Dartmouth College

Founded in 1769, Dartmouth is a member of the Ivy League and consistently ranks among the world's greatest academic institutions. Dartmouth has forged a singular identity for combining its deep commitment to outstanding undergraduate liberal arts and graduate education with distinguished research and scholarship in the Arts & Sciences and its three leading professional schools—the Geisel School of Medicine, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business. Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

• The Geisel School of Medicine

  The Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, founded in 1797, strives to improve the lives of the people it serves: students, patients, and local and global communities. The School builds healthier communities through innovations in research, education, and patient care. As one of America's top medical schools, the Geisel School of Medicine is committed to creating new generations of diverse leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in healthcare. 

  The School consists of 17 Departmens: Anatomy, Biochemistry, Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Physiology and Neurobiology, Anesthesiology, Community and Family Medicine, Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopaedics, Pathology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Radiology and Surgery. Moreover, the School has 2,342 clinical and research faculty (2014).

• The Thayer School of Engineering

   Dartmouth has one of the oldest professional schools of engineering in the country offering an engineering sciences education unencumbered by departmental divisions that fosters cross-disciplinary innovation in research and teaching. Thayer School was founded by Dartmouth alumnus Sylvanus Thayer who believed that engineering in the context of a liberal arts education provides the best preparation for solving the world's problems. Graduate programs include the Master of Engineering Management (M.E.M.), M.S., Ph.D.,dual degrees with The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and the nation's first Ph.D. Innovation Program. Dartmouth undergraduates study engineering as part of a liberal arts education leading to the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree; most majors take additional courses leading to the professional Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree. 

• The Tuck School of Business

  Tuck is and will remain distinctive among the world's great business schools by combining human scale with global reach, thought leadership with great teaching, rigorous coursework with experiences requiring teamwork, and valued traditions with innovation. Most importantly, Tuck will continue to focus on each student's lifelong success as a principled leader of business and society. Unlike most of our competitors, Tuck offers only one degree—the full-time MBA—and a select array of executive education programs. This focus and our small scale enable us to adapt and innovate, and to create a unique learning community. Founded in 1900 as the first graduate school of business, Tuck carries forward the liberal arts tradition and heritage of Dartmouth College. A Tuck education emphasizes general management skills and includes an immersion in business thinking where students learn from leading scholars and from each other. Our tight-knit alumni network is a major reason for Tuck's continuing success. Tuck alumni help in the admissions process and give insight into companies and industries. They advise student project teams, participate in class sessions as visiting executives, and help launch graduates into their careers. Alumni also provide faculty with ideas for research projects, access to research data and contacts, consulting relationships, and a reality check for new theories and concepts.

• Arts & Sciences

  Arts & Sciences encompasses 40 academic departments and interdisciplinary programs. Working both within and across disciplines, A&S faculty are innovators in their fields who, together with their students, are fully engaged in the pursuit and exchange of new knowledge. 

The charter establishing Dartmouth—the ninth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States—was signed in 1769, by John Wentworth, the Royal Governor of New Hampshire, establishing an institution to offer “the best means of education.” For nearly 250 years, Dartmouth has done that and more.

Dartmouth’s founder, the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister from Connecticut, established the College as an institution to educate Native Americans. Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian and one of Wheelock’s first students, was instrumental in raising the funds necessary to found the College. In 1972—the same year the College became coeducational—Dartmouth reaffirmed its founding mission and established one of the first Native American Programs in the country. With nearly 1,000 alumni, there are now more Native graduates of Dartmouth than of all other Ivy League institutions combined.

Governor Wentworth provided the land that would become Dartmouth’s picturesque 269-acre campus on the banks of the Connecticut River, which divides New Hampshire and Vermont. The College’s natural beauty was not lost on President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who visited in 1953 and remarked, “This is what a college should look like.”

Philip J. Hanlon ’77 is the current president of Dartmouth College who became the 18th president of Dartmouth College on June 10, 2013. He is the 10th Dartmouth alumnus to serve as its president and the first since the 1981 to 1987 tenure of David T. McLaughlin ’54, Tuck ’55.

Dartmouth is a member of the Ivy League, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the 568 Group and the University of the Arctic. 

Residence Halls are often much more than merely a place to live. First-years often form their first group of friends at Dartmouth around the people who live in their building. Your UGAs can also be a source of invaluable advice as you navigate this new environment.

About half the first-year class will live in the Choates and River clusters, which are all first-year, while the rest of the class will live in the Russell Sage, McLaughlin, and East Wheelock Cluster.

The first thing to know about residence halls at Dartmouth is that there are a lot of them, many of which house only upperclassmen.

Finding food on campus is never hard to do. As mentioned earlier, beginning the first week you arrive, free food will accompany almost every orientation activity. This is quite a treat, considering that DOC provides you with a tasty, but limited, selection of goodies for your first year trip.

Once classes start, your meal plans will kick in and will be responsible for satiating your hunger. Using the meal swipes and DBA (declining balance account) funds attached to your ID, food can be easily acquired all around campus.

Of course, students often stray from the dining halls in an attempt to add variety and atmosphere to their appetite. Main Street, which runs directly through Dartmouth, has its own host of restaurants, which boast moderately priced, mouth-watering foods (sorry, but these places will not accept DBA). Certain restaurants will also deliver directly to your room. This is recommended for those who are too lazy to walk or who want to avoid the piercing cold of a Hanover winter.

Dartmouth Dining Services offers four different meal plans:

SmartChoice 20

· Cost per term: $1,658

· 20 meals per week

· Flex DBA: $75

SmartChoice 14

· Cost per term: $1,575

· 14 meals per week

· Flex DBA: $125

SmartChoice 5

· Cost per term: $1,440

· 5 meals per week

· Flex DBA: $875

SmartChoice OC

· Only available to those living off-campus

· Cost per term: $875

· 0 meal swipes per week

· Flex DBA: $875

For your first term as a freshman, you are automatically put on SmartChoice 20 and cannot change until winter term. After that, you can change your meal plan for any term. There IS a meal plan that fits your eating style!

A laptop is a must at Dartmouth! With a campus-wide wireless network, a laptop means you can do your work where you want and when you want and always be on the network. No more waiting for a computer in the library or having to survive without the internet. Use your computer the way you want to.

"Blitz" might be the most used word at Dartmouth - it's the ubiquitous name of our email program. Blitz Bulletins are the perfect place to check for organization or Department updates. Also, Dartmouth uses Public File Servers, where students can obtain software and other documents for courses, or store their own files online. Buying your computer from Dartmouth ensures this will work correctly (or at least if it doesn't you can get it fixed easily and cheaply). Additionally, students have access to their own webpage, just sign up with Computing Services. Choose a computer that works for you; don't worry about what businesses use or what you might have at home. Use your computer as a tool to enhance your life—it shouldn't consume it or frustrate it.

The directly-billed charges include tuition, fees (about $1,344), housing (about $8,286) and food. You will be billed for these charges approximately six weeks before each term starts. Plan to arrive on campus with sufficient funds for your out-of-pocket expenses. You will need an average of $1,027 per term to pay for your own books, supplies, laundry, etc. These indirect costs will not appear on your college bill.  

The most common thing heard from a first-year's lips fall term is "I didn't expect this to be so much work." Yes, Dartmouth is hard, and many first-years find themselves struggling through fall term. If you feel like you're in over your head, keep these tips in mind.

Use the Academic Skills Center - these guys and girls can check your papers, teach you study habits, lend you computers — it's all there at the Academic SkillsCenter. Best of all, except for the computer lending, it's free.

One of the biggest venues of social life during the weekends is fraternities. Although there are many other activities going on (performances, movies, programming board events, lectures, DOC trips) many  students spend time in fraternity basements and at dance parties.

Athletic opportunities are abound at Dartmouth. This is a school that values physical fitness and good health. After all, we do have the granite of New Hampshire in our muscles and our brains.

Most people are involved in some kind of athletic venture at some level – whether it is going for a run in nice weather, participating in intramurals, getting involved with the DOC, taking PE’s, or competing on a legitimate NCAA  team. So whether you are a National Champion cross-country skier or a leisurely Tuesday-morning-canoer, Dartmouth offers many options for you! It’s definitely worth getting out and enjoying the New England geographic region.

Extracurricular activities abound on campus; from musical groups to sports options, students have a fantastic array of opportunities available year round.

Choose an organization, a club, a council, or committee that interests you, that you have a passion for, or that you think you may contribute to and gain from, but be aware that this is a commitment—one that you take on wholeheartedly, for fun, for personal improvement, and for all those in the community you join.

Dartmouth College