<p>I am an Asian student studying in the UK. I applied to Dartmouth thru ED and got accepted. And recently i received an offer from Oxford to read PPE(philosophy, politics & econ)</p>
<p>It is such a hard decision to make. BTW I have immense interest in philosophy and that is my priority.</p>
<p>Liberal Arts VS PPE...any suggestion pls? :P</p>
<p>Where would you prefer to make your future career? UK? US? Asia?
For the US, Dartmouth might provide more connections.</p>
<p>On the whole, I would suspect that Oxford is more respected for philosophy. Don't know if you would face legal problems over not accepting an ED offer from Dartmouth, though.</p>
<p>i haven't reli thought about career yet, i just want to get the best training in the subject.
Wow i never thought about legal problems. If it is true, it is quite scary. Thanks.. :P</p>
<p>Remember that if you apply ED you state that if accepted you will attend and you will withdraw all of your other applications. </p>
<p>So ethically going to Oxford is not a choice becacuse you were suppose to withdraw the application. </p>
<p>Remember that the world is smaller than you think and colleges share information (The ivies do share ED list so they will know if you were admitted and backed out of your agreement. This could come back to bite you in the future). </p>
<p>Dartmouth has a relationship with Oxford, so I would not be suprised if they share information. You could risk losing your admission at both places.</p>
<p>Enochan,
Sybbie is absolutely right. But if, and only if, you really want to go to Oxford, why don't you speak to Dartmouth and ask if they will release you from your commitment. They might say yes to that because Dartmouth might feel that if you don't really want to be there then it is better for everyone if you attend another school. The worst thing that could happen is that Dartmouth refuses to release you and then you are "stuck" at Dartmouth -- and as far as bad outcomes go, that's a pretty good one. Good luck, coldcomfort</p>
<p>Does the binding policy take effect outside the USA?
Eno, there was an '09 girl from you hometown who got in Dartmouth and Oxford last year. And you surely know her, maybe you can ask her for advice.</p>
<p>yea, i never knew that the binding policy applies to colleges outside the states.
thanks dudes</p>
<p>Whether the Dartmouth ED is binding is a question that is relevant only to the individual concerned, legally and morally; Oxford University would not see itself bound by Dartmouth's rules.</p>
<p>I doubt that Oxford and Dartmouth share information about applicants. The processes are very different - we don't have ED in the UK so that would not be relevant and Oxford's applications are decentralised to individual departments and below. In addition, under UCAS rules UK universities don't have access to information about applicants' other UK choices, so the prevailing philosophy would be against sharing.</p>
<p>It's still not a good idea to break ED though, especially since American universities emphasize over and over again how it is binding. Whether or not they can do anything legally, there is still the moral issue. Also, you don't want to burn any bridges should you decide to go to graduate school in the states.</p>
<p>lots of people break their ED agreements every year for reasons precisely like this. it's a pretty reasonable thing to do, considering your future is at stake. it's also why no U.S. school has ever taken legal action over ED</p>
<p>The only way a school will let you out of ED is if you demonstrate that after all financial packages are accounted for you can't pay the tuition, and then only to attend your local state u. They will certainly not let you out of your commitment because well, you applied ED but now you changed your mind and think Oxford might be better for you. I know that sounds harsh, but you should have thought about that before you applied ED. Now, you are potentially going to be miserable, and you took the spot of someone who maybe dreamed about going to Dartmouth and wouldn't have backed out.</p>
<p>And I'd like to point out that, considering Dartmouth and Oxford participate in exchange programs with each other, I highly doubt that they wouldn't exchange information like this or wouldn't honor each other's policies...</p>
<p>no, they don't exchange info. oxford has exchange programs with lots of places and anyway, this has nothing to do with admissions. </p>
<p>if you wanted to go to oxford and went:</p>
<p>1) dartmouth wouldn't do anything about it (you should call and explain though to be courteous to the RD & waitlist kids)
2) it would have no negative repurcussions for grad school</p>
<p>just sayin' how it is</p>
<p>How do you know? Have you ever done it?</p>
<p><em>edit</em> See, this is the kind of thing that plagues America (and apparently people studying in the UK as well). It's called, "The rules don't apply to me."</p>
<p>This is why I would avoid ED like the plague, no matter how sure I was.</p>
<p>dc:</p>
<p>actually, very few people break their ethical, moral and legal committment (assuming a 17/18 year old can legally sign anything); if you check out the ED yield at any school, you'll see it's 99%. Schools do not take legal action against ED'ers who lie bcos they have little to gain -- who wants a VERY unhappy student? -- and the school can't argue for damages (financial or otherwise) bcos it's really not being harmed in a significant way.</p>
<p>Just rememer, OP, YOUR ethics and morals are only as good as your word.</p>
<p>i'm not positive but i believe the ED yield at dartmouth is ~95%, very high (of course), but not the 100% you'd expect. </p>
<p>applying to multiple schools ED is obviously a bad idea--i don't advocate or condone it. it's unethical AND it is likely to close doors at all the schools you've made false committments to.</p>
<p>applying to one ED school and then being admitted to another program without such policies (such as a fellowship, job, or in this case a school in another country with different deadlines & rules) is sort of an unstated loop hole. for this reason, most schools are very lenient about letting you defer matriculation.</p>
<p>my personal opinion of why ED schools don't (and can't) do much in terms of holding high school students accountable for reneging in these cases, is (at least partly) because they are aware that ED is borderline coersion. nobody is forcing you to apply but there are undeniably skewed incentives in an otherwise chance-dependent, high stakes game. circumstances change. you may have been committed at the time, but if new things pop up, it would be silly not to make the decision that is best for you.</p>
<p>(btw, "new things" could be actual life altering events such as death, sickness, winning the lottery, etc. OR something abstract like a change in goals)</p>
<p>Just read Furstenberg's editorial in a recent issue of the D. Nowhere does he suggest in it that there is ANY excusable reason to drop out except for financial reasons, and I believe he actually states that ED
yield is 99%, with the 1% being people withdrawing for financial reasons.</p>
<p>The future is in America. GO TO DARTMOUTH you will love it. Forget the dungeons in UK. The teaching in the US is supportive instead of punitive.. PLEASE ENJOY YOUR TIME AS A STUDENT SURROUND YOURSELF WITH ACADEMICS, BEAUTY, REASON AND FREE SPEECH!
FORGET OXFORD- THATS NOTHING MORE THESE DAYS THAN AN INTERESTING SUMMER CAMP OR VACATION....YOU DESERVE TO LEARN AND ENJOY THE GREATNESS OF FREEDOM SUPPORT AND MEET OTHER TERRIFIC STUDENTS. DARTMOUTH IS BEAUTIFUL!</p>
<p>Okay I signed up for this site just because I didn't want you to ruin your life based on completely uninformed persuasions. ED is only binding WITHIN the U.S. You're allowed to accept offers from universities outside of the U.S. you just have to retract all your applications WITHIN the U.S. This is what my friends have told me (I haven't looked into it myself because it hasn't affected me but this is what they've all told me). You should look into it yourself but if it's a reassurance, I live in Canada and I have had many friends who have gotten in to ED schools in the U.S. and decided it's not worth it (note: not because they can't afford it. because they just don't think it's worth it for undergrad) and just go to a Canadian school.</p>
<p>Now to answer your original question. They're both great schools but to be honest they're very different. Dartmouth is much more liberal while Oxford, and the british system in general is very strict and somewhat binding. You should be fairly certain on your major if you want to go to Britain. Another thing, being an international myself, Oxford wins at the prestige factor overseas hands down due to it being considered "the top school in Europe" and it being very old with very notable alumni. Of course, this is all talk so don't let this decide your future for you. Visit the schools and talk to the professors. This will help make the decision right for you.</p>
<p>I hope this answers your questions and you'll be able to make a decision more easily now. And guys, please don't go making these confident statements that could basically change the guy's entire life unless you're actually sure.</p>
<p>I don't care about your Canadian friends. You're a complete jerk if you in essence take someone else's spot then decide to throw it away. And no, that person that got rejected because of your app won't get the spot back.</p>