why does Dartmouth take nobody from our high school?

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth consistently takes 1-2 kids from our suburban public school, but I wish another school like Princeton did instead. While Dartmouth is idyllic and bucolic, my kids are not really into the rural nature of the school and I think that's reflected in the general lack of diversity (e.g. Dartmouth has the smallest percentage of Asian Americans amongst all of the Ivies).

[Anonymous]

Someone at your school misbehaved, OP. Dartmouth will avoid them for another year or two.

[Anonymous]

There are 32,000 high schools in the US alone. For 1400 acceptances. So they can take 4% of valedictorians.

[Anonymous]

It’s less than that, need to take all of the athletes first which is like 200 students, and no athlete is also a valedictorian

[Anonymous]

That’s not true. I went to high school with an all-American girls basketball player. Nationally ranked team. She was valedictorian. And a highly-ranked debater. She got a full athletic scholarship to Vanderbilt.

[Anonymous]

This year’s ED accepted class at Dartmouth was 22 percent kids projected to be Val’s or Sal’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bad luck and/or lack of demonstrated interest. More than other Ivies, I think Dartmouth wants students who understand Dartmouth. It's more liberal arts college than university. It's rural, social, and outdoorsy and the kids who flourish at Dartmouth embrace those qualities rather than simply tolerating them.

Yes. Mine came from a big public magnet with 3-6 going to other Ivies every year. She did exactly this. Was the only admit her year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s less than that, need to take all of the athletes first which is like 200 students, and no athlete is also a valedictorian

Our high school's 2023 valedictorian is a recruited athlete at Dartmouth.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if we're all talking about the same kids but I also know a valedictorian recruited athlete at Dartmouth. Not from the DC area but from elsewhere in the mid Atlantic.

[Anonymous]

We must be at the same private. DC applied anyway and got an interview. DH thinks it's low probability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one from our very competitive public gets into Dartmouth either. I suspect they get a core group of students from the usual suspects - Philips Andover, Harvard Westlake, Dalton etc. And then it's their institutional priorities - athletes, first generation, faculty offspring, and so on. It's a small school. There aren't a lot of spots. I think it's one of those schools where if your high school doesn't historically send kids to Dartmouth, it's a bit of a waste of an app, particularly ED for unhooked students.

HW only sends a couple of students a year to Dartmouth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because of your grammar, OP.

The title is awkward ... but unique.

[Anonymous]

Our school usually gets 1-2 in not val/Sal. However, Princeton won't take any best I've seen is a couple waitlisted. Too bad because my child would have loved Princeton. College counselor suggested trying for ED at Dartmouth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s less than that, need to take all of the athletes first which is like 200 students, and no athlete is also a valedictorian

The valedictorian of my Dartmouth class was a recruited athlete. So I imagine some were also high school valedictorians. Not rare among runners and swimmers especially.