Dartmouth College Top Questions

If you come from nowhere like moi, you will not be ready for anything Dartmouth has to offer. True you will slowly find yourself, but again, it is up to you to make it. Academics are no playpen. You got in to Dartmouth to study. Make your time worthwhile here, and set goals to fuck up the curve for everybody else. :)

My largest class is 150+ while my smallest class is just 6 people. Classes with 50+ students are pretty rare and mostly limited to intro level classes. Students study pretty much every day and class participation is pretty common. Even large lecture classes encourage discussions. Dartmouth's academic requirements are pretty lenient. We have distributive requirements as opposed to a core curriculum so students have a lot of freedom in choosing what to take while still having some sort of guidance. As an Ivy League school, Dartmouth has a healthy dose of competitive edge. Students aren't competitive to the point of ripping out pages of each other's textbooks or cheating on tests in hopes of boosting their GPAs, but they do study and work hard in their classes. A little competition keeps students motivated to excel.

There are some large introduction classes, but even then, the professors know my name, especially if I make an effort to go to office hours. My favorite class thus far has been a microeconomics class because the professor was so well organized and cared about the students' wellbeing and understanding. I worry a lot about academics, so I study a lot, but I think many people study a lot too. Many students know how to balance their social lives while still keeping up their academics. Personally, I think education here is more about learning new was to think. My adviser told me to take anything that interested me, even if it wasn't in my major's department, because each class is tailored towards a specific learning skill.

It all depends on the size of the class and where it is held. yes, i think students are definitely competitive but it all comes out in different ways. I dont know what i am majoring in. I think the Dartmouth education is in between teaching to get a job and teaching for knowledge depending on the class.

Students are NOT competitive at all. It's a great learning atmosphere. Most profs go out of their way to learn names, even in big classes. And if you go to their office hours, they will make an attempt to get to know you as a person, which is really cool. I had a psych prof who begged us to take advantage of a take-a-prof-to-lunch program so he could get to know us better. The profs want you to succeed. They will make every effort to help you if you ask for it. They're not going to baby you, but they really do care and want to help. The psych department (which runs the neuro major) is pretty good. Profs are usually pretty funny and engaging. The chem dept (my minor) is FANTASTIC. The profs are hilarious and so smart and so quirky and wonderful. People here study a lot, especially for major classes. Everyone takes the occasional goof-off class that doesn't require much work just for a break or to fulfill a distributive requirement, but overall people spend a lot of time in the library. Which isn't a bad thing, necessarily.

I like discussion-based classes, and so find Dartmouth's size pretty ideal. I also enjoy that the quarter system means that we only have 3 classes a term, and switch them up every 3 months. This means we have a LOT less class time, on average, than other schools, which is awesome. The downside to this, however, is that every 3 months you have finals, which, especially given the fact that we only get 2 days of reading period, is pretty intense. Academics are great in general though, so long as you take classes based on the prof.

professors reach out to you if you reach out to them. they are very personable and responsive if you need them, but they are not burdensome if you want to learn things on your own. students at dartmouth do everything full out...they play hard and study hard. the library is always packed on monday, tuesday, and thursday nights because on the other nights people like to go out and have fun.

The professors at Dartmouth are here because they want to teach, and they want to teach YOU! They are extremely accessible and most know all of their students' names by the end of the first week of class (even true for large lecture classes of 100+). I'm a Women's and Gender Studies major. In my department, the classes are taught by professors from all departments who truly want to be teaching courses that look at the intersection of race, class, and gender across all disciplines. The discussions in these classes are mindblowing and have enabled me to broaden my learning beyond the classroom to my everyday experiences. These courses are often much smaller, seminar-style classes so professors are even more accessible and truly invested in their students! Many classes have set up times to meet for coffee, pot lucks, or student "pong" (NOT beiruit!!) tournaments.

all of my professors this far have known my name. my favorite class by far was stephanie boone's writing 2-3 class. there is no comparison to that class. i feel as though there could be more student participation. yes, almost to many intellectual conversations. students don't seem to be competitive. I do not think there should be a math requirement.

Yes my professors know my name. Students study ALL the time. It's very demanding and rigorous. Yes Dartmouth students definitely have intellectual converstaions outside of class. Yes I spend time outside of class with professors sometimes. By saying the students are competitive I would say yes they are very motivated and want to do well but it is not like competing against each other. Students are very helpful and friendly.

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.)

I have good relationships with many of my professors. I may not be the norm, but I have 9 or 10 professors (and yes I am only a sophomore) that I will stop and talk to if I see them. They are very amenable to consultation and try to help you through there classes in any way they can (for the most part) Education here is geared both towards getting a job and learning for its own sake, it depends on the department.

Dartmouth is unique among the Ivies in that it is only an undergraduate institution; it is a college, not a university. While it has excellent Business, Medical, and Engineering schools affiliated with it, Dartmouth is entirely focused on its undergraduates. Because of this, even freshmen get into small classes with excellent professors. The Economics and Government departments are famously large, but even the intro classes in those deparments are usually capped at around fifty students. Aside from those and from large pre-med classes, Dartmouth does a fantastic job at facilitating small class sizes and student-professor mentoring. If you come here, the best advice I can give you is that you should go to office hours with your professor. If you're confused about something, they will work with you until you get it; if you just want to chat about the class, other classes in the department, majors, or life in general, they will be thrilled to hear from you. Because of the quarter system, Dartmouth students usually only take three courses per term (you can have a limited number of terms with either two or four courses). I personally love this system: your classes end before you ever hit that end of term slump that semesters seem to encourage. However, ten week terms mean that classes move very quickly, and "midterms" last pretty much from the second week to the second to last week of classes. Dartmouth students have to work hard, but the workload is definitely manageable. But the upside to the quarter system is the D-plan, which allows students to choose what terms they want off, what terms they want to be on campus, and what terms they want to participate in study abroad programs. Dartmouth's study abroad programs fantastic, and the system practically begs you to spend at least one term, if not more, abroad.

Yes, I know professors name and they insist you call them by it. My favorite class was an animation class because the professor (Ehrlich) was inspiring, and each day we would create and eventually showcase our creativity. Least favorite was Math 18 (Multivariable Calculus). I placed out of the lower levels of math and was put in a class with folks who were better prepared for it. I thought I was a math nerd...turns out I was only a math nerd in suburban Florida. Students study often. Certain majors (Math, Chemistry, Economics) more than others (English, Film). Student participation is very common, particularly in non-lecture classes. Dartmouth students have many intellectual conversations outside of class. Sometimes all-night philosophical discussions, sometimes in discussion groups, heck, I even had intellectual discussions at midnight in the basement of a frat while playing drinking games. Students can be very competitive. It's how they got into Dartmouth and some don't stop...ever, even after graduation. I tended to hang out with the less competitive bunch (the comedians, film majors, creative folk). But, yes, the math/pre-med/econ majors are very competitive. Most unique was probably the animation class. It was taught by a world class animator (David Ehrlich) and probably required more work than other class I ever took. But, we were animating cartoons. Film Studies department at Dartmouth is growing. Now they have a bigger budget and much more resources. When I was there, we had "enough" but nothing more. Editing on steenbecks was a very informative but I prefer the current avids I hear students have access to. The professors of film are very well known in their field. Authorities on Hitchcock (the late Al LaValley) as well as famous screenwriters (Maury Rapf) were a couple that stand out. I did not spend much time with professors outside of class but I have stayed in touch with a couple. Also, several folks in whichever class DID have a lot of contact with professors. Dartmouth academic requirements were, across the board, awesome. It's a liberal arts education so you have to take a little of everything and a lot of your major. It was challenging but rewarding. Education at Dartmouth is to prepare you for the world for your own sake. Certain corporate recruiters come to campus to get Dartmouth students but, in general, Dartmouth is educating you to help you.