<p>Ask away. Other current students should also feel welcome to chime in.</p>
<p>Hi DartmouthForever, thanks for answering questions! I’m from NYC and I’m a bit worried about how secluded Dartmouth is. Do you ever feel confined to the Dartmouth campus?</p>
<p>What are some of your favorite things about Dartmouth, and what would you change about it if you could? How are the dorms, in general? Food? And this may seem trivial, but what’s the weather generally like? 
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<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<ol>
<li>What do you think is the best part about being at Dartmouth?</li>
<li>How is the pre-med program at Dartmouth in comparison to other top schools (ie Duke)</li>
<li>How are the dorms/food/facilities/etc at Dartmouth?</li>
<li>Does Dartmouth have school spirit?</li>
<li>What do people usually do for fun?</li>
<li>How dominating is the frat scene?</li>
<li>Is there anything that you find Dartmouth comes up short in?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Hey, I am an International Student. I have been accepted (with my full need met) at Dartmouth and Duke. My first priority is having the best undergraduate engineering experience. But I am very confused about which one to chose. What is bugging me the most is that one is an “IVY” and the other has “the great Pratt School of Engineering”. Please help me get sorted out. I would very much appreciate your honest opinions and comments.</p>
<p>DF, thank you so much for doing this! My question pertains to the D-Plan. Does it really help considering most coveted internships are almost always scheduled for the summer anyways?
Thanks again!</p>
<p>Excellent questions, guys. I’ll do my best to answer them. Feel free to ask for clarification if some of my responses don’t make sense.</p>
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<p>No–nor do I feel bored. There’s always stuff happening on campus–parties, talks, events, etc.–so I’ve never really felt the urge to leave campus. The only time I left Hanover was to go to Boston over President’s Day weekend to judge a debate tournament at Harvard. (Hated the campus – I can explain why if you guys want. I would’ve loved Harvard’s campus a year ago, but now that I’ve lived on Dartmouth’s campus for 6 months, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.) Anyway, going back to what I was talking about, you can access big cities pretty easily if you want to. Boston and Montreal are both about 2 1/2 hours away. NYC is 5 or 6 I think. Dartmouth has regular coaches going to Boston and NYC; not sure about Montreal. I think there’s a bus that leaves from White River Junction, which is a town in VT that’s 10 minutes away.</p>
<p>On another note, there are a ton of kids from NYC here, so if you visit campus, just talk to one of them! They’ll probably have a more insightful response than the one I gave you.</p>
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<p>Favorite things of mine include: my peers, the sense of community, skiing on the Dartmouth Skiway, running in the woody trails around the golf course, my professors (especially Jack in the bio department, Fesen in astronomy, Curtis and Snyder in econ, and Polli and Palou in Spanish…yes, I’ve taken 9 classes total and LOVE 6 of those profs), going to hockey and soccer games, playing ultimate on the green, etc. I really could go on forever.</p>
<p>If I could change anything, I would make the food slightly cheaper. It’s really good for college food, but it’s on the expensive side. That’s literally all I would change though.</p>
<p>The dorms are really nice. I got unlucky and was placed in the worst possible freshman housing. Surprisingly, though, it’s still pretty nice. Bathrooms are cleaned 5 times/week; there’s plenty of space; floors are carpeted; etc. I was skyping with my friend who is at Northwestern HPME (their combined med program), and he was living in some of the best freshman housing there. It was absolute **** compared to my dorm. Absurdly cramped. I couldn’t believe it.</p>
<p>So the ****ty end of Dartmouth dorms is pretty good, and the nice end is really, really nice. McLaughlin, Fahey/McLane, and East Wheelock are like hotels.</p>
<p>The food is good, but it’s a bit on the expensive side. Incredible variety, excellent quality. The dining system is under renovation right now, so it’ll be a little different when you guys visit – but it’s still decent nonetheless.</p>
<p>As for the weather, the winters are cold, but they’re cold at all the ivies. I think people who complain about Hanover’s winters being “so much worse” are absolute idiots. Yes, it gets cold in Hanover, but it gets pretty damn cold in NYC or Philly too. Our weather is basically identical to Boston’s (minus the ****ing freezing wind chill coming off the water). Fall, Spring, and Summer are absolutely gorgeous.</p>
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<p>God help me. Here we go.</p>
<p>1) See the post above. I could go on forever. I really love this place. To self-call, I had quite a few options that were more prestigious than Dartmouth a year ago, and when I clicked “matriculate” on BannerStudent, I definitely had some buyer’s remorse. I was really scared I had made the wrong decision, but God, I made the right one. This place is the best.</p>
<p>2) The pre-med track at all of the top schools is excellent (perhaps with the exception of MIT & CalTech). What can differentiate these schools is the access undergrads have to faculty and their research. I can’t speak for Duke, but at Dartmouth, getting a research gig is almost too easy. I had no lab experience, and I got a paid position in a NIH funded lab in my fall term before I had finished my first biology class. Ended up leaving the lab because I’m not interested in biology, but that I got the gig is pretty awesome if you ask me.</p>
<p>3) See the post above. As for the facilities in general, they’re unreal. I went to a pretty nice private school with really nice facilities, so I didn’t think Dartmouth would be any different. Man, Dartmouth blows my high school out of the water. The school just has ridiculous sums of money. I mean, they spent $30 million renovating just one dining hall on campus. </p>
<p>4) Yeah, we have school spirit, especially when it comes to hockey (and football to an extent). I’m from the South and the world of Friday Night Lights, though, and that’s one thing I really miss. The only other top school that has that kind of atmosphere is Duke with Cameron Stadium. That seems like a hell of an experience, so props to Duke for its basketball program. Stanford has the potential to be this way, but for whatever reason the students don’t get stoked over Stanford’s awesome athletics. It’s a damn shame. Despite Dartmouth’s weaker sports presence, I’d still pick it again because of the alumni loyalty. Look up slipper1234’s posts. He cites all these stats about alumni donations, 5 year reunion attendance, etc. Dartmouth blows every school but Princeton out of the water. The alumni network has also come in handy for my internship search. I landed my current internship through an alumnus…</p>
<p>5) We do the same stuff all college students do. Drink (and don’t delude yourself into thinking that there’s way more drinking at Dartmouth than the other top schools - not the case at all. Drinking dominates all college campuses), hang out, go to campus events, skiing on the Skiway, hiking, camping, sports on the green, weekend trips to a big city (I’ve only gone once just because there’s so much stuff happening on campus). </p>
<p>6) It’s as dominant as you want it to be. There’s a sizable segment of campus that has not stepped foot in a frat basement more than 2 or 3 times, and there’s a sizable segment of campus that’s affiliated with the Greek system (somewhere around 60% I think). A good thing about the Greek scene here is that it’s not exclusive at all. You don’t have to know a brother to get into a party; you don’t have to pay; you don’t have to bring 15 girls with you to get in; etc. In fact, most frats blitz (email) out to campus if they’re having a party,</p>
<p>7) Not really. I’m sure if you ask older students, they’ll have something insightful to say. I’m still young and relatively new to the school.</p>
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<p>If you want to do biomedical engineering, Duke is excellent. Otherwise, both schools have pretty terrible pure engineering programs. Go to Michigan, Berkeley, etc. for pure engineering.</p>
<p>What you’ll probably find, like most engineering students, is that you’d rather go into high finance after graduation. It’s hard to turn down a $120k/year job right out of school. If that’s what you want to do, Dartmouth has an edge, though I’m sure Duke is still pretty good.</p>
<p>What your decision should come down to is which school you like more. Where would you be happier? Visit the campuses, talk to the students, and go to the school you like more!</p>
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<p>Firms create special internships during the winter that are for Dartmouth students only. I’m interested in high finance, so I can give examples there. Sankaty Advisors, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, etc. all recruit for winter internships on campus. (For those who aren’t interested in finance and don’t know what those companies are, those are basically the tippy top of the top companies in finance. I’m sure the same level of companies in other fields recruit on campus too.)</p>
<p>WOAH, thanks for giving such in-depth answers, DartmouthForever. This really, really helps – Dartmouth is at the top of my list right now, and going for Dimensions in two weeks will probably end up sealing the deal for me. </p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>hey! I was accepted RD! I am 100% going, but when does school actually start, what is the most popular computer on campus, and how do I actually confirm that I am coming to Dartmouth (since ther is no enrollment fee)??
Thanks!!</p>
<p>School starts in mid-late September, but you’ll show up a couple weeks early for DOC Trips and Orientation.</p>
<p>I think the movement on campus has shifted towards Macs being dominant in the last couple years, it was 50/50 when I matriculated in F06. </p>
<p>And … I’m pretty sure they told you how to confirm in your admissions packet.</p>
<p>I would wager 75-25 mac from my experience. Only 2 out of 27 kids on my floor have a PC</p>
<p>Definitely the majority mac, but many of the comp sci and engineers have a PC. You’ll get info on ordering computers from the school once you enroll, also.</p>
<p>Sorry, but if you guys don’t mind, another question just came up: if you’re going with your parents to Dimensions, would you recommend staying with a host for the overnights? Or is it generally better to just stay at the hotel your parents are? I don’t want to miss out on anything, but I don’t want to be an unnecessary burden when there’s already somewhere I can spend the night.</p>
<p>As a parent, I think that it would be better if you stayed on campus.</p>
<p>I agree with sybbie.</p>
<p>Stay on campus with a host. Hosts sign up (i.e., volunteer) to host prospective students, so you’re not a burden at all</p>