Rice, Dartmouth, or Berkeley?

vivivz
Wed, 01 Apr 2015 20:18:30 +0000

I’m trying to pick between these 3 schools. Here’s what I have so far.

Rice
Pros: happiest campus/best student quality of life, private so small student to faculty ratios and lots of money, residential colleges, food!, Houston
Cons: Dartmouth is also a small undergrad focused college but has better “name recognition”, so they have similar pros besides location

Berkeley
Pros: CALIFORNIA GIRLS THEYRE UNFORG-…I love Cali. Large, so lots of people to meet and it’s not suffocating. Liberal-ness, perhaps my favorite part. Berkeley’s so progressive and active in social issues. Also food. San Francisco is hella amazing.
Cons: large class sizes, public so not as much student-faculty interaction and it’s more of a “you’re on your own” kind of thing. Lots of asians and I heard its really competitive.

Dartmouth
Pros: Ivy League… Picking which quarters to stay and which to break, good for internships, alum network strong af, connections…supposedly number 1 school for undergrad teaching, $$. Discount passes to snow slopes.
Cons: middle of nowhere, heavy drinking apparently (I’m a social-ish person, but whenever I drink I like can’t breathe and it’s just SOOO uncomfortable), idk about Greek life and I’m afraid there won’t be much to do there.

Although I would consider myself more of a city girl, I think I’d be okay with a nice, close knit college town. California is gorgeous but I’m willing to make that location sacrifice for a better education or academic experience. I just don’t want to feel like I have nothing to do in Dartmouth if I’m not interested in drinking… Opinions? Also, these are all based on what I’ve heard and felt when I visited. Any input about what your experience was like would be super awesome. Thanks!!

PS applied as Econ/finance major and considering law or MBA.