Rice, Dartmouth, or Berkeley?

Horde56
Fri, 17 Apr 2015 16:09:52 +0000

I’m a Dartmouth alum. My son was just admitted to Dartmouth and Rice (and several other good schools) and chose Rice. He plans to major in Engineering, so for him the requirement to spend a 5th year to get a real engineering degree was a real drawback for Dartmouth (not to mention the cost of a 5th year at one of the most expensive colleges in the country, ouch!). He is also not a frat-type guy, and he loved the idea of a greek-free campus and the residential college system of Rice. The Dartmouth administration is trying to move in that direction and de-emphasize the greek houses (they have been since I was a student there in the 70s), but the frats are pretty well entrenched and will be around for a long time, I think.

Here in Texas, a Rice degree is a much bigger deal than a Dartmouth degree. When I mention I’m went to Dartmouth, I have had several people say “Is that one of the Ivys?”. People here have heard of Dartmouth but it doesn’t have the alumni network and brand recognition that Rice has. I’m sure it’s the other way around on the East Coast.