<p>So a friend of mine was admitted into MIT under Early Action, and has just recently been admitted into Stanford and Dartmouth under Regular Decision. He's asked for my opinion, because he doesn't know much about Stanford, but I can only offer him personal experiences being on the campus during a summer program, some generic information about the school, and a few facts here and there.</p>
<p>So the question is, where do you think he should attend? But being in this Dartmouth forum, what would you tell him about Dartmouth to convince him to attend versus the other two schools? </p>
<p>A few things about him: he wants to play football (not the top priority, and knows that he's not good enough for Stanford, but can definitely play at MIT or Dartmouth), he's either considering engineering or economics, and we live in a small-time city on the coast of GA and go to a small school that doesn't so often have these kinds of acceptances. Also, originally, he was considering Dartmouth over MIT for the following reasons: they have a better football team, a better campus (to him at least), and it's an Ivy. If he attends Stanford, he'll probably go into economics.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask questions if need to for a better response. But any kind of opinion is welcomed. </p>
<p>Why Dartmouth?, why not!!!</p>
<p>Dartmouth is one of THE BEST schools for undergrads, academically and community. This year Dartmouth rejected/deferred some outstanding applicants who even got accepted to Stanford and MIT.</p>
<p>“So the question is, where do you think he should attend?” So… WHY should we think instead of him and WHY are you trying to convince him to choose Dartmouth over two schools???</p>
<p>Your friend SHOULD consider that which school should be a good fit for him.</p>
<p>“Also, originally, he was considering Dartmouth over MIT…” That is why he applied at MIT under EC…</p>
<p>Last summer, I spent over two months to DISCOVER my ideal school and I did. I did not apply at those schools.</p>
<p>Viva BIG GREEN.</p>
<p>@JimmyAtParadise</p>
<p>I’m actually not trying to convince him to go to Dartmouth. I actually posted this same question in the Stanford and MIT forums (but swapped out “Dartmouth” with “Stanford” and “MIT”), because I know those in the Dartmouth forum have a tendency to be biased towards Dartmouth, and Stanford in the Stanford forums, and MIT in MIT’s. You all, in each respective forums, are the ones that know the schools best, since it’s where you plan on attending or apply to or dream of; it only makes sense that you want to go to Dartmouth, MIT, or Stanford for a reason. What exactly is that reason? For example, I’m going to Cal, and I lurk around in Berkeley’s forum often and know more about Berkeley, because that’s where I want to go; it’s only sensible that I know plenty about it. </p>
<p>So again, I 100% understand that it’s not my right to make any kind of decision for my friend or should even try to convince him to go anywhere, because I don’t know him as well as he knows himself. But he’s simply asking for my opinion, and as a good friend, I want to give him a good opinion that’s been made after knowing several facts and pros and cons of each school. An opinion that’s grounded with a strong base of facts and reasoning. </p>
<p>Maybe I phrased the question wrong, and that’s my fault, so I guess I’m pretty much asking you (and whoever that views this), a person with some knowledge of Dartmouth (I’m assuming), what makes Dartmouth better than MIT and Stanford in your eyes? </p>
<p>I have no personal knowledge of Stanford or MIT, so your question is a hard one for me to address, but that’s never stopped me from expressing opinions before. Dartmouth is very strong in economics (that might even be an understatement) and engineering. In fact, Thayer (the engineering part of that sentence) will evidently be getting a big boost in coming years: <a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2014/03/26/news/students-faculty-support-thayer-expansion”>http://thedartmouth.com/2014/03/26/news/students-faculty-support-thayer-expansion</a> </p>
<p>It sounds as though your friend would be a walk-on in football. Probably more likely to work at Dartmouth than Stanford, and, yes, Dartmouth would be a higher level of play than MIT. And, it’s an Ivy. That’s not something to undervalue – in athletics or academics or the value of the degree (see below). </p>
<p>In terms of location, I think Dartmouth has the others beat hands down. Even though it’s not as convenient to a major airport, your friend’s total travel home from Hanover (including the Dartmouth Coach ride to Logan in Boston) would probably be about the same as Palo Alto to SFO to Atlanta (or wherever). Depending on where he would fly into, it might actually be shorter, since there could be easier connections to regional airlines. And, has he been to Stanford? It’s nice enough campus, but the charm of Hanover & New Hampshire versus the sprawl & traffic of Santa Clara County? That one’s a no-brainer to me. </p>
<p>One thing to consider is where your friend might want to land after college. All three schools are national “brands” (as it were), but I’d hazard the guess that Dartmouth would offer better access to East Coast financial (although daughter '13 has a friend who graduated from Stanford the same year and landed a great job on Wall Street, so …) and Stanford might be stronger on the West Coast (although the local Dartmouth Alums are very active, so …) – and my personal opinion is that an Ivy degree plays better nationally than a Stanford degree does. </p>
<p>I also find it odd that Stanford actually has more graduate students than undergraduates, and I wonder how that plays into faculty interactions with students. One of the things that sets Dartmouth apart is its attention to undergraduate teaching. Daughter saw that first hand. The relationships she had with professors who will be mentors for years to come and the opportunities she had for independent research were … fantastic. </p>
<p>All the best to your friend. And, welcome to Berkeley! GO BEARS! </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I’ve made my comments about Stanford as unbiased as possible. </p>
<p>@AboutTheSame</p>
<p>This has been an excellent post! I appreciate your opinion very much and this was exactly something that I was looking for! Thank you so much! I’ll have him read this post himself! And no, he has not been to Stanford University. We live in GA, so it’s quite the stretch. I have though, as well as stay overnight for 10 days, therefore I can only give him my opinion and feel of Stanford’s campus.</p>
<p>I am an international prospective applicant got accepted to Dartmouth. As I said I spent much time to explore most top schools’ websites and forums during last summer.</p>
<p>Facts about Dartmouth:
<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/admissions/facts/”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/admissions/facts/</a>
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching</a></p>
<p>and
In department of Computer Science there are very famous professors like Prof. Thomas Coremen that really care about students. Also, there are exceptional opportunities for most talented students at The Neukom Institute for Computational Science:
<a href=“http://neukom.dartmouth.edu”>http://neukom.dartmouth.edu</a></p>
<p>and
D-Plan: Trimesters, Unique study abroad, Internships…
<a href=“Home | Dartmouth Admissions”>Home | Dartmouth Admissions;
<a href=“Home | Dartmouth Admissions”>Home | Dartmouth Admissions;
<p>and
Dartmouth Outing Club
<a href=“Dartmouth Outdoors”>Dartmouth Outdoors;
<p>and… </p>
<p>The D-Plan has its pluses and minuses. It’s been denigrated in some places as a means of squeezing more students into too few on-campus rooms, but it’s also been praised for the internship and other options it provides. On balance, I’m in favor of it – and in favor of the quarter plan generally. I went to a semester school (many centuries ago), and I think I would probably have done better on a quarter system. That is something else for your friend to consider, AsianAlly. The quarter system is very intensive, but you have fewer classes at one time. I saw this more in law school than college, but it was still – what do I read tonight? I also have to mention the FSP [foreign study programs] at Dartmouth. Another one of the things that sets it apart from other schools. Okay, I’m biased. </p>
<p>OK… I’m going to take a stab at this but please understand that it is limited by the experiences and students I have met. Son is a 3-2 student at Thayer. His home school is a SLAC, and in choosing which school to do the engineering (the 2 portion of the 3-2) he had several choices…Columbia, Cal Tech, and Dartmouth were the three. In the end, he obviously chose Dartmouth because their approach to engineering was more in line with his way of learning. It was much more hands on and experiential learning then Columbia for sure, and probably Cal Tech which would be very similar in my opinion to MIT. He is finishing up the first year at Dartmouth and his experience has been wonderful. He has had a chance to do research with a top professor from day 1 (he emailed the prof with his interest and the guy who usually only works with grad students took him on immediately once learning he was also a physics major) His first engineering class involved working with a team, designing a solution to a problem, building a prototype, and putting together a business plan to fund and sell that product. In his second semester he was allowed to take a senior level/grad level course, got along well with the prof who is now helping mentor him for his senior thesis back at his home school. That same prof designed a course for him for this quarter that he and a few (3) of his classmates will take on which involves a lot of design and hands on lab work. These opportunities would simply not be available to him at his home school, or Columbia where the engineering program is more rigid. I can’t really speak to MIT, but that prof that I mentioned got both his Masters and Doctorate at MIT and one of the reasons he felt compelled to allow Son such a wide berth was because it was denied to him as a student. When speaking with him over his spring break son expressed to me that Dartmouth profs and particularly the engineering department have a can do attitude and rather then just say no to a student’s interests and requests, the answers always seem to be “let’s see how can we accomplish that for you!.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, unlike About The Same… I’m not a huge fan of the quarter system. For the record, Stanford also operates on a quarter system. What I see, is a pattern where profs start the quarter off lightly, but things build to a feverish pitch very quickly. In both semesters, there were scrambles to fit in all the course material by the end of the quarter and compared to his SLAC, the depth of the course work was not as deep especially for the material covered towards the end of the quarter. </p>
<p>Overall, I think Thayer has been exceptional albeit slightly different then a traditional engineering school like MIT. I do think the student body at MIT is probably of a higher caliber, but at this level, we’re really splitting hairs. The kids I know that went to MIT were just all amazing each having won Intels, Intl Math competitions etc. </p>
<p>Your friend has great choices, but I would suggest that he go visit all three and see where he feels the most comfortable and not rely on the ramblings of people like myself who post on CC, LOL. Best of luck to him and warm congratulations!</p>