<p>So when I visited Dartmouth, I fell in love with it, but recently I've been hearing that there's a huge frat/drinking culture and the campus has a conservative bent. Is that an accurate description? Can I still have a social life if I'm not a huge partier?</p>
<p>Dartmouth is not conservative. At all.</p>
<p>But there is a huge frat/drinking culture.</p>
<p>Dartmouth has a small politically-conservative student group that, a few years ago, was very loud and aggressive and got itself noticed in some news articles. This I think led to the (mis)perception that Dartmouth is conservative over-all.</p>
<p>There is a big frat/drinking culture, but there are a significant number of non-drinkers you can be friends and do things with. It’s just that the main campus social structure is set up to serve the frat/drinking crowd more than the non-drinkers.</p>
<p>Raindrop:</p>
<p>Since Dartmouth is located in New England, I would say that there are probably more liberals than conservatives on campus. That being said, I wouldn’t base my college selection too much on political orientation. </p>
<p>You may not believe this, but your political orientation may well change or evolve over the years. You will probably say that I am crazy when I say this, and proclaim that you will always be a liberal. However, let me give you some examples:</p>
<p>George McGovern, the 1972 democratic candidate for President, and the anti-war candidate, was actually a republican during the time he fought in WW II, and a big supporter of Tom Dewey over Harry Truman. If you had told him in 1948 that just 15 years later, he would be the DEMOCRATIC candidate for Senator in South Dakota, and that 24 years later, that he would be the DEMOCRATIC candidate for President, he would probably have called you crazy.</p>
<p>And of course, Reagan started out as a liberal. He was a big FDR fan.</p>
<p>And Rick Perry of Texas used to be an Al Gore supporter. I was surprised to hear that.</p>
<p>In my own family, my father was the head of the democratic party in our home town for 20 years, and was a big John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson fan, and was actually an alternate delegate to the 1964 democratic convention, but by the time he died, he had become a republican. But even though he had become a republican, there were still some liberal causes that he contributed money to.</p>
<p>I am a history buff. At the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin made a great speech. All the delegates were kind of locked into their own viewpoints, and deadlocked, but Franklin, now about 80 years old, said in his speech to the delegates that the delegates might consider the fact that just perhaps they might actually be wrong in some of their views that they were so certain about, and he pointed out that many of the things he fervently believed in, years before, when he was their age, he no longer believed in, or was no longer so certain about. </p>
<p>The drinking issue is another story. My son is not a party type. Hence, he is applying to “intellectual” schools that at least seem to be for non-party types, such as University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>All that aside Dartmouth is not conservative at all. Its a misconception from the 80s that for some reason still circulates the rumor mill.</p>
<p>I’m super liberal and not a big drinker, and I love it here. The stereotypes really aren’t true.</p>
<p>I would add that I think where you live also affects how much partying you’ll be exposed to. If you sign up to live in East Wheelock, you’ll probably have a more relaxed and quiet atmosphere. It also depends on the floor, which is left up to chance. For example, my floor is pretty ragey but the floor above us is usually dead. </p>
<p>tl;dr version: You can drink if you want, but there are certainly other places you can choose to be.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if students that come to dartmouth are already drinkers from high school or if they adopt partying once they get to dartmouth?</p>
<p>^^Probably some of each.</p>
<p>Vast majority were non-drinkers in high school</p>