Are you a recruited athlete or legacy? if not, ED may give you a slight advantage (not clear because the data on who gets in early is muddied by who applies early….) but certainly not a massive advantage. You need to take the published stats with a grain of salt. The ED pool includes children of faculty, important donors and legacies, athletes….
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I think in general, undergrad name has less automatic value than some assert. A lot of what they are looking at is actually more about the sorts of people who get admitted to and choose certain colleges, as opposed to the colleges transforming those people into something different.
And then for something like urban planning, this is even more so. You will typically need a very solid formal education and technical skills, but those are not exclusively available at famous colleges. And then it is all about experiences, performing well on the job, and networking through the people you meet on the job.
So personally, I would stay very focused on the actual quality of your four-year experience, both academically and non-academically. If you get everything you want from a more famous college, great. If from a less famous college, also great. But if you don’t have the best experience at any college, not so great, including famous ones.
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So in other words, you are pursuing ED from a strategic perspective rather than because a college is your clear number one choice. This is not a strategy I agree with (and where we have seen posters post about regretting using ED, it has often come from using this approach). My own belief is that ED should only be used for your clear top choice, so if your approach is different I personally do not really have much further to add here.
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I would just quickly support this point. Over the last several years I have encountered a decent number of people regretting ED, to the point they are looking for a way out. Some are basically second-guessing paying as much for that college as it will cost them and their family. And some are reluctant to actually withdraw all their other applications, because getting into their ED college makes them think they have a shot at colleges they actually prefer.
So my two cents is it is generally unwise to apply binding if either or both of these is a possibility, meaning either you might want to consider other financial offers, including possibly merit offers, or you might prefer other colleges on your list if given an offer.
To the extent people are worried about giving up an ED advantage, I don’t think it is actually an automatic boost, and in any event it isn’t an advantage if you could have gotten an offer you actually preferred. To the extent you are still worried about not getting in anywhere you would be excited to attend, I think that is best remedied by making sure to have Targets and Likelies you have carefully chosen and so would be excited to attend.
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Im going to have to pick at some point though!
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This should be up in big bold letters somewhere!
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Yes, but there is a world of difference in picking between a bunch of options on the table, and picking early so that you ensure there are no other options on the table.
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The D-Plan has a few requirements that, to the best of my knowledge, require at least one and possibly two winter terms.
But if someone doesn’t like winter, I suppose that means being able to avoid at least two winter terms.
For that type of person, however, I’d strongly encourage them to consider some other college with a warmer climate for the next four years.
The truth is, even the spring term at Dartmouth can be rather cold compared to literally any other peer school. Don’t apply there unless you’re okay with that.
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Regarding your field of interest (urban planning), one thing to consider would be proximity of the school to an urban center. The reason is the opportunity to be connected to a real life “lab” that is the city, being able to attend zoning/permitting/etc. hearings or follow large scale development at real time. In addition, none of the three schools have a dedicated major or a graduate school (which may help provide more class selection, research oppotunities etc.) in this field. However, there is still the possibility that you may change your mind about the urban planning focus and a liberal arts education would give you the flexibility to explore what your real interest may be. Getting an undergrad liberal arts degree and following with a masters in urban planning in a city (NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc.) could be a good trajectory.
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It’s certainly something worth considering, but at most schools “spring semester” includes a good chunk of winter. With Dartmouth’s 10-week terms, spring term doesn’t begin until the second week of actual spring and runs through the first week in June. It’s basically April and May, which isn’t bad at all.
With global warming, cool weather can be a good thing. It’s the sun belt locations that are becoming unbearable. And even if New Hampshire’s spring is like winter in the South, then there’s no difference. Heck, there were ice storms in Texas a couple of years ago that knocked out power and it took the state weeks to get back to normal. The Southeast has had devastating hurricanes and floods recently. DC had snow in winter. The Pacific Northwest had an unheard of heat wave a couple of summers ago. California has annual fires now and drought. There’s nowhere where the climate is mild year round.
The D-plan choices are not completely unrestricted. See https://students.dartmouth.edu/undergraduate-deans/sites/students_undergraduate_deans.prod/files/students_undergraduate_deans/wysiwyg/d-plan_planning_for_first_year_students_2029.pdf .
- Frosh must have fall, winter, and spring on campus.
- At least on campus one summer quarter must be included. Most students do this in the summer between sophomore and junior years.
- Seniors must have at least two quarters on campus.
- At least one off campus quarter must be a fall or spring quarter.
At least frosh year winter quarter is explicitly required. Of the remaining 12 quarters after frosh year, 9 are on campus, and 3 are off campus. Because at least one off campus quarter must be a fall or spring quarter, a D-plan can have at most 2 winter quarters off campus.
It would not be surprising if the D-plan were for capacity management purposes because fall is typically the highest enrolled term at most colleges, while summer is the lowest enrolled term at most colleges.
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OP, it feels like you have several conflicting priorities in your wish list and that rather than prioritizing your preferences, you are going to let ED results pick your school for you.
If you want a LAC and are interested in Urban Planning, you may want to look at schools like Haverford. It’s also not as cold.
There are plenty of places with great community and outdoor activities, and you can avoid greek life at many of them. Many are in the colder climate you dislike.
Of the 3 you named, Midd is the one most likely to confer advantage from ED. But that sounds like a terrible way to choose! If you are a viable candidate for your top choice school (i.e., you aren’t wasting your ED by applying somewhere you have no chance of acceptance), that should be where you ED. If you truly have several that interchangeable in your #1 spot, go ahead and maximize your odds with ED, but there’s no good reason to apply ED to any school that’s not your first choice.
In short, dig a little deeper on what you want from your 4 years before naming a frontrunner.
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I’ll try to answer some of the questions asked about Pomona. There is a degree of fakeness of Ca folks (I think this exists in many parts of the country besides CA) but you won’t encounter that at Pomona. The vast majority of Pomona students 70%ish are not from California, and the one that are generally are pretty thoughtful.
Pomona is liberal and, for some, identity politics is prominent. I do believe they are trying to foster much more open dialogue on campus (one of their essays I think asks about this). It, arguably, overreacted to some campus protestors 2 years ago involving Palestine. The benefit of the consortium is there are more conservative thought leaders on campus. Claremont McKenna tends to be more moderate, Pitzer even more liberal than Pomona, and the grad program at Claremont Graduate School has a leading conservative think tank.
In many ways you will replicate the NESCAC experience inasmuch as it is still a small LAC with a very tight knit community. You won’t be able to replicate the 4 seasons (which you may like if you are tired of Chicago winters) nor the convenience of getting around to Northeast cities.
Ultimately, I agree that you should find the best fit for you. The sense I get is applying ED doesn’t give you much of an advantage at either Dartmouth or Pomona but might at Middlebury.
Good luck.
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Another one to add to the list: Macalester. It doesn’t check the “warm winter” box for you, but probably all of the others, and if you’re interested in urban planning, you should check out their Geography and Urban Studies programs. They highly prioritize experiential learning in the Twin Cities setting, so I’m guessing that would open up some great internship opportunities. They have offer decent merit money (more like a nice discount than a serious scholarship). The Twin Cities make up a vibrant community with a sizeable Jewish population, too. As to outdoors opportunities, Midwest outdoorsy looks a little different than Northeast outdoorsy, but it’s authentic nonetheless.
ETA: this is not a suggestion for ED if you have other top choices, but they do have an EA option, which can be a plus as you’re waiting for ED 1/2 results.
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It’s been years since I have been on this site, and I generally wouldn’t give advice about where to go to school, but I attend Pomona and think I can help. For one, the outdoors cannot be beat on the west coast. There’s a massive outdoors culture at the Claremont Colleges and the schools throw money at you to explore, so, if that is of any concern, don’t let it be. We also have a range of clubs that are both accessible and intense. The benefit of the 5Cs is you really get to determine what your experience is like. If viewpoint diversity is of interest, there’s pretty much weekly debates with free lunches/dinners at Claremont McKenna and the ath is open to all students (you can even get lucky and occasionally get placed at the head table if an athenaeum employee comes to you). Pomona is undoubtedly liberal but we get a lot of bad press from, frankly, on campus journalists with a bit of a chip on their shoulders. The school spends a lot of money on talks by speakers with a range of perspectives.
In terms of quintessential new England experience, that’s up to you. My friends are much more often jealous that I can access the beach and snowy mountains while they can barely walk to class without falling on their butts in the early spring semester. Lastly, there’s so many jewish organizations on campus and some hire interns: https://www.claremonthillel.org, https://www.claremontchabad.com, https://haverimclaremont.org. I’m not personally jewish, but from friends it seems like a very strong community with a nice alumni network.
Choosing a college is difficult. Don’t feel the pressure to ED if you aren’t sure. It is actually very helpful to have a roster of schools to check out. You will change a lot in your senior year. Oh, and the people at Pomona are awesome. The “fake” California thing isn’t a real concern unless you were to drive an hour and a half out everyday to West LA.
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I dunno, man. I will say that in recent memory the area had appreciable snow (i.e., it needed to be plowed) in the second week of May.
The US Army Corps of Engineers didn’t base its Cold Regions Research Lab in Hanover for ha-ha’s (Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory - Wikipedia).
Similar story for Middlebury.
I frankly wouldn’t recommend applying to either school for anyone who doesn’t love to ski.
There are plenty of kids who want to go to these two schools because of the weather and not in spite of it – and Dartmouth is especially good at gleaning that from applications.
And plenty of similar schools in “better” locales (e.g., Pomona) for people sick of winter.
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Back in the day, younger s said he wanted to go to college where he could go skiing in the morning and to the beach in the afternoon. I told him that would be Southern California, and back then there was a group from Pomona that did that just before exam week. He ended up Not applying, but if he had he said he preferred Claremont McKenna to Pomona b/c he saw too many skateboarders on the Pomona part of campus 
When I drove the Blue Ridge Highway in mid April a few years ago, there was snow on the ground n that part of Virginia.
The illusion of a boost from ED at Middlebury (and at most other colleges) is because athletes are accepted ED. The selection of athletes happens before they apply ED, so they are accepted at a very high rate. Middlebury is also accepting 3 Posse cohorts every year, as well as QB students, and both these groups only apply ED as finalists after going through their own very selective process.
So on paper, recruited athletes have 80%-90% or higher acceptance rates, Posse finalists have 50% acceptance rates, and QB finalists have 30% acceptance rates. These aren’t their actual acceptance rates, but these are the statistics that are used to calculate ED acceptance rates. Pomona also has two Posse cohorts and it has recruited athletes.
So in reality, there is only a very small advantage for ED applicants who do not belong to one of these groups, and that advantage is generally only for top applicants.
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The kid has a point:
"At a subset of small liberal arts colleges, that limit is much higher. In 2021, Bates College admitted 81 percent of its incoming class through early decision, and it continues to be among the most reliant on the practice; last fall, 67 percent of the incoming class were admitted early. Sixty-nine percent of Middlebury College’s Class of 2027 were early-decision admits, as were 67 percent at Grinnell College and 66 percent at Emory University."Early decision is on the rise. Is it just for wealthy students?
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