<p>Primarily I am looking for a school that is top notch in the sciences (biochem and chem) and has abundant undergraduate research. But, having lived in the Rocky Mountains all my life, I would prefer to go somewhere where there are mountains and the mountains are well used.
Dartmouth appears to have the outdoorsy feel, but I know nothing about the academics. Please comment about the both the teaching quality and the research opportunities at Dartmouth, and suggest other schools that have that same mix of intellectualism and outdoorsy atmosphere. Do not worry about my stats.<br>
Thanks.</p>
<p>Have you researched these issues at all? Nothing?</p>
<p>The reason I posted this was because many of the schools I was looking to apply to were either in big cities or in the middle of the midwest; i.e. U of Chicago, Columbia, and Grinnell. I thought I would enjoy the adventures of the big city, but after a trip to the Chicago area and down through the rest of Illinois, I found out how much I missed the outdoorsy feel of Montana. I’ve considered going in-state but the academic quality just doesn’t cut it. </p>
<p>Primarily I wanted to get an idea of other top schools that have an outdoors feel paired with superior academics. </p>
<p>I’ve looked into UC San Diego and UC Boulder (Colorado) but kind of wanted to stay with the smaller schools. Colorado College has the outdoors atmosphere, but is not that well know. Dartmouth is another outdoors oriented student body, but I don’t know specific qualities that would separate it from all the other liberal arts colleges that “focus on teaching and encouraging undergraduate research.” </p>
<p>Feel free to add your suggestions. </p>
<p>P.S. This same topic is in the College Search and Selection Forum under “Mountains and Intellect”</p>
<p>I agree with gekkoman. If you researched Dartmouth for even 10 minutes, you would know that it should be on your list. It is an Ivy League school that has access to the outdoors – including mountains. To (arbitrarily) quantify Dartmouth’s academic excellence, I will say that U.S. News ranked Dartmouth #1 in undergraduate teaching, which means it edged out even the renowned, allegedly unparalleled Princeton undergraduate program.</p>
<p>I need not go into more detail at this point. To be honest, going by the statistics, it’s likely that you won’t get in. For now, focus on getting in. Apply to a wide swath of schools, and pray that you get into one of the really competitive ones. If you do – which I hope will be the case, since you seem like an intellectually curious person – then come back to this sub-forum, and let us convince you why Dartmouth is the best place to be!</p>
<p>I would encourage the OP to think beyond the access-to-the-outdoors criteria. I grew up in what was then a two stoplight town in MT, which even today is much smaller than the OPs home town. I certainly understand that there are schools that could be too urban to make an easy adjustment (UChicago and Columbia come to mind), and that those could readily be off the list. There is a whole huge world out there, and going off to college is a prime opportunity to explore it. By staying anchored in the “I like mountains” mentality, you may be denying yourself some transformative experiences.</p>
<p>But you should be considering the Claremont consortia, Reed, Whitman, Macalester, Grinnell. Earlham does well with Ph.D. placements in the sciences, and might throw you good aid. Swarthmore does good Ph.D. placements, but unless you get your test scores up is a high reach. (Until you get your scores up, adcoms will discount your #1 rank as indicative of a less than rigorous HS).</p>
<p>Family finance will be a challenge for you. There are lots of schools that you could get into, and then not be able to afford. The WICHE/WUE program opens up a lot of regional school access for you, but I am not sure your family can afford them. You may find that a full need granting LAC would be cheaper than WUE tuition.</p>