In the first speech of a lecture series sponsored by the Programming Board, Education Professor Andrew Garrod said women at Dartmouth are more satisfied with relationships and friendships than are Dartmouth men, who find greater satisfaction academically.
Garrod revealed the results of his four-year study of 88 Dartmouth students from the Class of 1993 to a packed crowd of 100 students in Collis Common Ground last night. The speech was preceded by a family style dinner catered by Panda House.
Feelings of isolation were common findings, Garrod said.
"A lot of people spoke about being lonely," he said."But they were much more likely to be men than women."
"The biggest fear for men was that they would never find a friend but we didn't hear that from the women. They spoke much more positively about roommates ... women were much more concerned that they were not smart enough to be here."
Garrod randomly selected 100 students, 50 men and 50 women, from the Class of 1993 Freshman Book. Eighty-eight of these students completed the project. He said he was pleased with the way this method of selection worked, however, he was disappointed that his survey didn't include any African-American males.
"We had amazing cooperation, a very low fall-out rate," he said.
Garrod surveyed his subjects on two levels: moral development and ego development. He found that women had consistently higher scores in ego development than men.
"It is statistically significant that women entered and left [the College with higher scores] than men," he said.
Garrod found that, when confronted with academic problems, both women and men primarily turn to professors for help. But, as secondary sources, men turn to their peers while women more often turn to their parents.
The students in his study said that the single most important thing they would change about their experience at Dartmouth is not getting to know a professor better. Garrod said most students said the reason they did not develop more personal relationships with professors was because they did not think they were bright enough.
Garrod read the transcripts of interviews with several students who didn't take the initiative to develop relationships with their professors because of a rejection by the first professor they approached or poor self-esteem.
"If the professor you want to work with turns you down, don't let that be the deciding factor in terms of your research work at Dartmouth," he said.
He also read transcripts of interviews that focused on specific themes, such as culture shock, loneliness and women who lacked self-confidence.
"Culture shock," Garrod said, "is the prerogative of international students."
