<p>I've eliminated my two similar choices of dartmouth and duke, and its ultimately down to penn and amherst. i like each school for its own reasons. I can handle both the rural and the city, while I do prefer the city. The size is fine too, penn feels a little big but amherst does seem a little too small. i love the academics/opportunities at amherst but the social life/vivacity at penn wins. i dont really know how student life/student body compares that much though. i've vistied both and liked both.</p>
<p>major, undecided--i'm all over the place. perhaps english, psych, poli sci, or econ. any input/help would be greatly appreciated</p>
<p>Those two schools are so different!
Why did you eliminate Duke and Dartmouth? Was it financial? Otherwise, either one might be a middle ground between your remaining choices.</p>
<p>This doesn’t help in your decision, but I will just point out that both Amherst and Penn have chips on their shoulders: Amherst always puts down Williams (they did so even in their admitted students day last week), whereas Williams could care less (they never mentioned Amherst once). Penn is so stigmatized by its legacy of being the Ivy safety (think of Tufts syndrome to the nth degrree), that it already takes 50% of its class via ED and is moving in the future to take more. For many who were accepted, I would bet they applied ED just to max their chances of getting into an Ivy (any Ivy!) and are probably lukewarm in their hearts. Given that the academics are essentially the same, it would come down to whether you want to be in the city or in the country. And, whether you want to go through the rest of your life explaining that Penn is not Penn State . . .</p>
<p>The academics at both schools are comparable–Penn has many top-10 and top-20 liberal arts deparments (including English, Psych, and Econ), and also offers a breadth and depth of undergraduate curriculum (especially when the opportunity to take courses in Penn’s other schools including Wharton, the Law School, School of Design, Annenberg School for Communication, etc., is taken into account) not available at Amherst.</p>
<p>But you can’t go wrong at either school–either will get you where you ultimately want to go if you’re happy and productive while you’re there. It’s really a matter of personal choice and fit between these two schools, so go with your gut (or however else you normally make important decisions ) on this one. Good luck with your decision and, most important, be happy with it!</p>
Completely untrue. Penn has taken just under 50% of its class via ED for many years now, and it is NOT moving in the future to take more. In fact, this year it actually accepted FEWER applicants (1195) through ED than it did last year (1200).</p>
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Again untrue. Penn finds that its accepted ED applicants are among the most enthusiastic to be there, with many student leaders and Penn boosters coming from that ED pool. That is exactly why many years ago, Penn expanded the ED portion of the class to 48-49% (where it remains today), to ensure that it had a large core of students who really wanted to be there. That strategy has worked very well and today, the vast majority of Penn undergraduates are thrilled to be there.</p>
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Someone here appears to have a chip on the shoulder, but I don’t believe it’s Amherst or Penn. ;)</p>
<p>If you like cities, and Amherst feels a bit small, then you have made your choice. Amherst is a nice college town, and I happen to love the outdoor opportunities in the Pioneer Valley (lived there 15 years), but Amherst is a town, not a city, and Amherst College is small. </p>
<p>Penn–urban university
Amherst–college-town liberal arts college</p>
<p>So, what do you picture yourself doing on weekends? Have you looked into clubs, service organizations, and so on, at the two schools?</p>
<p>I agree with midmo. You like the city and I think a school thats a bit too big is better than one thats a bit too small. The latter could turn into a high school type situation where everyone knows each other by senior year. Sounds like your’e leaning UPenn.</p>
<p>Financial is not a problem. I just didn’t like the Southern location of Duke, and the too-rural location of Dartmouth. Penn was the similar school to Duke and Amherst to Dartmouth that i liked better. As for the chip on the shoulder explanation, I don’t partake. I chose to apply to amherst, and amherst only, with no concern for williams. And I love Penn without a concern for its “ivy prestige.” </p>
<p>I was actually leaning towards Amherst, but I guess a “bit too big than bit too small” is a good point. I knkow many high schoolers feel suffocated by their school’s size by come junior-senior year…</p>
<p>Personally I would choose Amherst:the LAC learning environment, the less pre-professional student body, and the nicer town would all sway me its direction.</p>
<p>Forget about campus environment. Go for the school that would offer you better success in job placements after college. Go for Penn if not Dartmouth.</p>
<p>^ That is just stupid. You do know that Amherst is very much on that level, right? Dartmouth=Penn=Amherst in job placements. There is NO difference between these three. OP, please ignore RML’s ignorance.</p>
<p>That’s because they’re often presented with better offers and career opportunities than Amherst grads are. Whether that’s due to school prestige or deep alumni connection in WS is beside the point. The point is, if the school is really that great, it would attract the best employers. HYPSM + Caltech, Wharton, Dartmouth are good examples. Amherst is obviously not in that league. But you can probably get more attention from your profs at Amherst, and that would perhaps be a great experience when you’re aiming for grad school.</p>
<p>Check SA stats for JPM on the IB forum here on CC. 2 Amherst kids got Analyst slots, while none from Dartmouth did. You’ll see at other firms, that it’ll be the opposite, i.e a couple from Dartmouth and none from Amherst. These two schools are very comparable in job placement. Penn (because of Wharton) beats both pretty easily in the Finance fields, but does equally as well in everything else.</p>
<p>You need to understand that for colleges the tiers go something like this:</p>
<p>Tier 1: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford</p>
<p>Tier 2: MIT, Caltech, Duke, Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, UChicago, Brown, Cornell, Georgetown. [a couple more that I can’t remember]</p>
<p>^ You’re not serious, are you? I would never in the life of me think that MIT is inferior to HYPS. You’ve got to be really stupid to think that it is. MIT and Georgetown, for example, do not belong to the same sentence. MIT would pawn each and every school you listed in that tier, save for Caltech. You are a big fool if you think I am wrong. </p>
<p>And, as for your JPM story, it’s just purely anecdotal. For me to believe that story, and somehow, counter argue the Forbes’ data, you’ve got to present the official JPM data. Amherst is a good LAC. I don’t question that. But I don’t see it as a more popular feeder school for BB than Dartmouth.</p>
) on this one. Good luck with your decision and, most important, be happy with it!</p>