Dartmouth vs NYU

Hi everyone!

I’m currently having some difficulty deciding between committing to either NYU or Dartmouth. I’m interested in economics and computer science, as well as tech entrepreneurship. I’ve visited both campuses and lived in NYC for a short while - I really do love NYC and am aware of the opportunities that the city can offer. Yet, I had an awesome time when I visited Dartmouth and really liked the people I met at the time.

I love the city for it’s vibrancy, but am also an enthusiastic trekker, and recognize that living in a remote area with your peers is a unique opportunity, whereas NYC will always be there. Are there any factors I haven’t taken into consideration?

It would be great if you could share your opinions on both/either school. Thanks so much!

The two are completely difference places! I exaggerate, but one is among the largest private universities in the country, the other is among the smallest Ivy. One is spread out in tall buildings all over the city and you take a (purple) bus to get from your dorm to class, the other is a bunch of quaint buildings around a green and you trudge over snow to get to class in the winter. In Econ, one has a Nobel Prize winner (and a few more who deserve it equally), but the average undergrad probably won’t get close to them. The other has better balance between research and teaching, though it too has had some growth problems. In CS, NYU Courant has always been strong in the areas that border Applied Math, but is quickly catching up with new hires, while Cormen has built up a great teaching department at Dartmouth (it’s bigger than Yale’s, though that’s not saying much.) If you are a guy, you’d probably like the male-female ratio at NYU, though most of the girls would be in the arts, education, nursing, and humanities. Good luck!

4th floor is correct they are two totally different environments.

You are right NYC is not going anywhere (life long NYer here) and one of the reasons my kid wanted to go somewhere different because she did not want her entire education to take place on the island of manhattan.

As a person who holds 2 grad degrees from NYU (my D is a Dartmouth grad who took courses at NYU as a high school student), Grad schoo is where their bread and butter (and real reputation is) is and not so much undergrad. Which school at NYU were you admitted to ( are we talking Stern,CAS, Steinhardt, Gallatin)?

There will be opportunities at Dartmouth that you won’t even come close to at NYU. I think that there is a sense of cohesiveness at Dartmouth that you won’t find at NYU (which is more a matter of sink or swim and you will have to heavily advocate for yourself) along with professors at Dartmouth who are always willing to help you (they even have funding if you want to take a professor to lunch). It is not an unusual occurrence to have dinner at a professor’s house at Dartmouth (not going to happen at NYU).

You can always do a leave term or summer internship in NYC, because it is not going anywhere…

Hi sybbie719, thanks for your reply! I have been admitted to CAS at NYU. How did your daughter find her time at Dartmouth? I have definitely been considering taking a leave term to be in the city - sounds like a good idea! I appreciate the points you have made. How was grad school in NYC?

My D had an amazing 4 years at Dartmouth; she bleeds green and has life long friends.

For me, grad school was grad school, it was nothing about grad school in NYC because I have lived in NYC all of my life. I work in NYC, my employer paid for grad school so I was not leaving NYC to attend grad school somewhere else.