<p>I really like what I see and hear about Dartmouth, including the sense of community, the laid-back atmosphere, the scenic locations, the undergraduate focus, the strong alumni ties, etc. </p>
<p>But I'm having an extremely difficult time validating my choice of Dartmouth over schools that are more well known with the people I know, particularly my parents. I've tried to get some support from teachers and counselors, but they emphasize the same point that my parents are trying to make: the greater prestige offered by Harvard is tremendous and opens doors to unparalleled opportunities. The adults all claim that I will regret my decision for the rest of my life if I turn down the Big H.</p>
<p>it is interesting what people hear and think. As a parent in Florida, I routinely hear from wise men/women not to go to Harvard for undergraduate school, but many do every year. Harvard is where you should strive to go for certain graduate school programs. I believe it may be a good fit for many, but not for all who get in. Quality of life makes for better learning, IMHO.</p>
<p>Prestige alone is a terrible and shallow reason for choosing a school, especially when considering schools of this caliber. I recommend digging deeper, looking both at what you want from your undergraduate experience and at what each school offers you. Dartmouth is more than a cool community. Harvard will certainly open up unique opportunities, but so too will Dartmouth. I attended Harvard University Extension School for the last two years of high school and forewent the opportunity to apply to H to apply ED to D. No regrets.</p>
<p>i’m sort of in the same quandry. i’d love to hear more opinions on this issue.</p>
<p>as for the dartmouth community, i definitely believe it’s unparalleled. then again, yale and harvard are also amazing communities with amazing ppl. gah, so hard to decide!</p>
<p>People in the know don’t consider there to be a prestige difference for undergraduate education. There is a man on the street prestige difference, but to say H opens up more doors in places ivy grads want to go is ignorant.</p>
<p>I would say the opposite is true about Harvard undergraduate. Those who are misinformed might say H, but who wants to work for them. Most in higher academia and to any of these schools will tell you not to go to H for undergraduate.</p>
<p>ivy, do you have anything to back up what you said? why would employers not want to hire harvard undergrads?</p>
<p>after all, it’s fair to say harvard undergrads are the smartest/most unique (or at least have the best resumes), in general out of all the schools in the country. ofc there are exceptions, but there’s a reason why harvard is so famous/hard to get in.</p>
<p>As an employer of many, many ivy grads what I can tell you is that employers have stereotypes of the grads of each. The schools do graduate many who have become the product of dominant cultures.</p>
<p>We all know what it takes to get into HYP today. You need to be extremely brilliant stats wise and have some extreme hook. So at Harvard we joke that we see a lot of brilliant, introverted one armed acrobats who speak languages they invented. </p>
<p>To get into Dartmouth has meant having very high stats but not necessarily being a winner of an international math competition having figured out a problem no one else in the world has conquered. Dartmouth has always bred a high stats, well rounded, affable, social group. Perfect for our business which is why we have so many Dartmouth alum, far more than HY or P alum.</p>
<p>Now if I worked in a physics lab, I’m sure Dartmouth wouldn’t be my key recruiting territory.</p>
<p>My DS chose Dartmouth because he saw himself as a Dartmouth type and knows Dartmouth will deliver him to where he wants to go as well as any school on the planet.</p>
<p>Now all bets might be off now with almost all of the ivies nearing the 10% admit range, but it worked for years. All ivy kids will soon be freaks!</p>
<p>Full Disclosure: hmom’s son chose Dartmouth because he realized he couldn’t get into HYP, and that the level of competition from his fellow classmates would have outclassed him.</p>
<p>Many “top” employers also harbor negative stereotypes of Dartmouth students, sometimes more often than positive ones. </p>
<p>For those undecided, I would definitely choose Yale. It’s a happy balance between the two, Dartmouth and Harvard, and you would not be at a loss of community or social opportunities.</p>
<p>I really doubt Dartmouth is that significantly less selective than HYP. Yes, there’s like a 3 or 4% difference in admissions rates, but 8% versus 11% is not all that much – you might as well round them to 10%. Most of the Ivies are about equally selective.</p>
<p>jrr, my DS did make the strategic decision to ED Dartmouth rather than RD there and also apply to Princeton, the only of the three he was interested in. Out class? No, but there were 4 Princeton legacies in his high school class of under 100 students. As his high school was as hard to get into as an ivy and has a lower acceptance rate than most of them, the legacies were all highly qualified. Princeton takes a higher percentage of legacy applicants than any other ivy or peer school. There was also a recruited athlete already in. BTW, he was val and had a 2380. He couldn’t be happier with his choice.</p>
<p>This conversation is making Dartmouth sound like a local state school. Let’s not forget that Dartmouth is still a top-tier, Ivy League college. No one is going to crap on your degree because it’s from Dartmouth, versus HYP.
I’m not going to say that I would have gotten into HYP schools, but I had a chance if I wanted to apply. But you know what? I applied ED to Dartmouth because I value the fit of a college as well as the undergraduate experience it applies much more so than the reactions I get from people when I tell them what college I’m going to.
College isn’t just an opportunity for brand names and prestige… it’s a place to GROW as a person and learn how stupid that is. It’s not like all the successful people in America come from three colleges.</p>
<p>Wow. Some people on here are OF low intelligence lol. IMHO, the only difference between Harvard and Dartmouth is the ranking (which means squat) and the area (Cambridge vs. Hanover). Again, its nice to see the pretentious Harvard students extolling their precious institution. No disrespect to Harvard btw, it IS Harvard after all. Seriously though, Once your into Dartmouth, your good enough to get into Harvard anyway. Base your choice on the surrounding area, and which city you would feel more comfortable living in. It doesnt really make a difference to employers later on. Props to you for making it into both.</p>
<p>Hahaha, Dartmouth, not prestigious enough? that’s really, really fallacious. Dartmouth is still an Ivy and will be recognized by anyone worth being recognized by, i.e. top grad schools. </p>
<p>The only reason Dartmouth might not be as well known is because it’s the smallest ivy that also doesn’t have a grad school. Which means that it usually doesn’t publish as many big-name papers and news-flash studies as HY or P. But I’m perfectly happy with the fact that even though my professor may not be the famous researcher always on the news, he/she will actually be teaching my classes and giving attention to me. Which should be the point of teaching at a college, anyways. :P</p>
<p>Besides, Dartmouth IS really well known, compared to some other colleges…There are kids debating between Harvard and Williams and having a tough time because Harvard is really well known, but Williams really puts an emphasis on undergrad education with their Tutorials and incredibly small class sizes.</p>
<p>When I was at Dartmouth’s accepted student weekend, many referred to it as the “Princeton-reject” school. That was fine by me as I think Dartmouth was more my style even if I was a Princeton reject.</p>
that’s really, really fallacious. Dartmouth is still an Ivy and will be recognized by anyone worth being recognized by, i.e. top grad schools. </p>