<p>Having lived on the east coast my first 43 years, moving west in '97, I sheepishly admit that I had never heard of Reed until about a year ago after I started hanging out here on CC.</p>
<p>I was, however, accepted at Middlebury “back in the day”, and had certainly heard of Dartmouth. Even back then, Midd was known as a strong place for language studies. Especially if nephew is likely to stay in the east, I can’t imagine that Midd’s reputation would fare poorly in terms of respect. As sybbie points out, though, Dartmouth would almost surely be a more diverse school in most respects. And neither will be a poor choice!</p>