<p>Thanks for clarifying.</p>
<p>Visit and visit again. It is so difficult to try to quantify and explain these things when it’s based on deep and complex personal preferences. Spend a few nights at each campus and see for yourself.</p>
<p>Though the username suggests complete bias toward Dartmouth, both S and D considered many schools-- S '12 is at Dartmouth. D '13 chose Rice (because of the undergraduate research program- Century Scholar- she was offered) over both Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, and 10 or 11 other top 20 schools. Her final two were Dartmouth and Rice. She felt the undergraduate research opportunities at Dartmouth in her areas of science/math were comparable to Cornell’s and the other Ivies and she just liked the environment better at Dartmouth than the rest. As she said, it wasn’t as small and isolated as she originally thought and there was a lot more to do than she was lead to believe by others. Rice threw a lot of additional love at her (money), but we told her to make the decision soley based upon the right fit. If it wasn’t for that love, this science research oriented student would have been at Dartmouth. It really depends on your particular area of interest. There is sufficient research opportunites at many of the schools if you are good enough to get them, so the rest of the components of “the right fit” are what will generate happiness with the decision. The above comments illustrate that many feel there are a host factors that create that optimum fit. Good luck in finding them.</p>