Ole Miss was likely the requisite - apply to the in state flagship type school for a low cost assured school.
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IMO that is Irrelevant. The OP is specifically asking opinions on choosing between Ole Miss with Stamps and Dartmouth. The OP has no other schools are still under consideration.
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Optionality requires appropriate risk analysis.
There aren’t that many paths that make the option worth it and OP has no guarantee that they will be afforded that path. You think it’s hard to get into Dartmouth? Try running the traps to get a gig at Bridgewater.
It’s not like every kid who gets into Deerfield goes to an Ivy.
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My thought was that a student with the portfolio to be admitted to Dartmouth and to receive a full ride at Ole Miss would have likely had many options, some of which surely acceptable to both the student and the parents. I did not realize there were no other options on the table.
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Wasn’t asked by the student but fair thought. Say a school like UF, many feel is prestigious and cost low 40s was in play. Does it pacify both ?
They asked Dartmouth vs Ole Miss but your thought process is perfectly reasonable. Perhaps it’s an angle OP hasn’t thought of.
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I don’t think UF is a target for high finance, so it seems too expensive for the physics opportunities vs Ole Miss but not prestigious enough for high finance like Dartmouth is.
One aspect that might be worth considering is that higher degrees are quite common in certain areas of finance, so OP could go Ole Miss, do a PhD at a strong school, and then pivot into finance.
Alternatively, OP could use the money saved at Ole Miss to pay for finance recruitment programs, offset an unpaid freshman year internship (e.g. by asking their parents to pay them a salary from the “didn’t go to Dartmouth fund”), etc.
I was simply offering up a in between validating @yauponredux suggestion (if there was one)- the name didn’t matter. That said, the thread is just about the two schools.
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Yes, it would be a different answer from my side of OP was admitted to e.g. Georgia Tech.
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How would they pivot into finance ? IB firms don’t typically recruit from PhD physics programs. If this student is going to then try to pivot to some equity research or asset management opportunity (for example) they are going to be “old and tired” after several years of pursuing a degree they are really not using! Burnout can happen after a few years of grinding to complete a doctorate.
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I was thinking less IB and more quantitative finance (not just the buy side prop shops but areas of finance more broadly that value quantitative modeling skills). I could be wrong but I believe math/stats/CS/physics PhD → finance is quite common.
I’m assuming OP is interested in physics in its own right rather than only as a route to finance, given they explicitly mentioned it as a possible career goal. But if they decide against it, their background can still prepare them well for an MFE/MQF
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How do you put a value on having a child who’s happy where she’s attending college and isn’t spending her freshman year busily trying to transfer to another school?
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I’m glad your mentioned Wesleyan because I’ve been following another thread involving a very similar situation where the OP is dead set on an IB career and the choices are even more complicated because none of them involve target schools in the strict sense.
OTOH, what must Dartmouth be like for everyone else, if its only advantage over a full ride at Ole Miss is the slight possibility that a lot of finance bros and sistahs may “run the traps to Bridgewater”? It must be Purgatory for them to look to the right and look to the left and always be confronted by that kind of single-mindedness
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The OP asked about Dartmouth and Ole Miss so please keep the conversation focused on those two schools. Thank you for your understanding.
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This thread came to mind as I looked into airline tickets yesterday. We have been invited to join family on a trip to Hawaii. We prefer to fly direct, but it is much more expensive. We also have a preferred airline, and while it is more expensive, it offers us some perks the other airlines do not. We could take an indirect route, with layovers and the risk that we may not make our connection, but we could save money. But we don’t care at this point about the price savings. We can afford it and the extra cost does not change our lifestyle. We know where we want to go, and want the smoothest and most direct route there.
Now this analogy isn’t perfect, but it’s close. If Ole Miss is the less preferred airline and the less expensive choice and/or requires a layover (physics major and later pivot to IB/finance), it would take longer and had a few more potential hurdles to clear. And it’s less convenient. That said, it is a great scholarship so for purposes of this analogy it is letting you fly first class. Thats great, as it has its set of perks (comfy seats, good food, special/personal attention, priority boarding, etc), but still takes longer and has risks of missing connections if a layover is required. And some airlines, even if offering a direct flight, can be less reliable in terms of on time arrivals, etc. You will get there, but might be late.
Dart is like the preferred airline. More expensive but probably provides a smoother, albeit more expensive route to the end goal. And given its overall status and history of connection to IB/finance opportunities, it might also be seen as providing premium seats with perks.
So, if the OP is clearly preferring to go to Dart, IF the OP is strongly interested in IB after college (I think this is important- because if the OP thinks strongly that they want to pursue the Physics Ph.D. the analogy is less powerful, though they still can spend the extra $ to “fly on the airline they prefer” to get to their final destination- its just expensive) and if the OP wants what looks to be a more direct route, the choice seems clear. The challenge is that it sounds like the OP isn’t the one who will make the final decision as to which tickets to buy. If my kids wanted to fly first class but there was a less expensive way for them to fly in the same seats (albeit with a longer journey) I might make them take the more cost effective route. But that said, this is college and life planning, and I want them to be happy.
Final thought, the free, though probably more circuitous route may turn out fine, but will the OP always wonder “what if?” My s has a motto that rings true to me- “Don’t live with regret”.
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Appreciate the analogy but not sure it works. You’d be buying a first class direct ticket, but you wouldn’t necessarily know where you’re landing. IB isn’t something you order off the Dartmouth menu. Lots of folks who went to Dartmouth wanted to get into IB, couldn’t and had to figure something else out.
I’m still not clear why the program they got accepted to and its network can’t help open doors to the career they want when they ultimately figure that out, but…
The kid’s 17-18 and all they know is they liked New York the one time they visited, like math, want to make a lot of money (inferred by the possible career path references) and from what they’ve seen and heard, something in finance seems kinda cool. And they want to go to Dartmouth. Probably should pivot to helping the kid convince his parents that’s a good idea, as others started to do.
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Don’t sell this OP short. They are clearly very bright, and appear to have processed some interests with forethought. Few choose to consider a Ph.D. in physics cavalierly. They had many acceptances “similar to Dartmouth’s caliber” (don’t recall if they shared the other acceptances they are not considering at this point). They sound like they are diplomatically saying they want to get out of MS. and hot weather. Sometimes even visiting a place once causes one to feel they have “found their people”. The OP said they are very focused on going to school with a network in the NE and worries that choosing Ol Miss could significantly reduce that (I think they may have said close doors, but that may be a bit extreme). There are a lot more “flights” to IB/finance from Dart than Ole Miss.
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I’m not selling the kid short (or long 
). I’m saying the kid’s made their call, and what would seem more useful is to help them get their parents on board.
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Hopefully they are having that conversation. We don’t know what route her parents took to get to their careers. That might have bearing on their decision. That said, saying the OP wants NY because of one visit and thinks finance is “kinda cool” sounded dismissive to me. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but this OP sounds pretty on top of their thought processes, especially for a 17-18 year old. Hoping maybe the OP’s parents have read this thread with her.
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Once again, if two posters are wanting to have a side bar, please move it to PM!
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I’m hoping this OPs parents allowed her to apply to Dartmouth (and any other colleges where she applied) with the idea that she would be able to attend, if accepted.
Sometimes when the final offers come in, it’s hard to look at a very low cost option compared to a very high cost option, and allow the student to make their final choice.
I’d be happy to share why I feel this way via PM with anyone who wonders why I feel this way.
I hope it works out for @jane18762
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