Upenn vs. Dartmouth

Cibbir_H
Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:43:00 +0000

Well I have been to Hanover about half a dozen times in the past year. While “remote”, it’s hardly a problem - in fact, its small size means that students interact with students on a more regular basis.

I have visited Dartmouth’s engineering program, and I have seen the projects they do there. It is totally AWESOME. If you want Dartmouth can send you an engineering brochure, etc. about their special engineering program (they gave me one when I went because I was considering it.)

As I recall the first year students work together on specific projects. For example, you might have to construct a robot that will do A,B, and C things…how do you do it? At Dartmouth creativity and imagination are key points of becoming an engineer; it isn’t about formulas or going through the motions there.

Dartmouth’s engineering group also participates in constructing race cars that compete against other colleges, and I got to see about half a dozen kids work on it…again, really out of the ordinary and fascinating stuff.

So I hate to rain on Penn’s parade, but I would pick Dartmouth.

(And as a side note, I am not going to either Penn or Dartmouth so this is an unbiased perspective.)