<p>I received "likely" letters from both of these schools. I never even really thought that I would get into Dartmouth and I only applied there as a last second decision. I have had my heart set on UVA for the past two years. I applied to UVA early decision, but I was deferred. However, I received a "likely letter" in February from UVA. UVA's admission process has truly confused me, but at this point, it appears that I will most likely be accepted to both Darmouth and UVA. </p>
<p>I was wondering, in terms of respectability, are UVA and Dartmouth in the same league? I know UVA is not an ivy league, but it is one of the best public schools in the nation. Would it be a wise decision to go to UVA over Dartmouth? At UVA my major would be "Political and Social Thought" and at Dartmouth, my major is "Government." These two majors aren't exactly identical but they are comparable. I was wondering what school would be the best option for me if I want to pursue a career in public policy or politics?</p>
<p>UVA has a very good politics program, so it would definitely be beneficial to you to attend UVA for its curriculum. However, Dartmouth is a great school as well, so it comes down to other factors, like money, getting into any honors programs, etc. People, especially politics people, know UVA very well. While Dartmouth has all around reconigition for being an Ivy, for the field you're looking at I'd say UVA is just as visible if not more.</p>
<p>The PST major, though, isn't a general major. You have to apply to later on to get in, just in case you didn't know about that. There aren't a whole lot of people in it.. I'm not sure if that's because it's difficult to get in or not many people apply.</p>
<p>danidebold, you also have to take factors other than academics into consideration. Social life, for example, is almost surely better at UVA, as is the weather (new hampshire winters...watch out.) UVA also boasts decent ACC sports and, as sv3a noted, an excellent politics and government program.</p>
<p>You might want to check out UVA's Miller Center of Public Affairs:</p>
<p>i think both schools would serve you equally well academicly. uva might have an edge being close to DC, but really that isn't that significant.. there are only really a few things to decide between. </p>
<p>cost - uva is about $6000 cheaper a year
sports - ACC vs. ivy league
location/weather - uva will be warmer - but if u like to ski stay away
size - uva is a little more than 3x the size of dartmouth
social - don't know what dartmouth is like...but i can say i legitimately don't know anyone who doesn't party hard on the weekends, if not earlier. if thats not your cup of tea, u may want to avoid.</p>
<p>I recommend you post this on the Dartmouth board too, since a UVA board will naturally be biased (as will the Dartmouth board). I applied to both and know a lot about both, but I think it'd be better for you to hear from students what their experiences are and compare it to what you're looking for.</p>
<p>Yah, very true SoccerGrl010. I posted this thread on the Dartmouth board. We will see the response. Right now, I am leaning towards UVA but my parents think that Dartmouth has a better reputation and, because its an ivy league, they believe it will help me "go farther" in life. I don't think this is true at all, but, in the end, my parents are the ones paying the bills... :(</p>
<p>Well, that depends. Are you planning on going to grad school? The difference between UVA and Dartmouth (Ivy v public) in that regard is negligible. At Dartmouth you'll meet and make friends with people all over the country, as well as pretty much only meet very talented students. You will also find such students at UVA (though they are more spread out), but UVA is much larger and consists mostly of Virginia students.</p>
<p>In the end, I'd choose the school that I feel would be most conducive to me doing well in that university, especially if you're planning to do grad school. You can't go wrong with either one regarding political science or the social sciences in general.</p>
<p>"At Dartmouth you'll meet and make friends with people all over the country, as well as pretty much only meet very talented students. You will also find such students at UVA (though they are more spread out), but UVA is much larger and consists mostly of Virginia students."</p>
<p>I wouldn't be suprised if at Dartmouth, even though its a private school, New Englanders are a majority. So I don't think you should be concerned about UVa having too many students from one area.</p>
<p>Will you take Echols into account? I think that if you get into Echols that will definitely be a reason to go to UVA.. you get a ton of benefits (ex. no foreign language requirement!) and it generally looks really great. UVA Law is also killer.. Dartmouth is also a great school, but it is really up to the factors that those before me posted</p>
<p>regardless, lets not get ahead of ourselves (even though i previously posted on this thread ;-). wait to see where you actually get into before you start thinking about this - likely letters are not admission tickets. You may not even have to think about this unless you actually get into both schools.</p>
<p>I believe Dartmouth's likely letter is a sure thing, and I know of nobody, online or real life, who got a likely letter but got rejected/waitlisted in the end</p>
<p>Yeah, I remember reading that Dartmouth's only eventually denied admission to 2 likely letter people in the last 10 years or something like that</p>
<p>sv3a...i somehow find that statistic unreliabe...i really really really doubt that in dartmouths newspaper that there was an article "only 2 people rejected ever who received likely letters" Im somewhat curious where u read that.</p>
<p>Another CCer wrote that in the likely letter thread</p>
<p>"I assume this is why UVA puts that last little notice in? So that a person can't take them to task--or court--for saying that they were guaranteed admission in a "likely" letter. (Dartmouth DOES guarantee admission, and apparently has only turned down 2 in more than 10 years after instating this "likely letter" policy.)"</p>
<p>Unless this is wrong, I'm assuming that Dartmouth actually doesn't hand out likely letters but rather guaranteed letters, so they're different from the ones UVA sends out.</p>
<p>Dartmouth seems to have very few grad students in the arts and sciences, which means you'd get more of your profs' attention there, and also not have grad students as teachers. That's a big difference between Dartmouth and UVa. Seems like a no-brainer in favor of Dartmouth as long as you can take the cold weather, afford it, and don't mind the small-time sports.</p>
<p>That doesn't exactly look like a "no-brainer" to me, tourguide. UVA's got more history, a better social life, better weather, and excellent academics. The classroom environment is not that of a large, underfunded state school, and professors are highly accessible.</p>
<p>And of course you are completely objective, right Cavalier? Just kidding. I've been to both campuses and agree UVa is probably the only state school in the country that could rival Dartmouth in the ways you mentioned. I'll retract the no-brainer comment. But I am related to and friends with some profs at major schools, and they seem to wish undergrads would just go away so they could focus on research and grad students. Sad but true. Glad to hear that's not the case at UVa.</p>
<p>and tourguide, dartmouth and uva graduate a&s schools are both 15% the size of the undergrad a&s. Based on that, you don't get any more attention from dartmouth professors than you would from virginia professors.</p>