Hello!
I am prospective student and my top colleges at the moment are Dartmouth, Cornell, and Northwestern. I have small connections at each school and could honestly see myself at each of them. That being said I was thinking about applying ED to one of them. I am really interested in pursing some sort of career involving math, specifically statistics or data science, and biology. For example a cross between the two like biostatistics. I also enjoy chemistry a lot. I was wondering if anyone had any input as to which of these three schools would be the best school to pursue such academic interests.
In those fields, Cornell and Northwestern are far better than Dartmouth. Cornell has the better data science program, but Northwestern has an equivalent math program. In general, either NU or Cornell will be excellent, so, in my opinion, you should choose between these based on which university appeals to you more by way of student body, location, etc.
That being said, there are plenty of colleges with programs in those fields which are equivalent to Cornell and NU, so why are these at the top of your list. Also, as has been mentioned elsewhere, ED doesn’t provide the boost that is suggested, based on admission rates for ED compared to those of RD applications.
NU is VERY different from Cornell and Dartmouth in-terms of location, as the former is relatively close to Chicago while the latter two are AT-LEAST an hour away from a major city. Undergraduate population-wise, it goes Dartmouth < Northwestern < Cornell. All schools do not have grade inflation in STEM, so they’re pretty similar in that regard. All schools have a similar distribution-based general-education requirement, but you might want to research the feasibility of double majoring or taking electives outside your major.
If any of those three, after further research, is your top choice, I highly, highly recommend applying ED, but ONLY if ALL of the following are true:
- You LOVE your ED school and would 110% attend if admitted.
- You're confident you can present a well thought out and crafted application by the ED deadline of November 1st.
- You and your family can afford your ED school if admitted (run the financial aid calculators if applicable.)
Hope that helps! Good luck with admissions!
As an opinion based on what you have posted, I think Cornell/CAS would suit you academically.
I can only speak to biology and chemistry at Northwestern, and what I learned from talking to students and touring Cornell.
I majored in biology (biochem), minored in chemistry at NU. Fantastic departments in each, especially within chemistry where there are plenty of labs in drug development. Classes are tough, but diverse and interesting. Many bio classes are pre-med focused, but especially after the intro courses, very well taught and rich experiences. As others have mentioned, grade inflation isn’t common. Cornell is similarly strong in bio, and I can’t comment on their chemistry but I doubt it‘a weak.
Myself and others were plenty prepared for PhD or MD pathways after completing bio and chem at Northwestern, taking spots at top programs.