Of the 645 student who applied to lead a Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trip this September, 42 percent were selected, and 65 students were put on a waiting list. Forty-five students were selected from a pool of 170 applicants to be Croo members.
More students applied to lead Trips this year than ever before, according to Trips assistant director Jon Hopper '08. Last year, 598 students applied, and in 2006 Trips received 482 leader applications.
All trip leaders and Croo members will have to go through trip leader training, which will take place this spring and summer. Wait-listed students are encouraged to go through the training because most are eventually selected to lead a trip, Hopper said.
"Based on our experience in recent years, we know that most wait-listed leaders will be offered a trip assignment if they can attend all of trip leader training and remain flexible about the trip type and section," read the blitz that the trip leader trainers sent to wait-listed students. This year's trip leader trainers are Anna Krigel '09, Scott Limbird '09 and Julia DeWahl '09.
Students who applied to lead a trip were notified of the Trips' organizers decisions yesterday via blitz.
"It was really exciting because it's obviously something that everyone wants to do," Brandon Cohen '11, who was selected to lead a trip, said. "It's a unique part of the Dartmouth experience."
Members of H, Lodj, Grant, Climbing and Vox Croos do not know the names of the other Croo members, and they are not allowed to disclose that they are on a Croo, H-Croo chief Rembert Browne '09 said. This is to ensure that the groups bond collectively when they meet in September, he said.
"This is something that gets discussed every year," Browne said about the secrecy of Croo members. "There's this magic that happens when you wait all summer thinking about these people. That's an awesome feeling to build that excitement."
Browne is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
Some people may be upset about not being selected to be on a Croo, and keeping the names of accepted students private is more respectful, Browne added.
"Over the course of the spring, people may find out about a couple of people, but it's not the end of the world," Browne said.
After selections, false rumors circulate that being involved in certain activities, campus groups or Greek houses makes it easier for one to become a Trip leader or member of a Croo, Browne said.
"The way it is presented is that by being in any group gets you an edge," Browne explained. "It's not true. No one has the mind-set that we need representations of a certain group."
These rumors may be propagated because certain campus groups are highly represented on Croos, Browne said. These unbalances are due to the large number of members of certain groups that apply to be on Croos.
Some students are also members of groups that provide qualifications that are helpful in the application process for DOC programs, Browne explained. For example, members of Dartmouth Ski Patrol are Outdoor Emergency Care certified, and because many patrollers are members of Psi Upsilon fraternity, there is a misconception that members of Psi U are favored, Browne said.
This year was the second year in which Trips allowed applicants to submit peer recommendations. In some cases, students asked an unnecessarily large number of friends to write a recommendation, Hopper said.
"We received more than we expected," Hopper explained. "Fourteen is not any better than two."
Croo applicants ranked which Croo they would like to be on, but each person was considered for all Croos. Application readers selected Croos as a group rather than on an individual basis. Students were able to apply for both Croo and trip leader positions.
The trip leader training consists of three seminars on group dynamics, risk assessment and wilderness skills, and all leaders must be CPR and First Aid certified.
