Dartmouth or Notre Dame

Tank07
Fri, 03 Apr 2015 21:18:12 +0000

I disagree on a few of these points, yet so so strongly.
Avoid advice that uses generalizations as certainties.

First off, fraternities and sororities do not bring “nothing but trouble” as this implies every single one is there to destroy lives and futures.
Item the Second: you do not have to join a fraternity or sorority to fulfill your life. Just because greek life is present, that doesn’t mean that it will infect every aspect of your life on campus, whether or not you join. Dartmouth doesn’t allow Freshmen to join greek life, which is an excellent way to get to know college life without being pulled into this aspect, and you can make friends outside of the houses which means if you decide not to join, you will be totally unaffected by not having an intra-house social network.
2: if you DO decide to go Greek, only join the one that you feel comfortable in and you have a great fit with. If you join just to say you join, and you join one that doesn’t fit you, it will be an awful experience. However, if you value volunteer work and camaraderie over getting drunk at parties, and you join the house that values volunteering in the community and team-building activities, it’ll exponentially improve your experience there and in your college career
3: SPORTS! These are excellent to get into. I’m not just talking D1 Varsity, i’m talking club sports, intramural sports, PE classes, tossing a frisbee on the green, wiffle ball with your dorm. I want to assume I’m just misreading his statement that “If you go to Dartmouth, you’ll do sports and sports are bad, so go to Notre Dame which doesn’t have sports”. Not only will Notre Dame give you just as many chances to be athletically active, but sports in general let you get out, be healthy, learn teamwork and leadership skills, and meet people. If you’re good at them it boosts confidence, and if you’re bad at them then you’re in it for the fun and you can all be bad at it together.

Moving on from replying to the “advice” above me, here’s my take on your original question:
Visit both. Both are excellent academically, both are fairly small but have massive resources. Notre Dame is a larger Football and Basketball community, but Dartmouth athletics in Hockey and student body involvement (including club and intramural) is higher. Name recognition is top at both. Notre Dame is more skewed to a Catholic White student body with a bar scene in town that can still have fun and party, Dartmouth has a more diverse student body with a Greek social scene that can still have fun and party.

If you can visit both, go with your gut. This isn’t like choosing between Dartmouth/Notre Dame and University of Texas where there are stark differences. But stepping foot on campus, one will just click with you deep down and you’ll know.