Ashenwolf

Great College but Painfully Isolated.

Dartmouth is a great college. It's an Ivy League and it offers you great connections when you graduate. It's small enough where you know a lot of the people and if you work hard enough you could probably know everyone (at least people will know of you if you really want them to), but still large enough to fall into obscurity if you want.

The social life leaves much to be desired. The main (and most times only) social scene is the Greek Life. This can be great if you are really into drinking and partying it up every weekend and two or three nights during the week, but when that's not your scene, you are left, for the most part, up to your own devices. There's a movie theatre in town, but most of the time it doesn't get the big movies. It didn't even have Harry Potter when it came out. The town is cute and quaint, but highly overpriced at the shops. They don't have much competition, because the nearest WalMart is a town away and most people on campus don't have cars.

Safety is great though. There are Safety and Security cars patrolling constantly during the day and at night. You can call in an emergency and they will be there right quick.

Sports...a bit of let down...a big let down for big sports fanatics. Our teams aren't that great and the student body just doesn't care. Attendance at sporting events is mediocre at best and cheering (even when goals are made) is pretty limited.

One good aspect of the isolation is that you spend a lot of time with your college friends. This can be bad or good, but it definitely promotes a closeness and a sense of community.

It has an amazing library system. There are several libraries located across campus. Each with their own specialty field. The main library is the center of campus and houses piles of books from various academic fields. There's also a great inter-library loan system between Dartmouth and about 10 other colleges, including most of the Ivy Leagues, and int he coming Fall term Harvard and M.I.T.'s libraries will be available to Dartmouth students too.