<p>Refer to above. Any feedback would be appreciated.</p>
<p>At my kids’ school, Bowdoin is a safety for those who are serious candidates at Dartmouth. Bowdoin is a fine school and my DS will apply, but only because he has no shot at a Dartmouth. Can’t believe any cross admits would chose Bowdoin, it simply doesn’t have the resources D has or the caliber of student body. Go to Dartmouth!</p>
<p>I went to Dartmouth. If I had it to do over again, I’d go to Bowdoin (as between the two).</p>
<p>Bowdoin is nobody’s safety school.That is absurd. I would venture to say that the two are more alike than different in terms of environment and student body, Dartmouth is bigger, and Bowdoin is on the Coast. Both are in out-of-the-way NE “cities” and have excellent reputations.</p>
<p>Bowdoin is not a safety for anyone. And yes plenty of cross-admits go to Bowdoin (though many choose Dartmouth , prestige/name recognition being a large indiator). The overall student body at Dartmouth is stronger, but it is all a matter of personal fit. A top student at Bowdoin can go on to do just as well as a top student at Dartmouth in my opinion.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is still dominated by the frat culture while Bowdoin abolished frats some time ago. .</p>
<p>Bowdoin owns. Everyone there seemed happy when I last visited campus. Don’t fall for Dartmouth’s name and ivy league status :)</p>
<p>S visited at least twenty-five schools, mostly LACs in the East/Northeast. Dartmouth,where he was a legacy and had a shot at admission, was the only one he came away from after a tour/visit saying, “I don’t want to go here.” The tour guide was very, very odd and talked about how everyone in his first-year dorm had hated one another (I know, rather extreme, but really, why say this to prospective students and their families??). S said none of the students on campus looked happy. I was surprised, but the vibe S got was very negative.</p>
<p>By contrast, S loved Bowdoin, which he now has visited a few times. He is excited about attending school there.</p>
<p>I realize all of this is subjective, but I’m just responding to the suggestion that it’s hard to conceive of anyone choosing Bowdoin over Dartmouth. An Ivy degree isn’t the be-all and end-all, and Bowdoin is hardly a safety for anyone.</p>
<p>Whoa redroses… you’re totally incorrect. Bowdoin has an acceptance rate of under 20%. No school with such a tiny acceptance rate could be considered someone’s safety. Also, there’s more of a frat/bro atmosphere at Dartmouth while Bowdoin has more of a quiet, intellectual atmosphere. I’m quite sure that I would pick Bowdoin over Dartmouth if I had the chance (I was accepted by Bowdoin, rejected by Dartmouth).</p>
<p>There are plenty of “bros” at Bowdoin, but I’ll still be going there next fall. A friend of mine got into dartmouth but chose to go to Notre Dame, saying that everyone there “was staring at a computer screen”, it seemed more cutthroat, and he also disliked the frat culture. Bowdoin is not a safety…that’s ridiculous</p>
<p>As Drought notes, with an acceptance rate of less than 20%, Bowdoin can’t be considered a safety.</p>
<p>And, according to the Dean of Admissions, this year’s yield of students with the “top academic rating” assigned to them by Admissions staff is “off the charts.” Bowdoin received 520 acceptances for a target class of 485, so they are waiting for some students waitlisted elsewhere ultimately not to enroll at Bowdoin. But, definitely a popular school for top students this year.
[Draw</a> from wait list unlikely, says Meiklejohn](<a href=“http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/old/article.php?date=2010-05-07§ion=1&id=6]Draw”>http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/old/article.php?date=2010-05-07§ion=1&id=6)</p>
<p>I recall Darmouth’s having problems with race relations a few years back. Enrollments declined and in 2008 they brought in a very accomplished Korean American scholar (ostensibly to repair Darmouth’s somewhat tarnished image.) Well, it doesn’t seem like much has changed at Darmouth. See:</p>
<p>[Dartmouth</a> Students Jump to Racist Conclusions About New President > Dartmouth, dartmouth review, Jim Yong Kim, racism | IvyGate](<a href=“http://www.ivygateblog.com/2009/03/dartmouth-students-jump-to-racist-conclusions-about-new-president/]Dartmouth”>http://www.ivygateblog.com/2009/03/dartmouth-students-jump-to-racist-conclusions-about-new-president/)</p>
<p>Dartmouth doesn’t have problems with race relations, that’s ridiculous. Its much more diverse than Bowdoin - its about 35-36% minority overall which is on the high end of most top end schools.</p>
<p>True that Dartmouth has lots of URMs in percentage terms (and so does Bowdoin) but that hardly proves that the old boys culture does not thrive on or that there are no problems with race relations at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>These answers are to be expected on the Bowdoin board, but a quick look at Naviance from my DS’s high school shows a 100% admit rate over 5 years for everyone with above a 3.8 and a 2210 and a 22% admit rate at Dartmouth with these stats.</p>
<p>Now there is some truly meaningless data since we know nothing about these applicants other than some basic GPA and SAT information or the school or even whether Naviance has access to anything like representative data.</p>
<p>Redroses: think what you like. Bowdoin is no one’s safety school. At my school, the average GPAs and test scores for people accepted to Bowdoin are higher than the average GPAs and test scores for people accepted to Dartmouth. So, maybe Dartmouth is a safety school for kids who apply to Bowdoin?</p>
<p>Clearly this isn’t the case, but you must realize the obvious fallaciousness of your statement.</p>
<p>Redroses – how many students over the 5 years at each school?</p>
<p>I think some of you miss the point. Its not what some dude at a high school party in rural virginia thinks. Its about what people in Boston, NYC, LA, SF, Chicago, and other places you are likely to end up think. Its about what people who appoint White House staff and people who work at hedge funds think. Its about what top grad schools and your peers at the other elite schools think. If prestige is the issue Dartmouth is stronger by a significant margin.</p>
<p>54 applicants to Dartmouth, 47 to Bowdoin over 5 years.</p>