<p>Alavondrice – first congratulations for your accomplishments and having two great schools to choose from! I am a Duke grad, the father of a current Duke sophomore, and the father of an incoming freshman at Dartmouth Class of 2016, so I think I have a pretty good perspective. I’ll start off by saying that both schools are great institutions and you can’t really go wrong in your choice. Econ/Finance are strengths of both schools and both have great recruiting pipelines to Wall Street and the major consulting firms (maybe Dartmouth’s is a bit better??). Dartmouth has a very strong reputation for an intimate learning environment where undergraduate learning is the focus (one of the big reasons my son chose it). Duke’s environment has a bigger, and perhaps less intimate feel of a larger research institution.</p>
<p>From a social perspective Duke (30+% join frats) and Dartmouth (60+% join frats) both have very strong Greek environments. I believe they are significantly different though. At Duke, the frats are not in off-campus houses, but instead each are allocated sections of dorms. Duke is going through some significant change next year – moving to a residential housing system that will include many more non-greek houses, as well as for the first time in Duke’s history, providing housing for sororities. You should definitely look into the housing changes at Duke. There are many articles on this in the Duke Chronicle [House</a> model to concentrate living groups | The Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/house-model-concentrate-living-groups]House”>http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/house-model-concentrate-living-groups) ). While both schools have very strong Greek life, my sense is that it is very different. At Duke, the fraternities are a bit more closed to non-affiliated students at their parties. Everything I hear about Dartmouth is that all frats are open to everyone, and non-greek students feel very welcome everywhere. Much of the social life at Duke has transitioned from being almost exclusively on-campus (when I was there 20+ yrs ago and the drinking age was 19) and has moved off-campus to bars. I don’t think there is much, if any, of an off-campus bar scene in Hanover, and much of the fraternity social life exists in the frat basements.</p>
<p>Big differences in weather, obviously. At Duke, you will be in shorts and flip-flops by March. So, if warmth is important to you, well…there you go. My discussions with Dartmouth students indicate that you get very used to the cold and it’s almost a bonding experience in itself. If you are the outdoor type, then Dartmouth is clearly better – lots to do in all seasons in the surrounding mountains. While Duke’s surrounding forests are beautiful, there are no nearby ski slopes or mountains, although it’s only a 2 hr drive the beach.
Sports and school spirit are a huge part of the Duke experience if that is important to you. I will say that, from an outsiders perspective, Dartmouth is one of the only schools I’ve visited outside of Duke where students just absolutely love being there – and this turns into a strong lifelong bond as an alumnus at both schools.</p>
<p>Good luck with your choice. The best advice I can offer is to visit both Dimensions and Blue Devil days…talk to students and faculty, get a feel for both places, and go with your gut feeling!</p>