<p>As I mentioned earlier, the Students Review site may be most useful for its reviews (as opposed to the surveys). Please check them out (see link = <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/NH/DC_c.html)%5B/url%5D">http://www.studentsreview.com/NH/DC_c.html)</a>.</p>
<p>Many of the reviews are worthless, and some are suspiciously illiterate (which leads me to believe that some of them...as Hanna suggests...may not have been written by Dartmouth students); Nevertheless, buried among the detritus there are actually quite a few really well-written and insightful mini-essays. As an alumnus of Dartmouth, I really do believe that the lengthier reviews on the site were truly written by Dartmouth students or alumni, as advertised. They are not one-sided, they point out Dartmouth's negatives as well as the (many) positives, and they contain too much factual information and insights consistent with my own experience to have been written by pretenders. Some of the shorter quips are of less certain parentage...especially those with poor grammar. I agree that the rankings, per se, are relatively meaningless, but I do see some value to the commentaries (It is just too much work to write a thoughtful essay, researching the school and dealing with both postives and negatives, if you truly have no connection to the school.) I agree with Hanna (and others on this board) that the site has its faults...I just do not believe that it is totally without merit. I cannot speak to the accuracy of the comments about Harvard on the Students Review site, as I have no personal knowledge of student life at Harvard. I can attest to the overall accuracy of the Dartmouth commentary. </p>
<p>Check it out, and keep asking questions. The truth of the matter is that Dartmouth and Harvard are both outstanding colleges. I can tell you that in my experience Dartmouth students do not tend to have a "sour grapes" attitude with respect to Harvard...they tend to be overwhelmingly happy to be in Hanover. Dartmouth students consider themselves second to none among other Ivies. And while there may be an Ivy tradition of trash-talking other sister schools, very few people really believe that "Harvard sucks." Most believe that it is an excellent place to go to graduate school.</p>