Hey yall!
I have done some pretty extensive research on colleges and have found these two to be some of my favorite options. I was wondering if anyone could give any opinions/insider points/fun facts about the colleges in light of committing to one of the two. Anything from dorms to teachers, starting salaries, internships, food, etc would be appreciated!
Also maybe some comparisons on the programs. I am interested in the maths and science areas, especially stats and biology!
The opportunities in the biological sciences are much broader and deeper at Cornell than at Dartmouth. Check out what is offered there in the College of Human Ecology (HumEc) and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) in addition to what is available in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). For details about the Statistics program at Cornell, see https://stat.cornell.edu/academics/undergraduate
Richard Feynman delivered a series of seven brilliant, enduring lectures at Cornell.
DD was very sensitive to the size of schools. The undergraduate enrollment at Cornell (15,000+ students) is larger than the entire town of Hanover, NH (11,500) and is over 3 times the size of Dartmouth (4,400). One of them would have been eliminated from consideration just based on size.
Are you pre-med? If so, Dartmouth > Cornell with regards to ease of accessing clinical experiences as Dartmouth’s medical school is located on-campus–whereas Weill Cornell’s located 3 hours away in NYC. Cornell DOES have the Cayuga Medical Center near-by, although you’ll be competing with much, much more undergraduates for fewer volunteering spots. Both schools do have a lack of grade inflation, Cornell more-so than Dartmouth, so keep that in mind.
Cornell is much, much larger than Dartmouth, which is the smallest Ivy undergrad-wise, so that could impact your choice if you want a smaller school. Both schools will have a plethora of opportunities available, but you might have an easier time at Dartmouth, which has a smaller graduate student population compared to Cornell.
Both schools have similar general-education requirements, however Dartmouth has the D-Plan and is a quarter-based system. With it, you’ll be able to take more classes over your 4 years at Dartmouth, but will also have LESS time for each class (pre-med sequences tend to be taught over a year whether quarter-based or semester-based, but confirm with the pre-health advising websites.) The D-Plan also gives you more freedom by allowing you to pick and choose what you want to do for MOST (freshmen fall, sophomore summer, and senior year are exceptions IIRC) quarters: whether that’s studying abroad, being on-campus, or working.
Financial Aid is similar at Dartmouth and Cornell: both schools package loans as a part of your aid award depending on your income. However, it’s still highly, highly recommended to run the NPC calculators for both (and the long-version before applying ED, which is binding.) If in-state, Cornell CALS, as a state-funded contract college, is much cheaper than CAS, especially if full-pay.
Food-wise Cornell wins precisely because of the AMAZING ice-cream made on-campus by CALS’ Dairy farm. Both schools are evenly matched when it comes to the surrounding campus: Ithaca’s gorges are gorgeous, and Dartmouth owns a ski-resort near-by. 
Hope that helps! Good luck with admissions!
Lol I’m also deciding between those two schools in the next few weeks.
Dartmouth social life is very heavy with fraternities and sororities.
Dartmouth is on the quarter system, typically with three courses per quarter (nine per academic year). The D-plan has students choose which quarters to be on and off campus over the four academic years and three summers, but students should not expect to get four fall terms on campus.
Two significantly different places. Cornell is a major research University whereas Dartmouth operates more like a large LAC (more undergrad focused, few grad students). The main similarities is that they are both located in rural towns and they share an athletic conference. (Sure, the both offer outstanding educations, but so do many other colleges.)
What were your decision points/interests to narrow it down to these two as your “favorites”?
Not going to lie, Ive been to both campuses and they are both amazing. I’m Eding to Darty but I think the campus and nature around Cornell holds a bit more. Jumping off the gorges is a blast.