PSA about Dartmouth

[Anonymous]

What is Dartmouth even good at besides being a landing ground for trust fund kids and country club types….?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting read.

https://www.koppelmangroup.com/blog/2018/3/14/schools-similar-to-dartmouth

That article is interesting. A lot of LACs on the list. I've heard the Vandy comparison before too.
The social scene and Hanover environment are good to know about. Unlike Penn or Brown or Vandy, you don't many off-campus options. It is most like Williams to me in that regard.

Several years ago, I read this article a couple times. Used to have Case Western Reserve on the list as well, but apparently this school was removed after many disagreed.

Vanderbilt isn't really as similar to Dartmouth as the article suggests. Vanderbilt is much larger & it is located in a lively city--Nashville. The key to Dartmouth College is its rural, isolated location. (Vanderbilt is much more similar to Northwestern University, Duke, Emory, WashUStL, and Rice than it is to Dartmouth College.)

Dartmouth isn't really similar to Kenyon College either. The demographics at Kenyon have shifted to being very liberal & rural, isolated Kenyon College is tiny. The difference is that Dartmouth attracts more mainstream students and has a decent sized student body that enhances the rural, isolated location while Kenyon's tiny student body makes the rural, isolated location seem constricting. (Kenyon College is more similar to Grinnell College & Hamilton College.)

Dartmouth College is similar to Colgate & Middlebury & Bucknell & Colby.

A lot of misunderstanding here. Kenyon certainly has a lot of liberal students but every single one of these schools does, especially Dartmouth. In terms of wokeness (liberal to the point of dogmatism) Kenyon does a far better job avoiding it than most. https://reason.com/2019/05/02/10-colleges-where-you-wont-have-to-walk-on-eggshells/

In terms of size, Kenyon is basically the same size as the other LACs mentioned with some 1800 students. Dartmouth is compared to these LACs because it actually is pretty small for an Ivy with 4500.

Everyone single one of the schools mentioned above are basically in the middle of nowhere including Dartmouth but Kenyon is in fact an hour away from Columbus which has a population of nearly one million.

Culturally and geographically, all of these schools have a lot in common. Bizarre that you would think Hamilton and Colby are at different ends of any sort of spectrum. Hamilton in fact is often considered a very preppy school that has the sort of kids you imagine going to Dartmouth. But I think your perception of a typical Dartmouth student is dated. In general, your stereotypes are dated or just off.

You certainly encapsulated your post with your first 5 words.

Bizarre that you think that rural, isolated schools with just 1,800 students is the same as a school with 4,500 students.

Your scattered post suggests that you didn't take any time to think before writing.

Dartmouth College is similar to Colgate & Middlebury & Bucknell & Colby.

These schools are all somewhat larger than Kenyon but significantly smaller than Dartmouth. They are all in quite isolated areas and near small towns. In any event I think the point of the article was to reveal characteristics of different schools that have perceived overlap with Dartmouth, not to argue the schools are carbon copies. As you note, some on the list are bigger, some are smaller.

I am the poster who originally wrote the bolded.

Relatively speaking, Kenyon has a more liberal student body than does Dartmouth College.

As I said, this is a dated stereotype of Dartmouth (based probably on Dartmouth Review back in the 80s). https://www.thecollegefix.com/eight-percent-of-recent-dartmouth-grads-are-conservative-survey-finds/

Dartmouth isn’t Oberlin but it has become like most other schools. Bucknell and Colgate may still veer a little conservative but I’ve been hearing anecdotes with respect to Colgate to the contrary. Colby and Midd are in no sense conservative now.

You are projecting your thoughts by injecting the word "conservative" into the discussion. The term that I used was "mainstream", not "conservative".

Please read other posts more carefully before attempting to criticize then parrot.

The term you used most recently was “liberal.” I went out on a limb with the idea that the opposite of liberal is conservative. In any event your premise that Dartmouth is meaningfully less liberal is weak. Both schools are likely overwhelmingly liberal like almost all college campuses nowadays. And it may surprise you that Kenyon actually has some strong conservative voices, especially in the political science department. There are some interesting podcasts out there.

You still do not want to understand--maybe you just want to argue. And, clearly, you are unfamiliar with Kenyon.

Idk I was in Gambier two weeks ago dropping my kid off. Were you? My overall point is that you are making these broad assessments of the personality of the student body that really aren’t grounded in reality. Within any liberal arts school you are going to have a range of personalities that go from way out there politically or otherwise to narrowly pre-professional. But even at a school like Oberlin or a school like Bucknell you are going to have a mix, albeit with clear tilts. All the schools discussed above are in the same basic zip code. You are stereotyping Kenyon students as non-mainstream (creative oddballs or political activists I guess) while in another thread people will be blasting the lack of diversity and preponderance of preppy rich kids. The truth is, these schools have fairly similar student bodies with a lot of internal diversity- athletes, scientists, artists, etc. There is too much of a tendency to apply the liberal weirdo vs preppy lax bro label to entire schools. All schools have both and a lot in between.

Again you misinform readers by being untruthful about my posts.

[Anonymous]

The fact that Dartmouth has so many PhD programs and MBA and MD must change its feel somewhat, at least enough to heighten the contrast vs. all the SLACs mentioned in this thread.

What a great brand it is, with its mountain-appropriate green-and-white color scheme, Ivy League pedigree, and winter carnival tradition — no wonder teenagers want to go there so much. Getting turned down by Dartmouth after you fall head over heels in love with it must be brutal; it was for my son and for one of my HS flames (the latter ended up working there).

It is surprising to me that the sports teams don’t win more Ivy League championships, because of all the Ivies, the word “athletic” seems to peg Dartmouth the best. But maybe that just means everyone graduates with skiing ability

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact that Dartmouth has so many PhD programs and MBA and MD must change its feel somewhat, at least enough to heighten the contrast vs. all the SLACs mentioned in this thread.

What a great brand it is, with its mountain-appropriate green-and-white color scheme, Ivy League pedigree, and winter carnival tradition — no wonder teenagers want to go there so much. Getting turned down by Dartmouth after you fall head over heels in love with it must be brutal; it was for my son and for one of my HS flames (the latter ended up working there).

It is surprising to me that the sports teams don’t win more Ivy League championships, because of all the Ivies, the word “athletic” seems to peg Dartmouth the best. But maybe that just means everyone graduates with skiing ability

Having a smaller student body doesn’t help with sports. More outdoorsy than athletic. Fly fishing and football aren’t really equivalent.

[Anonymous]

The entire point of attending Dartmouth, not mentioned yet, is the fanatically loyal alumni base which is especially relevant for those interested in business careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ I would add this is one of the advantages is a remotely located school. They tend to be more self selecting. You don’t just randomly choose to attend a school in the middle of nowhere. There is something about the culture that resonates. This could explain why we consistently hear positive feedback about the experiences of kids such schools. If you attend a school to a large extent because you like the surrounding town (think the coffee shops are cute or whatever) you aren’t thinking about the most important qualities of the school- the community, the culture, etc.

A community is larger than a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ I would add this is one of the advantages is a remotely located school. They tend to be more self selecting. You don’t just randomly choose to attend a school in the middle of nowhere. There is something about the culture that resonates. This could explain why we consistently hear positive feedback about the experiences of kids such schools. If you attend a school to a large extent because you like the surrounding town (think the coffee shops are cute or whatever) you aren’t thinking about the most important qualities of the school- the community, the culture, etc.

A community is larger than a school.

I guess someone who felt strongly about that wouldn't attend a more remotely located school. Hence, self-selecting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you not get enough attention bragging to your friends about your kid's ivy acceptance so need to seek out some strangers? Everyone already knows this is a good school.

+1

Wow OP id never heard of this school or considered it for anyone so thank you!

[Anonymous]

The 2024 Wall Street Journal College Rankings were released this morning. The rankings focus on return on investment (ROI).

Dartmouth College was ranked #21 (above schools such as #24 Cornell, #25 Northwestern, #26 WashUStL, #30 Davidson College, #31 Williams College, #32 Notre Dame, and #37 U Chicago).

Kenyon College was ranked much lower at a dismal #298.

[Anonymous]

School with a downward trajectory... site of a lot of culture war issues... long-standing issues of sexism and racism on campus... not particularly spectacular in any field... hard pass

What a silly and reductive comment -- DCUM/Colleges has degenerated into an unhelpful combination of troll farm and echo chamber for the low-information.

Obviously a college that produces accomplished alumnae like Shonda Rhimes, Laura Ingraham, Mindy Kaling, Maya Wiley, Sen Kirsten Gillebrand, and Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux is one that excels at preparing talented women (and talented women of color) for success, across a variety of fields. Which is actually what most see as the purpose of college.

To the extent that Dartmouth (and schools like it) are accused of having 'long-standing issues of sexism and racism' (among the student body - certainly not among the administration or faculty -- and relative to comparable northeastern Ivies, not relative to southern or state universities), the key question is to what extent some attitudes or behaviors among (mostly lowerclass) students essentially reflect the society around them - and help maturing students consider how to think and respond to those behaviors (rather than shield them in a hothouse for four years).

As for so-called culture-war issues, isn't college exactly where you want those to play out? I guess the alternative is a place with uniformity of thought, but that seems to defeat the purpose of liberal arts education (although honestly many DCUM commenters don't seem to be fans of a liberal arts education).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 2024 Wall Street Journal College Rankings were released this morning. The rankings focus on return on investment (ROI).

Dartmouth College was ranked #21 (above schools such as #24 Cornell, #25 Northwestern, #26 WashUStL, #30 Davidson College, #31 Williams College, #32 Notre Dame, and #37 U Chicago).

Kenyon College was ranked much lower at a dismal #298.

Ha, I knew you would catch that! I really don’t know what your beef with Kenyon is. Expensive humanities focused schools are not going to fare terribly well in salary based ROI rankings. Vassar, Tufts and Smith in that 300 zone as well. Any ranking system that puts NJIT and Florida International ahead of Williams is pretty sus in my book but feel free to rely on it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 2024 Wall Street Journal College Rankings were released this morning. The rankings focus on return on investment (ROI).

Dartmouth College was ranked #21 (above schools such as #24 Cornell, #25 Northwestern, #26 WashUStL, #30 Davidson College, #31 Williams College, #32 Notre Dame, and #37 U Chicago).

Kenyon College was ranked much lower at a dismal #298.

Ha, I knew you would catch that! I really don’t know what your beef with Kenyon is. Expensive humanities focused schools are not going to fare terribly well in salary based ROI rankings. Vassar, Tufts and Smith in that 300 zone as well. Any ranking system that puts NJIT and Florida International ahead of Williams is pretty sus in my book but feel free to rely on it!

Meanwhile your allegedly not so liberal Dartmouth ranks 9th from last in free speech! https://speech.collegepulse.com/rank

[Anonymous]

Apparently someone has anger issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently someone has anger issues.

Who?

[Anonymous]

Kenyon College is expensive. Return on that investment is not good.

https://kenyon.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/tuition-costs/

Annual total cost of attendance is estimated by Kenyon College to be $87,590 for this academic year. Health insurance--if needed--is an extra $2,500 per year.

For a full pay student,a four year Kenyon College degree would be about $400,000 (as COA rises a bit each year).

Kenyon College does offer merit scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $25,000--but recipients of the top amounts are likely to have options.

Kenyon College is a small, rural, isolated, cold-weather school with a beautiful campus and a great swim team. The negatives are the isolation, the drinking/substance use, and lack of employment prospects offering reasonable pay after graduation.