Daughter is admitted to both, struggling in deciding which one to attend. Intended major is Computer Science, minor English.
Thanks for your input!
How positive is she that she wants to be a science major? When we looked at JHU with our son last year, he walked away feeling that it was a great place to go if you knew for sure you wanted to be a science major, but less so if you had a variety of interests and really wanted to explore a number of different areas. Because he could see himself majoring in a science or in history and really needs some room for exploration, he decided Dartmouth was the better fit. Also, the schools obviously have very different physical environments, and that’s pretty easy to get a feel for in visits.
Dartmouth has a strong and growing CS department. It is quickly becoming one of the most popular majors on campus. I’m sure JHU has a better CS program, but Dartmouth definitely is the better place for an English minor
No wrong answer. Strongly suggest going to “accepted students” day at both.
I was agonizing over the same decision, but ultimately chose Dartmouth for the environment and the people! I felt more welcomed and at home, and decided I don’t want to go to college in the big city after all.
@doorrealthe is correct, with the major/minor combo Dartmouth is a clear winner.
@YaleDad2019 Don’t know about CS but JHU is very strong in humanities, especially English and History. It is also well known for creative writing.
Why is your daughter struggling with this decision ?
In other words, what does she like & dislike about each school ?
Dartmouth cs is weak and losing the head of the department but English is decent I think
I went to JHU and I wouldn’t want my daughter to go there. A friend of ours, an alumnus of Hopkins and a former professor at JHU also does not want his daughter applying. We were talking about this today in fact.
Why? Nobody we know enjoyed their undergraduate years at JHU. It’s a very competitive, cutthroat environment with tense, stressed-out students. It’s in a bad part of the city and the school doesn’t do a great job helping freshmen integrate. I encourage you to read student reviews to get a better sense of the culture.
Needless to say, I’d go with Dartmouth, hands-down.
I agree with @UrbanMum
When I visited Hopkins, multiple students I talked to seemed stressed/unhappy and one in particular regret her decision to go there. That ultimately steered me away from applying there.
To put things into persective, a lot of the ‘cut-throat’ comes from premed (it doesn’t seem like OP is premed given her major). Premed at Hopkins is known to be cutthroat with a lot of weeding out and ‘competition’ among the students.
I feel like other majors like CS and english may be smaller and less cutthroat.
I applied to Dartmouth also (unfortunately rejected, but whatever, I like the school I am goig to better than Dartmouth anyways). One reason I applied was the small community feel and the rich community among students and alumni. The heavy involvement among Dartmouth alumni shows how much they treasured their experience at Dartmouth.
I would pick Dartmouth, but both are phonomenal schools that provide an opportunity for a fun, engaging, and rewarding college experience.
@YaleDad2019 leu us know where your D ends up going!
Dartmouth has an excellent CS department. Take it from someone who actually knows CS departments. Tom Cormen, co-author of the classical CLR texbook on algorithms, built an outstanding CS department there. And because the CS program is one of the few programs at Dartmouth that has a graduate program, they have unusual depth in research too. Hopkins CS isn’t shabby, but I’d take Dartmouth CS over Hopkins CS any day.