<p>I would pick Dartmouth over Cornell any day. And, this is coming from a Cornell student majoring in Economics.</p>
<p>No school would give you automatic edge in getting highly sought jobs. However, I do believe Dartmouth provides more intimate, undergrad-focused, and more socially intact (as well as friendly) environment which, depending on the individual, may foster higher school satisfaction, stronger academic performance, being more involved with the school resources, etc.</p>
<p>I am just saying these things after I visited my friend at Dartmouth last year. Before my visit, I did not know much about it. After my visit, and seeing his friends at Dartmouth, I felt that the overall student satisfaction at Dartmouth was much greater compared to Cornell.</p>
<p>Dartmouth has an edge in business placement into consulting and banking. Dartmouth is almost HYP level in terms of its business placement. It has a huge reputation and history in finance particularly, but its good across the board. One issue, however, is that Dartmouth (and all of the Ivies without business schools) don’t have as great a marketing funnel. So if marketing is your thing, then go to a business school like Wharton or Haas.</p>
<p>It might just have to do with selectivity, but from my perspective (as a student at another Ivy) I feel that Dartmouth is generally more “prestigious.”</p>
<p>As someone from India, the first I had ever heard of Dartmouth was when it was mentioned on an episode of ‘Friends’. I found out it was an Ivy League two years later when I looked up the list on Wikipedia.</p>
<p>I think Dartmouth isn’t just as well recognized as some of the other Ivies are. HYP, Columbia, Cornell and Wharton in UPenn are very well known internationally but Brown, Dartmouth and Penn in general are not known to be Ivy League institutes. However, you’ll find this largely immaterial. Dartmouth is very well respected by those who are familiar with it and by the people who matter, that is, prospective employers or graduate schools you may be applying to. In my own school, while only the senior were familiar with Dartmouth, a large many did not even apply to it because they felt they didn’t stand a chance. This year, everyone who applied to Dartmouth was rejected, save for our salutatorian who was waitlisted. Dartmouth is an excellent institution, as are Cornell, Brown and the rest of the Ivies. Decided which one out of these is the best or most prestigious based on things like how many people they admit is quite frankly ridiculous. Find out which one is the best for YOU. Yale is higher ranked and viewed as more prestigious than Cornell, as is Harvard, but for ME, Cornell beat both hands down. As an engineering major and also as someone who loves a rural setting, Cornell was a much better fit than either Yale or Harvard and was the BEST for ME. (I did not apply to Yale or Harvard by the way, nor to any other college as I got in ED to Cornell. I was merely illustrating my point with examples.)</p>
<p>Should you be fortunate enough to be accepted to either Cornell or Dartmouth, or even both, you cannot go wrong with either one of these fine institutions. Your decision to apply ED should be based on which is a better fit for YOU and which one YOU prefer.</p>