Dartmouth vs. Cornell

CayugaRed2005
Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:29:12 +0000

Slipper, I don’t think there is a meaningful difference in the financial or programmatic support that students receive across the Ivies. It generally is available for any student that seeks it out. I received $7k in stipend and financial aid support for a summer I spent non-profiting in DC, and an additional $3k travel grant through Western Europe. Other friends of mine at Cornell were granted funds to travel to Turkey, China, Argentina, Antarctica, you name it.

I also frequently raise the question with you regarding Dartmouth’s performance in the Washington Monthly’s rankings, but I do not believe you have ever addressed it. Why, despite all of its fantastic resources per student and student services, does it underperform relative to its expected graduation rate?

That said, I don’t disagree that Dartmouth spends more per student on advising and student services. The question is whether or not it is worth it from the institution’s perspective. At Cornell, the philosophy has always been to “do more with less” and thus a lot more money is dedicated to recruiting transfers and community college students, etc. That’s part of Cornell’s mission.

Frankly, there is a lot of common overlap between Dartmouth and Cornell in my life, and I don’t believe that the average liberal arts student is disadvantaged at one over the other. After I graduated, I found myself hanging out with a bunch of Dartmouth alums. I have been to two Dartmouth weddings and will be at two more next summer. In high school, I wrote Dartmouth’s peer recommendation for my childhood best friend and frequently visited him in Hanover. And I had several friends at Cornell who had significant connections to Dartmouth (e.g. their parents worked at Dartmouth). One school is not better or worse for a liberal arts student. They are just different.

You often speak of investment banking and consulting placement, but I really think it boils down to two things: 1) Marginally better students at Dartmouth, on average. 2) Students who are more interested in those types of careers at Dartmouth. Certainly no student with similar stats coming out of both Dartmouth and Cornell will be at a disadvantage relative to their counterparts at the other school.

I also think you are understating Cornell’s undergraduate focus. This can’t be stressed enough: it is the most undergraduate focused among the premier, comprehensive research universities in the country. Consider the following table of Ivies ranked by ratio of undergrads to graduate students. It’s pretty obvious there are two distinct tiers in the league.

UG G Ratio


Brown 5821 2204 2.64
Dartmouth 4200 1700 2.47
Cornell 13510 6290 2.15
Princeton 4918 2416 2.04
Penn 9710 10103 0.96
Yale 5316 6082 0.87
Harvard 6715 12424 0.54
Columbia 6923 15730 0.44