<p>I’m gonna try to answer your question as honestly as possible, but you should be aware of a few things. 1) I think your question is rather flawed; anyone can be happy anywhere. What’s more, no one can predict what your experience at any school will be. Everyone, especially high school seniors, tries to pigeonhole what an experience at any one college will be like, and it just can’t be done. Most likely, your college experience will be defined by small things that you would never be able to foresee, like a single influential professor or friend, research you do, a group you join etc. 2) What you want out of college will definitely change, and even in a year your criterion for school will be completely different. Don’t think you know what you want absolutely, keep an open mind.</p>
<p>That said, I will try to give you my perspective as a current Freshman on what Dartmouth has been like for me. Just a warning, my thoughts are necessarily different than other people at different points in their Dartmouth career, and I am probably biased toward the school. I don’t have enough experience to know everything about the school in its culture, but I think I have an OK sense of things after 1 term. I know ED deadline has passed, but it can’t hurt to have more insight as a applying senior.</p>
<p>1) The Greek scene is dominant here. There are alternatives, and what the “Greek scene” constitutes is up for a lot of debate and interpretation, but it takes up most of the social life on campus. Some people are super ragey and go to dance parties, others are more chill and just want to play a game or two of pong, some go and bake cookies at Phi Tau. The Greek scene is not synonomous with drinking; any of those activities are easily accomplished without drinking, and more importantly without any expectation that you drink. People reeeaallly don’t care whether you not you choose to drink, you wont even get a second glance if you play pong and ask your partner to drink all the cups for you, or if you want to play with water instead. Most of drinking for freshman happens in dorms, so if you want to hang out in a frat without drinking, you can just skip the pregame and go out afterward. Keep in mind that, statistically you will probably drink at least a few times in college. Most freshman did not drink or drank sparingly in high school. I only drank my senior year, and I choose to drink here, but I have several friends who choose not to and are not inhibited at all by that choice.</p>
<p>2) The DOC has a very strong presence on campus, and you can go to their events as much as you want. They send out weekly emails with all of the events they are doing that week (normally hikes, sometimes more diverse trips), and it could not be easier to get involved. I did a trip on a whim in October, and it was a ton of fun and very accesible. Moreover, it does constitute a social scene in and of itself, so that is a great alternative if you get here and decide that the frats are boring/evil/patriarchal or whatever.</p>
<p>3) The introverted/extroverted issue is interesting. I would like to preface this by saying that Dartmouth could NOT be more inclusive and more welcoming toward all personality types, and you WILL find your personal space respected (unless you have a bad roommate, but, I mean, you can’t control that anywhere). However, Dartmouth as an institution tries to bring you into the community, and things like trips attempt to bring out extroversion and get people to interact. I think that this is awesome, and people who are normally shy or quiet are encouraged to bond in a rather short and intense time period. I immediately had a network of friends after trips because of this, and I think that isn’t uncommon.</p>
<p>4)Yes Dartmouth is an intellectual school, no doubt about it. The culture of intellectualism is probably different than other schools, but I think that is for the better. Dartmouth as I know it isn’t really into the uber-competitive self-congratulatory element of intellect. I think that’s a good thing. I don’t think I need to write a lot about this, you will find people like you here, and more importantly people that challenge you. No school has a monopoly on this. I have had numerous engaging conversations with friends and peers outside and inside the classroom.</p>
<p>5) I’m not really involved in visual arts. I hear that the classes are rather demanding, and if you choose to get involved with that area you wont be taking gut classes. I can tell you that I am a little disappointed with the lack of student art on display on campus. I could rant about the bad priorities of the Hopkins center for a long time, but you will have plenty of opportunities to grow as an artist I’m sure. Being involved in music, I can tell you the faculty and peer support is incredible, the institutional support and advertising is less than that. </p>
<p>6) You will find people like you at most places you go. I can’t guarantee that you will like Dartmouth as much as I have. As a high school student, you will fantasize about the perfect school, a composite of all the BS that admissions offices across the country have been feeding you for 4 years. I’ll tell you now that it doesn’t exist. At Dartmouth, there are people who like to party (maybe even excessively), and there are people who will make you feel like the biggest ******* in the world for sipping on Keystone in a basement. There are also a couple of normal people who will study with you for your History midterm, complain about the meal plan with you, and maybe even play pong with you if they don’t mind being embarrassed by much better upperclassmen.</p>
Of course, all admissions people ARE extroverts, they probably wouldn’t even see the point…</p>