My never-ending search for truth led me this week to McNutt Hall. Home to the admissions office, McNutt is also the starting point for the official Dartmouth College Campus Tour. Now that I have spent a good amount of time at the College I was curious to find out how closely the tour relates to reality.
The plan was simple. I would arrive at McNutt incognito, clean shaven and sporting a baseball cap, hoping to portray myself as a perspective '98. I resolved not to ask any questions and remain as inconspicuous as possible.
This ruse was quickly discovered when the tour guide turned out to be a fellow '96 who recognized me. Any hopes of this being a scientific examination were dashed by the fact that the guide knew she was being watched by someone who knew the truth behind the tour.
It is important to note here that my comments below are directed at the tour itself, not the tour guide. My tour guide served her post well and was a fine representative of Dartmouth College.
How the tour represented the College was the question. Perhaps the only true fallacies were the description of Topside as "a grocery store" and the comment that "T.A.'s never teach classes" which seemed to ignore their position as the leaders of various labs.
However, the true beauty of a College tour is found not in outright lies but in the deception of casting everything in a good light. At Dartmouth the perfect example is the D-Plan.
Since we were all prospectives we have been fed the idea that the D-Plan is an enormous boon to the students of the College because it facilitates off-campus study. This remains the position of tour guides today.
Unfortunately this is completely misleading. I think part of the problem is faulty logic. Dartmouth is the only school in the country with the D-Plan. Many Dartmouth students take advantage of the huge number of foreign study programs. It is incorrect to then assume some sort of link. The real truth is that the quarter system, not the D-Plan, makes it easy to go away for a term and only miss one third of a year at Dartmouth.
The tour also distorted the Dartmouth Dining Services Meal Plan. While the quality of the food is high compared to other schools as described on the tour, the language used to describe the Meal Plan system was not entirely honest.
The true nature of the Meal Plan which guarantees Freshmen will not get the full value for their food dollar to subsidize the rest of system was completely hidden. Perhaps this is why so many 'Shmen are shocked when they realize the real meaning of a "punch."
Finally, the perils of DarTalk are completely glossed over. Those on the tour were reassured that yes, students have long distance service based on a declining balance account.
Nobody on the tour spoke up and said, "Of course you have long distance service, it is 1993 and this is the United States of America, the question is, 'Is the service any good?'" Our guide at this point would have been forced to reveal the truth, "No it isn't any good. Actually they get better service in Bangladesh." Unfortunately no one asked.
In the light of all the college tours I took my junior and senior years in high school the deceptions of the Dartmouth tour are by no means outrageous. I recall the tour guide at Yale making light of decaying buildings and trying to convince the tour that they gave the school "character."
As a means of attracting the best students to the College the tour does its job very well. In most cases the College is represented accurately and in all cases it is represented positively. However, a search for the truth about Dartmouth cannot stop at the official Dartmouth College Campus Tour.
