<p>I have been thinking (& dreaming) non-stop about Dartmouth. Then I came to the realization that i actually cannot find anything wrong with Dartmouth. Everything seems so nice there. The people are about 10x nicer than at any other school I've been to, the campus is absolutely breath-taking, the academics and recruiting are top-notch, and everyone just seems to have a sunny disposition about life and the school. Everybody I talk to says "Dartmouth is AWESOME, you better come here next year!" This was leading me to wonder, is there ANY flaws of the school. The only hardly-valid attempt at a flaw was that Dartmouth is in the middle of nowhere, and "I simply could not go to a school so far away from a city." In response, I always pose the question back (and I would advise all of you to do the same): In between paying for college, most students don't have huge budgets. So, would you rather have no community feel, where everybody gets their (expensive) entertainment by going into the city on weekends (i.e. Columbia), or would you rather have everything be practically free AND on-campus??? Why would you want the hassle to commute AND pay more?? Besides, even if you did want to go away for a special, rare-occasion, Boston, NYC, and Montreal are a short afternoon's drive away. So, can anybody actually think of a negative about Dartmouth??? It's almost starting to seem too good to be true..... almost.</p>
<p>Dartmouth does have its flaws, as does any school.</p>
<p>The one that stands out for me is the administration. There are some good ones, but a lot that tend to micromanage. Sometimes I think they're intent on destroying a lot of what made Dartmouth really unique--rushing the field, throwing tennis balls at the Princeton goalie, refusing to really support Tubestock or the Winter Carnival keg jump, their attempts at social engineering and sanctioning fraternities and sororities for trifling infractions, some areas of red tape, etc. Many of the administrators, at least in my mind, don't know how to have fun, or have forgotten what college is like.</p>
<p>That said, I still love the place and couldn't imagine going anywhere else.</p>
<p>The D-plan, while offering many opportunities, can get frustrating at times.</p>
<p>Like when you realize you aren't going to see your friends for 3, 6, or 9 months.</p>
<p>The administration is an embarrassment to humanity. They destroy anything they touch, and all they are interested in is making the choice that will not get them sued. That's all they are worried about - not getting sued. A lot of the "minor" problems that people mention from time to time are all a function of the sheer, epic, mind-boggling, scope of their incompetence.</p>
<p>Alot of people are pretty fake. I hate to sound like Holden Caulfield, but Dartmouth has a tendency to turn people into phonies. Given how intelligent everybody here is, it's frustrating when people just act like morons for no reason.</p>
<p>Clubs break down into three groups - the vast majority of clubs that are devoted to the most bizarre, pointless, boring time wasting, activities, mixed in with the occasional club that is something that would be cool to join except that the people running it are either doing a grade A job of running it into the ground. Then you have the small amount of clubs (SA, The D, etc) which are still pointless, but have a group of people completely obsessed with them because they think they will look good on their resumes, leading to absurd campus debates about matter as varied as "I'm the president of SA and I can't believe the vice president of SA would have the gall to leak info about the crappy, 3 year old blitz terminal "upgrades" that we will be installing tomorrow. THE GALL!" and "Oh my god, somebody wrote something in the D op-eds which no one cares about, but which disagrees with my point of view...He/She is oppressing me!" (note: this isn't intended to be political). Finally, you have the tiny percentage of clubs which are actually interesting, which could actually be worth it to join and devote time to, except that nobody gives a **** about them and showing up to a meeting with 3 other people is as painful as pulling teeth. And when you do join a group that you like, the administration is there to pull the plug and destroy it because they don't like it.</p>
<p>If I think of any more, I'll share.</p>
<p>But, despite all of this, Dartmouth is still better than 99.999% of the other colleges out there. Don't know if this says more about Dartmouth's resistance to adversity or the current pathetic state of institutions of higher education in America.</p>
<p>pamplemoose, I think after a year at Dartmouth you will see many things wrong with it. Then after you graduate, you'll see even more. That is not to say any other college is flawless.
And I completely agree with Xanatos on clubs. I don't know if people are fake, but many of them are surely naive. People do that to run away from the fact that they are actually often clueless about their lives themselves.</p>
<p>My brother goes to Dartmouth, and I heard from him that the D-Plan can really be much more trouble than the school would ever admit. My parents are pretty much convinced at this point that the D-Plan primarily exists because Dartmouth is critically short on housing for its undergraduate population. Basically, they don't have enough space on campus for everyone to live there for 3/4 quarters, so instead they tell people that they need to get off campus for one, and then come back during the summer instead. That's all well and good, but shouldn't the school be working on building more dorms, or making old dorms larger? </p>
<p>Also, my brother says that people often have to (meaning they don't have a choice) switch rooms during the year, which is a huge hassle.</p>
<p>Goodness. Any school has flaws. </p>
<p>Let's see -- an Ivy school with a first-rate reputation, providing a first-rate education, with fantastic sports and clubs, with brilliant people who are generally sports-minded, with a great alumni network, located on a beautiful campus in a beautiful town.</p>
<p>If you don't like the D plan, don't go. If you don't like New Hampshire weather, don't go. </p>
<p>Other than that, I think it's pretty darn perfect.</p>
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My parents are pretty much convinced at this point that the D-Plan primarily exists because Dartmouth is critically short on housing for its undergraduate population.
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<p>this is exactly why Dartmouth started the D plan, with admission of women and increased students on campus and limited housing. Even now, my D will be returning to campus for the first time since the end of sophomore summer. Yes, she does not have a lot of choice as to where she is going to be housed when she comes back (she will does now her roommate but just found out that one of her best friends also lives on the floor so no worries from her) but she does has housing in her first choice location (she says it's only 10 weeks, she's just there to sleep and she says that she has a great # going into room draw senior year so she can suck this up).</p>
<p>No school is perfect, becasue they are run by people and people are not perfect. In my professional life I have worked with a lot of students and a lot of colleges, and while dartmouth may have some flaws, they run better than a lot of places I have seen and even schools that I have attended.</p>
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Also, my brother says that people often have to (meaning they don't have a choice) switch rooms during the year, which is a huge hassle.
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<p>this is not true because freshmen keep their rooms all year long.</p>
<p>For upper classmen, it is totally optional. If you are in a room and you are in attendance all year, no one is going to make you leave the room. If you don't like your room and you want to move, you can request a change an move based on availability, but no one is going to say you must leave your room.</p>
<p>If you have a roommate that going be off campus for any reason (leave term, study abroad), that bed will be given to another student. The student in the room has the choice of pulling in another student as a room mate or being assigned a roommate by ORL (because they will room students who are coming back on campus).</p>
<p>As far as housing the way I see it, this years juniors may be part of the housing squeeze (as many of them are off campus at some time during the school year ).Seniors are first in room draw (and the new dorms has made it more attractive for them to now stay on campus) and freshmen are guaranteed housing (now sophomores are supposed to be guaranteed housing but they are also at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to room draw because juniors go to room draw before them). I think the fayerweathers is now supposed to be designated housing for sophomores, so we'll see how all of this plays out.</p>
<p>Probably the only flaw that I can see and have talked about with my D is that Dartmouth is hard core when it comes to academic integrity and will parkhurst a student with out flinching (she said a student who plagarizes or who is deemed to have violated the homor code, is truly treated like a criminal with a 3 term suspension. and it seems that students are on the down side of this power dynamic).</p>
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We've all heard of them -- the miscreants, the prosecuted, the kids who fade into the background under a cloud of secrecy and shame: the Parkhursted. Few people know what "Parkhursting" actually entails beyond a revocation of BlitzMail and a push out of the Dartmouth bubble. Like car accidents and death, people usually think, "That won't happen to me." At least that is what Daniel Obaseki '07 thought up until his entrance into the world of suspension. "I used to think there was a certain type of kid that got Parkhursted," Obaseki said. "The individuals who bought papers, or cheated on tests. I never realized there's an entire subculture of kids getting shafted by the system."</p>
<p>Obaseki had just returned from a stressful recruiting trip this fall and had been hired by an investment banking firm. He was a senior, five credits away from graduating, and the tracks for the next stage in life had been set into place. Life was good. After dinner with his best friend he stopped at the Thayer BlitzMail terminals to make plans for the night. But then he saw it, an email from his philosophy professor. He had been suspected of plagiarism. The paper that he had stayed up all night writing had been forwarded to Undergraduate Judicial Affairs. The process had been set in motion, and Obaseki would later be suspended for three terms. "I'm thinking 'This can't be happening,'" Obaseki said. "'Oh God, my life is over.'" </p>
<p>In the 2005-2006 academic year, 59 suspension-level cases were heard for academic and conduct violations at the College and 30 cases resulted in suspension. In a separate process, about the same number of students were suspended for failing grades, according to Director of Undergraduate Judicial Affairs April Thompson. According to the numbers, other schools in the Ivy League of comparable size are less eager to impose such harsh sanctions. At Princeton, out of 413 cases tried in the 2004-2005 academic year, only 14 students were suspended. At Brown, only eight out of 317 non-academic cases tried in 2005-2006 resulted in suspension. In response to questions about Dartmouth's seemingly trigger-happy policy on suspensions, Thompson replied, "I have no idea what Princeton or Brown's case load is like. I have no idea about their policies."</p>
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<p>I am convinced that Dartmouth is the best place for an undergraduate education anywhere in the US. With the school's intense undergraduate focus, the top-notch academics, the strong community feeling, and the great social environment, nowhere else quite compares. Most importantly though, people here are just happy.</p>
<p>this school is awesome. i've never been happier in my life, and i've never been surrounded by a better group of people. </p>
<p>xanatos - some of the discussion groups hosted by rocky are both decently attended and extraordinarily interesting. a lot of the really cool stuff at dartmouth isn't the best publicized, but if you know the right people, you'll never find yourself short of opportunities to challenge yourself, grow, and have a good time. and besides, i think that the best way to keep life interesting is to actually hang out with people who you wouldn't think you'd get along with. for instance, i've found that i actually really enjoy hanging out with writers/editors of the dfp. or take the sa reform movement earlier this term. i worked closely with the leaders of that movement and got to meet some 07's i would never have met otherwise and formed some really good friendships.</p>
<p>Daughter (04) is getting ready to take the bar this summer and starting to fill out the paperwork. She has to include every address (not mailbox #) she has had since high school - including all SEVEN places she lived at Dartmouth. We had a chuckle over all the times we moved her in and out of places - and never on the first floor!</p>
<p>Lol, I love the D-plan. Sophomore summer (IMO) alone justifies any anguish moving during college causes.</p>
<p>Wow, I am impressed with all of your comments. When i wrote the orignal post, of course I knew that there were flaws in any school, but I wanted to know what are some problems at Dartmouth specifically. I am also interested in all the varied opinions about the pros and cons of the school. I really have a more accurate depiction of this school. For those who dont know Dartmouth, this school is definitely not perfect, but don't let some of these negative comments fool you, it is still probably the best undergraduate school in the country, if not the world.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is awesome. My brother goes there and loves it. His dorm building is brand new and there is a kitchen (oven, stove, refrigerator, tables, couches, chairs) on his floor for anyone to use. I do have to say that he doesn't like how far apart his classes are. If it can be considered a flaw, one could say that Dartmouth is a bit big. :P</p>
<p>hey, you can spin that! more walking = no freshman 15
:p</p>
<p>Yeah, I mean, despite what I said in my previous post I am still glad I went to Dartmouth, and it is really a fun place in a lot of ways. It is mostly the administration that is ruining the school (I don't think I will be donating money to Dartmouth at the very least until Wright and his goons are gone) but it is still overall a good place to be and probably one of if not the best undergraduate experiences in the country.</p>
<p>moangotango - that's true! My brother hasn't come back any fatter, maybe even skinnier. hmmm, but what does that say about the food over there? :D</p>
<p>it says maybe he's working out at their new gym or that there is a variety of places to eat on campus with healthy alternatives. Then it is all of that fresh air and walking that can do a body good.</p>
<p>Freshman fall I lost 25 pounds because I was walking around so much and generally being more active. It was great.</p>
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Then I came to the realization that i actually cannot find anything wrong with Dartmouth. Everything seems so nice there. The people are about 10x nicer than at any other school I've been to, the campus is absolutely breath-taking, the academics and recruiting are top-notch, and everyone just seems to have a sunny disposition about life and the school. Everybody I talk to says "Dartmouth is AWESOME, you better come here next year!" This was leading me to wonder, is there ANY flaws of the school.
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hmm ... a couple reactions ... </p>
<p>First, many attributes of a school are considered and advantage to some and a disadvantage to others. Dartmouth is located in a small college town and is remote from a large city. It is in northern New England which certainly experiences all 4 seasons. The economic diversity of it's students is different thanmost other schools and of the population in general (the student's families, overal, are very well off). Being physically active and active outdoors a lot is very common at Dartmouth. Drinking is a major player in the social life at Dartmouth; probably more than at the average school. Any of these things could be viewed as a pro or a con.</p>
<p>Second, while I'm a HUGE believer in visits and fit if you were my child I would be worried about if you are viewing Dartmouth objectively ... kids at Dartmouth are 10x happier than anywhere else? Everyone says you should come here? ... it seems to me you saw what you wanted to see. Do I think Dartmouth students are happy? I sure do ... Do I think the vast majoirty would recommend it? I sure do. However in addition I believe students at tons of other schools are pretty darn happy and would overwhelmingly advocate their school.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong ... I think Dartmouth is a GREAT school (I applied there) ... however please try to make sure you are grounded when considering it's pros and cons.</p>