Many Dartmouth students seem exceedingly proud of their "work hard, party hard" mentality. Unfortunately, the balance between the two has gotten lost somewhere between Monday Night Freeze and Wednesday night's debauchery.
The focus on socializing is ingrained in students from the beginning of their Dartmouth career. Coming to the College, freshmen are quickly introduced to what will consume much of their coming four years: frats. Trip leaders invite Trippees to play pong when returning from their DOC trips, quickly introducing them to the wonder of free drinks and a four-day party week.
Personally, I don't remember going to a single academic fair during orientation my freshman year.Instead, I attended every party and event on the social calendar.
My friends and I cleared our schedules for Monday Night Freeze, Reds, Room-to-Room tails and the numerous dance parties, while becoming increasingly overwhelmed with classes.
Consumed by the social scene, I forgot why I originally chose to attend Dartmouth and pulled one all-nighter after another in order to keep up with work and parties.
In particular for upperclassmen, pledge term proves how students arrange their schedules according to their social life. Many choose to take two classes instead of three in order to have more free time to drink and perform pledge duties. Others pick "easy classes" to save their GPA while focusing their attention on their social life, rather than their intellectual advancement. Instead of learning, these "students" become party animals.
I often hear my Greek-affiliated friends say that they find the social aspect of Dartmouth more important to them than their academic success, as long as they are doing "decent." In fact, I have been scolded by some of my friends for "caring too much about school" as they worried that I "wasn't hanging out enough."
To be chastised for focusing on academics is to me just ridiculous and ignorant. Dartmouth is one of the most prominent academic institutions in the country. We worked hard to get here, so why give it all up for some Keystone and a large network of superficial party friends?
In short, paying $50,000 a year simply to party is an absurd luxury.
Moreover, I have been told by these same friends that although their grades may suffer now, their intense social life and networking will pay off with important contacts for a future career.
I don't know whether to cry or to laugh when I hear such statements.
Just because you won the pong tournament or can chug a certain number of beers in record time doesn't mean you'll be a successful businessperson.
If your goal is to improve your future opportunities, work on your reputation and merit rather than your irresponsibility.
Despite what I've said, please don't misconstrue my argument as advocating for the abolition of our social scene. On the contrary, I appreciate the fact that fraternities and sororities contribute to a more inclusive environment by throwing parties for the whole school to enjoy.
However, I would hate to see students regret their imbalanced social lives come senior year.
I fully agree with the idea of studying hard and playing hard, as long as some balance is maintained. Rather than seeing our four years here as an opportunity to party, we should take this chance to get as much out of our education as possible.
We have so many resources and so many opportunities to excel -- why waste them in a basement four plus times a week? I don't know about you, but if my sole aim were to hang out and party, I definitely wouldn't have moved to New Hampshire.
