You won't get financial aid unless you're below the poverty line. Forget Dartmouth,you should apply to the University of Texas.
There has always been a burning feeling of resentment in my stomach for my high school guidance counselor, who spoke these nave words to me almost five years ago. It always boggled my mind that someone whose job description was to provide accurate and useful advice regarding all aspects of the college application process to high school students could be so clueless over something as fundamental as financial aid. Foolishly, perhaps, I applied to Dartmouth, got in, and was awarded a package that made attending Dartmouth little more expensive than attending a public state school. Meanwhile, she was fired.
Five years later, I can only imagine how different my life would be if I had taken her advice and refrained from applying to Dartmouth altogether. With a sputtering economy forcing many companies to cancel their recruitment activities at colleges with less of an academic reputation and a concomitant increase in applications-and competition-for graduate programs, there would certainly be far fewer doors open to me.
My time at home for winter break certainly exaggerated this point. It was a unique experience: friends with whom I've only sporadically kept in touch are trying to make decisions that will shape their futures. Decisions made as a college senior are as exciting and influential in one's life as those made as a high school senior; whatever happens from here on in will invariably be traced back in some way to the decisions we are all making right now.
Yet the experience is different for friends who weren't fortunate enough to attend as prestigious a school as Dartmouth. Friends of equal intelligence find themselves not making decisions at all because they have none to make. They are unable to compete for the same jobs or the same graduate school opportunities simply because they will graduate with a different university's name on their diplomas. In fact, a number of them are returning home to face one of the toughest local economies within an already shabby national economy because they have nowhere else to go. They have seen friends they respect get rejected from graduate programs over the past couple years because of the increasing competition. They have seen recruiters of all kinds flee their campus because in an era of tightening purse strings these recruiters can only focus on a few select colleges. They do not have the options we take for granted as Dartmouth students, even in these more difficult times.
Whenever I'm away from Dartmouth and someone asks me what I think of my experience, I always say that it feels like a four-year vacation to me. I never could have dreamed of an academic experience as strong as the one I've had, let alone one that occurs in a place many people enjoy so much they choose to retire here. Dartmouth's failings, no matter how large, persistent, and annoying, are a small price to pay, in my opinion, for the experience as a whole.
Certainly, Dartmouth does treat its students like children unable to take care of themselves. I think I will always smile a little when I read Dean Larimore's statement that "The discussions over the past month have been open and constructive, reflecting a shared commitment to collaborative problem-solving and direct communication." It's almost as if it never entered the minds of administrators that, when they cut the swimming and diving programs without student input, these little helpless toddlers might actually have something to say about it rather than simply accepting it as in their best interest. In the past couple months we've seen that the children are more capable of being "open and constructive" than the parents themselves. But, that digression aside, even the issues that possess a stranglehold on campus discourse should never possess one on our own personal Dartmouth experiences. There are issues that are important to fight, as there will always be in life. We will face many of the same issues long after we graduate at places far from Dartmouth.
Behind all these issues lies the fact that we go to Dartmouth in the first place; as recently as before winter break I didn't fully appreciate what that means. The decisions we face are indeed challenging and important ones, but at least we have the decisions to make. I can ask myself, should I try to get a job or should I apply to a PhD program? and whatever I end up answering, I will have a path I can realistically pursue. For better or for worse, the Dartmouth name opens doors that many equally talented people have to push and push at in the hopes of just cramming in their feet. After a month at home, I appreciate Dartmouth now for an entirely new reason.
