For many students, college is an opportunity to get as far away from their parents as possible. But for a surprising number of Dartmouth students, parents aren't a continent or even a state away. Rather, they're stationed in their offices in Dartmouth Row, Sanborn House or Wilder Hall.
An average of four to six children of faculty members apply to Dartmouth every year, according to the Admissions Office.
But faculty children are given no institutional advantage in the admissions process, according to Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg. Their applications go through the same admissions process as all applicants from anywhere in the country, he said.
However, "as they know Dartmouth and its academic expectations well, the pool of faculty children is usually a well qualified group," Furstenberg said.
Most of these students hail from Hanover High School and have virtually grown up on the Green, but many said that deciding to apply to Dartmouth was not so obvious a choice as one might think.
"My parents really didn't influence me in my decision to come to Dartmouth," Sarah Ayres '06 said.
Her father, Matthew Ayres, is a professor in the Biology department. Ayres said that she came to Dartmouth for the same reasons that everyone else chooses to come here " because of its rigorous academic program.
Of her college experience thus far, Ayres thinks that she's having a similar experience as if she were to go to a different school. In fact, she said she actually spends less time at home than do some of her friends.
"I know people who live in Connecticut and Massachusetts who go home much more often than I do," Ayres said. "I think it's the thought that I could go home whenever I want," she added, laughing.
Professor Ayres said that it was fun to occasionally bump into his daughter at school, but he agreed that it was not much different from having her go somewhere else for school. He also added that his daughter's experience has provided more perspective on what it is like to be a Dartmouth student and has helped him improve as an advisor and professor.
Lauren Lotko '06, Ayres's roommate this term, is also the daughter of Dartmouth faculty members. Her mother is in the Physics Department, and her father teaches at the Engineering School. Lotko agreed with Ayers in the sentiment that her parents did not influence her choice to attend the College.
"My decision was completely independent from my parents," she said.
For one of the newest additions to the Dartmouth community, Jacob Crumbine '07, that decision was not a foregone conclusion. When his final choices for college came down to Dartmouth and Columbia, Crumbine said that his mother, a Dartmouth English professor, helped him by remaining objective and weighing the pros and cons of both schools.
Crumbine's mother, Nancy Crumbine, is teaching English 5 this year, so she has had several of her son's classmates as students.
"It's weird to overhear students talking about her," Crumbine said, "but, so far, the reviews have all been good."