<p>I was admitted in Columbia and Dartmouth and I'm planning to go into economics and finance. I like both of their campuses equally, and really can't decide. They might seem like polar opposites, but I appreciate both Dartmouth's peacefulness and Columbia's vibrancy. Some factors that I don't know much about but would like to consider are: 1. which is better at getting people into top grad schools (especially business schools) 2. which is better at placing people in jobs in finance 3. which has better recruiting.</p>
<p>Topic has been discussed, a lot. Look up post by slipper who started at columbia and transferred to Dartmouth. Perhaps he will even chime in on the thread</p>
<p>If you want to go into business or econ, Dartmouth’s placement outclasses every Ivy except for possibly Wharton and Harvard.</p>
<p>You’d think though, that if you go to Columbia and do 3 years of internships at goldman sachs or another firm like that, you would have an advantage because there’s no such internship opportunities at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>As someone who has worked in high financ (and who also has many friends that do), there is hardly any school in the country with better placement onto Wall Street than Dartmouth. If you look at the other experienced finance people on CC (such as the<em>prestige, Ivy</em>Bear, etc) you’ll see they all concur. In my personal experience it has a solid edge over Columbia. </p>
<p>There are a few reasons why. </p>
<p>1) The major banks don’t offer “part time” internships during the school year. These are very structured programs with on campus recruiting for full time internships during the summer. So there is no NYC “edge” at all</p>
<p>2) BUT because of Dartmouth’s D-plan and sophomore summer it means you have to take one term during the year off for an internship. All the banks (Goldman, JP, UBS, etc) have special DARTMOUTH ONLY spots available for these terms and they are plentiful. So while the Columbia kids fight it out with every other school for a summer internship Sophomore or Junior year, the Dartmouth kids almost coast into the first one with no competition. Then the Dartmouth kids have ANOTHER summer (after already having a banking internship under their belt) to do it again when they already have experience. I mean its almost a ridiculous advantage, and given Dartmouth’s success on the street one that clearly is very real.</p>
<p>In addition to this as someone who transferred from Columbia to Dartmouth, personally I think the Dartmouth experience is much stronger. Sure Columbia has some great things (the core is awesome) but overall the Dartmouth campus experience is so much more vibrant. It just seems so much more “real” and the alumni are so much more loyal because of this. </p>
<p>My vote: on both a career and social grounds - Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I did not know about the Dartmouth-only finance internships. Useful info.</p>
<p>I’m looking at Dartmouth and Princeton and am looking to go into econ. I have never heard of these dartmouth-only spots. Can someone clarify about this?</p>
<p>Princeton is going to get you a top Ibanking job as well, I wouldn’t worry about that.</p>