<p>Hello all. I have been at Dartmouth Dimensions (and am staying for my third night tonight). Both my hosts smoke copious amounts of weed. Everyone I have met in the dorm does as well. I do not want to smoke weed while at Dartmouth, and was very put off by the prevalence of drug use. The Undergrad Advisor knew about the drugs, but did nothing. Is this typical of Dartmouth students?</p>
<p>My friend who is currently there was turned off by the abundance of drinking. It seemed like you couldn't survive without drinking all day...</p>
<p>About the smoking, maybe it's just the person you stayed with...he will obviously introduce you to people he associates with, meaning they will probably be smokers too.</p>
<p>As a student here, I know students who both smoke pot and drink more than they should, but i also know a lot of people who do neither, or drink only in moderation. I do neither and have never felt like I had to. Perhaps you should look into substance-free housing? Thats where I live, and i promise, the people are normal and have normal social lives :)</p>
<p>also, the fact that you were here on 4.20 probably made it worse than usual.</p>
<p>My friend currently goes to Dartmouth, and she says that there is definitely a lot of alcohol and drugs. Some students literally decorate their dorms with the beer bottles. However, it all depends on who you hang out with. I visited the school before Dimensions because the dates conflicted with my other colleges, and I didn't see any more drinking than I expected.</p>
<p>Well, I'm not so sure about everyone smoking weed at Dartmouth, but I just got back home from Dimensions and I had a really bad time. The thing that probably colored my experience most was that my "host" kicked me out of her room for the night so that she and her boyfriend could . . .well, you know. I ended up wandering the halls with my sleeping bag looking for somewhere to sleep. Finally someone took me in. (I wish I had known who Sybbie's daughter is, if she is as nice as her mom I would have asked if I could crash with her!) My rooming situation was the worst of it, but I can't say I liked the social scene either. I was with a group of pre-frosh (you probbly know who you are!) and we just wandered from frat to frat. Some of them wouldn't let us in, which wasn't fun, but it turned out that the places that let us in weren't that much fun either. All in all, not really a good time.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that the frats are not allowed to let in prospective students. That's likely why some wouldn't let you in and not much was going on at others.</p>
<p>Wow...I totally missed all of that. I didn't go into a single frat, not even the Dimensions sanctioned one. Didn't see weed or alcohol at all (although I could definitely hear frat activity). Of course, I stayed in East Wheelock...</p>
<p>Coldcomfort - wow! I wish you had been with my D - hhhmmmm, maybe you were. She hosted 2, but I very much doubt the drinking or weed. Unfortunately this is mid-terms, and next weekend is First Year Family Weekend, so I wondered about fun. DId you go to the show?</p>
<p>The frats are on notice to keep the prospies sober, by keeping them out if necessary, but I thought they would be able to go to the dance party.</p>
<p>Sub free housing is pretty much as stated, I think there might have been a few incidents early in the year, and people come home occasionally who have been drinking, but not on the floor, not a lot of the other problems.</p>
<p>Coldcomfort- I am sorry to hear that your host was so inconsiderate of you. I wish you had of e-mailed me as my D would have definitely put you up. As a UGA even though she lives in the river cluster she has a double room with an extra bed even though she lives alone. non-smoker so weed would have be a non-issue.</p>
<p>SHe had papers and midterms due this week also.</p>
<p>She spent the week working with the 9's and she was at the dimensions show . </p>
<p>I know some of her sisters who live in EW did put of a few prospective students. When we spoke earlier in the week she said pretty much the same thing that Dartmom said about the Frats were served notice reading drinking during dimensions.</p>
<p>darty1 - I think it would be naive not to expect to find a fair amount of drugs at any college, not just at Dartmouth. It was like that 30 years ago, and I assume it is still like that. The great thing about college is that you all start on a clean slate, and you can find people who are more like you to be friendly with. At Dartmouth there will be over 1000 others to choose from. To the extent I have discussed this with D, I get the impression that, as with alcohol, there are some people who do a lot, some who do absolutely nothing, and a great number in between. As garrr! said, my D has never felt any pressure to do anything she doesn't want to do. She says you can go to a frat party and hang out all night with the same beer and nobody will give you a hard time. Your complaint is almost the exact opposite of ColdComfort who would have liked to have fun at a frat party, which just goes to show that everyone is looking for something different. </p>
<p>Having said all of that, your hosts were not very considerate. But you will find people like that wherever you go and, again, it would be naive to assume you won't find that at other places. You should try not to let your experience with your hosts totally color your impression of Dartmouth. Dartmouth is an incredible place where you can find your own niche both academically and socially.</p>
<p>At dimensions, current students said that smoking was not very big at dartmouth compared to other schools. You just may have run into the wrong crowd, and the 4.20 thing certainly didn't help. Coldcomfort, sorry about your host, that sounds awful.</p>
<p>Yeah, I mean, there certainly are people that smoke pot as there are going to be in almost any school, but it's definitely not like reefer madness. But there's never any pressure or anything...at my fraternity, there are some people that smoke up but it's totally a personal choice.</p>
<p>I just got back from Dimensions, and I have to admit that I was really turned off by the whole social aspect of the school. It may have just been a case (or a few cases) of me being in the 'wrong place, at the wrong time', and so I was hoping to get some of your thoughts before I make any decisions.</p>
<p>My room hosts took us out frat hopping the very first night, and didn't seem much interested in doing much else. Some of you have mentioned that frats didn't allow prospies in, much less drink, but I beg to differ. We went to at least 4 or five frat houses that night and every prospie had complete access to anythign and everything available. In fact, in the very first frat we visited, (my host told us we were going there because they were the only ones that served free alcohol before 10 PM) we sat in on a house meeting in which the house president announced: 'If you are a prospie, you are NOT drinking tonight' Then, she and the rest of the house laughed and a bunch of guys came over with cups and alcohol for us.</p>
<p>Now, it's crossed my mind that this environment just takes getting used to, and maybe it's just the shock of being exposed to this environment so suddenly, but I can't help but think that after a few months at Dartmouth, when it's freezing and snowing, and I/we are just SICK of frat hopping and getting wasted/stoned every night, what else is there to do? Where does one go? Hanover, no offense, isn't an extremely exciting town and looking around for other things to do will land you in the middle of... the forest?</p>
<p>Dartmouth just seems kind of unbalanced in terms of the social scene. But, I really don't want to give up such an amazing opportunity to go to an awesome school just cause I had a bad experience with crappy room hosts. I mean, I know that not everyone at Dmouth is like this, but how balanced could it be if this culture is representative of the large majority? Sorry for the long post (first time poster) but these questions have been burning for the past couple days and my college decisions pretty much depend on them.</p>
<p>My experience at Dimensions was different than the other ones mentioned, and it actually convinced me to decide on going to Dartmouth. Before I was very hesitant about going to a school which such a prevelant Greek culture and partying scene, but I had such a great time and didn't feel exposed to that at all. </p>
<p>Although I thought it was just a gimmick line before, you really can avoid that aspect of the college if you want to. I met a great group of prospies who I hung out with for most of Dimensions and while we were aware that there was certainly drinking and pot smoking (but seriously this IS is a college afterall) we were never directly exposed to it because we had no interest in doing anything. We went to the dance party on the first night and just danced and had a good time. No, I wasn't oblivious that many students and prospies were drinking in the basement or had pre-gamed, but I didn't want to be involved, so I wasn't.</p>
<p>I think your experience was definitely the result of the type of hosts you had. For them, drinking and partying might be a major aspect of their Dartmouth life, but that is not true for every Dartmouth student. I spoke to several students (either hosts of my prospie friends or their roomates or friends) who don't love to drink and party and they all have their groups of friends and have fun.</p>
<p>theperfect10 - first of all, the frats are "not supposed to" serve alcohol to prospies. and not just during dimensions but at other times of the year as well. Whether they do or not may be a function of the particular frat house you were in, who your hosts were and who they knew, etc... xgreenmachinex gives you part of your answer in that this IS a college, and this is an aspect of college and you will find it no matter where you go and it is up to you to avoid it and make friends who have other interests. On the other hand you make a very good point about the Dartmouth environment. I think you need to ask yourself what you would like to do on Friday and Saturday nights. What do you do at home? If you were not interested in the frat hopping aspect of college you should have used your time at Dartmouth to see what else would interest you in the area. What would you do on weekends at another college? Maybe you need to be in a big city where there are other options. Although often in a big city, the options include club hopping, which is just a more sophisticated version of frat hopping. You should go on the Dartmouth website and look at the schedule for the Hop and see if any of those events interest you. If you like camping you can be involved in the outing club at Dartmouth and if you like skiing you can go skiing in the winter. Look at the website for the outing club. Maybe you are athletic and want to be involved in a club sport that will take up a lot of your time. Check some of those out on the website. There are so many different activities to be involved in, you have to decide what it is YOU want to do. And if it's not frat hopping, then you should have taken the opportunity to check out what else people were doing. Did you walk down and around Main St. to see what was there? Did you go into the Hop and check out any of the concerts? Unless your other choices are in big cities, you will probably find that their college towns don't offer anything much different than Hanover. Actually for a small college town I think Hanover offers a lot. A number of great restaurants within walking distance (at most colleges that are even near small cities you can't go to many places unless you have a car or take a bus), a fair amount of good shopping within walking distance, a movie theater within walking distance, a CVS within walking distance, and as an extra bonus you get to live in a very clean, virtually crime free environment.</p>
<p>Son just woke up from return home to SoCal -- flight delay, and long layover, but that's another story. He did mention that alcohol was plentiful and 'not avaible to prospies, 'wink-wink', for those that wanted to inbibe, but said he didn't see a bunch of folks smoking funny maryJ. He attended several frat parties to check them out, but he, several other prospies and hosts, went back to thier dorm and started a sub-free party there. They combined a whole floor of stereo-speaker components, blased i-pod music throughout the house, ordered in wings and munchies at some (unreported hour), and had a GREAT time. They were supposed to go to the Hop, but never got there since they were having a good time hanging out.</p>
<p>He commented that his host said things are a little more crazy then normal, since mid-terms finished last week, and parent weekend is next week, so kids wanted to have a little extra fun in between.</p>
<p>One thing son noted was that passion the students had for the school. He said the Dimensions skits were hilarious, but at times, as bad as acting can get; however, he opined that current students must really love thier school to get up on stage and prove to the world that they do not possess a dancing nor singing gene.</p>
<p>His trip reinforced his decision to apply ED last fall, and he can't wait to get back to Hanover -- now, if we could reduce the travel time in half. LOL</p>
<p>The thing is, I want a school that has an entire environment conducive to other social activities besides getting wasted and/or stoned. so my question is--is that a dominant part of the environment? would i need to actively look for other options to get away from it? or is it just a side feature? There seems to be a big difference between the two... if I choose not to always be a part of this part of Dartmouth, will I be missing out on a major part of the social life and end up secluded from most social activities?
I spoke to some kids from East Wheelock (which was amazing, as far as dorms go) and it seems that on campus, there is a stereotype that east wheelock kids are kind of self-segregating and no fun. While the idea of East Wheelock does appeal to me, the attitude towards/from the E.W. kids seems to also be stifling in its own way.</p>
<p>When I told my parents about my concern, they said, (completely serious) "well, you are going to be spending most of your time studying in the library, so maybe this is better for you anyways".......
Spending four years in a library in New Hampshire will probalby not make for a great experience/education, and while the town of Hanover definitely is nice, it still seems to lack a great deal in terms of other types of energy ( I only visited during the day, not at night, so maybe it does change, but that wasn't the impression I had when i saw it)</p>
<p>The other college I am considering is Georgetown, which seemed to be much more balanced in terms of the social scene. The district of Georgetown in DC seems to be the 'perfect' college town atmosphere to me, and the campus istself has a great community and is very self-sustaining. Do you think that it is worth it to forgo Dartmouth's benefits (smaller classes, amazing alum network, friendlier people, name, etc...) simply because I couldnt find a niche in its social scene? What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Go to Georgetown then.
Evalute colleges yourself.
You obviously don't like the atmosphere at Dartmouth and prefer that of Gtown.</p>
<p>sounds like you prefer the big city -- it that's a better fit, go for it!</p>
<p>btw: while GT doesn't have obvious frat-drinking on campus, plenty of drinking does occur at local bars, one of which is right outside the walls.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is definitely NOT that big of a pot school. Seriously. Drinking, I'll give you, but like someone already mentioned, 4/20 was smack in the middle of Dimensions so that might have explained more smoking than usual. </p>
<p>And I wouldn't worry about the social niche. Truly, I feel like everyone has some place in college- it's not like high school. I don't know anybody who hasn't found a group of friends they're comfortable with.</p>