Anonymous wrote:Dartmouth has nothing in common with Brown. Both are extremely lucky to get into the Ivy League over 100 years ago,

The Ivy League is an athletic conference, nothing more. It is also about 75 years old. The top schools of the Ivy league aren't the best schools either, they are merely the wealthiest.

Anonymous wrote:Rice, Tufts, WashU and other similarly sized non-tech private school besides the Ivy label?

In case this gets misconstrued as an attempt to bash Dartmouth/LACs, our DC is actually interested in LACs (Bowdoin, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.) but wondering if there is a slightly larger version that shares the same undergraduate focus, intellectual vibe and discussion-based learning.

Note that in the book Excellent Sheep, the author characterized Dartmouth as "notoriously anti-intellectual."

Dartmouth has nothing in common with Brown. Both are extremely lucky to get into the Ivy League over 100 years ago,

Anonymous wrote:I think Dartmouth, Rice, Tufts, and WashU all fall in the same camp. You can maybe add Yale and Brown. Possibly CalTech, though that's a very unique school.

They are all research universities that grant PhDs, but with a strong focus on undergrad education. And most of them have the resources to be very good in most fields and support serious research.

They are different than a Williams or Swarthmore, which do not grant PhDs. There's more going on at an R1 university than a SLAC, even small ones like Dartmouth or Rice. But there's not a lot of them.

I went to grad school at Caltech and I wouldn’t say the focus is on the education of undergrads (who are outnumbered by grad students) … I would instead say that the barrier for undergrads to get involved in graduate-level research is extremely low because they are all so qualified, so there are a lot of undergrads working in the graduate labs.

I’ve heard that Dartmouth, Tufts, Rice all have great combos of R1 research and a focus on undergrad teaching. I think they have different social vibes tho, and obviously different locations too, so worth visiting to see what your student prefers.

The comparative school is Brown, if the appeal of LACs isn’t also remote locations.

Anonymous wrote:A key difference is that at a research university, professors advance their careers by publishing research. Teaching is a secondary part of the job. At a small liberal arts college, teaching IS the job. Individual attention from professors is still possible, of course, but the incentives are different.

What I mean is you can get parts of the experience but if you most want close relationships with all your professors that’s more likely at a SLAC.

I think Dartmouth, Rice, Tufts, and WashU all fall in the same camp. You can maybe add Yale and Brown. Possibly CalTech, though that's a very unique school.

They are all research universities that grant PhDs, but with a strong focus on undergrad education. And most of them have the resources to be very good in most fields and support serious research.

They are different than a Williams or Swarthmore, which do not grant PhDs. There's more going on at an R1 university than a SLAC, even small ones like Dartmouth or Rice. But there's not a lot of them.

A key difference is that at a research university, professors advance their careers by publishing research. Teaching is a secondary part of the job. At a small liberal arts college, teaching IS the job. Individual attention from professors is still possible, of course, but the incentives are different.

I think of Dartmouth in a different bucket from the mid-size schools you listed, OP. The Ivy schools I associate with Rice, Tufts, and WashU are Yale and Brown, with William & Mary as a more likely option (even OOS).

For Dartmouth, the non-Ivy schools I associate it with in terms of overall vibe are Duke, Vanderbilt, and Notre Dame, with UVA as a more likely option (even OOS).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell troll!

The Bucknell booster on this site has pretty much single-handedly put me off the school altogether. We had our first family meeting with DC’s private school college counselor and after looking over DC’s current list and hearing DC’s feedback about the schools visited so far suggested adding Bucknell. I didn’t laugh in his face but the reaction at home was “lol no.”

Wait what's wrong with Bucknell? Isn't it a solid LAC?

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell troll!

The Bucknell booster on this site has pretty much single-handedly put me off the school altogether. We had our first family meeting with DC’s private school college counselor and after looking over DC’s current list and hearing DC’s feedback about the schools visited so far suggested adding Bucknell. I didn’t laugh in his face but the reaction at home was “lol no.”

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell!

Maybe:

https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=best-classroom-experience

Bucknell troll!

Bucknell!

Rice, Tufts, WashU and other similarly sized non-tech private school besides the Ivy label?

In case this gets misconstrued as an attempt to bash Dartmouth/LACs, our DC is actually interested in LACs (Bowdoin, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.) but wondering if there is a slightly larger version that shares the same undergraduate focus, intellectual vibe and discussion-based learning.