<p>I'm a rising senior looking at colleges. I like Dartmouth for several reasons (small college, relaxed atmosphere, community feel) but I also have some reservations.</p>
<p>I don't want to join a fraternity, and I don't want to drink. I'm also not much of a partier. Would I be a bad fit for Dartmouth? I'm considering looking at LAC's instead where the atmosphere isn't as Greek-life + drinking oriented.</p>
<p>Get in first.</p>
<p>As for drinking, at Dimensions, I met a solid group of really cool people who don’t drink. There’s no pressure to drink at Dartmouth. Some pledge frats, even the most party-oriented ones, dry.</p>
<p>take a look at Brown.</p>
<p>Of course I’m not arrogant enough to assume that I’ll get in :)</p>
<p>I’m asking this question so I know whether I should bother applying. I want to keep my colleges list short if possible…no sense in applying to a college I know I won’t go to.</p>
<p>^bluebayou: Yeah, I’m applying to Brown.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>When I went to Dartmouth I had no intention of pledging a sorority and I didn’t drink. Those things both changed. But i know lots of people for whom those things didn’t change; a number of my friends are unaffiliated, drinkers and non drinkers, and their dartmouth experience, though very different from mine, has been just as positive. </p>
<p>A lot of students come in with your opinions and change them after seeing how different Greek life at Dartmouth is. but a lot don’t change them, and are still happy here. </p>
<p>Apply, visit, who knows what might end up happening!</p>
<p>My daughter went in with an open mind about the Greeks and ended up pledging and really enjoying it. Plenty of her friends were not in the Greek system and several didn’t drink. From my daughter’s perspective there is no more drinking at Dartmouth than anywhere else, they just have the reputation for it.</p>
<p>If you are anti-Greek, as opposed to disinterested in the Greek scene, you might consider Williams, it profiles very close to Dartmouth, but no fraternities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I decided not to apply because of Dartmouth’s relatively weaker engineering program.</p>
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<p>Bad decision. Companies recruit based on the school’s overall reputation, not necessarily the strength of a particular program.</p>
<p>By the way, many of the best engineers will go to Wall St., and only Harvard, Princeton, and Wharton are (arguably) better than Dartmouth at placement on the Street. </p>
<p>An application is an investment. Don’t cut yourself short.</p>
<p>^Dartmouth doesn’t offer an ABET accredited degree in four years. Also, I’m not interested in placement on Wall Street. I want to learn environmental engineering and practice it.</p>