Welcome to college, folks. Everything you need to know about pursuing a degree in higher education will be blitzed to you, at least 25 times a term, by well-meaning people who haven't yet figured out that everyone has read those forwards that tell you why college is like kindergarten, that teach you how to convince your roommate you're a walking psychopath and that remind you that a dorm is a real-life manifestation of everything Dante wrote about.
The most useful thing that I can tell you about Dartmouth is do not settle for anything. There will be plenty of situations when you may have to but this should not be one of those times. It will seem that there are so many things about this place that you have no control over -- and in some respects, that is true. But there are things you can grab control of, and you should. If you feel that Dartmouth is missing something important, then make sure you bring it to us. Dartmouth is at your disposal. There are resources at this school you can't even imagine; find and use as many of them as you can. If you can't find them yourself, talk to other people.
The first time you go home, you'll find yourself repeatedly being asked questions like "what classes are you taking?" and "what's your major?" Answer those questions, but also understand why most people ask them: classes and a major seem to be the only concrete way to justify college. Those questions might fool you into thinking that class is the only way to learn, but that's a myth. The most important thing an education should do is teach you how to think and how to use your mind. If you feel like class isn't doing that for you, then find something that does.
College is not the real world, and going to school in Hanover makes it that much harder to ground yourself in reality. It's very easy to get sucked into the world of Dartmouth and to forget that world leaders die and countries declare war on each other. Do not be one of those people who finds out these things three months later, and only by accident.
There's so much more to say, but I'll stop. It's hard to talk about college without sounding like a teeny-bopper show on the WB. All advice on the subject seems so clich, but that's fine. I think people are a little too hard on clichs -- they have potential to comfort, and they are one of the few things that can tie us together. If we look back on most things, they can be whittled down into trite little reflections that we've all heard too many times. The great thing is that while you're at Dartmouth, nothing you encounter will seem overdone or trivial because it will be your experience.
Four years from now, some over-ambitious person might ask you what you learned at college. If the person is younger than you are, you'll find yourself spewing out vignettes with parental-type musings attached to them. You will wonder when you got so old. It's OK though; you have a long way to go. Make the most of that time because the only way you get to be a wise old person is by being young.
