<p>Here’s my take on it: Why would you possibly be concerned about Chicago’s name recognition beyond the Midwest, or Dartmouth’s beyond the East Coast? How many people, anywhere, have any idea what McKinsey is, or BCG, or Morgan Stanley? (Bain, of course, is getting some play, and I’m sure plenty of people recognize Goldman Sachs . . . as an instrument of Satan.) If you are in a room where people recognize the name “McKinsey” – and that’s the room you want to be in – you will be somewhere where everyone recognizes and respects both Chicago and Dartmouth. If you AREN’T in that room, you had better get yourself there . . . and going to Chicago or Dartmouth is a perfectly good way of doing that.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, don’t kid yourself that the University of Chicago name is magic in the Midwest, or that Dartmouth opens all doors on the East Coast. Chicago means more on Wall St., or in Singapore for that matter, than it does in Peoria IL, Dayton OH, Kansas City MO. And ditto for Dartmouth with equivalent cities in the Northeast. Chicago and Dartmouth are both places that mean a lot to connoisseurs, and not so much to the general population. Who cares? The general population is not going to give you a job in consulting or i-banking, and it’s not going to retain your services one you have the job.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, someone should point out that you are asking the questions of someone who ought to go to Dartmouth. It’s fine to do without the Hogwarts-gushing, but if you are not fundamentally excited about Chicago’s “life of the mind” and intellectualism, then you probably aren’t going to enjoy being there much. There are plenty of kids at Chicago with your ambitions – but the ones who like it there are the ones who are turned on by the intellectual aspects of education, too. Dartmouth probably has a higher proportion of people who share your approach, and it doesn’t make them jump through so many hoops to achieve their dreams, or have a culture in which people view those ambitions as less admirable than getting a PhD.</p>