<p>I'm an undergrad at dartmouth and I have to say, one of the reasons I chose it was because of how it was mentioned as such a wonderful school on here. Unfortunately while there are great things about the school I want to put a degree of realism on two important aspects of campus</p>
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<li><p>Frat/sorority scene -- Can be great if you're in one, but there are many people who are rejected from rush and end up being second-class citizens if they want to be a part of mainstream social life. Yes, you can still have a life with alternative students but it is very difficult otherwise. When people introduce each other, one of the first questions (besides name and year) is INVARIABLY what frat/sorority are you in, and there is a well known hierarchy of what's a "good" and what's a "bad" house to be a part of. Overall lends to a superficial system in my opinion although if you are part of it you will have an amazing time</p></li>
<li><p>Corporate recruiting -- despite what I've heard Dartmouth is quite weak for investment banking/finance recruiting. Consulting recruiting is FANTASTIC, but here are the firms who do ZERO ON CAMPUS RECRUITING whatsover (for any division) for full time jobs at Dartmouth this year:</p></li>
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<p>BofA Merrill Lynch
Credit Suisse
Citigroup
UBS
Barclays Capital
Goldman Sachs (resume drop, no on campus)
Morgan Stanley (resume drop, no on campus)
Deutsche Bank (had on campus, then canceled before deadline)
Blackstone Group
JP Morgan
Wells Fargo
Evercore
Greenhill
Perella Weinberg
Moelis </p>
<p>The firms that do: a lot of wealth management / asset management firms. Granted this year is rough and many firms didn't take any students period but recruiting, while solid for internships, isn't as great as others will lead you to believe. And as for the Dartmouth network -- many people are helpful with emails, but I've gotten responses back on maybe 1/3 of all the emails I've sent out. Overall disappointing</p>
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<li><p>Mostly ditto. I think unaffiliateds can hype how “bad” things actually are – your life isn’t crap if you don’t go Greek. But you will notice that most people who did go Greek have a much better/more superficially “fun” life than you. There’s not a lot to do on this campus if you aren’t in a Greek org or some comparable organization (some people might mention The D, the DOC, an a capella group, a minority cultural org, etc. as viable alternatives and I agree).</p></li>
<li><p>Can’t really comment although I am also going through recruiting. My main complaint is that beyond finance and consulting, other opportunities are terribly sparse. I think this is probably because it’s not worth it for a lot of firms to travel out here to the boonies just to get a couple hires – it only makes sense for a consulting/finance firm raking in the big bucks.</p></li>
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<p>One thing which I think gets hyped too much is how Dartmouth is rural. There are a lot of visible pros – the campus is beautiful, the outdoors opportunities are great – and a lot of invisible cons. Both my points #1 and #2 would be rather different (in a better way) if Dartmouth weren’t in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>Your post is riddled with inaccuracy and/or misunderstanding.</p>
<p>1) “Many” people aren’t rejected from frats. My trip leader is rush chair at a frat, and told me this when I asked him how competitive rush is.</p>
<p>2) If you get a resume drop, that’s as good as an on-campus interview. It just means that you have to go to NYC for the interview should you be invited for one. Or they’ll just do a phone interview. It’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>3) Some of those places are definitely doing on-campus interviews, either during sophomore summer when they’re recruiting a summer analyst class – the same class from which they will draw the vast majority of their full-time analyst class – or right now.</p>
<p>If you don’t already have an offer in high finance, and you’re a senior, you probably messed up during your internship in junior winter or junior summer. If that’s the case, don’t blame Dartmouth for your problems.</p>
<p>1) Not many are rejected from frats but a significant portion are (especially for more competitive houses) and MANY girls are rejected or drop out (because they were rejected earlier on by houses they wanted to go). You might not see it because you’re a guy but many girls don’t get into a house, and people who don’t join do get some **** </p>
<p>2) This year, for full-time NONE of those places had even resume drops except for the places I explicitly said. Any dartmouth undergrad can confirm. Yes, it’s partly because they take a lot of interns fulltime so don’t recruit as much for jobs but as you can see most of them were taking new hires and very few recruited on campus this year. Because of the crisis they are sticking more to Harvard, Wharton and then top undergrad business schools</p>
<p>3) I was talking about full-time - yes some of those places do recruit for soph summer but those are very very competitive (more so than fulltime/junior summer recruiting) to land. </p>
<p>I enjoyed a lot about my Dartmouth experience, and I have a great job lined up, but it’s no thanks to campus recruiting, and I still have reservations about both the greek scene and career services</p>
<p>If you think you’re not having as much fun bc you’re unaffiliated … I don’t know what to tell you. Go have fun. It’s really easy.</p>
<p>I think people who claim they don’t have as much fun as anyone else is likely <em>because</em> they’re just not as fun as other people.</p>
<p>There’s been a lot of whining at Dartmouth recently. Like every school, Dartmouth is what you make of it. Too many people seem to expect their ideal life just handed to them because they pay tuition</p>
<p>The Fraternity system I think is very open. I was in one of the so-called “in demand” houses and I honestly think we would let in 95% of the rushees.</p>
<p>How exclusive is the social scene? I’m looking for a more inclusive campus community but from what the OP said, i’m starting to question applying to Dartmouth</p>
<p>The social scene is extremely inclusive. The frats will never turn anyone away. It’s not like Harvard’s final clubs, which straight-up won’t let guys in.</p>
<p>Sorority rush is indeed a bit more competitive than fraternity rush, but remember that this year, ~80% of girls who rushed received bids. It’s not that competitive, and it’s not like you can’t be included in the social scene if you’re unaffiliated. I know a super popular junior who is unaffiliated, and he just hangs out in all of the houses.</p>
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<p>It’s good. Remember that Dartmouth is an Ivy League school with tremendously talented students that companies want.</p>
<p>(Most of the students in those majors will end up taking the finance route, though.)</p>
<p>An alum here,posting on lil bro’s acct. b/c I can’t help but react to this. Slipper is absolutely right on about the social scene. Regarding the I-bank recruiting, I ask where those banks had more than a resume drop this year…Dartmouth is incred. popular on Wall St., in no small part due to vigorous alums–well established alums, I may add. Dartmouth essentially runs the show a some of those no-show firms you mention. Dartmouth is an enormous presence on Wall Street. I’m sry that poster had a very, very atypical D experience but Slipper is correct: that is not how most of us found it. Being a D grad is NYC is an enormous plus. Enormous. I thank my lucky stars every day for those 4 years, where they led and where they continue to take me.</p>
<p>Dartmouth Forever, Are you a freshman? You seem so sure that everything is so easy. I think what I hear senior year is difficult and competitive. Students need not have “messed up” to now be experiencing anxiety about finding a finance or consulting job. And I hear for every 20 resumes dropped, maybe four will get a next interview, and that does not guarantee a job. Reality is that the economy isn’t all that good and Dartmouth students not only are competing among themselves, but against the best and brightest around the world. Lets get real.</p>
<p>If you play your cards correctly at this school, you’re de facto guaranteed a job. If you’re applying to Goldman Sachs with a 3.2 GPA (like my friend is), then yes, finding a job (in high finance) will probably be tough. If you have a 3.8 GPA, did an internship during junior winter, etc., you are almost definitely getting a job.</p>
<p>If you have a 3.8 GPA, you’re definitely graduating cum laude, if not possibly/probably magna cum laude. Obviously you’ll have a much easier time of getting a job – with that kind of GPA, this is true even at a lot of non-target schools. So what DartmouthForever says is pretty much irrelevant to a majority of students, since a majority won’t have a 3.8 GPA.</p>
<p>What one recent alum bluntly told me is that you’ll have a really tough time, even with your Dartmouth degree, with a GPA less than 3.7. (So essentially less than cum laude.) This isn’t true of just “high finance.”</p>
<p>Anyway to respond to the general question, a lot of firms will take or at least interview anyone with a high GPA, especially if they have relevant work experience. Major doesn’t matter a huge deal, except for some very specific fields, mostly in the sciences. Non-finance/-consulting/-marketing firms are a bit hard to come by in the recruiting process however. And obviously competition is steep; even if you’re not going for finance, it is tough.</p>
<p>Re the social scene, in some sense the Greek system is tremendously open, and in other senses it’s still rather closed. You have to go tremendously out of your way to be plugged into what’s happening in the campus social scene unless you’re in a Greek house. You don’t really meet people in basements, you meet them at tails and other events Greek organizations organize for themselves and other Greek orgs. Some big parties like KDE’s Derby are invite-only. It’s hardly as easy as DartmouthForever makes it seem. I’m unaffiliated and I tell (half tongue in cheek) my freshmen friends to rush because it makes navigating life at Dartmouth a lot easier.</p>
<p>I totally disagree with your view on the greek system. Sure frats have “tails” or formals but these only occur a couple nights a term. I went to lots of sorority formals (I think one term it was something like 7) in my time at Dartmouth - zero of which had anything to do with me being in a frat. Also everyone knows where the parties are on the weekends. There are going to be a couple huge frat parties where everyone goes, off campus parties, and people just hanging out in basements. I probably spent three times as much time at other frats than my own. Every frat is completely open to non brothers.</p>
<p>As for Invite only parties there are like - what 2 a year? I mean ha I don’t even remember one that’s how rare they are. Dartmouth is probably one of the most inclusive schools out there.</p>