I need help deciding whether I should ED at Dartmouth or at Williams College. Both places are pretty equal on the basis of their campuses and surrounding areas, but I cant decide which place is a better suit for me. Can someone give me some insight to help me make a decision. I want to major in physics and I am a PA resident.
Here are my stats:
UWGPA: 3.985
WGPA: 4.55
SAT: 1460/1600
9 AP classes, the rest honors classes
Founder of the Sports Science Club
Award for Excellence in English
Captain of the Ultimate Frisbee Team
Bronze Presidential Service Award
Bronze Congressional Award
Varsity Golf
Varsity Volleyball
National Honors Society
Key Club Member
Anti Drug and Alcohol Club
NSLC Engineering
If you think your interst in physics might lead you to an engineering degree, Dartmouth might be a better fit.
They are both amazing schools.
Whichever YOU prefer.
Both will want math-sci ECs, for stem. That’s more than founding a club or doing a paid program. I always say, don’t apply anywhere where you really don’t know what matters, more than stats and some activities. Especially not when your targets are so fiercely competitive.
Dartmouth and Williams are kindred schools and their similarities are more numerous than their differences. That said, there are indeed some important differences. Dartmouth is significantly larger than Williams and is in an appreciably larger town. Dartmouth also has a non-negligible grad student population. Williams has some M.A. programs but Dartmouth has PhD students as well as M.D. and M.B.A. So while it’s undergrad-dominant, undergrads aren’t the only game in town. Dartmouth also has the Thayer School of Engineering, if you’re inclined in that direction. All of this gives Dartmouth a broader range of educational opportunities. Williams provides a stellar education but can’t really match the breadth of resources at Dartmouth. Both schools attract similar student bodies, though my experience is that Williams is slightly more learning-for-the-sake-of-learning and Dartmouth leans a little more pre-professional. At the end of the day, though, the only way to decide which is a better fit for you is to visit, preferably overnight during the school year.
Are you full-pay able or applying for FA? Need to determine that first. If you’re applying for FA, then run NPC on both schools to compare. In our case, Dartmouth was impressively generous and Williams not so – which doesn’t mean would be the same in your case.
Sort of, but not in the traditional sense. Williams is a co-sponsor of two small specialized MA programs, in conjunction with two institutes that are located in Williamstown near the campus. The institutes basically operate their own mini-campuses, under the academic auspices of the college. The MA programs don’t have a lot of interaction with the college proper, although there may be some shared faculty appointments.
The co-sponsored programs are an MA in Art History with the Clark Art Institute, and an MA in Development Economics with the Center for Development Economics. The total enrollment in both programs is around 40-50 students.
There will be opportunities to abuse drugs, particularly alcohol, at both schools. However, the issue of excessive drinking tends to be particularly associated with Dartmouth, due to the prominence of Greek culture there. Williams is known for going to the other extreme; they strictly banned fraternities and sororities decades ago. The Greek-dominated social environment at Dartmouth vs. the completely Greek-absent social environment at Williams is arguably one of the most striking differences between the two schools today.
Different schools use ED for different reasons. Some schools use it to separate the students who really want to go there from the ones who are using it as a backup in case they don’t get into the colleges they really want to attend (Tufts, Northwestern are examples). So ED at these schools is usually an easier way to get accepted–they reward your devotion to the college–and some students get accepted who probably wouldn’t in the Regular Decision process.
However, schools that are many students’ #1 or #2 choice (Harvard & Notre Dame are examples) have plenty of devoted applicants, & it seems like the ones they choose in the ED round are those at the top of their applicant pool–those they KNOW would be accepted in the regular round.
I’m not exactly sure which group Williams & Dartmouth fall into, but maybe someone else here can help.
I think your chances are better at Dartmouth, bigger college, more spots. Williams ED is better for legacy, recruited athletes, URMs and the likes, With fewer spots, my guess is you’d be deferred to the RD decision round anyway.