Dartmouth vs. Yale Early

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So I am a rising senior who is trying to decide which school to apply to Early.</p>

<p>As it stands now my top 2 choices are Dartmouth and Yale. I love their undergraduate focus and liberal arts feel without being fully LAC socially (something about those super small schools like Pomona and Williams just didn't do it for me), and I love the balance between hard work and vibrant school spirit/social life. I also love Yale's residential college system and gothic architecture. Dartmouth's D-plan, beautiful campus, and extremely great sense of community are also great.</p>

<p>Im pretty undecided with what I want to do, but I know I prefer the humanities (english, literature, history, classics) to hard sciences and although I don't necessarily want to major in it, it would be nice to have the option to study film as it is my passion and something I might consider continuing.</p>

<p>Both school's are obviously great and would set me up very well, but a couple of things make the decision a little tougher.</p>

<p>Firstly, I have been told by college counselors that I have a better chance of being accepted to Dartmouth than Yale. I have a 2320 SAT with decent SAT 2s, a 4.0 unweighted with a very rigorous course schedule. I participate in my school's a cappella group, annual musical, am co-founder of the habitat for humanity club, and run my school's film festival. I am told that I have an outside chance at Yale and a slightly better chance at Dartmouth early. However, I was also nominated by my school to pursue the Jefferson Scholarship for UVA, and although my chances of actually getting it are very low and I might not even accept it anyway, the fact that Yale's early action is non-binding is a plus (especially for someone like me who can never make up his mind).</p>

<p>Basically I would be happy in both places, but I fear that while applying to Dartmouth ED might by the "safer play", I might always think about the opportunity I could have had at Yale. Maybe I am just letting prestige of a HYP blind me, but I guess my question is:
Is Yale that much greater than Dartmouth that it is worth applying Early and risking getting denied from both?</p>

2

<p>You don’t mention hooks, such as legacy, to either Ivy. They are both very selective and trying to parse the small difference in probabillities is not productive. Apply to Yale EA and leave your options open. Best of luck.</p>

3

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<p>That’s the question that you should be asking yourself. Will you regret not giving Yale your best shot? This is especially significant because Dartmouth is ED, not SCEA. If you’re accepted ED, you’d have to withdraw your other applications, including Yale.</p>

<p>My suggestion would be to apply SCEA to your first choice, Yale. Then you can see what happens with the UVA scholarship and your other RD choices. Make sure you have a balanced list including some solid safties. If you need financial aid, ED is not a good idea in general, as you want to be able to compare and negotiate packages.</p>

<p>You might also look at Wesleyan. Still a small LAC, but a bit larger than the others you mention and has a great film program.</p>

<p>If you’ve visited some of the small LACs in the neighborhood of Dartmouth and didn’t like them, then let it go. If you haven’t visited, you should, You’ll find a lot of overlap in culture with Dartmouth. I would also look at Colgate.</p>

4

<p>Yale SCEA and Dartmouth RD have virtually the same acceptance rates. Logically you might as well do Yale early and Dartmouth RD.</p>

5

<p>Some numbers…</p>

<p>**Dartmouth – Class of 2017 **
ED applied: 1574
ED admitted: 464 (29.5%)
ED deferred: ~600
RD applied: 20,842
Total RD pool: 21,442
RD admits: 1788 (8.34%)</p>

<p>Dartmouth – Class of 2018
ED applied: 1678
ED admitted: 469 (27.9%)
ED deferred: ~600
RD applied: 17,618
Total RD pool: 18,218
RD admits: 1731 (9.5%)</p>

<p>**Yale – Class of 2017 **
SCEA applied: 4520
SCEA admitted: 649 (14.4%)
SCEA deferred: 2529
RD applied: 25,090
Total RD pool: 27,619
RD admits: 1342 (4.86%)</p>

<p>Yale – Class of 2018
SCEA applied: 4750
SCEA admitted: 735 (15.5%)
SCEA deferred: 2735
RD applied: 26,182
Total RD pool: 28,917<br>
RD admits: 1200 (4.15%)</p>

<p>If you’re really set on Yale, SCEA is a good option. Even accounting for the hooked applicants in the SCEA pool (legacies, recruited athletes, etc.), there is a small advantage to applying SCEA. </p>

<p>If you want to get into either Yale or Dartmouth and do not have a clear preference for which one, Dartmouth ED – if you can afford it – is the best choice for optimizing acceptance chances. Dartmouth has admitted a preference for ED applicants*, and the admit rate is noticeably higher. Getting into Dartmouth RD is no walk in the park and is far from guaranteed, even with your excellent stats. </p>

<p>*Interestingly, like most top colleges, Dartmouth seems to have backed away from admitting this openly on their admissions website. I’ve gathered the relevant quotations in the past and posted them in several threads here.</p>

<p>

Lots of high schoolers have this worry, especially those turning down big name colleges for large merit scholarships at X College. It rarely lasts past orientation. Dartmouth is a terrific school with very enthusiastic alums. </p>

<p>The average student will barely scratch the surface of the impressive resources at either school. They’ll both get you wherever you need to go. For that matter, dozens of other colleges will as well. </p>

6

<p>Thank you all so much for your responses! (especially warblersrule for the statistics), it really means a lot to have people who know what they are talking about give me advice. I still have a few months before any real decisions have to be made but I’ll definitely take your guys’s advice into account.</p>

7

<p>I can’t speak to Yale, but applying ED to Dartmouth definitely boosts an application. Here’s an article by a Dartmouth admissions officer on the subject:
“It’s much easier to be admitted during Early even though most schools tell you it’s just as competitive, it’s simply not true. That’s standard administrative rhetoric, but it is much more difficult to be admitted during regular. We’ve already admitted 30 to 35 percent of the class Early. When you first start reading apps you might think one is great, but reading the same app later after 600 others then that kid no longer seems as stellar.”</p>

<p>Read more: <a href=“Secrets of Dartmouth Admissions Office”>Secrets of Dartmouth Admissions Office;
The last comment about an application being great at the beginning but not so great after 600 other applications probably applies to SCEA at Yale, as well.</p>

8

<p>a quick google/linked in search will tell you the the writer attended Dartmouth. He did not work in work as an admissions officer at Dartmouth.</p>

9

<p>The writer attended Dartmouth, but the article claims to be quoting an inside source.</p>

<p>I’m happy to go on record saying that ED helps everywhere. That’s a big point of having a binding program. It helps the school. They want kids who want to be there.</p>

<p>OP, in your position, I’d go ED at Dartmouth. It is indeed the safer play, and I think the smarter play here where you love the schools equally. Remember that you never use apostrophes to form plurals and that commas and periods always go inside the quotes.</p>