<p>Hey!</p>
<p>I just got accepted into Dartmouth and UPenn, and I have no idea which one's better for Pre-med. I'm an international students, Indian living in Dubai, and help available here is limited. Does anybody have any advice?</p>
<p>I'm really here to speak only for the Dartmouth experience. I'm currently a Neuroscience and History double major, along with pre-med. The pre-med advising and the directors who work with pre-med students are absolutely amazing. The Nathan Smith Society (pre-med society) that you can join your first year year here is BEYOND helpful. The man who runs it, Lee Witters is really a phenomenal resource. He organizes a lot of talks, dinners, and meet-and-greets with doctors and professors from Dartmouth as well as the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, otherwise known as DHMC. The medical center/hospital offers Dartmouth students a variety of shadowing and surgical volunteers. As a freshman, I was able to shadow a neurologist at DHMC for a term. He was absolutely amazing as an adviser and for someone like me, who's trying to decide if I want to stick with pre-med or not, that was really important to me. The neurosci dept here is also really good, with professors who are completely approachable and whatnot, and Dartmouth has high placement for grad schools, med schools, business recruiting, etc. </p>
<p>I think that coming from Dubai, it would be a really thorough and balanced immersion into college life if you came to Dartmouth. The college really emphasizes diversity, not just in the racial/ethnic sense in the US, but especially throughout the world. The percentage of international students is incredibly high, and I truly, truly love it. One of my suite mates is from Afghanistan, and there are people on my hall from Pakistan, Israel, and Norway. And that's just on my floor. </p>
<p>So yea. </p>
<p>If you would like to know any more, please feel free to let me know.</p>
<p>Strawboy, thanks for answering my quesiton in the other thread. I wonder whether you know a place where I can find the Dartmouth medical school placement data.</p>
<p>zebamoopen- I was waitlisted at both of those schools for pre-med. pick either one, and thanks for giving me a chance at the other one! ;)</p>
<p>Strawboy - Thank you very much! That was very insightful. It's really hard not being able to visit the campus and make an informed decision. I was wondering what life outside the classroom is like there? What's the city like etc etc? And what are the advantages of Dartmouth being a relatively smaller school? </p>
<p>Even I plan on double-majoring, though I'm still not sure in what. Is it alot tougher doing that? And I'm glad about the international students bit! I was a bit worried because I seem to be the only one who's gotten through from Dubai! </p>
<p>Slim2None - You might have to wait a bit, because I'm back to square one now :-D The moment I feel like I'm leaning towards once school, something else pulls me back.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is nestled in a valley, along a river and among impressive mountain ranges. The campus is an intregral part of the small town which is very clean and pretty. The entire area is quite beautiful, the air very fresh. Many students take advantage of what nature has to offer. When freshman first arrive on campus, they immediately join with small groups of fellow freshman on what is known as a DOC (Dartmouth Outing Club) trip - involving any of a number of outdoor experiences (hiking at various levels of difficulty, kayaking, working on an organic farm...). These trips are planned and run by fellow students. Upperclass students clamor for the chance to work them because they had such a fantasic experience when they were freshman and want to pass that on. They infuse the experience with fun. There is something about the tone of comaraderie experienced on these trips, and sense giving from upperclass to new freshman - the passing on of traditions, information about classes, etc. that sets the tone for the next 4 years. </p>
<p>After the DOC trip, there is a week of orientation - when freshman are welcomed by, meet and learn from the rest of the college community - the adminstration and faculty. Everyone is excited to welcome the new class. Faculty are very accessible, most classes small, none very large. The entire community is fairly tight-knit. </p>
<p>Fellow students are very bright, and friendly. There does not seem to be any cut-throat competition among students, and there is a tacit agreement among them that, at Dartmouth, all are on a level playing field - everyone deserves to be there and any kind of self-calling, even the mention of SAT scores, frowned upon. </p>
<p>The "D" plan lends itself certain advantages. Most students spend at least one quarter studying out of the country, and at least one other quarter (with the potential for more) interning or researching off (on) campus and because they can elect to be off campus any quarter (not just summer when they are in competition with students throughout the country for internships), they really have the potential for unique opportunities. Virtually all students, between their sophomore and junior year, spend the summer on campus as a class, and that too is a unique, bonding and enjoyable term.</p>
<p>These seem to be some of the advantages of Dartmouth that result, in part, from its relatively small size.</p>
<p>"any kind of self-calling, even the mention of SAT scores, [is] frowned upon"</p>
<p><strong><em>especially</em></strong> the mention of SAT scores.</p>
<p>Every time you say SAT, God kills a kitten. remember that.</p>
<p>Hahaaa.
I agree on the SAT thing. Omg.
Everyone here has superb scores, but no one talks about them... just b/c what's in the past is in the past.</p>
<p>To the OP, I've been trying to stress the international diversity. There are literally hundreds of countries represented here. My friends come from Israel, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China (a lot from Shanghai, Beijing), Russia, Poland, Pakistan, Venezuela, Chile, Canada...etc. It's really amazing.</p>
<p>As for the atmosphere, it's obviously more different than being in the city, but I really enjoy it. I think being in the city for undergrad can be quite distracting.. and it's not going to be like "oh..I remember the alma mater.....wait, not b/c it was just the city." It's very much centered around the college, and I really enjoy it here. In the fall, the scenery is drop dead GORGEOUS, with leaves that literally cover the entire warm-color spectrum..it's seriously incredibly beautiful. The winter, can be rough at times, I'm not going to lie. We had more snow than cold this year, but the trees-right-after-snow is really a scene to behold. Spring's awesome as usual, and summer's just right. </p>
<p>I'll add to this later.</p>