<p>okay, so all my life I've dreamt of going to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Now, im a senior and it's time to face reality. I don't have high enough scores to get into Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Is there ANY school out there that is slightly less lower prestige/tier than Dartmouth. yet still has the LAC feel, great social scene, teacher and professor relationship, work hard-play hard, pretty campus and focus on undergrad?</p>
<p>You've described Colgate perfectly. There is a lot of cross-over in applications between Dartmouth and Colgate.</p>
<p>Davidson, Washington and Lee, Furman, Vanderbilt, Sewannee, WashU, Grinnell, Hamilton, Lafayette, BC, Holy Cross, Fordham...the list is almost endless.</p>
<p>Dont obsess about ONE school. Its always a bad idea. Even for those who "get in", when they get there they may find it wasnt a good fit for them. ALWAYS pick the school that is your best fit (cf. "prestige"). And that is almost always a match school.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I would agree that Colgate is probably the closest school in character to Dartmouth from an ethos, social, sports and location perspective. 61% of my class at Colgate was W/L or rejected at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>My impression is that, over the last 20 years or so, Dartmouth has changed. Many would say it has been for the better as its remote, independent nature sometimes bred an individualism and conservatism that was frequently out of step with (and even embarrassed) the academic world. The evolution from a campus with a relatively high level of conservative "activists" (for lack of a better word) to a much more liberal environment has been predictably rocky as different interest groups wrestle with and argue about these changes. Faculty and much of the current student body favor the moves to create a more liberal campus environment, but the alumni are completely split. As a result, there have been great battles fought over matters like board representation with ugly charges being tossed back and forth. </p>
<p>IMO, Dartmouth remains a unique and special experience for its students, but less so than in its past. Certainly, the local physically rough and remote terrain will always be differentiated, but the nature of the student body and their interests, and how this affects the campus's vibe, look and feel increasingly like what you'd find at many, many other schools. </p>
<p>I would echo many of the recommendations that nocousin posts above. If you are looking for colleges that are a little easier to get into but have some of the attractive elements of Dartmouth, then I would probably add Wake Forest, William & Mary and Lehigh (though all of these are now more conservative than the Dartmouth of today).</p>
<p>Dartmouth, Colgate, Middlebury, Williams, Bucknell & St. Lawrence University have similiar campus cultures. Wake Forest & Duke are of the same vein but not quite as similiar. The Univ. of Virginia shares many qualities with Dartmouth. Vanderbilt is a Southern version of Dartmouth, in my opinion.
I do not agree that W & L, Furman, Sewanee, Davidson & WashUStL are similiar although four of the five are very preppy--which is a trait often associated with Dartmouth in a good way.</p>
<p>Colby & Bowdoin would also be worth looking into if you like Dartmouth College. Dartmouth, although technically a national university, is actually the perfect size for a LAC (about 4,000 undergrads) & has many of the qualities of a LAC. Colgate University, however, is probably most similiar to Dartmouth College.</p>
<p>
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Dartmouth, Colgate, Bucknell & St. Lawrence University have similiar campus cultures.
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Colby & Bowdoin would also be worth looking into if you like Dartmouth College.
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<p>Agree with Colgate (particularly), Bucknell, Colby, and SLU. </p>
<p>Some of the New England LACs have an outdoorsy, athletic feel similar to that of Dartmouth, and a similar undergraduate focus -- but they don't have Greek systems or the same kind of social scene. If you don't have the scores for Dartmouth, then Williams, Middlebury, or Bowdoin are probably reaches as well. But you should look at Colby (that's Colby College in Maine, not Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire)</p>
<p>Dartmouth - 100 SAT points + 30 degrees average winter high temperature = Wake Forest</p>
<p>matches- bowdoin, colgate, tufts, davidson
safeties- bucknell, holy cross, trinity (ct)</p>
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matches- bowdoin, colgate, tufts, davidson
safeties- bucknell, holy cross, trinity (ct)
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</p>
<p>This completely depends on the individual student's profile. With a 1430 SAT, top 3% of hs class I would agree. At a 1300 SAT, top 13% of hs class, then Bowdoin, Colgate, Tufts, Davidson would be reaches and Bucknell, Holy Cross, Trinity would be matches and you would have to include schools like Hobart and St. Lawrence as safeties.</p>
<p>gadad's post on Wake Forest gets an A+. Concise, yet informative, descriptive, and (from my understanding) true.</p>
<p>You really need to be in the top 10% of your class for Bucknell and Holy Cross unless you are a varsity athlete.</p>
<p>Colgate, Bucknell, Colby, Trinity. All have a similar campus vibe to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>I don't think Tufts is really all that similar to Dartmouth or these other schools. I also think Bowdoin is slightly different, but you should really visit and determine that for yourself.</p>
<p>Dartmouth's true advantages are its incredible undergrad resources, sophomore summer, amazing college directed study abroad, international study across majors (Dartmouth led), the rassias program for languages, thesis opps, etc. Also big weekends every term, tightknit community, and lots of alumni loyalty. In my eyes, the only other schools with this type of "undergrad focus" are the LACs. I think at a less competitive level Colgate and maybe Colby or Bates are in some ways similar to Dartmouth (although less diverse).</p>
<p>Rice fits your description, albeit it's in the South (in Houston).</p>
<p>Slipper, I don't think Bates is all that similar. But again, a prospective student should visit and determine this for themselves.</p>
<p>Lindsay,</p>
<p>I agree that Hamilton, Middlebury, Colgate, Williams and Amherst are closer to the Dartmouth "feel", with schools like Bates, Vassar ans Wesleyan also worth putting on the list. While there are aspects of Davidson similar to Dartmouth, it is, IMO much more conservative than Dartmouth. If you happen to be Jewish, you'll feel much more comfortable at the schools on this list than at Davidson. Advantage of Dartmouth-- better college town and ski slope all its own. Advantage of Davidson- they do your laundry!</p>
<p>A propos the previous post: While Davidson does not have a large number of Jewish students, it does have both a Hillel and a rabbi adjunct chaplain. (I suspect that the Jewish community in the greater Charlotte area is probably at least as large as the Jewish community in the greater Hanover/Upper Valley area--Charlotte itself has several synagogues, and there is also a non-college-related Jewish community around Lake Norman that holds services in Davidson.) Although I wouldn't say either Dartmouth or Davidson is an ideal place for a strictly observant Jewish student, I would not want to belittle the possibility and appeal of Davidson to Jewish students in general.</p>
<p>Also, and this speaks to one of the recurring CC images that may do both the school and prospective students a disservice: The atmosphere at Davidson is not unduly conservative, it is just not monolithically liberal. (Davidson is a college town in a rather bustling metropolitan area. In 2004 it had an abundance of Kerry/Edwards signs and stickers; I imagine this year it has an abundance of Obama/Biden signs.) </p>
<p>I actually have spent a fair amount of time visiting both Hanover and Davidson and I'd say the schools do feel rather alike, at least from the parental point of view--they are both happy sorts of places. Hanover is much more removed from a big city but is a regional cultural and medical center in its own right, and very close to the multitude of strip-mall shopping opportunities in West Lebanon. It is a larger town than Davidson and being right off I-91 makes it pretty accessible to lots of even bigger places. Davidson is tiny but is about 20 minutes from Charlotte and again, being right off an interstate makes it easy to get to a number of other places.</p>
<p>It is undeniably great to have your own ski slope; like Dartmouth, Middlebury has one, and it is also worth noting that Williams students have a very short trip to Brody and take advantage of that proximity. Davidson has no skiing nearby--unless you count water-skiing on Lake Norman, which students are able to enjoy at Davidson's very own Lake Campus:)</p>
<p>mattmom,
While I thik it is great that the rabbi of a nearby congregation has taken on the role as adjunct Jewish Chaplain at Davidson, <a href="http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x33281.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x33281.xml</a>, if you reread my post above, you'll note that I said a Jewish student would feel much more comfortable at the NE schools listed than at a school like Davidson. I still feel this is accurate. Per the attached link, Davidson has about 60 Jewish students-- with means it is about .035% Jewish. That's a pretty under-represented population. If Davidson now has its own Hillel, that is something pretty new. They used to participate with a nearby Hillel. All I am saying is that if the OP happens to be Jewish and happens to be looking for an active Jewish population, schools like Davidson, Wake Forest, etc (both of which my s looked at and rejected for these reasons) will not feel as comfortable for a Jewish student, especially if one is looking for an active Jewish Hillel. I also didnt say Davidson was "unduly conservative". I said it is more conservative than Dartmouth, and I stand by this statement as well. Don't get me wrong, Davidson is a great school. My s spent a month there one summer and really enjoyed it, but for the reasons I mentioned above, it wasn't for him.</p>