<p>My D is stuck between the two programs. She was admitted into Northwestern's Mathematical Methods in Social Sciences today, and if she goes to Dartmouth, Mathematics and Social Sciences is what she wants to major in. What do you guys know about the two programs in addition to the fact that MMSS is a PA program while MSS is not. Thank you for any input to help her make up her mind.</p>
<p>I would focus much more on the overall school than the program. What does she aspire to do? What type of school does she like. In most cases Dartmouth edges out NU at business placement and grad placement, but NU is very strong. I would not choose for the "program", rather which school does she want to attend. "Program" ranks really only matter for a few majors in college, all of which are very "skilled or vocational." Examples include architecture, film, art, music, computer science, and engineering (if you want to be an engineer, most Ivy engineering grads tend to choose finance jobs). At the top level its usually the overall undergrad reputation which matters more. At the grad level its a different story.</p>
<p>i'd agree with slipper on this one. dartmouth has a different campus environment than northwestern, it's isolated and students seem to get very close through programs like sophomore summer, whereas northwestern is more integrated into chicago and, although it has a campus, has some synergy with the city. maybe an overnight at both would help her make her mind. TBH i love northwestern but i always think i would have liked dartmouth a lot too, but sometimes i feel i would have gotten restless or claustrophobic there, and things never seem to feel that way at nu, but dartmouth also seems to have its own esoteric cache</p>
<p>although i also might disagree that dartmouth places better. northwestern is really the go-to school for finance in chicago, especially if you're an MMSS student. I don't know how dartmouth fares in new york but i'd assume it faces a fair amount of competition from HYP wharton, etc. while northwestern has to contend with ross business majors but for the most part (especially MMSS) is in its own league in chicago</p>
<p>crazydad001,</p>
<p>I agree with the posters above. That said, as far as the program comparison goes, MMSS is a more superior program. If you look at the requirement of the two programs, Dartmouth's program is more like a baby MMSS. Out of MSS 10-course requirement, 4 are in social sciences (probably same area) and 4 are in math dept. These 8 courses don't provide any integration. The remaining two are the only ones that are from the MSS department. In MMSS, all of the 12 courses you take are specially designed for MMSS students and the curriculum is highly developed and structured and every MMSS student goes through the same curriculum. It's likely far more advanced by the time you hit the 3rd sequence of "Accelerated Mathematics for MMSS Students" and "Statistical Methods for MMSS Students". Because you take the same classes with same 19 or 29 (not sure they take 20 or 30 freshmen) people, you will get to know your classmates in the program very well.</p>
<p>Eldsifdl,</p>
<p>Dartmouth actually does incredibly well with east coast recruiting, only after Harvard, Princeton, and Wharton. Besides the strong alumni network, placement history, etc Dartmouth enjoys another big advantage: the D-plan and its off term internship opportunities. Since Sophomores stay during the summer, many take off a school year term. The elite firms have special Dartmouth-only offerings for the Fall, Winter, and Spring terms. So basically you get in with essentially very little competition from other top 10 schools.</p>
<p>northwestern also has a program like that called chicago field studies. firms including gs, mer, jpm, ms, and a plethora of other firms actually hold spots exclusively for northwestern students to come in and intern full-time during the school year (while the students get course credit). many of these field study internships turn into full-time offers</p>
<p>What's nice about MMSS is the program automatically fulfills <em>all</em> of the pre-reqs for Kellogg cert program. The odds are pretty good to get into the program as a MMSS student considering Honors Cal and MENU for non-MMSS students are both pretty tough for a lot of people. The number of people who can fulfill all the pre-reqs, hence the size of the applicant pool, is going to be somewhat or fairly limited. </p>
<p>MMSS is also an intellectually challenging program and it's great for students interested in research career in social sciences. Just want to throw this out since ibank/consulting/job placement seem to be the only thing people care about on this board sometime, as if the sole purpose of going to college is to get a job, instead of learning.</p>