Student Profile
Anonymous
- Class: Freshman
- Major: Other
- Gender: M
- High School: Ocean Lakes High
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
I love Dartmouth because everyone is so friendly and I constantly feel like I am part of a big, happy family (sort of like Barney except not G-rated). It's just the right size. There are days when I see twenty people I know just on my way to lunch, and there are days when I might not see a single familiar face unless I plan to meet up with someone. Dartmouth has the least pretentious students of all the Ivies, but I still get an awed reaction from people when I tell them I go here. Of course, there will always be that annoying freshman who thinks that if you don't go to an Ivy League than you might as well not go to college. I usually ignore these students, because they are soulless creatures that never see the light of day. I divide my time between relaxing in my room, studying in the library, and partying on frat row. I hardly ever spend time in Hanover proper because it is tiny and lacks vitality. The tourism board might call it charming, though, and I would probably agree. The only problem I have with Dartmouth is the board of Alumni. ItÕs nice that they donate money to the school, but sometimes I feel like they need to get a life. So many of them complain about how Dartmouth should go back to the Òold days.Ó Unfortunately, this means when there were no women at Dartmouth and most of the schoolÕs money went into training the football team. Other than that, Dartmouth is a pretty progressive school and there is a tremendous amount of school pride.
Academic Life
There will be classes where the amount of students exceeds 50, but these are very rare. And even in these classes, the professors are still very accessible. I loved my film class in Freshman Fall because my prof actually cared about us and she helped me come up with an awesome idea for my final project. There hasn't been a class I despised yet, so I'm holding my breath. Students tend to study a lot, but are not that competitive. As I said before, I tend to ignore the few competitive students because they are extremely annoying and spend most of their time in library alcoves anyway. Dartmouth is very much a center for intellectualism. Students will often times have intellectual conversations outside of class, especially if they are taking a course that genuinely interests them (and this is common, even when we have to take distributive requirements.)
Student Body
Dartmouth is an incredibly diverse school. Very rarely will you see groups of friends that are purely homogeneous. There are lots of racial minorities (esp. Native Americans) as well as people of varying sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, there is a huge amount of political diversity and financial diversity as well. Granted, there are a good amount of rich students, but these amount to only about half of the schoolÕs population. Being a gay student, I can say that my experience has been very positive. Not once have I dealt with blatant discrimination or harassment. I have only encountered tolerance, and very often acceptance, from my peers. My only problem is that a lot of other LGBT students donÕt feel the same way. I feel like sometimes Dartmouth breeds a large amount of semi-closeted LGBT students because of the (slightly) intimidating Greek scene. Not to say there isnÕt a substantial amount of out LGBT students here; they just arenÕt all extremely vocal. Overall, Dartmouth is a very open-minded and progressive school and the environment is overwhelmingly tolerant and accepting.
The Best Things
Handsome men
The Worst Things
Alumni's obsessions with tradition
