I am really interested in Dartmouth. I recently visited the campus and loved it; I also really like its undergrad focus and how easily accessible the professors are. But I’ve heard some cons about the social scene. As a women of color, will it be hard to fit in?
There are a lot of women of color at D, I think. Not as high a proportion as at an HBCU, naturally.
My S, who is white, had two GFs who were POC at D, one Asian, another multiracial (AA and middle eastern). It seemed to be a lesser issue for them, but obviously there is only so much I know. I would never presume to speak for their experience at D or elsewhere, naturally, but I think it probably depends a lot on the individual.
I believe that @sybbie719 has a D who was a POC at Dartmouth. Perhaps she can speak to it.
Remember first and foremost, no matter where you go, you take you. If you are a good nice person who gravitates to people where you are, you are going to be a good nice person who gravitates to people in Hanover. By the same token, if you act like a jerk, you probably will still have days where you act like a jerk. however, the campus is small and there is less than 6degrees of separation. You will attract what you put out there regardless of color.
The bigger question is have you gone to school in a diverse population? No matter where you attend you gotta be comfortable in your own skin. Unfortunately with today’s landscape, you may run in to some people who act like jerks ( unfortunately no campus is immune) Definitely build your network of people across the board, because once you go out into the world or work or if you purse graduate education you will see even less people who look like you.
Consolation is correct, my D is a black woman who has graduated from Dartmouth. In her class there was a total of 80 African Americans (her law school class had 35 ). she is senior counsel where there is only one other African American in her team) She grow up in NYC and always attended schools with a lot of diversity so coming to Hanover was not s problem.
I think her biggest challenge came from people who were culturally encapsulated, and would ask the stupid questions like; can I touch your hair, we’re you ever in a gang, do you live in the projects(no, at the time we lived in TriBeCa) , or any other negative pop culture sterotype. I did not send her out here unarmed. Yes, she has had to clap back on people and check a few folks and remind them that she is not the voice of all black people. And no, she wasn’t an angry black woman because she knew how to stand up for herself.
Yes, she did find her people at Dartmouth. There is a very cohesive black community at Dartmouth. I remember freshman year, the friends used to do a Sunday dinner pot luck. It was open to all, As she had friends who were POC who had never been to a school in a diverse setting (she also had friends who had never gone to school with POC). She was also part of the Greek system where being a POC was never an issue. She has friends whe were in the gospel choir, Sheba dance group, went to step shows and dated.
There are many affinity groups on campus. She also connected with BADA and is an active alum with them. 10 years post grad, she still bleeds green and still had a close group of friends across the spectrum.
No. Definitely not, especially if you are a social person. The social scene is dominated by frats and sororities, but they are not your typical Greek life institutions that you would find at a different college. This is because the majority of Dartmouth is in Greek life, so you get a very wide range of people who are part of a frat or sorority. Yes, it may seem that there are a lot of affluent white males but Dartmouth is still a diverse college with over 4000 undergraduates