Dartmouth vs. Yale Early

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
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<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 the LAC social scene (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 connected sense of community are also great.</p>

<p>Im pretty undecided with what I want to do in college, 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 a passion of mine and something I might consider continuing.</p>

<p>Both schools 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>

<p>PS I posted this in Dartmouth's forum too I just wanted to hear both sides</p>

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<p>This is a tough one. People with credentials just like yours get admitted to Yale every year; but people with those credentials also get rejected. But the same is true of Dartmouth. I guess if I were in your shoes I would probably apply to Yale SCEA–it keeps your options a bit more open. Only apply ED to Dartmouth if you are sure that it is your first choice.</p>

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<p>You sound like the average Joe applying to the ivy schools. Find something that will make you stick out before applying because almost everyone has 2250+ SAT, 4.0 GPa, and music/arts ECs. </p>

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<p>I’m in the exact same situation as you. I love both schools, but Yale is my favorite choice of the two. I know I have a much better chance of getting accepted at Dartmouth if I apply ED (30+% accept rate vs 6-7% RD) and Dartmouth ED acceptance rate is also much better when compared to Yale’s SCEA acceptance rate, meaning I would have a better chance with Dartmouth since I’m also an “average Joe applying to the ivy schools,” as isl4andsurf3r put it. </p>

<p>I’ve decided that I’m going to apply to Yale SCEA though, because I would rather go to Yale, and I want to give myself the best chance possible of getting accepted. Although I would have a better chance of getting into Dartmouth if I applied ED there, if I somehow got into Dartmouth ED and Yale RD, I would never get over the fact that I had already committed to Dartmouth and couldn’t go to Yale. I do run a greater risk of getting denied by both, but I’m willing to take that as I view the risk vs reward as completely worth it, especially since I have great state schools to fall back on, which if you’re from Virginia, you do too.</p>

<p>So basically to sum it all up, you just need to decide whether or not you’d be willing to sacrifice acceptance at Yale if you get into both and applied ED at Dartmouth, or if you’d rather run greater risk of denial at both for a greater chance of acceptance at Yale. I don’t know if I helped at all, but your situation sounded so much like mine I had to share.</p>

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<p>I don’t think you have to worry about this happening because if you got into Dartmouth ED, you would have to withdraw all your other applications.</p>