WashU is highly collaborative and friendly university. I don’t know what the others are like. The cultures differ between these colleges. If you want a highly collaborative university experience then WashU should definitely be on your short list. Its an awesome university and your FA package is incredible. Congrats! 
Also, you should definitely scratch Duke if you had a bad experience. Usually your first impression is right.
I’m still kinda stuck between the three, but more so between WashU and Dartmouth. I’m also really confused about the whole Duke thing because everyone I know seems to have gotten way more money from them and when I looked closely at grant money, Duke gave me half as much. But, Duke keeps bombarding my parents and I with emails of how great the school is and it’s making me feel like I’ll be missing out on opportunities.
With Wash U now on the table, I’d go for that! There is a great diversity of majors and I have heard that the students are friendly, collaborative, and serious about their studies. If you opt for a field of study other than the medical track, you will have many options. Winters are milder than Dartmouth too. Cost is slightly lower than Dartmouth too.
@mamaedefamilia WashU sounds like a win win! Just reread your post - you sound very happy with WashU.
@Le1997 You cannot go wrong with any of those colleges - they are all exceptional. Just go with your gut and pick the college that FITS you. At this point of the college process, FIT is really important. After all don’t you want to be happy? They say happy students are successful students. Its really true.
And as soon as you accept, Duke will be bombarding you with requests to pay your tuition.
WashU sounds like a great combination of Dartmouth and Duke, and with decent costs.
Okay, now I’m really confused. This whole week I’ve been leaning towards Dartmouth. Idk I went to visit WashU and I didn’t love it but that was before I saw it as a viable option. I liked the food and the dorms, but nothing really struck me except the John B Ervin Program. I think I’m also a little bitter about not getting into the John B Ervin Scholars Program and it may be influencing my decision. Also, I feel like once I fill out the tons of forms that WashU is asking me to fill out, the financial aid will go down significantly. But, I’m also scared of Dartmouth’s Greek life and aside from that I feel like I love Dartmouth more. I don’t mind Greek life but, I don’t want it to be overbearing. But, I don’t know. I’m navigating through these options all by myself because my parents don’t really know much about these schools and I really want to make the best choice.
Dartmouth. You liked it. They gave you some more money. It’s an Ivy so you don’t have to worry about missing Duke. You did not like your accepted students day at Duke. That is huge. Good luck. It will all be ok.
Will the WashU paperwork be completed And results given back to you by tomorrow ?
If you don’t like overbearing Greek life Dartmouth doesn’t sound like the right fit.
Have you heard back from any financial aid appeal at Duke ?
Duke basically said they don’t match with anyone and that they only consider appeals with excessive medical costs so they rejected the appeal. I looked into Duke’s financial aid package and realized that they were really only giving me about $30,000 in grant money and the rest of the financial aid was a series of loans and work study so I really can’t afford it. My parents are really slow with paperwork because they really don’t understand the college/financial aid process so they usually need me there to read it to them and ask them about it. But, I’ve been so busy this week that I really haven’t gotten a chance to help them. I assume WashU’s financial aid package is off because they are anticipating a pell grant and I don’t qualify for pell grants.
If it makes a difference to you, there is more socioeconomic diversity at Dartmouth. Last year, WashU came in dead last for socioeconomic diversity among elite colleges.
Can you list your remaining affordable choices ?
@brantly Actually, that matters to me a lot. I like Dartmouth’s commitment to creating a diverse class in all aspects
My remaining affordable choices are Dartmouth, WashU, and UTD
Ok so OP it is getting down to the wire. You are between Dartmouth and WashU. Both are fine schools and congrats are in order. You rec’d many great acceptances (Duke, UNC, etc).
From your posts I am assuming you are first gen college student? It must be stressful navigating all this on your own if your parents struggle with paperwork.
If you plan on going to med school you want to keep loans at a minimum. Time is of the essence and personally I think that you could benefit from posting your financial aid packages. The pell is a factor yes but I am confused about the differences between the two schools. There are many posters here with experience with finances and financial aid! Take advantage!!
Wash U :
Tuition, fees, room and board ____
Health insurance? ____
Net cost: ______
Grants _____
Subsidized loan _____
Unsubsidized loan ____
Amount needed to come up with: ____
Now do the same for Dartmouth.
Personally I would put aside transportation and work study for the moment and look at them at the end, once the other numbers already figured out. Again, other posters have a lot of experience but this is my suggestion, for a start.
@le1997 I agree with @momcinco 's recommendation regarding breakdown of what kind of aid you are getting from each.
The following diversity statistics cut and pasted quickly from niche - you might want to check other sources as well. Both campuses appear fairly similar (27% non-white at Wash U vs. 31% non-white at Dartmouth and each having 8% International students of unknown race/ethnicity. 9% are undeclared for race/ethnicity at Wash U as opposed to 15% for Dartmouth). These figures don’t capture socioeconomic diversity, for which Wash U has been rightly criticized in the past and for which it is taking steps to remedy. The fact that Wash U initially offered you more aid that Dartmouth did seems like a good sign.
As for your lingering bad feelings regarding the John Ervin scholarship, I would try to let that go. If your COA is around 13K, it sounds like you got full tuition or close to it from Wash U. They probably make choices about distributing these extremely competitive scholarships based on very nuanced fit criteria and I wouldn’t take it personally.
They are both good options - at this point, given that price is similar, I would investigate the course and faculty options for prospective majors, ask yourself what kind of student vibe you seek, and if you prefer a more urban vs. a more rural setting.
Wash U:
African American 6%
Asian 16%
Hispanic 5%
International 8%
Native American 0%
White 56%
Out-of-State Students 93%
Dartmouth:
African American 7%
Asian 14%
Hispanic 8%
International 8%
Native American 2%
White 46%
Out-of-State Students 98%
Yes, I agree with @mamaedefamilia - you shouldn’t even be upset over the John Ervin scholarship. You tried and did your best. That’s all you can do. Just in case you aren’t aware only a handful get it. In my D’s case only one person got a scholarship for her major. It is so hard to just getting into WashU and it is even harder to get the scholarship. You should be very happy you got into both of these schools. That wasn’t easy! In addition, you are receiving huge aid which is awesome. Congrats!
By the way, all the paperwork is all normal stuff - it is a pain but its worth it in the end.
Also, look closely at the aid offers and compare them. My vote is WashU because you said they will cost you the least out of pocket. Good luck and ask us anything and we will try to help.
@mamaedefamilia brought up another great point - Dartmouth is definitely more rural and WashU is more urban. Another nice thing about WashU is how close the airport is (20 min) - I don’t know if these things are important to you but they were to my D.
My D picked WashU because of its high collaborative atmosphere, the students are very nice and not competitive with each other, laid back, lots of restaurants, stunningly/beautiful campus, southern hospitality, loved the dorms (including the fact they were coed), offers study abroad in Florence with her class and professors, her major had some neat and unusual aspects to it, urban setting (was very important to her), close proximity to the airport, warmer climate, etc. Those are the small things that are important to her so you should decide what’s important to you. That will help you pick the place where you’d like to be at for the next 4 years.
Let me give you an example of what she didn’t like - there were colleges on her list that was in a rural setting, 2 hours from a major airport, had curfews where the opposite sex had to leave at midnight during the week and 2am on the weekends, super cold weather in the winters, heavy drinking/drugs, etc.
You are right to be concerned about Dartmouth’s greek life. Take a look at this… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/29/dartmouth-ban-liquor-drinking-reform_n_6567940.html
There is plenty of room at Dartmouth to not go greek. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/dartmouth-college/1820328-dartmouth-greek-life.html Pick where you will be happy. Trust your feelings.
At Dartmouth. Greek life dominates. You can “not” go Greek and be in the minority. You can even thrive from being in the minority. But Geek life is very strong and in past years has had to be reined in by the administration (ie., Greek parties on Thursdays made Friday classes basically dead and it became to prevalent with enough professors abdicating, thinking the trend too strong, that it had to be fixed.)
On the other hand, I don’t think you’re against Greek Life, since you picked some colleges where it’s quite strong (WashU, Duke, Dartmouth).
My D is at WashU and she isn’t part of Greek life and you don’t have to be if you don’t want to. There’s no pressure. She does attend some formals or parties.
About 35% are part of Greek life at WashU.
However at Dartmouth, over 64% are part of Greek life. That’s a big difference.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/stulife/greek-soc/glos_chapter_size_winter_16.pdf