For New Jersey high school student Chris Given, the decision to enroll at Dartmouth was a based on the College's "down-to-earth" community and number-one ranking in undergraduate teaching, Given said in an interview with The Dartmouth. Californian Chris Logan, however, opted for Yale University because of its strong Korean program. With the May 1 decision deadline fast approaching, students accepted by the College are weighing the academic reputations and social environments of Dartmouth and other institutions as they determine where they will spend the next four years.
Lily Kennedy-Paesler, a prospective student from Raleigh, N.C., chose Dartmouth after considering University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Georgetown University and Northwestern University, she said.
"My initial criteria for choosing colleges was I'm just going to go to the highest ranked college that I get into,'" she said. "But I wasn't expecting to get into so many prestigious schools."
Ultimately, she decided on Dartmouth, she said.
"I wanted to go with my gut instinct, because they're all so great," she said. "It wasn't really the academics it was where I felt most comfortable and where people were most like me."
For other accepted students, decisions relied more heavily on Ivy League status or name recognition.
"I ended up applying to a lot of Ivy League schools because of [the schools' name recognition], because it would help me in the job market," Given said. "Once Dartmouth was the only Ivy League school I got into, I figured I should probably go there."
After receiving her acceptance letters, Rachel Bornstein of Dover, Mass., said she used reputation to rule out institutions.
"I turned down many schools in the tier right below the Ivy League and narrowed my list down to Dartmouth and [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology]," she said.
The recession and difficult job market may influence students who base their decisions on name recognition and prestige, according to high school senior Bryan Pannell from Woodbridge, Conn. Many students applied to many more Ivy League schools thinking that the "name-brand" would help them after graduation, he said.
The social atmosphere at colleges and universities also influenced many applicants' decisions, whether drawing students in or driving them away. The limited nightlife at Williams College convinced San Francisco resident Jake Leichtling to choose Dartmouth, where he perceived a "work hard, play hard" attitude, he said.
"I was trying to find a party to go to while I was [at Williams] and there really weren't any options," he said. "The people [at Dartmouth] seemed more fun-loving, while at the same time intelligent. It was easy for them to take me out for a night of fun, so that would always be an option."
Kennedy-Paesler cited her intense workload during high school as the reason a fun college social scene was important to her.
"I wanted to be somewhere fun," she said. "I studied really hard in high school and didn't really have a life. I'm ready to have a life now."
Not everyone had a positive experience with Dartmouth's social scene during the recent Dimensions of Dartmouth program, however. While at the College, Logan said he witnessed excessive drinking and drug use.
"[Students] were rolling marijuana joints on the desk next to me," he said. "Rooms were full of people drinking and smoking all the time."
Logan chose to attend Yale instead of Dartmouth because Yale offers a Korean language program that would allow him to major in East Asian Studies with an emphasis in Korean, he said. Logan said he also preferred Yale's study abroad programs.
"Yale has the best study abroad program for the programs I'm looking at," he said. "They're automatically funded."
Many prospective students also considered the College's location before submitting their deposits.
"I chose Dartmouth because I don't want to go to school in a city," Kennedy-Paesler said. "I love the nature. I love to go out, hike and kayak, and ride horses."
Campus size was important to Sarah Ting from Carlton, Texas, and was a driving force behind her decision to attend Dartmouth over Duke University.
"I like the size of Dartmouth's campus, whereas Duke was really big we had to shuttle between East and West Campus," she said.
For some students, interest in Dartmouth came only after they had submitted their application. Leightling said he decided to apply to the College after examining the application, and chose to attend after he completed further research.
"To be completely honest, Dartmouth wasn't on my radar at all," he said. "[I applied because] their supplement looked relatively short, and also because my aunt told me it's a great school."
