<p>I like the look and feel of Brown and it's a very good school. I don't believe you are asking about the "prestige" of each school...they're very similar anyhow with dartmouth having a slight edge in most rankings.</p>
<p>All the Ivies are quite liberal, but amongst the Ivies, Brown is the most self-consciously liberal with all that would entail. If that suits you, as it does many, I would absolutely say Brown, all the way. The open curriculum and pass/fail etc is just an institutional manifestation of the overall libertine atmosphere and attitude of the Brown experience.</p>
<p>Dartmouth follows the middle-way in most things, not too liberal or too conservative and the institutional offering reflects this. To me, this is what "choice" is really about, that is, that there would be viable options in either direction. Dartmouth is also "nature-centered" which I think is also reflected in its broader and more open perspective.</p>
<p>You've got a great choice to make; you can't go wrong either way.</p>
<p>I'm not concerned about prestige. I think I've realized that it this point, it matters how I do there. Both schools will give me every tool I need to succeed at college. Dartmouth generally has an edge in rankings because it has more money than Brown does. At this point, a percieved difference in prestige would be the last reason why I would want to pick a school.</p>
<p>Would I say I'm more middle of the road? Probably. I also like being outdoors and being very active. But I like Brown's open curriculum a lot; it really provides more driven people the opportunity to succeed. Dartmouth's distribution requirements are just fine, and I think it would only entail me personally taking one or two more courses that I would not have taken at Brown, so it's not a terrible thing.</p>
<p>I know Columbia's not right for me as an undergraduate. Maybe for graduate school ... but wow, the way the people talked about the core ... it was like you needed this knowledge, taken as a prescribed dosage, to successfully understand life. It was such BS, and the lack of academic flexibility totally blew me away.</p>
<p>So when I go up to visit Dartmouth and Brown this week, I hope that one does stick out to me as a much better personal fit, because I'd hate to spend more time than I already am agonizing, lol.</p>
<p>here's one more additional perspective. i'm at brown...my younger brother just started at dartmouth.</p>
<p>generally, students at dartmouth are strikingly happy--something that both me and my girlfriend (an MIT student) are consistently impressed with every time we visit. the campus and town of hanover has a wonderful, quaint feeling to it. the flipside is that it is a bit more yuppie and there are noticeably more preppy new england blue-bloods</p>
<p>brown students are mostly very happy but there are also a lot more brooding artists, the culture seems to foster a lot more existential thought. the campus and city of providence also inspires a feeling of history and quaintness, but surrounding thayer st, etc. is more quirky (street musicians, punks, bikers, poets)</p>
<p>academically, both are comparably strong--though brown seems to benefit more from location. dartmouth has trouble retaining prominent faculty (such as mike gazaniga). brown has an easier time attracting high-profile folks to campus both as faculty and lecturers.</p>
<p>The quarter system is a blessing and a curse to quote spiderman. It enables awesome study abroad options and sophomore summer is one of the coolest experiences you can have. It also makes it so you can focus on three classes at a time, instead of being bogged down with five. I actually liked the immersion level, ten weeks doesn't seem too bad. On the flipside, it is probably a little more work and a few times I didnt want a particular class to end as I really got to know a professor.</p>