<p>i think the choice (without considering money) is pretty easily in favor of dartmouth. you're literally talking about one of the best schools in the world - also, in the US, dartmouth comes #7 for grad school feeders. dartmouth has, in past years, sent more kids to columbia law (#4) than columbia itself has. if you'd like me to, i can pull up similar figures for harvard, yale, and stanford law, wharton, stanford, and havard business, and harvard med. i don't know much about UNC, but i'm willing to bet that the number of kids it places per year into one of the top 5 grad programs in any field is FAR dwarfed by Dartmouth (as are most schools). additionally, i'm not sure how big unc is, but i'm willing to bet the undergrad population is more than ~4500. that means dartmouth beats unc both in terms of absolute numbers of grad placement and percentages (if i'm right that it's bigger).</p>
<p>and think of the money this way. depending on what you're planning on doing with your education, having to spend (or take a loan) on an additional 20k/year could be pocket change. if you're planning on getting a job in the financial sector after college, given dartmouth's reputation in those circles and its tight, fiercly loyal alumni network, you could very easily be making six figures at 22 and (if you're smart and ambitious) seven by 32. suddenly the extra 80k doesn't look so bad at all. that's the thing about ivy league schools - if you decide to go into a very lucrative profession (as opposed to something more intellectual, such as academics, or political such as social/civil work), and if you actually take full advantage of your school, you're pretty much set. i don't like to count chickens, but given our intended professional tracks, the school we're at, and the kind of grades we get, i can say with a decent amount of confidence that most of my good friends (and hopefully I as well) will end our lives being worth at least a few million dollars. even if this is too bold a claim, i certainly know that the kind of employment opportunities you get coming out of a school like dartmouth ensure that the education will more than pay for itself.</p>
<p>having said that, there's a famous study (forgot the name) that's being widely read lately that states that students who get into ivy league schools but turn them down to go to state schools do just as well financially in the long run as their ivy league counterparts. this study, which was cited either in freakonomics or the world is flat, makes a compelling argument that the success of a graduating class is more about self-selection than any tangible benefit that the school itself provides. i'm inclined to believe, however, that this kind of statistic is more likely to apply to someone turning down an ivy to go to northwestern, uchicago, umich, berkeley, or some other highly regarded non-ivy (public or private). there's a difference between turning down an ivy for one of the best public schools in the country and turning it down for a school that doesn't make the top 25 in USNews rankings (though just barely). </p>
<p>this difference could be big or very big. if your professional plans include a field that requires networking and social capital (business, law, politics, journalism), then the fact that you're surrounded by other ivy league students who are all going on to do great things makes a HUGE difference. these are your network of contacts - when you need help, a favor, or anything at all, you can fall back on them, and you can rest assured that you have friends in high places. if, on the other hand, you want to do something technical like medicine, engineering, or another non-liberal art, then this difference is still big (i'm sure it wouldn't hurt bill gates if his best friend in college was jeff immelt), but not as big as before.</p>
<p>finally, if you look at the wall street journal's grad feeder rankings (here: <a href="http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf)%5B/url%5D">http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf)</a>, there's a pretty decent argument to be made that grad school placement is still much more of an old boys network than it should be. if you look at the top feeders, there's a disconnect in the hierarchy there and usnew's rankings of top undergraduate institutions. there are FAR more LACs in WSJ's top 50 than there are in USNews rankings. there also seems to be a pretty significant bias for private schools, especially those that are in the northwest. there are 15 public schools in the USNews top 50; there are 4 in the grad school feeder ranking (though someone should check me on that, i'm not sure i got all the public schools).</p>
<p>going to a more expensive, more prestigious school is a gamble, but a pretty safe one. you're around smarter people and you'll face stiffer competition to get to the top; on the other hand, even if you're just average in your graduating class, you'll do pretty well for yourself. if you're confident that you're not going to totally screw up your academics once you get here (you got in, right - you should be ok), then it's DEFINITELY worth coming.</p>