Stephanie Thomas

Dartmouth or Notre Dame for friendly people, great teachers, and future employment?

Consolation

For me that one would be a no-brainer: Dartmouth. But it probably depends on things such as whether you like big-time money sports like football and basketball, what part of the country you feel most comfortable in, and perhaps what level of academic challenge you want. And of course there is the religious consideration. ND is not a seminary, but it IS a Catholic institution...

ohmadre

I highly suspect you will find lots of friendly people and great teachers at Notre Dame. I KNOW you will find this in abundance at Dartmouth. Its anyone's guess what future employment looks like for today's matriculant in these less certain times, but Dartmouth certainly has a great track record and I don't think that will radically change.

slipper1234

Dartmouth has an edge, there;s no question, in most regards.

aprausch

This isn't even a question! Plus you're posting in the Dartmouth forum so what do you expect?

MiPerson80

there will be a lot less drinking and no frats at ND. Also better options on majors, you can easily switch around from engineering to business, etc... As a parent , I would worry a lot less if my son was at ND. Dartmouth was the genesis of the movie "Animal House".

Dartmouth has no business school and the engineering school is a little screwy with it's degree and takes five years (another $50K?).

But I am an ND alum and a little biased, my son was admitted at ND and waitlisted at Dartmouth.

Scipio

"Dartmouth has no business school..."

It doesn't? That will come as quite a shock to the students enrolled at Tuck:

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

Corbett

The point (presumably) is that there is no undergraduate business program at Dartmouth. Tuck only offers graduate degrees.

In contrast, the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame offers both graduate and undergraduate degrees, and enrolls some 1600 undergraduates in various business-related majors.

MiPerson80

thanks, yes, I meant no undergrad business school. If you went to ND and got an accounting degree, a person would get a JOB. But I don't think many econ majors (ND or Dartmouth) are getting jobs now.

I heard at one time that 40% of Dartmouth grads were going Wall Street, I am sure that isn't happening now.

rigoler446

Stephanie, I am choosing between Dartmouth and Notre Dame, too! This is so hard.

Does anyone know how the Glynn Family Honors program at Notre Dame and the Hudson Scholar Program at Dartmouth compare?

Consolation

So you think that was a documentary? "Mona Lisa Smile" was set at Wellesley, and it was unmitigated crap. Animal House was a lot of fun, but don't you think that it was just a tad exaggerated? You know, for entertainment value?

The existence of an undergraduate business program is hardly an indication of the quality of a school. (Actually, one could make a case that it is on average inversely proportional.) Nor is it an indication of employment prospects after graduation.

Nte

If you are suggesting that you can't easily switch majors at Dartmouth, this is just patently false. We don't declare our majors at all until the end of sophomore year and, since there is only one undergraduate college that includes everything, there are no restrictions on who can major in what (unlike at some schools where you have to be in the business school to major in business, or the arts and sciences school to major in history. I have no idea if ND is like this, I'm just talking about other schools in general).

I know people who have changed their majors twice, and people who pick completely new majors as late as their junior year. I also know people who came in knowing what they want to major and enjoyed that topic for four years. Both are definitely possible though. It's totally possible to try classes in many different fields (in fact, our distributive requirement encourage it) before you decide what you want to study.

coureur

>>thanks, yes, I meant no undergrad business school. <<

If the existence of an undergraduate business school is the mark of a good college then the Ivy League must be full of crappy schools. I believe the only Ivy with an undergrad Business major is Penn. Stanford doesn't offer it undergrad either.

Xanatos

Yeah, I don't have time to go into the details but MiPerson80's comments with regards to Dartmouth are complete, uninformed crap. I don't know how much research your son did on Dartmouth prior to applying, but based on what you have said in this thread, I am willing to bet not much (or at least, he didn't share the research he did do with you).

MiPerson80

sorry, but what did I say was wrong? I was bothered that it would take more than 4 years to get an engineering degree, so that is added cost.

We did tour Darmtmouth and I spoke with the engineering department.

The problem here is that students need to be practical on what to major in and maybe with the economy being so poor, ND is better positioned to have an undergrad business school to fall back on if the student decides not to be pre-med or engineering. I admit Dartmouth is great school, that is not the issue ,but taking out the engineering school, then it is a LAC, and any of these type of degrees mandate going on to grad school, med school or law school.

I am just sensitive that all students now with liberal art degrees are having a hard time finding a good job. A business degree or engineering degree does maybe get you a job in this bad economic environment, and ND is is a better postion to offer that option.