Viewer

My son is trying to decide between Brown and Dartmouth. My daughter is a junior at Dartmouth right now. She does love Dartmouth but there are a couple of negatives. The Greek scene dominants the social experoence at Dartmouth. Some of the negatives that you may think about frats are so prevalent at Dartmouth. I'm not sure my son is the frat type. Also, I'm not sure that I am a big fan of the D plan. Her calendar has been so "off" from every other college around. The sophomore summer was fun but then she's had a couple of terms where many of her friends are on their "off term" and vice versa.

willis0223

it seems that everyone is leaning toward brown..

matthewyy

Can't it be just because this is posted at Brown's forum..In my opinion, even OP leans toward Brown by posting it to Brown's forum..and since most the responders are current students at Brown or people who love Brown, they lean toward Brown as well...

icy9ff8

It should not be difficult to eliminate either Dartmouth College or Brown/Columbia since Dartmouth is more conservative & preppy & rural while Brown/Columbia are very liberal and urban. If you want freedom from rigorous curriculum requirements and relief from the pressure of grades, then choose Brown University. If you want a rigorous classically styled education with significant core requirements and enjoy NYC, then select Columbia. If you, or any relative, has ever voted--or thought of voting--for a Republican candidate, then Dartmouth College is your only option.

slipper1234

Dartmouth isn't conservative. I never understand this. How can a college where only 13% of the student body is republican and 85% voted for Kerry in 2004 be conservative? Where are people getting this from?

In fact Columbia probably has just as vocal a conservative presence.

icy9ff8

slipper: Please read my post more carefully; I wrote "more conservative", not "conservative". I am very familiar with Dartmouth College & many current & former students, and Dartmouth is definitely more conservative than either Brown or Columbia.

dragonreborn

I definitely agree with someone's assertion above that Dartmouth may be "more conservative" than Brown and Columbia. After all, the people from my school who have gone to Dartmouth or generally anyone who applied tend to be conservatives, and especially preppy. Dartmouth also has a bigger emphasis on traditions more so than the other two universities.

slipper1234

Yeah but its still overwhelmingly liberal. Although its probably the most "friendly" to a conservative point of view, conservatism is not a defining characteristic of Dartmouth by any stretch.

Bustles

Columbia dorms are disgusting. Does that help?

Strawboy

lol. Go john jay. wooot.

Bustles

case in point, haha

Pinderhughes

I stand by what I've said. Brown has a significantly stronger student body than either Dartmouth or Columbia, and the successful fellowship awards Brown gets reflects this. Also, Brown probably is the best Ivy, including HYP, when it comes to Fulbrights. I don't think panting for a job in investment banking is reflective of a particularly strong student body. That profession is not a particularly intellectual profession. However, if that is a profession you aspire to, Brown will give you that too. I've long believed that Brown is the best-balanced college in the Ivy League. This isn't to say in any shape, manner, or form that Columbia or Dartmouth aren't superb institutions. They are. I just believe Brown is a better all around university-college than either, and is probably only matched by Yale and maybe, Princeton.

matthewyy

Do you really think that FulBright Scholars do mean anything about the school? Then Umich is better than all the Ivies and other top-top schools...Is that true? Definitely not! I think using rankings and/or award statistics is just meaningless when it comes to college selection...Prestige might be a factor(and a big factor in some cases) but prestige is just where it stands and can't really be seen in awards etc..

slipper1234

Yeah this is such an arbitrary statistic. Saying Brown has a better student body than columbia or Dartmouth is ridiculous.

dcircle

"better" is obviously a subjective, normative judgement.
"different on average" is probably true, in my opinion. the dimensions across which brown students are different from those at columbia or dartmouth are difficult to characterize but something like intellectual independence may be among them. if this is the case, fulbrights (where you have to design an independent academic project abroad) is a good indicator. per capita, brown has the most (more than michigan)