So, I gained admittance to some really solid schools (GTown, Cornell, Dartmouth, ND, etc.), and I’ve narrowed it down to two: Dartmouth and Notre Dame. Obviously the major differences are:
Dartmouth–Ivy, academia, D1 rowing (I row), drastically smaller class sizes, better student-faculty ratio, Greek life, etc.
Notre Dame–Big Football/BBall teams, Catholic/strong religious presence, club rowing, bigger student body, etc.
I’ve come down to these two because I decided I want a classic college campus, or as close to one as is still available. The hard fact is that Dartmouth is an academic powerhouse with a great camaraderie amongst the students and alumni, while Notre Dame’s academics are inferior to Dartmouth’s, but its big-sports-school experience and undeniable brotherhood cannot be knocked.
I come form an all-male, nearly all-white Catholic HS on Long Island (Chaminade), so I’m trying to figure out whether cranking out the next four years at what is essentially a bigger version of my high school with intense academics and girls, or a 247-year-old bastion of educational excellence and fraternity will fit me best. If someone can answer this question for me, that will be a godsend, but any help/advice about either school will be greatly appreciated.
I’m in the same situation. I feel like Notre Dame definitely has that “family” feel where as Dartmouth has some less school spirit. But I also feel like Notre Dames academic requirements aren’t as flexible as Dartmouth’s and therefore aren’t able to allow the student to find their own personal interests. Another thing that is a consideration to me is the time and programs. I’m interesting in engineering and business. At Notre dame there is a 5 year bs and MBA program. At dartmouth 5 years could get me a double major ba (business and engineering) as well as a be.
I’m very interested in what people have to say about this choice.
If you are who I thought you were I’d recommend Notre Dame fore a few reasons. The first is that frats ususallu bring nothing but trouble. You have a bright future where ever you go so dont let frats screw it up. Also the social life is about the same at the two but Dartmouth is a lot colder. So unless you like cold weather is not recommend Dartmouth. Also for someone looking for academics I would go to Notre dame because if you do d1 rowing at Dartmouth that is a pretty hefty commitment. I think doing sports in college isn’t really a good idea unless you have to because you used it to get in.
I disagree on a few of these points, yet so so strongly.
Avoid advice that uses generalizations as certainties.
First off, fraternities and sororities do not bring “nothing but trouble” as this implies every single one is there to destroy lives and futures.
Item the Second: you do not have to join a fraternity or sorority to fulfill your life. Just because greek life is present, that doesn’t mean that it will infect every aspect of your life on campus, whether or not you join. Dartmouth doesn’t allow Freshmen to join greek life, which is an excellent way to get to know college life without being pulled into this aspect, and you can make friends outside of the houses which means if you decide not to join, you will be totally unaffected by not having an intra-house social network.
2: if you DO decide to go Greek, only join the one that you feel comfortable in and you have a great fit with. If you join just to say you join, and you join one that doesn’t fit you, it will be an awful experience. However, if you value volunteer work and camaraderie over getting drunk at parties, and you join the house that values volunteering in the community and team-building activities, it’ll exponentially improve your experience there and in your college career
3: SPORTS! These are excellent to get into. I’m not just talking D1 Varsity, i’m talking club sports, intramural sports, PE classes, tossing a frisbee on the green, wiffle ball with your dorm. I want to assume I’m just misreading his statement that “If you go to Dartmouth, you’ll do sports and sports are bad, so go to Notre Dame which doesn’t have sports”. Not only will Notre Dame give you just as many chances to be athletically active, but sports in general let you get out, be healthy, learn teamwork and leadership skills, and meet people. If you’re good at them it boosts confidence, and if you’re bad at them then you’re in it for the fun and you can all be bad at it together.
Moving on from replying to the “advice” above me, here’s my take on your original question:
Visit both. Both are excellent academically, both are fairly small but have massive resources. Notre Dame is a larger Football and Basketball community, but Dartmouth athletics in Hockey and student body involvement (including club and intramural) is higher. Name recognition is top at both. Notre Dame is more skewed to a Catholic White student body with a bar scene in town that can still have fun and party, Dartmouth has a more diverse student body with a Greek social scene that can still have fun and party.
If you can visit both, go with your gut. This isn’t like choosing between Dartmouth/Notre Dame and University of Texas where there are stark differences. But stepping foot on campus, one will just click with you deep down and you’ll know.
If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to also post the same question in the Notre Dame thread. The posters here are experts on Dartmouth but not Notre Dame (generally speaking), in the Notre Dame thread they will be experts on ND, but not Dartmouth. Each will naturally have a slight bias but when you put together the facts you have from each side it should give you a clearer picture.
@VANZANTLYRICS Fraternities screw people up? Someone doesn’t know something about facts, you can have your opinion but here are the facts, not conjecture:
“Frats” as you so eloquently named them never hurt the 18 Presidents who went Greek, or the 85% of Fortune 500 executives that belong to a fraternity, or how about the 40 of 47 U.S. Supreme Court Justices since 1910 who were fraternity men, or the 63% of the U.S. President’s Cabinet members since 1900 that have been Greek or how about the FACT that a U.S. Government study shows that over 70% of all those who join a fraternity/sorority graduate, while under 50% of all non-fraternity/sorority persons graduate. Not convinced? Do you like space, All of the Apollo 11 Astronauts are Greek. Like gender equality? The 1st Female Senator was Greek. Do you like Gender equality and Space how about this, the 1st Female Astronaut was Greek.
@VANZANTLYRICS One last thing, do you like college? Well, did you know that as Alumni, Greeks give approximately 75% of all money donated to universities? Seems like “Frats” sure are ruining lives by literally building & supporting 3/4 of Americas higher education.
