Am I stupid for hesitating over Dartmouth ED because of rankings?
International student from a traditional Chinese/Asian family, so I’ve grown up caring A LOT about university prestige.
I’m applying to Cambridge, LSE, UCL, Durham, St Andrews, HKU, Bocconi + top US schools. My supervisor thinks I have a good shot at LSE/UCL.
I recently spoke to a Dartmouth student and honestly Dartmouth sounds PERFECT for me in terms of community, social life, academics, financial aid, everything. I’m seriously considering ED.
But Dartmouth being #270 on QS is genuinely bothering me 😭 and I know this sounds SOO stupid but its so deeply rooted in me growing up around prestige.
Part of me wants to wait and see if I can get into Cambridge/LSE/etc. just for the validation, even if I might choose Dartmouth anyway.
Am I putting way too much weight on rankings, or does wanting to see my other offers mean I shouldn’t ED?
Additionally I’ve seen a post about athleticism at dartmouth and how if one doesn’t know how to ski it’s easy to feel excluded - I don’t know how to ski either but I am quite a sporty person and love to learn new things, will that be a huge issue?
Any help will be appreciated, thank you!!