Dartmouth v Georgetown

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone!

I am so excited and incredibly grateful to have been accepted into two amazing schools. Unfortunately, I’m struggling to choose between them :frowning: It would mean a lot if I could hear some more input.

At Dartmouth, I applied for Neuroscience and Economics, and Georgetown, Health Care Management & Policy (which is in the Nursing and Health Studies School).

I’m considering a pred-med track, but honestly, I’m not terribly confident. I know I want to go into the healthcare field, maybe as physician or a health care consultant, or maybe in public policy or pharma.

When I visited Dartmouth in the summer, I loved it. At first, I thought I wanted to go to school in the city, but I immediately fell in love with the campus when I got there. My main concerns are:

  • The rural setting. It felt homey and welcoming when I was there for a day, but I can’t help but worry it might get suffocating after 4 years. Since it’s a distance away from big cities, I’m also concerned about internship opportunities.
  • The COLD. But this is significantly less important than ^. I can suck it up if I have to haha

At Georgetown, I didn’t get an official information session/tour because I visited on a Sunday (really great planning on my end :confused: ). My concerns for Georgetown are:

  • Being in NHS. When I applied, NHS made sense. But now, I’m not sure if I would have more academic freedom in the College. Also, I read online that the NHS students are kind of separated from the other kids because of the location of their classes? After doing some research, it’s still not clear how easy it is to switch schools at Georgetown. Apparently, a lot of kids use NHS as a “back door” to getting into Georgetown, and they’ve become increasingly strict about switching out of it…
  • Ranking. Georgetown is more or less 10 ranks lower than Dartmouth. I’m not sure how important this is. Would there be a significant difference in the quality of education?

Hopefully, this post doesn’t come off too negative because I only listed the cons. It’s just that I love both schools so much that it seemed inefficient to be listing all the pros haha. Thanks in advance for the help! :slight_smile:

2

Dartmouth College, or, as you referred to the school in another thread–Darty.

You should have much more flexibility regarding job placement from Darty.

Plus, as you are from the Chicago area, you should be able to handle the cold weather in Hanover, New Hampshire.

3

Georgetown, being in the heart of the nation’s capitol, with health sciences industries, defense contractors, NSA, NIH, NASA, Hopkins, and so on offers an extreme number of opportunities right in your back yard.

Dartmouth is a gorgeous, nature filled setting with a reputation that can also carry you far with job opportunities.

The “10 ranks” you refer to is nothing-and you are only looking at one ranking source. US News is not the be all, end all definer of college greatness. Where are you more likely to enjoy being? Where would you want to have more contacts and opportunities?

Each of these two schools is phenomenal, will offer an outstanding education and will offer exceptional opportunities. No one will say, “Oh, you only went to…”. Either commands respect. They really cannot be judged against each other. It really boils down to your personal preferences in terms of setting and long term ties. Congratulations and good luck!