Duke or Dartmouth?

[Anonymous]

try to prepare your kid for deferral or rejection unless hooked

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should visit both. They are both excellent, but the feel is so different, I cannot imagine a student happy at Dartmouth being happy at Duke and vice versa

Really surprised that anyone might think this. If I may ask, why ?

Duke & Dartmouth are overlap schools meaning that many applicants apply to both schools.

I know both schools and my impression is that they are much more similar than different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both schools are considered peers. The things that stand out for me for each school are:

Dartmouth: college more along the lines of elite small colleges like a Williams or Amherst, isolated campus in the sticks where any student who doesn't enjoy frat/party scene might feel isolated, a relatively strong school spirit around its sports teams compared to other ivies.

Duke: mid-sized university with many pre-professional students, with outsized school spirit due to MBB, big party scene.

Ideally you will be able to visit both before making the decision.

My friend's daughter is MISERABLE at Dartmouth in large part because is not a frat/party kid. She just finished her freshman year was debating not returning. The game day decision was that she'd try another year.
She went to high school at a diverse school in the DMV so wasn't raised in the sticks but just can't seem to find her people at Dartmouth. I think there was also this expectation that she would have this super awesome college experience (she got a spot at her dream school!) but it's been a complete bust.

Lest anyone jump on here and say I'm a troll---no, definitely not. My kids are younger. I've just been surprised to hear how hard it's been for her since she's a super well adjusted and lovely kid.

It would be interesting to know to which other schools she applied. The unhappy Dartmouth student was an uninformed applicant as frat parties are the lifeblood of Dartmouth College. What did she expect ?

[Anonymous]

A main difference between Dartmouth & Duke is that one's social life is less dependent on frats & drinking at Duke--although many Duke students do work hard at perfecting the art.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dartmouth hands down

Duke is too striver and aesthetically gross

Can you elaborate?

Duke is like Penn

Lotta New Jersey, westchester, Long Island

Dartmouth has way happier alums and way more bucolic


Ha. So true,

[Anonymous]

Duke is happy campus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A main difference between Dartmouth & Duke is that one's social life is less dependent on frats & drinking at Duke--although many Duke students do work hard at perfecting the art.

If you mean 40% vs 30% then I guess you’re right. Both are pretty big frat cultures in my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dartmouth hands down

Duke is too striver and aesthetically gross

Can you elaborate?

Duke is like Penn

Lotta New Jersey, westchester, Long Island

Dartmouth has way happier alums and way more bucolic

Duke has been called The University of New Jersey at Durham

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth without question. My DD very happy there and she's not a fratty person.

[Anonymous]

If your kid is a prestige-monger probably take the risk for Duke. Otherwise go Dartmouth. As a PP said, lots of overlap between both schools, and even though it’s 61% to Duke and 39% to Dartmouth when kids get accepted to both, it’s likely just a fit/culture/weather difference instead of anything academic.

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth says you can apply ED to other schools as well as long as you withdraw other applications if accepted.

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth is the more prestigious school

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth's frats used to have a horrific reputation for drunkeness, abuse of pledges, and so on. In fact it was supposed to be the model for John Belushi's Animal House. That was obviously 40-some years ago, although in the early 2010s a Rolling Stone article suggested the atmosphere continued apace. Has the school gotten that under (relative) control?

[Anonymous]

One of the podcasts (I think it was Your College-Bound Kid) ran the numbers for Dartmouth and concluded that when you subtract all of the athletes, legacy, faculty/staff kids, donor kids, certain percentage of international students, first gen, etc., it leaves approximately 200 spots for males and 200 spots for females every year. Tough odds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the podcasts (I think it was Your College-Bound Kid) ran the numbers for Dartmouth and concluded that when you subtract all of the athletes, legacy, faculty/staff kids, donor kids, certain percentage of international students, first gen, etc., it leaves approximately 200 spots for males and 200 spots for females every year. Tough odds!

Yes. It's really difficult for an unhooked kid to get into Dartmouth from the DMV. One of my kids thought about applying ED and noped out after looking at the numbers. It's a small school. There are not many spaces available for those that don't have the hooks and connections.