adored Amherst even more. Both are fantastic liberal arts colleges. It came down to environment. Amherst has nearby mountains, a huge arboretum (or nature area) nearby for hiking, and much of the nature that Williams has. However, he felt that Williams was a bit too isolated. It is really “out there” with very little in Williamstown, just a couple of main streets,and it would be hard to get to a store to buy jeans, etc without driving. Many students don’t bring cars; my son certainly doesn’t plan to, coming from Missouri. On the other hand, Amherst is in a vibrant small college town. The students are all given a free city bus pass (I believe it was called the Pioneer Valley Authority bus). With this they can go to a nearby town where Smith is located; that town is even a bit bigger and has plenty of stores, restaurants, concert venues, etc. They also have quick access to nearby malls, eg in Hadley. My son barely ever shops, but he liked this environment (with many nearby stores, movie theaters, restaurants, concert venues, etc) more than Williamstown. Also, Amherst is in the Five College Consortium, so one can take classes at the 4 other colleges (Smith, Mt Holyoke, U Mass-Amherst, and Hampshire), join their clubs, borrow books from their libraries, etc. Also, he had the feeling that Amherst values diversity a bit more than Williams. He has attended a public school in the Midwest and, while he would love to make friends with new students who have attended boarding schools and private prep schools, he also wants to attend a college with public school students, international students, and students of all socioeconomic backgrounds. I think that Williams and Amherst have such students, but he felt (and the data supports this) that Amherst has more diversity. Science is great at both schools. He was quite impressed with Amherst’s Howard Hughes summer internships, where kids can work directly with science professors, do research (maybe even get published) and earn money.</p>
<p>Congrats! You really cannot go wrong. Hoping you can make accepted students visit to all 3, I think that will give you the best idea about which is a better fit for you.
S chose Amherst also for many of the reasons listed by jennieling. Hi favorite part of his experience so far, as been the close contact with professors. His professors know him well, he has been to dinner at prof houses quit a few times. As he is planning classes for next year, there was a conflict between two classes he needs for both his intended majors. One of the professors replied immediately stating that he would gladly teach him the course individually so he would not fall behind in his requirements…needless to say, he was quite surprised, and reminded once again why Amherst was the right choice for him.
Good luck</p>
<p>Wow! Good job! I got rejected from all three… ha. As a fellow applicant, I’ve done quite a bit of research and asked around and I would not recommend Dartmouth. Honestly, it’s in northern NH, and southern NH (where I study) is already bad enough, but at least I’m an hour away from Boston and not in godforsaken Hanover. So yeah, the location is a definite con. Also, the Greek system is huuuuuge. I recently went to a frat party at Brown and it was GROSS… such a backwards misogynistic vibe to the whole atmosphere, even though the college is so liberal. Imagine that same frat party full of future Wall Street CEOs in their self-entitled brat phase… yeah.</p>
<p>jennieling has pretty much summed it up. As someone who had the decision between Amherst and Dartmouth, you might also find one of my response posts from the Questions thread useful:</p>
<p>Congratulations! Getting into both is a huge accomplishment. I didn’t visit Dartmouth, but making the decision to go to Amherst was easy. You’re right that the schools have a lot of similarities, so picking apart their differences would seem to be helpful. Let’s start with some questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Where do you want to be? Amherst is in a town. Dartmouth is more rural. Both are pretty isolated, but Amherst is somewhat less so. I love city life but otherwise Amherst is a good compromise. I think it has the best of both worlds in that you have easy access to the Berkshires and the stunning nature trails on campus, but you still have four other colleges and an entire town to remind the students that other people (not students at your college) exist out there in the world. Finally, for what it’s worth, Amherst is a 45 minute car ride from the airport and Dartmouth is 3 hours.</p></li>
<li><p>Are you interested in business? Amherst has great placement into consulting, but Dartmouth also has Tuck. If you’re interested in business, there might be opportunities for undergrads at Tuck. Graduates of both colleges are incredibly well-prepared for business school, but if I knew I wanted to go into business, Tuck would be a plus.</p></li>
<li><p>How small? Amherst has 1,600 and Dartmouth has 6,000, including 2,000 graduate students. The small student body contributes to a strong sense of community at Amherst, though 6,000 doesn’t make a big school and gives you more new people to meet.</p></li>
<li><p>Frats? I was wary of Dartmouth’s reputation for having a misogynistic culture and I didn’t like the thought of hazing occurring on a yearly basis. Three underground fraternities exist at Amherst, but they’re not in most people’s consciousness. And while some people think of Amherst as misogynistic, my perception is that it’s only really apparent from time to time. I don’t know that there is a significant difference between the two schools, but I had heard many more stories about Dartmouth.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you like the D plan? Personally, I wanted to have the choice of taking a break and doing an internship during the winter. Yes, Dartmouth students can get spring/fall internships, but if you have the option of skipping out on a New Hampshire winter and doing internships abroad or on the West Coast… why not? It wasn’t as much of a deal-breaker as the location, but it was something I considered.</p></li>
<li><p>Open curriculum. Does it call to you? I love the freedom to explore at Amherst. It’s not just about scheduling classes, though. I really feel like I can chart my own course. I love that my friends are driven and smart, but aren’t obsessed with the next step in life. I love that the focus is always on stretching your ability to think. It sounds simple, but the College’s intense focus on this objective has changed how I approach everything. Amherst has had a way of making me intensely curious about things I have no knowledge of. You learn to look at issues from multiple perspectives, and yes, it makes you a far more valuable employee, but it also makes life more interesting when you have a habit of examining your assumptions and you’re able to follow your ideas down their paths. The lack of a pre-professional focus means this mindset is far easier to develop.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Dartmouth is an Ivy League, but the average person isn’t aware of either Amherst or Dartmouth. The type of person who applied to all 8 Ivy Leagues for the Ivy League name might know Dartmouth, but not Amherst. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter. To people who know both schools, and to hiring managers and grad school admission boards, they are equivalent in prestige. My recommendation is to ignore the pull of the Ivy League allure, because it doesn’t matter in terms of future prospects and it doesn’t matter in terms of the quality of education. </p>
<p>If you haven’t visited both schools already, you should do that. Ask about the majors you’re interested in at each school. Visiting was great for helping me a feel for campus life. I was thrilled to meet the people I met (professors, current students, prefrosh) at Amherst. There was impossibly strong sense of community. I liked the town but I learned that I couldn’t imagine living for four years in a place even more rural. If you’re lucky, you might just know a few hours after stepping foot on campus, as I did. Good luck!</p>
<p>Just returned from Dartmouth and Amherst … consecutive weekday mornings. Liked both schools academically, with maybe a nod to Amherst as a bit more serious and the open curriculum as a great concept. Dartmouth still requires the foreign language thing which is out of date … everyone speaks English in the world these days and language is no longer a barrier of understanding a foreign culture like it once was. But being right in the middle of Hanover, Dartmouth has a much closer connection to the local community. Much more like a Cornell & Ithaca or a Michigan & Ann Arbor. It is very hard to distinguish were school and town diverged. Now Hanover is much smaller than Ithaca or Ann Arbor, but the heartbeat of Dartmouth/Hanover was like one thing. Amherst seemed much more like a small finishing school outside of the town center. UMass was much more the center of town and dominated that aspect of the vibe of the community. Dartmouth’s buildings had the old-world appeal where it was like you could find your grandfather’s initials carved in the bannister of the student center. Amherst physically was more polished and new. Also, Dartmouth’s student pride around athletics is definitely up a level from Amherst … students said they actually loved fall football games and related gatherings with alumni, town and student body. We were told that mostly just alumni attend athletic events at Amherst. So Dartmouth gave off much more of the traditional collegiate “school spirit”. I thought the weekends of tradition … like the opening freshman bondfire and Winter Carnival … were unique gatherings of student, professor and town. Both are great schools, but not very much alike in my opinion. Based on recent visits, I would compare Dartmouth more to Cornell or maybe to Middlebury in the NESCAC than to Amherst (did not visit Williams).</p>
<p>Helpodad, your observations are interesting to me since we did not visit Dartmouth. We had heard that Greek life is very big there with a lot of drunkenness and hard partying (of course, that is present at every college, but we heard and read in multiple sources that it is big at Dartmouth and my son does not care for that. That does not conflict with your observation about much of the college adoring football and the big sports; often the Greek life and partying go hand in hand with ahtletics. That was one thing we loved about Amherst: there are student-athletes who care deeply about excelling at their sports, but there is no Greek life (or questionable a very minimal amount of “underground” Greek life, but still quite minimal). However, I would take issue with just a few things you said: 1)" Amherst seems like a small finishing school outside of the town’s center"----were you there? We visited, and Amherst is RIGHT in the heart of the town, on one of the main roads. Students can easily walk to the many downtown restaurants, stores, etc; 2) Amherst lacks “old-world appeal” and seems all polished and new—were you there? Yes, there are some newer buildings, but there are many old, traditional and beautiful red-brick building, gorgeous grounds and quads, old statues. It was this very “old-world appeal” that attracted my son (one of many things!) 3) Amherst lacks school spirit and tradition—that is NOT my impression. We “liked” the Amherst Facebook page last fall, and throughout this school year we have seen photos and videos of many spirited school activities, including a winter carnival, traying down snowy hills, a cappella singing (Amherst has 6 or 7 a cappella groups and has been called “The Singing College” for many, many years). I do, however, agree with your thoughts on the academics and Amherst’s open curriculum.</p>
<p>Yes, visited both campuses. Amherst is a wonderful place and I did not mean to sound critical. However, if you go to Hanover you will see the difference. Hard to explain. The center of Hanover is Dartmouth. Not a mile walk like into Amherst. There are not as many pristine walk-ways and immaculate gardens … Dartmouth is more rugged. Amherst has a strong sense of pride and spirit, it just seemed more refined/reserved in its culture. Your son sounds like he made the perfect choice. That is what you hope happens for each person! I just observed that the cultures of the two schools appeared to be very different. Do others disagree and why? Curious, sometimes first impressions are wrong.</p>
<p>We visited both and S happily chose Amherst.
The strong Greek life was something my S strongly disliked. My thoughts are that likely the schools are more similar than dissimilar,and a lot has to do with a subjective sense of fit for any individual student. S preferred the more intimate feel at Amherst which has proven to be very true this year, especially when it comes to strong close relationships with professors.
The college is not a mile from Amherst. The college is 2 small blocks from town center, less than 5 min walk ( my impression is that it really feels like it’s part of the town). Lord Jeff Inn, part of the college, is within the city center. S really likes the easy accesibility to nice a variety of casual restaurants in town, CVS, bookstore, Starbucks etc. Staples , Target, etc are also easily accesible via the free 5 college consortium shuttle. Of course all of these are easily found in Hanover and certainly within walking distance from Dartmouth. In that respect S was concerned about the greater sense of isolation he noticed at Williams compared to Amherst.</p>
<p>Good luck everybody</p>