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Inside Scoop

Quick Stats

School Slang
  • ‘Shmob : Large herd of first-year students who travel together to social events.
  • Banner Student: Website containing personal, administrative information.
  • Blackboard: Online service that allow professors to post course material and communicate with students electronically.
  • Blitz: E-mail; can be used as any part of speech.
  • Coco: “College Courses;” interdisciplinary course offerings, usually pretty interesting.
  • The D: The Dartmouth, the nation's oldest student newspaper.
  • DA$H: An account used for on-campus, non-food purchases; it’s not real money.
  • Dick’s House: Student health center.
  • EBA’s: Everything But Anchovies; they deliver until 2 a.m.
  • FO & M: Facilities Operations and Management.
  • FSP: Foreign study program.
  • Green: Huge grassy rectangle at the center of campus.
  • HB: Hinman Box, where you pick up your mail; located in the Hop.
  • Hop, The: Hopkins Center; performing arts center of campus.
  • H-Po: Hanover Police, important to avoid when drunk.
  • LSA: Language Study Abroad.
  • NRO: Non-recording option; when invoked, allows you to receive an “NR” if you fail to achieve a desired grade in a class.
  • ORL: Office of Residential Life.
  • Parkhursted: Suspended; named after the administration building.
  • Pong: Beer pong; played exclusively with handle-less paddles
  • Robo: Robinson Hall; home of the Dartmouth Outing Club and other student organizations.
  • Rocky: Rockefeller Center; government center.
  • S&S: Safety and Security; avoid when drunk, if possible.
  • Sketchy: All-purpose word to describe anyone or anything about which you are skeptical; use liberally.
  • Sphinx: Large, tomb-like home to a secret society, located in the middle of campus.
  • Term: Used most often in place of “quarter;” saying “semester” will give you away as a newbie in a heartbeat.
  • Thayer: Dining hall and engineering school. Pay attention to context clues.
  • Tripee: Fellow member of your Freshman Trip.
  • UGA: Undergraduate assistant; a supposedly less mean version of RA.
  • Webster Ave.: Fraternity (and sorority) row.
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
  • How cold a New Hampshire winter really is.
  • How few nice clothes I need and how many crazy clothes I could use.
  • How to ski . . . or camp.
  • That all that time I procrastinated could have been spent having fun.
  • That I only have time for two or three extracurricular activities.
  • That orientation is by far the best time to meet people—be sure to go to Frat Row.
  • That the Choates were nothing to worry about.
Tips to Succeed
  • Always go to class when midterms or finals are coming up.
  • Avoid morning classes or Tuesday and Thursday classes altogether.
  • Don’t let BlitzMail consume your life (It’s challenging!).
  • Find two or three good study spots, and move around.
  • Have at least one good friend in every class.
  • Plan a break or fun activity into your schedule.
  • Take naps in the afternoon.
  • Use distributive requirements as an excuse to take fun, easy, or interesting classes.
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Dartmouth Student ReviewsWhat's This?

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Inside Scoop at Dartmouth College

dartmouth2013

'13

Biology

3.1
B-

Tradition

Tradition sums up Dartmouth. A lot of students joke that the old school alums refuse to let the school move past its ultraconservative, all-boys, animal house reputation. I have had multiple friends visit Dartmouth, and they all look around bewildered at pretty much everything that goes on here. Greek life is DOMINANT (about 70% of soph-seniors are in it... its a huge, huge deal), boys rule the school (literally and figuratively), there is a clear tension with gender and sexual assault issues (no matter whose "side" youre on), and there is a lot more binge drinking than one would expect at an ivy league. The administration caters almost exclusively to alumni input, and there is a strooong disconnect between the students and the administration. There are some awesome traditions, including DOC trips, orientation activities, green key, the homecoming bonfire, etc. But traditions of the social life and "power structure" here are unlike anything I have heard of elsewhere. It is very intense and it caters to the whims of white, affiliated, male athletes. That is awesome and fun for some people and miserable for others. Its just a preference thing.

May 13, 2011

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Inside Scoop at Dartmouth College

someoneelse452

'12

Mechanical Engineering

5.0
A+

The D-Plan!

The D-plan helped me get an awesome internship in NYC my Junior year. Also, sophomore summer was the best summer of my life.

Mar 10, 2011

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Inside Scoop at Dartmouth College

deidra13

'13

Computer Engineering

4.6
A

Dartmouth Is Like None Other...Period

The list of things that make Dartmouth different from other colleges is endless but two things are very important to Dartmouth life - they're part of the reason I chose to go here and why a Dartmouth college experience is so unique. First on the academic side is our infamous D-Plan. We're not like other schools with two semesters a year. Instead, we have terms/quarters - the summer can count as a term (of course you don't have to stay there during summer but its easy to do so). This means our terms are shorter and move by quicker BUT that allows for one of Dartmouth's main selling point - studying abroad/the D-Plan. When I say we have TONS of programs, I'm not exaggerating. If you're like me and don't like studying or speaking languages it doesn't matter - Dartmouth specifically has abroad programs to go along with our majors. They're taught by Dartmouth professors and you go with a bunch of other students interested in the same thing. I don't know of any other college that gives you the opportunity to study on a quarter system and go abroad so often. Secondly there's our social scene, and by that I mean the main fun on Friday & Saturday nights. Actually, on our campus the typical nights to go out are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (most people don't have class Tues or Thurs). Our social scene is entirely based on the frat scene which works out perfectly. I've never been turned away from a frat, and no I don't have the hookup that's just how Dartmouth is, and I've never paid for a drink or a concert. It's that open and friendly.

Dec 25, 2010

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Page 1 of 2

Facts

Traditions
  • Daniel Webster: When a disgruntled trustee colluded with the governor of New Hampshire to make Dartmouth a public university, the College was represented by one of its most famous alumni. Daniel Webster was a wily rhetorician who argued on behalf of the College before the United States Supreme Court, which subsequently allowed the institution to remain private. Webster concluded his plea with remarks that are still echoed by Dartmouth students to this day: “This is, as I have said, sir, a small college…and yet there are those who love it.”
  • Dartmouth Indian: One of Dartmouth’s founding principles was to further the education of the Native American population in North America. Today, a certain Native mystique still surrounds the College and is embedded in Dartmouth lore. The College failed to follow through on its original charter, with fewer than 20 Native Americans graduating before the 1960s, but in the last few decades, Dartmouth has built one of the strongest Native American Studies programs in the country. While the school has never had an official mascot, the Indian-head logo graced the Dartmouth masthead, as well as many of its sports teams uniforms for decades. Since the Indian was banned in 1974, the Clay Pipe Ceremony has been cancelled and only a few seniors walk with Indian-head canes at graduation. Recent efforts to replace the nebulous “Big Green” moniker with a moose have so far been unsuccessful.
  • Green Key: With temperatures finally mild, Dartmouth students take to the outdoors to celebrate the conclusion of another school year. Green Key is arguably the biggest party weekend of the year, as students bask in the radiance of the sun for three or four straight days. Barbecues and concerts are popular, and some fraternities throw annual parties.
  • Homecoming: Each term has one “big” (read: party) weekend and in the fall it is called Homecoming. First-year students are the focus of the weekend, as this is the point when they are unofficially welcomed into the Dartmouth family. On Friday night, upperclass students collect first years from all over campus in what is known as the “Freshman Sweep.” Everyone marches to the center of the Green, where a three-to four-story wooden scaffold has been erected. The scaffold is ignited and a monstrous bonfire ensues. First-year students circle the bonfire one hundred times plus the last two digits of their class year, while older students and alumni egg them on.
  • Ledyard Challenge: Before graduating, students are supposed to swim naked across the Connecticut River to Vermont—where public nudity is legal—and then scamper back across the Ledyard Bridge.
  • Lone Pine: When establishing the school on a hill, Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock noticed one crooked pine tree among a cluster of straight ones. This he took to be a symbol of the College, which would struggle to survive through its own literal and metaphorical winters. While the Lone Pine has since been struck by lightning, Bartlett Tower stands in tribute to its memory, and its glazed stump is preserved.
  • Sophomore Summer: Summer school sounds less-than-glamorous, but it means three months of fantastic weather and class bonding for each sophomore class. Students often take only two courses, while lounging away the summer days at “Camp Dartmouth.”
  • Winter Carnival: In the days before Dartmouth went coed, the long, lonely winter term was punctuated briefly on this weekend as hundreds of young women were bused in from all over the country. Today, a variety of sporting contests are held and brave souls leap into Occom Pond to participate in the Polar Bear Plunge. Dormitories and Greek houses erect small snow sculptures on their properties, while a giant sculpture is carved out of a huge pile of snow in the center of the Green.
Urban Legends
  • Beer pong was invented at Dartmouth—students believe that their paddle version is a purer form of the game than the oft-played Beirut.
  • Students caught drinking during orientation and before matriculation will have their admission rescinded.

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Major: Comparative Literature

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