I am interested in learning more about how Dartmouth College has a stressful environment.
I’m not certain your assumption is correct, but I’ll leave it to others with more current information to respond.
I was just telling a friend of mine that while my son seems to have a very heavy workload this term, somehow he’s not coming across as being stressed out. Maybe that’s down to him as a person and how he handles his work, but maybe there is also something about the institution that helps keep student stress levels down even when things get crazily busy. I also question the OP’s assumption, which seems to imply that it’s a foregone conclusion that Dartmouth is known for its stressful environment. If it had had a reputation like that, I think my son would have made a different college choice!
^ My daughter seems to be in the same situation as above: Heavy work load but not stressed. She seems to be OK with putting in an estimated 5 hrs a day for assignments and studying, after doing very little of this in HS.
I’ve heard that a local woman recently graduated from med school told her mom that Dartmouth was more work than medical school.
I agree with these Dartmouth parents that our kids are working hard, but they rarely stress about the workload. The quarter system keeps things moving quickly, so it’s easy to fall behind if you do not make the effort to stay on top of your assignments. But if you’re going to class and keeping up with homework, the pace is invigorating – not overwhelming. The only stress I’m hearing about from my D is too little time for all the extracurriculars she’d love to pursue. But that’s entirely optional, not mandatory. The OP’s assumption that it must be stressful because it’s Dartmouth is a flawed one.
STEM = stressful. Pre-med = stressful. Ec = stressful if you want to make it. Humanities, generally, less stressful. Caveat: all generalizations have exceptions.
'18 at Dartmouth here. Biology major and neuroscience minor. The students here definitely work a lot, and we stay busy, but i would absolutely not say that it is a stressful environment. People have a great sense of work/life balance, and Dartmouth administration and professors encourage that. Since we use the quarter system, students only take three classes at once, which greatly reduces stress as compared to schools where students are taking five or six classes simultaneously.
Dartmouth does not appear in a Princeton Review survey result, “Students Study the Most”:
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=students-study-most
That is a very strange list. Of course, the data is self-reported.
All PR surveys share the deficiency of being self-reported and therefore of falling short of the standards of modern social science. That said, many of the colleges included in the result (Harvey Mudd, Reed, Caltech, Swarthmore et al) do not surprise me, so I would not personally regard the list as strange as a general characterization.
I would agree with you regarding the schools you mention, but there are others on the list that are surprising. Very surprising. 
Well, 16 of the 20 appear to be top 50 colleges by entering factors, so the results may have some statistically connected support:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10
“What makes Dartmouth College a stressful place?”
This is what trial lawyers call a question based on a fact not entered into evidence.