<p>Is it awkward at first? It seems like it would be.</p>
<p>I didn't think it was awkward at all. And I'm probably one of the most socially inept persons here.</p>
<p>You would be suprised how many friends you would make attending Dimensions, going on DOC trip and during orientation. Some of my D's best friends are people who she met on these events.</p>
<p>I think that Dartmouth does a wonderful job in selecting classes because they do end up with some of the nicest, most down to earth people that you will ever meet. The level of cohesiveness between classes amongst students there that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. I think they really do bleed green.</p>
<p>I am in a very good position to comment on this having had 10 freshmen in my home over the last 10 days. It's pretty hard to believe none of these guys knew each other 10 weeks ago. Mind blowing, actually. </p>
<p>I give Dartmouth huge credit for creating bonding environs. From the first year trips to orientation, these kids bonded with each other in an exceptional way. One young women showed me her Face Book pictures last night. Picture after picture of glowing kids in costume, playing sports, at dorm parties, at frat parties.........how did all of that happen in 10 weeks?</p>
<p>Just like all of these kids have joined us for parts of this vacation, son will join one of them for Spring break. It's all pretty incredible. </p>
<p>And I second Sybbie, these are some of the nicest, down to earth kids. Polite, helpful and not spoiled like my DS's high school classmates.</p>
<p>..You mean a freshman at any college? Because I don't know why it would be especially awkward at Dartmouth. </p>
<p>Freshman year here is, to say the least, amazing. The upside to being stuck in such a remote area is that you really get to spend time with the people around you. On top of that, there's a very distinct sense of community that you can't really find anywhere else. The "school spirit" isn't based off of a sports team or politics...it's kind of just a general appreciation for the "work hard play hard" type of thinking.</p>
<p>Cheesy comments aside though, it's really quite an experience. And the upperclassmen make sure to welcome you with open arms. (As seen at the DOC trips and Dimensions....etc)</p>
<p>Yeah, depending on what kind of person, it can be awkward and weird at first--for just the few days--but I highly doubt that's something unique to Dartmouth.
Your first few weeks on campus, you'll be ready to experiment with the frats and different clubs because your new friends are all doing just that, and since you feel the need to solidify relationships, you just kinda give in and go sometimes...however, I think around midterms, people get very busy and loaded, and especially if you didn't practice good time management the first few weeks, you'll be busy cramming and 'trying' to break bad habits for the rest of the term. The whole first year, you're subconsciously finding yourself and your place on campus.</p>
<p>Unless you're some kind of psychological disaster, I doubt the awkward feeling will prevail.</p>