The Presidential elections have attracted attention to issues involving the American education system.
As a result the phrases "school-choice," "vouchers," and "charter schools" have been openly debated as possible methods to holistically improve education and offer all students the opportunity to succeed.
While the nation examines how to educate its children more fairly, The Dartmouth questioned how the national debate is reflected at the College in students' experiences.
How diverse are the experiences of Dartmouth students? Does one kind of schooling offer better preparation for the Ivy League? Which kind of school experience betters your chances at "getting in"?
This is the second part of a two part series taking a look at these questions.
College prep?
Most Dartmouth students who talked to The Dartmouth -- from both public and private schools -- say that their high school education prepared them well for their coursework at Dartmouth.
In particular, students who attended top private schools, as well as public magnet schools, said they felt their secondary education was excellent.
"I'm kind of flying by here," said Claudia Bartonlini '03, who attended Phillips-Exeter Academy.
Zach Keane '03, a graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Math, a public magnet school, agreed, saying that some of his classes here had actually been easier than some of his high school classes.
The majority of students, however, from both public and private schools, said that while they were prepared for college, their work here is more difficult, as would be expected during the move from high school to college.
One of the key factors in the quality of an education, according to Dartmouth students, is the size of classes at a school and the amount of attention that teachers give to students.
Students who attended private schools said they thought that small class sizes were one of the major benefits of the type of education they received. Although she attended New York's public magnet Stuyvesant High School, from which 20 other members of the Class of 2003 graduated, Daniella Hirschfeld '03 said the benefits resulting from the variety of opportunities available were counteracted by impersonal teacher-student relations.
Rural high schools, not often celebrated as educational models, often offer the sort of intimacy between students and faculty that is sometimes lacking from other educational systems and the small class sizes praised as a private school charteristic.
"I was growing up in a small town ... you knew everybody because you had grown up with them," said Chris Hontvet '03, whose graduating class at the city high school in Warroad, Minn., had 75 people.
"You weren't a number, you were a face, you were a name," Hontvet said.
However, Tommy Chekelelee '03, who also attended the public school in his small, rural North Carolina hometown, indicated the benefits of small classes were outweighed in his case by the limited opportunities for advanced classes that his school offered.
Interviews of Dartmouth students indicated that non-selective public schools and those with limited resources are often hindered in attempts to offer educations to high ability students by the need to cater to a wide range of abilities.
Diversity vs. Prestige
Many Dartmouth students who attended private schools would agree that one of the great benefits of attending a private schools is often the opportunity to be around people of similar ability.
The high concentration of talented people often leads to a rather competitive atmosphere, one that is an important part in the formulation of a high quality education at many schools.
Some students flourish in such an environment, but others say they disliked the intensity of the educational atmosphere.
Bartolini, for example, said she chose Dartmouth specifically because it wasn't like Exeter, where she said the whole purpose seemed to be to get into a good college.
"I didn't like [Exeter] much because there wasn't much time for fun," she said. Although prestigious private schools manage to attract a diverse student body, many private schools are somewhat homogenous, some alumni of such schools said.
Hirschfeld attended a private school she called very sheltered before transferring to Stuyvesant. She emphasized the opportunity to meet "interesting people" from all over New York City above the education as the benefit of Stuyvesant.
Nearly every other public school graduate also celebrated the chance to get to know people from a wide variety of backgrounds as one of the major benefits of a high school education.
Emily Johnson, who graduated from Mayo High School in Rochester, Minn., said, "I think from what I've seen of other students [at Dartmouth] that Mayo had a lot more diversity" in both socio-econmoic and cultural realms.
Walker agreed, saying that the fact that she might not have been prepared for Dartmouth as well as others was balanced by the chance to remain in touch with the real world.
After going to her school, Walker said she knows "what other people have to go through" adding that she has a better understanding than others of how people live who do not have the opportunities afforded to many students who come to Dartmouth.
College Admissions
As far as the Admissions department is concerned, the type of high school a person goes to -- or even if someone goes to school, since Dartmouth does not require a high school diploma for admission -- does not matter as much as their natural ability, their potential and their intrinsic characteristics.
"It makes no difference to us what school a student goes to," Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said. What is important, rather, is how they performed "in the context they come from."
Thus, when the College receives an application from a person who has had an atypical education, the Admissions Office focuses more on essays, recommendations, interviews and sometimes test scores in their evaluation.
The same sort of consideration is given to the differences between the kind of education a student would have had attending a rural school as opposed to a large science and math magnet school, for example.
