<p>Congratulations to have earned such a choice. Visiting each school during admitted student weekends is likely the best advice to help you make such a choice.
I have a son who is a recent Dartmouth graduate, and a daughter who is a current Princeton student. In my biased way, I am ready to think that these are the two best schools in America.
Dartmouth offers the opportunity to be isolated with talented and most often incredibly smart people for four years. The opportunity to have a “time out” in a close knit way with your peers on a day-to-day basis, isolated from considerations of career, in an environment that in your biography will not be repeated, is priceless. Chances are, you will live most of your working life in major metropolitan areas. Dartmouth is an exceptional experience.
Princeton is almost like Oz. It is second to Dartmouth, in my opinion, among the most social Ivy schools. On a level slightly different than Dartmouth, by virtue of your enrollment, your ticket has been punched. Doors will open in the outside world in an almost unfair way, whether at the New Yorker or on Wall Street.
Very few students are unhappy for long at either school. No wonder they have such high alumni donation rates, and that graduates get smiles on their faces when their university is mentioned.
You can’t go wrong either way.</p>