<p>Soon I will have to choose one. They both emphasize undergrad education with very differnt characteristics. Do you have any insights/advice? (Liberal arts/Science, maybe scientific research or medical later.)
I posted the same request on Dartmouth site.</p>
<p>Have you visited both? Or plan to?</p>
<p>No. I cannot plan any visit until summer.</p>
<p>I would pick Brown over Dartmouth any day</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>I'm going Brown vs. Green vs. Columbia.</p>
<p>Joey</p>
<p>having a similar dilemna. I really am not looking forward to Dartmouth's middle of nowhere reputation... but it IS a better feeder school and has a better reputation for science than Brown. </p>
<p>Any opinions though?</p>
<p>"has a better reputation for science than Brown"</p>
<p>I don't think so. For what little it matters, Brown has better rankings of graduate programs in almost every field of science both on the careful "research doctorate programs" study, and the more casual US News reports.</p>
<p>If the "feeder school" reference was to the much-maligned Wall Street Journal study, remember 1. the numerous flaws in the study, 2. the small difference between Dartmouth and Brown, and 3. the WSJ study was based on law, medical and business school enrollments, not science.</p>
<p>Dartmouth and Brown are very different on meaningful dimensions- country vs city, distribution requirements vs none, sports happy vs apathetic, middle of the road vs very liberal, required on campus at least one summer vs traditional semester schedule...</p>
<p>Consider real differences that will really matter to you. Don't base your decision on the highly unreliable rankings, particulary when these two top schools are so close.</p>
<p>Wow... They are so different that a visit would probably be all you need to make a decision. Dartmouth was okay, but I didn't connect to it. Besides, it can get really cold up there. It really is a personal preference decision.</p>
<p>jprencipe:</p>
<p>don't pick columbia over brown. the students were far too work-focused (i thought) at columbia. even people who wanted to go out into the city said they didn't have time (seriously, people in the hallway where i stayed said they went out like once a month....and a girl with a bunch of musical posters on her wall said she hadn't seen any of them for lack of time.) and it wasn't just limited to my hallway--the guy i talked to in a class i visited said that that was pretty much standard, and i think he said that he CHOSE columbia for the city, but people really don't leave campus that often. the entire campus was very isolated from everything around it. i thought brown actually had more of a city feel with thayer street running right through it. </p>
<p>in sum, brown's atmosphere > columbia's atmosphere
and don't pick it for the city</p>
<p>dartmouth, who knows... i think providence > hanover, any day.</p>
<p>I would pick Brown. Dartmouth seemed waaaay too cold and snobby for my tastes.</p>
<p>
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I would pick Brown. Dartmouth seemed waaaay too cold and snobby for my tastes.
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<p>My thoughts exactly.</p>
<p>My parents were actually quite distressed. They both went there, and thought that was a comment on them.</p>
<p>I would choose Brown over Dartmouth merely because of Brown's location. I like Brown's location more than Dartmouth's.</p>
<p>I'd imagine being isolated for 4 years would create a closer unity between the student body. </p>
<p>Just throwing that out there. This was actually a tough decision for me, too, when I was deciding on which to apply ED to.</p>
<p>Dartmouth ppl are anything but snobby. This is coming from an unbiased Duke '09er. If you are an outdoor person, it's heaven. The parties are amazing and it is UNDOUBTEDLY a better feeder school than Brown. DUke being better than both. lol HAHA But seriously, I am not going to tell you what u already know: both are awesome schools. </p>
<p>PS: Go to the Panda restuarant at Dartmouth for some good Chinese!!!!!!</p>
<p>is it a Panda Express?</p>
<p>heh, if you like alcohol, go to dartmouth.</p>
<p>Devil May Cry, are you kidding? That place is being shut down for credit fraud...</p>
<p>Oh crap. LOL I guess you gotta find somewhere else for your Chinese fix. Haha. Oh well, Dartmouth is awesome.</p>
<p>Hey guys ... just thought I should leave an update. I'm visiting Columbia right now, and well, both Brown and Dartmouth would have to do something very seriously wrong for me to end up here.</p>
<p>Among other things, I'm locked into Columbia engineering (which I'm really not certain about), and engineers seem to be totally different from everyone else on campus (blah ... my host told me ... engineers were 'different'. not cool). </p>
<p>The city is fine, but there just seem to be hundereds of crappy bureacratic regulations associated with the University. The core + locked into engineering = royally screwed. The major perks include that Columbia is the best university in New York, the buildings here rock, and the dorms are nice. But I think the best reasons I can think of to go to Columbia just don't cut it.</p>
<p>Joey</p>