<p>Just out of curiosity, which school do you think is more prestigious (not necessarily better, but more illustrious)?</p>
<p>Penn. But if you want name recognition go to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>It all depends on whose opinion you ask. Penn people say "Penn", and Dartmouth people say (surprise) "Dartmouth." I don't happen to go to either school, so here is my perspective:</p>
<p>Penn is a very fine academic institution, and its Wharton School for the undergraduate is unparalleled at any other university in terms of quality and prestige. It has a reputation for being very "pre-professional" though, which is a plus for Wall Street but bad if you are talking to someone who doesn't like today's emphasis on corporations, big paychecks and bonuses, etc. (hopefully you will see what I'm getting at there)</p>
<p>Dartmouth tends to be more selective and is usually considered more prestigious than Penn. However, a lot of people think that the tight-knit Dartmouth alumni network is kind of snobbish and elitist.</p>
<p>BUT...I wouldn't choose a school because of its prestige, and to be honest with you I don't think that anyone would hold it against you if you chose Penn over Dartmouth and vice versa.</p>
<p>Finally, to satisfy any Penn people who might post after me, Penn's pre-professional and "cut-throat" and competitive mentality is somewhat undeserved, as every college has its fair share of jerks and hypercompetitive people. It is an unfortunate perception, but one that nonetheless exists.</p>
<p>Penn has better name recognition. If I tell someone "I'm going to Penn" they'll say "O, Penn State?" If I tell someone "I'm going to Dartmouth" they'll be like "What's that?"</p>
<p>Choose: confusion with a solid state school or being unknown.</p>
<p>Cibbir, I really wouldn't say that Darmouth is more selective... if anything, they are both equally selective (both had around 15% admissions rates this year). Actually, I would say Penn is more selective, as they are looking for the best in 4 chosen fields (enginnering, business, nursing, arts and sciences). To each his own I guess.</p>
<p>I don't mean to be annoying or anything, but does it really matter. They are both Ivy League schools with well-known academic integrity. If you get into either, then pick the one that you like better, the one that you feel most comfortable with. Chances are that people respect both schools equally.</p>
<p>honestly, i did not know penn or dartmouth two years ago but penn is better IMO. penn has excellent grad schools--medicine--particularly. if you look up the MCAT averages, you will see that penn has the highest--even higher than harvard or jhu. if you are interested in grad school penn is better.</p>
<p>for college: Wharton >>> Dartmouth > Penn CAS > everything else at penn</p>
<p>wharton is the staple of penn's "prestige" even though many of its graduate programs are top ranked</p>
<p>what is the staple of dartmouth's prestige? i hate it when people from other forums come here and demean our school!
There are other things in penn that are top notch. the bioengineering program for example is excellent at penn</p>
<p>Penn manages a 15% acceptance rate with an incoming class of ~2500. Dartmouth manages a 15% acceptance rate with an incoming class of ~5. </p>
<p>That Dartmouth has a much smaller class size and still only manages a 15% acceptance rate shows how few people are applying to Dartmouth in comparison to Penn.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is not doing too well as it has the most anemic growth of applications (whereas Penn has had the strongest year-over-year application growth for a while--20% last year and 10% this year). Further proof of Dartmouth's problems is the ongoing alumni/trustees revolt over the direction of the university. It has been bleeding some very talented faculty.</p>
<p>All of Penn >> Dartmouth, and while it certainly wasn't always that way, it will remain that way into the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>yea i concur with JohnnyK</p>
<p>All of Penn>>>>>>>>>>>>>Dartmouth> Princeton</p>
<p>i think some of these posts are full of a lot of bull...Dartmouth is a great school and I think is more selective than Penn. Of course, selectivity rate should not, IF ANYTHING, be considered a major factor in determining whether or not you should attend the school...and quite frankly, neither should prestige. You have two schools with incredible labels. So why worry about whether one might be above the other in the stupid US News ranking?!?</p>
<p>You choose the school that feels like home to you. Where you can visit for a day as a non-student and find that "aha" moment where you say, "I really can envision myself here." THAT is what's important. Sheesh.</p>
<p>For 2006, Dartmouth had a 15.4% overall acceptance rate, and Penn had a 17.7% acceptance rate, so Dartmouth is in fact (slightly) more selective so to speak. The 2007 stats are not out yet, but over the past several years Dartmouth has had a consistently lower acceptance rate than Penn. I don't have an opinion about the selectivity of either school; I am just using the official data, and quoting percentages. The lower the acceptance percentage the fewer percent who are accepted, hence the selectivity factor.</p>
<p>However, as I have stressed before, you should not judge your college based on the acceptance rate or prestige. As I said in my last post: "BUT...I wouldn't choose a school because of its prestige." I still think that holds true.</p>
<p>Personally, I think Penn has a more renowned name although I think Dartmouth is more selective. Dartmouth is smaller and has more undergraduate attention than Penn, which is larger and in the city. Kind of opposites</p>
<p>Sorry Cibbir, but I was using 2007 statistics. As you see from the link below,
Penn and Dartmouth are almost exactly the same (while Penn dropped 1.7 percentage points, Dartmouth stayed relatively the same). I really hate the fights about prestige, but even if I wasn't going to Penn, I would still say its more prestigious and well known. Again, thats just my opinion.</p>
<p>99% of prestige comes from grad programs (ask Berkeley). Penn has 3 top of the line professional schools. Dartmouth has one (Wharton >>>>> Tuck). Dartmouth also has a med school, but it's not considered one of the very best med schools (Penn's is up there with Harvard and Hopkins). Penn has many top flight PhD programs and Dartmouth has _______ (someone fill in the blanks because I know nothing about Dartmouth PhD programs, I'm sure there are several good ones because it's an Ivy).</p>
<p>As neither a Penn or Dartmouth student: Dartmouth.
Penn has always been considered to be at the bottom of the Ivy League with Cornell, and even though it's a rather trendy school at the moment, Dartmouth wins easily.</p>
<p>for college: Wharton >>> Dartmouth > Penn CAS > everything else at penn</p>
<p>Not true at all.</p>
<p>I don't know how s snack defines 'trendy' but it certainly isn't by whose applications went up the most...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Penn has always been considered to be at the bottom of the Ivy League with Cornell, and even though it's a rather trendy school at the moment, Dartmouth wins easily.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, Dartmouth is the one at lower end of the Ivy League. Penn and Cornell are actually up there after HYP.</p>