<p>How much does the greek system really dominate the dartmouth social life? is it as bad as the reputation is or has it calmed down a bit?></p>
<p>I'm trying to chose bwteen Columbia, Georgetown and Dartmouth. But I don't want to spend four years with frustrated drunk ppl who hate the isolation of the place but are there for the ivy league name (sorry, i know it's the stereotype)</p>
<p>I'd appreciate any input, especially from current students!</p>
<p>I'm a current student who turned down both Columbia and Georgetown for Dartmouth - and I'm really glad I did.</p>
<p>I'm not a big partyer, and I don't think the Greek system is a problem. It does have a significant impact on the Dartmouth social scene, but it's big enough so that it's really inclusive and welcoming, and not at all homogenous. There are frats where you can go get trashed every night, and there are places where you can just hang out and meet people - certainly a lot of people drink and party a lot, but there's not a lot of social pressure to do so if you don't want to. There's also co-ed fraternities, which are much more low-key.</p>
<p>Basically, the Greek scene is not at all crazy horrible degenerate drunken stupid sexist blah blah blah, and even if you think it is, there are other things you can do other than hang out at frats. Everyone at Dartmouth is really, really involved with extracurriculars: if you don't like the frat scene, you can watch movies or live theatre or performances at the Hop, go to Friday Night Rock, go hiking/kayaking/canoing/snowshoing/skiing/whatever with the DOC, a capella concerts and shows, ridiculous costume dance parties (okay. these happen at frats. but they're not a "drinking ****ty beer in basements" scene), etc etc.</p>
<p>My problem with Columbia and Georgetown was that, even though having access to a large city may seem nice, I felt that students were very cliquey - you meet your friends the first week, then hang out with them exclusively in NYC or DC, with not much of an atmosphere of campus unity. Everyone at Dartmouth is really friendly - even (gasp!) frat brothers.</p>
<p>It's kind of like Herodotus - you're either a Greek or a barbarian. But we treat the barbarians pretty well considering they're barbarians and all.</p>
<p>They're are plenty of frats where you WILL NOT be drinking or raging hard. Phi Tau and Alpha Theta have a lot of intellectual people, who do a lot of non-alcoholic activities. They have ice cream sundays, "Milque and Cookies" (more types of cookies than you can count, and this egg-nog like milk), etc. etc. SigNu is also pretty chill. </p>
<p>You'll honestly never be pressured to drink. Most people on campus don't ever get "drunk". They'll have a few beers, maybe until they're tipsy, and then just call it a night. </p>
<p>People on CC have a very skewed image of Dartmouth's frats. You really have to visit to understand why so many people are comfortable with the frats here, and thus choose to rush.</p>
<p>Lucia, I transferred from columbia to Dartmouth. I found the social scene to be much better at Dartmouth. Most of my best friends were not in frats and I was able to create a great social scene. I found my weekends at Dartmouth to be much more interesting than at Columbia where I felt all i did was go out in the city. Also Dartmouth students are the most loyal among the Ivies, I found many more people at Columbia who were HYP rejects and upset about it than at Dartmouth where everyone wanted to be there and loved the school.</p>
<p>My son ('10) chose Dartmouth over Georgetown SFS and hasn't had a moments regret. He initially worried that he'd would not be comfortable in a Greek-dominated campus, but it has been the opposite. He finds everyone there to be very friendly and is even considering pledging next year. He is not a hard-partying, big jock-type, so if he finds the Greek system at Dartmouth to be inclusive, it truly must be so.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input! I'm going to the Dimensions of Dartmouth program tomorrow and staying for four days, so I should get more of a sense of the campus then...Ah,I feel like compared to, say, columbia, dartmouth has much more of a "college" feel and student life on campus...in columbia most of the students are constantly in the city. while that ios also a big asset, it's also a bad thing...sigh....i guess i have to chose between city opportunities or the outdoors (which i love by the way)</p>