<p>My daughter was originally interested in Dartmouth also - until we heard more about their quarter system. The key thing we learned about Dartmouth is that it truly is on a quarter system. Every student is expected to attend Dartmouth in New Hampshire during the summer between their sophomore and junior year, that means that during both your sophomore and junior year you would take a term off between September and June or you would be at school, in classes, for 2 solid years with little break. Most kids would find that a bit too much! Plus Dartmouth strongly believes in traveling abroad so if you did that for a term or two you would be off campus then as well. My point is, that makes for a tough social life since for your sophomore and junior years you never know who will be on campus and who won’t be on campus. That may or may not be important to you, it was to my daughter.</p>
<p>Both schools are great and there are no definitive answers to your questions, just opinions based on very little fact. I guess the only other thought I have is that if you don’t really know what you want to study NU would probably have a greater selection of options than Dartmouth.</p>