On a semi-sunny morning. The car passed by groups of running girls and dog-walking professors and stopped behind a Georgian style building, the admission hall. This is it, I thought, the smallest Ivy League university – Dartmouth.
First, let’s unpack its name and reputation. Dartmouth calls itself a college but in reality, it is a university. It has a world class graduate school for law, medicine, and business. However, it is just small enough to focus on undergraduate education, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 7:1 and 62% of classes under 20 students.
The introductory courses have around 60-70 students, but professors will definitely know your names and invite you to dinner or pet-sitting sessions once you complete their credits.
Speaking of semesters, Dartmouth has 10-week terms, which are fast and rigorous. Students call their schedules the “D-Plan” and customize it with quite a bit of flexibility. There is a free term for trying new extracurriculars, sports, internships, and alumni connections. Finally, Dartmouth is not the “slacker” of the 8 Ivy League schools. Most students are admitted through early decision – a binding commitment that truly shows interest and loyalty. Flourishing in business, finance, engineering, pre-medicine, and law, Dartmouth has a well-connected alumni often looking to specifically hire Dartmouth graduates. Think New York City, Washington D.C., Goldman Sachs, Kirkland&Ellis, John Hopkins Hospital. However, the social sciences and humanities are not a hit-or-miss either. Latin, Anthropology, History, and Literature stand just as tall.
Let’s talk about campus culture.
Dartmouth is beautiful. All prestigious liberal arts colleges and universities in New England tend to be beautiful, but Dartmouth has its own flair. It is mostly pedestrian, and people love walking because everyone says “hello” to everyone, and if you have a 9 a.m. course, you better save time for chatting to schoolmates on the way. Fortunately, most courses are much later and students sleep in just fine.
Dartmouth architecture is old-style British Georgian, with luxurious grass lawns for picnics and afternoon walks. Dorms are co-ed and single-gendered, with a small number of one room singles, many more single room doubles and two room doubles. Greek Life is popular but not stereotypical Southern School Greek life, with wrist bands and frat boy naming ceremonies. Rather, it is whacky and weird in a good way. Students do not ‘rush’ until sophomore year, so they can investigate all social groups before choosing one. Varsity and Club Sports are even more popular, with 60% of the student body being athletes. Best of the best, though, Dartmouth is collaborative rather than competitive. Students are so passionate about helping each other it seems strange at an elite Ivy League Institution. If you are sick enough to leave class, someone will find your email and send their notes to you. If you need homework tutoring, some students do it for free.
Dartmouth Fun Facts:
- Before orientation week, freshmen are randomly grouped together for First Year Trips, usually an outing trip that help students bond. There will be a survey to detect the levels of ‘nature’ students are comfortable with.
- The religious groups in Dartmouth sometimes just allow people who aren’t religious in for dinner and free food
- The science center uses sustainable energy!
- If you want to apply: Don’t take an easy course to get an A. Don’t take a hard course and get a B either. Take a hard class and get an A.
- For applicants: Dartmouth has a special recommendation letter – a peer recommendation. Someone who is not a teacher or an adult in a position of power, ideally a teammate or sibling or classmate or friend should write a reference letter for you. Basically, are you a kind person to those around you?
- Dartmouth values community and kindness alongside with academic excellence, so its student body is la créme de la créme
- My tour guide was a clever, outgoing, and refreshingly candid New Yorker who went to a college feeder high school. I still can’t get over how nice and honest she is.
- A little side note, it is a slightly preppy school with traditional white, elite New England culture. It values diversity and inclusivity, but traditions play a huge role as well (good traditions, of course).
As an English major, Dartmouth isn’t the school for me, but if you are sporty, smart, social, extraverted, kind, caring, collaborative, and math, STEM, business, law, or medicine oriented, Dartmouth is absolutely perfect.
Images: Helen Wang
