<p>i can't go. and I feel left out. i guess my question is, as stated above, do most people go? will i be at a loss, confused, out of place, etc. showing up in sept without having visited/met anyone?</p>
<p>thanks in advance!</p>
<p>ps. i applied ED.</p>
<p>EDers weren’t even invited last year.</p>
<p>While EDers are not invited to Dimensions, they are welcome to attend (they just have to make their own arrangements to attend). If you have friends/siblings already on campus you can arrange one of them to host you. Once they are there they can participate in all activities held during dimensions.</p>
<p>You won’t feel left out at all. Lots of people who go to Dimensions wind up not going to Dartmouth. And lots of people who go to Dartmouth didn’t go to Dimensions.</p>
<p>You should definitely do one of the outdoor trips, however – that gives you a head start in meeting people before you arrive on campus.</p>
<p>And if you can’t do that either, don’t worry. Everyone’s new there the first week.</p>
<p>About 600-700 students went last year. Also, judging by how many people I met at Dimensions, vs. people who are now here, maybe 75% of the people come to Dartmouth. Therefore, I would guesstimate that about 500 of the freshman class of 1100 went to Dimensions.</p>
<p>You’ll be missing out, but look on the bright side… you still get to go to Dartmouth!
It is true that some people meet boyfriends/girlfriends at Dimensions, and some people meet their best friends, but most of the time they don’t end up becoming best friends/bf/gf until after a bit of time at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Regardless, you can make friends before coming to Dartmouth by attending local meet-ups (or organize one yourself!) Also, you will most likely come out of your DOC trips with 5-9 new best friends. Even still, many have a week of pre-orientation, and everybody has a week of orientation before classes start. By that time, you will have potentially had 3 weeks of Dartmouth-related stuff going on to meet other freshman. You also do a ton of bonding activities with your freshman hall and UGA. (The UGAs (undergraduate advisors are like RAs) here are very good). You also have an academic advisor to help you plan and pick your courses (they range from unhelpful to very helpful), a community director who oversees social events in your cluster and coordinates all the UGAs, a GA (graduate advisor) in each cluster who can give you advice on anything, as they are recent, successful, college grads now at Dartmouth’s grad schools. You also get to take smaller writing courses or first-year seminars during freshman year (~10-15 people), and this gives you a few professors that you will undoubtedly become close to, as well as all the other students in your classes. Finally, you have a top notch first-year dean assigned to you, who can give you individual help, or even just help you coordinate all of the above.</p>
<p>Dartmouth has the best freshman experience of any school, ever. All of my high school friends go to the other top schools in the country, and some of them still haven’t fully adjusted. For most of them it took a full term until they felt that they were comfortable both socially and academically at their schools.</p>
<p>I have been calling Dartmouth ‘home’ since midway through my DOC trip.</p>
<p>My son is a 12 who also was accepted ED. He did not go to Dimensions and certainly does not feel it was important. Remember Dimensions is a program to help RD’s get a better feel for D and help them martriculate to D. My son became involved with his local D network of other 12’s and they would get together at least once a month through the summer. He had a great time at his DOC trip and Freshman orientation. I remember arriving in Hanover to help him move in and it seemd that my son was the mayor of Hanover as he seemed to know everyone already. Now that it is Spring quarter it seems that his closest friends are now people that he met within his major and the organizations that he has joined. My suggestion to you is to accept invitations to join some of the many great groups on campus. Also, hopefully you will have a great roommate like my son has (they are more like brothers than friends) and also all the great kids on your floor. If your experience is anything like my son’s you are about to have the time of your life.</p>
<p>Ditto Redondo Dave! D could not make Dimensions, did do the DOC trip and loved it. Has good friends from that shared experience, but not necessarily her closest. Had a huge contingent of friends initially from the freshman floor and remained friends with them throughout. But other very close friendships were made from involvement in various organizations, class rooms, off-campus experiences. Your next four years are going to be very rich in experience. By the end of the 1st quarter, Dartmouth was referred to as ‘home’ that she was eager to get back to.</p>
<p>aww this is all great to hear! thanks everyone!!</p>