Dartmouth College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"feeder"? Not local, but in the context of the downhill and nordic teams, then definitely places like Burke Mountain Academy, Stratton Mountain School, and Sun Valley Community School.

Locally, Dartmouth is a place that people choose in a deliberate way that they don't necessarily do for other Ivies, so which schools send kids there varies a lot from year to year.

Can you say more about what you mean here? My 11th grader fell in love on a visit last year but hasn't come up with the list of where they'll apply.

It's small. It's in the middle of nowhere. It's inconvenient to get to. Winters are long and mud season feels longer.

There are plenty of kids who apply to Penn + Columbia, or Yale + Princeton, or Yale + Harvard, etc. They can tell themselves that the schools are basically similar even though they're obviously not.

Dartmouth doesn't get the same "well they're both pretty equally elite schools so I could be happy at either." It's more common to apply to Dartmouth + Cornell, or Dartmouth + a similarly preppy, outdoorsy NESCAC school, or Dartmouth and an equally outdoorsy state school like UVM or UCSC. It's quite self-selecting. The numbers suggest that there are people who have graduated from there who applied regular decision, but I've never met them. Everyone seems to want Dartmouth from day 1 and feel really happy to end up there. Including me.

-Dartmouth grad and big fan of the Upper Valley but not so sure about my DH's plan to retire there only because I hate driving from Manchester or Boston at night.

This sounds right for a significant number of Dartmouth students. At our suburban high school, though, the kids who end up at Dartmouth more often than not just appear to have ended up at Dartmouth. In other words, they applied to a score of Ivy League schools and decided Dartmouth was the best option among those (if more than one) to which they were admitted.

This is what I've observed as well. I've seen several Kids accepted from our class turned it down for Brown, Northwestern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

. It's in the middle of nowhere. It's inconvenient to get to.

This seems more part of ancient Dartmouth lore (before the advent of the interstate highway system) than current day reality. Dartmouth is in the middle of a ‘micropolitan area’ of about 200,000 people - for sure it’s not the big city, but there are multiple thriving towns within a short drive, and lots of amenities to serve well-off retirees and tourists. Hanover is just over a two hour drive to Boston. And the college is located a few miles from the intersection of two major interstate highways. It may seem inconvenient compared to some other schools right on the east or west coasts, but compared to many colleges in the Midwest or South or Rockies - or even to Middlebury or Cornell or Penn State - Dartmouth’s hardly off in the middle of nowhere.

It's "not inconvenient" if you've never missed the last Dartmouth Coach of the night and spent a cold overnight in the Logan baggage claim waiting for the next one. A two hour drive is a big deal for most people, especially college students from other parts of the country who don't have their own car! On the bright side, there is a nearby Target now. Until recently the closest one was over an hour away.

Another Dartmouth alum here. The remoteness is part of the draw. Coupled with a small student body and undergraduate-focus, you get a tightly-knit college community and an unparalleled NE liberal arts education experience.

I would also note that the commute from Boston to Hanover is much easier than the one to Williams or Amherst (no windy local roads).

For OP, you absolutely do not need to ski to enjoy the Dartmouth experience.

Years ago I looked at - and liked - Dartmouth, but it wasn’t rural enough for what I was hoping for! My parents despaired a bit about where I’d go and I did, in fact, end up at Williams