<p>I'm international and haven't been able to visit. What do you love about Dartmouth? What are the people like? Is the campus nice (from videos/pictures I've seen, it looks beautiful)? How are the classes? The profs?</p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>
<p>…k, I guess no one likes Dartmouth then ): c’mon, people!</p>
<p>they’re too busy having fun to be on this website ;)</p>
<p>^hahaha nice (:</p>
<p>I am a parent of a Dartmouth 14. Alwaysstressed is not far off the mark…the kids are too busy having fun to be on CC. I can tell you what my daughter tells me though…she feels Dartmouth is the best place on this planet. Everyone is very nice and friendly. They are not competitive and grades are not discussed. The campus is gorgeous, especially right now with the snow. School spirit is huge. They have many traditions that contribute to this (homecoming bonfire, midnight snowball fight, winter carnival, etc). The academics are wonderful. Her professors are very accessible, and all have open office hours. She has only finished one quarter, but she loved all of her professors. The work is hard and heavy workload, but it is manageable. She still manages to go out several nights a week with friends. It’s just winter quarter, and she already is doing an internship/research with a professor. The opportunities are endless. Simply put, Dartmouth is an incredible place for your college experience.</p>
<p>dumbo11 is right. I’m a 14, and I’ve visited this site twice since I got to Dartmouth (the only other time was to congratulate the newly admitted 15’s). </p>
<p>Honestly, we could hardly care about CC. We’re here already, and while we’re perfectly willing to help, you’d be much better off contacting us in person that trying to get our attention on the boards. </p>
<p>Besides, there’s so much going on that even the most CC obsessed students don’t really have time to go on much. Every day, I receive roughly 200 emails from people and groups on campus about events like meeting the governor of NH, dinner with Prof XXX, pickup squash, acapella performances, etc. </p>
<p>What I love about Dartmouth: first and foremost, the people. The people here are some of the nicest I’ve ever met. They’re kind and they’re more than happy to help you with anything. Everybody here is incredibly smart, but just from talking to us, you’d probably never notice it. We’re all at least partially nerds (after all, we had to get here somehow, eh? 
), but we don’t stress about academics or grades. If you need in a class, talk to pretty much anybody and they’d be more than happy to work with you. Collaboration is a massive part of the culture here, and sabotaging other peoples’ work is unheard of. The profs are equally amazing. Last term, I took honors first year chemistry. My prof was absolutely brilliant (if a bit crazy). He was extremely knowledgeable, had worked in industry for decades, published dozens of papers, etc. This term, I’m taking econ 20, econometrics. My prof is extremely well connected, and knows plenty of people in the Fed, seeing as he worked there for a number of years. He’s also published dozens of papers. My math prof this term is a very well known mathematician. He and a few other profs (ever heard of Snell? or Kemeny?) have published a number of books and journals that laid some of the basic foundations of mathematics as we know it today. </p>
<p>The campus is gorgeous. It’s rustic and rural, but incredibly beautiful. From the top floor of my building, I get an absolutely amazing view. Flowing forest covered mountains and hills… little to no signs of habitation… Now, with the snow (there’s a lot of that), it’s even more beautiful. </p>
<p>Dartmouth is an incredibly close knit network. We all know our president by face and name, some of us get to hang out with him on a regular basis. Our sense of tradition (like some of those dumbo11 named) bind us together, and our shared experience gives us so much to work with. Our alumni network is incredibly diverse and powerful; and they’re more than willing to help you. I’m in the process of searching for internships this summer in finance, and I’m getting positive responses from the alums. If you get in here, you should definitely come to campus to see for yourself what it’s like.</p>
<p>Wow Dartmouth sounds incredible. The only thing that i’m worried about is the social scene. I do drink and party so I’m not worried about that aspect. But in general what are the students like at Dartmouth? I’m kind of a quiet girl who likes music and reading, not the type who is president of every club and plays a million sports. I’m pretty social, just more introverted and sometimes shy. Would it be possible for me to fit in at Dartmouth?</p>
<p>The students that have made it into Dartmouth are, in general, somewhat nerdy. However, they’ve spread out and filled all the social gaps that there are. There are your sports jocks, your really pretty cheerleader types, your ******s, your bullies, your gamers, etc. In my experience however, the social scene is what you make of it. If you identity yourself with one group, others will identify you as part of that group. </p>
<p>There are plenty of people like you here. I was originally somewhat like you. I’m a pianist of 11 years, read a ton of books in high school, etc. I didn’t party, didn’t drink. </p>
<p>There are plenty of people that don’t drink. Plenty of people that don’t party. A lot of people here were originally pretty quiet, but they’ve become more social (one benefit of the Dartmouth experience: you’ll learn to become more social, even if you weren’t). You’ll DEFINITELY fit in here. As a freshman, you’re placed on an all freshman floor, and you’ll bond with your floormates very well. If you’re accepted, you’ll go on DOC trips (freshman trips) where you’ll spend a few days outdoors with a few random kids. Some of them will become your best friends. </p>
<p>College is a time of exploration and experimentation. I’m not saying that you should try crack cocaine. I am, however, saying that you should try out new social scenes, and experience new things. </p>
<p>While I paint a very positive picture of Dartmouth… I will definitely admit that it has its flaws. I’ll try to give some negatives. Dartmouth drinks, and drinks excessively. A friend of mine belongs on a floor where the average kid will down 15 drinks a night. We have a very good relationship with the local police out of pure necessity: if they went around arresting every underage drinker, the entire campus would be in jail most nights. The party scene is a little limited (frats only pretty much). It’s difficult to get a long term relationship, since it’s very much a hookup culture (although… 40% of Dartmouth grads end up marrying other Dartmouth grads- go figure). Girls get sketched on quite a bit in the frat basements, as the frat brothers can be… sketchy. A warning to girls: if you agree to play pong with a guy, the implication is that it’s foreplay and that you agree to hook up with him later (may depend on the guy, but it’s true 95% of the time). Classes are almost never canceled due to weather (it’s been 4 years now), despite getting massive amounts of snow. It gets very cold: it’s already dropped below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. </p>
<p>It’s not all sun and rainbows. However, Dartmouth is an amazing place, and I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. The education is world class; we’re ranked number 1 in undergraduate teaching for a reason. However, unlike a lot of other schools, we have a lot of fun while we learn a lot. In the end, Dartmouth students will get just as good an education as a student from, say, Penn, but we’ll have infinitely more fun while doing it.</p>
<p>By the way, for those of you that can’t visit, here’s a live feed from a webcam on the top of Baker tower. It overlooks the green. In the distance, you can see the Hopkins Center (one of the dining halls, the music studios, the musical rehearsal areas, the woodshop, the ceramics studio, the theaters, etc.)</p>
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<p>Thank you, meowmix This is one of the most succinct and descriptive overviews of the unique benefits of the Dartmouth experience that I have seen. The only thing I can add is that the Class of '66 put up a [Class</a> of 1966 Webcam](<a href=“http://dartmouth.org/classes/66/webcam/index.php]Class”>http://dartmouth.org/classes/66/webcam/index.php) that you can look around the Green in different directions at varied zooms.</p>
<p>For those that have not attended Dartmouth, Disneyland is considered the happiest place on earth.</p>
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<p>Dartmouth is probably the most down to earth and least pretentious of all the Ivies. It is just a warm, beautify, and comfortable environment with cool people.</p>
<p>Oh my, I thought this thread had died. I just read everything-Dartmouth sounds even better than I imagined! Wow. I need to go there hahaha too bad applicant volume has gone up 15.7%. More competition for everyone!</p>
<p>Mehh 
anxious… I need a hobby till March 31</p>
<p>Same here. Does the Dartmouth portal still say “your app is still being processed” for you? Mine does. They must be super busy this year.</p>
<p>It’s March 30th, if that makes you feel any better</p>
<p>I actually chose Dartmouth over a few of the Ivies as a transfer (and I was coming out of Columbia). Dartmouth just wins on the intangibles. </p>
<p>Dartmouth showers it students with opportunities - from grants, to international thesis research stipends, to paying for community service experiences (Dartmouth spends more on advising and grants than any Ivy and 4 times as much as Columbia and Penn per student). It has arguably the best study abroad in the country. There are no TAs. Dartmouth has the highest alumni giving rate and 75% come back for their 5 year reunion. Professors take you to dinner and the President of the school walks around campus. The D-plan gives incredibly access to Internships and sophomore summer is everyone’s favorite term. The community is loyal and tightknit. Its graduate placement is superb (Top 7 according to WSJ), and in my experience it leads among the non-HYP Ivies in many ways in elite recruiting for jobs. Heck it has the highest average salary for its graduates of any school in the country 10 years after graduation (Payscale).</p>
<p>Dartmouth is just a fantastic undergraduate experience that is incredibly unique. It’s a school with a fun loving intellectual student body, intimate academics, and strong programs where the graduates also happen to do extraordinarily well when they graduate. I think other Ivies cause students to make sacrifices (I felt this way at Columbia in terms of the administration and social life), Dartmouth does the opposite – it does everything it can to make the UNDERGRAD experience as strong as possible.</p>
<p>Here is a little more detail on some aspects of Dartmouth:</p>
<p>1) Academics/ recruiting</p>
<p>Dartmouth has very high placement rates into the top grad schools (top 7 overall), largely in my opinion due to the fact that Dartmouth offers so much to its undergrads. Dartmouth is more than twice as rich than all the non HYP Ivies on a per student basis, and it prides itself on spending its resources on undergrads. This mean lots more grants, more scholarships, more opportunities to have events with professors, etc. Dartmouth is awesome in terms of teaching and professor engagement, with ZERO T/As teaching classes. I was an anthro major and I got $10K for my thesis research and TWO incredibly active thesis advisors. I literally had some classes with less than five people at the upper levels. Dartmouth professors take you to dinner, they encourage you, and they are amazing. I think another reason Dartmouth grads do so well at grad school admissions is the fact that they know their professors so well. Frankly its amazing. Dartmouth does have a terrific LAC-like feel. Sophomore summer is most students favorite term.</p>
<p>Dartmouth’s distributives are very broad but I liked being forced me to take a couple classes (like Acting for my art) that I might otherwise not have taken.</p>
<ol>
<li>Recruiting
Dartmouth does incredibly well with the elite finance/ consulting firms, only after HYP. There are three reasons for the incredible placement. 1) Dartmouth has had one of the best legacies in business of any school in the country, and these ties continue to this day. 2) Dartmouth alumni tend to favor their own more than most schools alums. 3) The D-plan allows Dartmouth students to get internships throughout the year, this is the biggest advantage. You essentially have no other competition for full time internships during the year, and this is what gets you through the door at most firms.</li>
</ol>
<p>Study Abroad?
Most students at Dartmouth go on a study abroad, many go on 2-3. Its not only a thing to do, its a way of life. The language programs are OUTSTANDING, you not only have small classes a preperation, you have drill with its “rassias method” which is an amazingly fun way to really learn a language. Study abroad programs include a professor and about 20 other Dartmouth students (which is different from other schools which have people from al schools). There are special trips every weekend and you get to become incredibly close to your fellow Dartmouth students. Also since Dartmouth is on the quarter system it allows for multiple study abroads.</p>
<p>3) Campus location and closest city/town location
Hanover is beautiful and quaint, and Dartmouth’s location in the mountains is amazing. The outdoor access is awesome, people ski during the winters on the skiway, jump in the river in summers. To be honest only a select group of students are into the hardcore outdoors. Its the casual outdoor stuff like snowball fights during the winter, riding your bike through the beautiful fall leaves, the swimming in the river during summers, BBQs by houses on the river, the awesome stars when you are out at night, etc, etc. During the summer the campus feels like a magical summer camp, during the winters its charming and warm. A warning though – Hanover is not a big city! So if that is of major concern Dartmouth might not be the perfect choice. </p>
<p>4) Community
Dartmouth is very community oriented, moreso than any Ivy (along with Princeton). Reunions are very well attended and people from Dartmouth tend to know many students across classes well after they graduate. </p>
<p>Socially its frat driven – but the Greek houses are completely inclusive to everyone and there’s actually a campus list publishing the big parties that weekend. Everyone is invited everywhere. In addition to the greek scene there is a house party scene, smaller gatherings in dorms, plus niche scenes like the organic farm crowd or the Ledyard Canoe club crowd. The nights are full of activity. I would say that its easily one of the top 2 most active Ivies on a given weekend night. Dartmouth’s downside might be that its jock culture does have power with the frats, places like Chi Heorot, Theta Delt, and Psi U are centered around sports teams and I think this can intimidating. The upside is there is a large social scene outside these places. </p>
<p>Dartmouth students overwhelmingly are the playful, fun loving, brilliant type. People tend to play down themselves which is great and refreshing among the Ivies.</p>
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<p>I feel like this needs to be reiterated because it’s so true. When I visited some of the other Ivies on their admit weekends, the arrogance and snobbery I observed was absolutely suffocating.</p>
<p>I would write more, but I’ve got another midterm tomorrow. To the '15s - you’re very lucky people, but you’re still the worst class ever. (You’ll learn what this means when you get on campus!)</p>
<p>I agree. One thing I’ve noticed which stands out about Dartmouth is how just satisfied and happy students are to be part of the school - the culture just isn’t about elitism or rankings. People generally think they are part of one of the best college experiences on the planet and seem to be far less concerned than some schools (ahem…Penn, cough Columbia) about small nuances in acceptance rates or prestige.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks slipper1234! That was probably the most informative post I’ve ever read. Thank you for taking the time to type all of that (: Now I want to go to Dartmouth more than ever!</p>
<p>“To the '15s - you’re very lucky people, but you’re still the worst class ever.” What do you mean by this, DartmouthForever? Care to explain? haha</p>