Good grades, a social life or enough sleep. At other colleges, you might get to only pick two, but here at Dartmouth, you will always have all three! Many of us go out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night while still excelling as a pre-med econ major. All of us both play on a varsity team and sing in an a cappella group, and on the weekends when we're not partying, obviously we hike Mount Moosilauke and mentor young children like the model citizens we are. And, of course, we go about every day bubbling with energy and dressed in flair.
If your initial admissions visit and Dimensions weekend weren't enough to convince you that Dartmouth's students are all energizer bunnies who take "study hard, party hard" to another level, then get ready for your upcoming Dartmouth Outing Club Trip and Orientation! You'll be sold on Dartmouth if you weren't before! So, to all you starry-eyed incoming freshmen, get pumped for four years of fun and excitement that might just end with simultaneous offers from Goldman Sachs and Harvard Medical School. And to think you once debated going to the University of Chicago instead!
At some point along in your wonderful Dartmouth experience, however, you will find yourself on the fourth floor of Berry Library on a Wednesday night, slaving away on a 15-page biology lab report plus an overdue internship application and newspaper column, under the influence of not alcohol but caffeine. Forget about having good grades, a social life and enough sleep. Just one of the three will make you overjoyed at this point. You will remember what Dartmouth was supposed to have been and wonder where you went wrong.
Chances are, you did absolutely nothing wrong. Regardless of how it may be advertised, Dartmouth is not some magical school that somehow allows students to party all night, take on a million activities and manage their rigorous coursework without being overwhelmed. The vast majority of us do not cruise through our time here with everything figured out. College in general is not easy, and most students will come across instances when they are overworked, sleep-deprived and stressed out. Dartmouth students are no exception.
Unfortunately, this fact escapes many entering freshmen, who arrive with an idealized and unrealistic expectation that somehow, Dartmouth is different. There might be other colleges where fun has been known to die, where students enter prepared to constantly work hard and be on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. But Dartmouth does an excellent job marketing itself as different. As a result, we all come here with lofty expectations about how we will be able to easily balance our academics with a full plate of extracurricular activities plus parties four times a week.
When you first realize that you are falling short on achieving your ambitions, you will be unhappy. It will seem like you're missing out on the full "Dartmouth experience." But remember that most of us have been there, and have come to understand that there's no way to manage nearly all the things we would like to do without burning out. During your first few months here, expect to be bombarded with advice about all the classes you should take, all the clubs you should join and all the activities you should participate in. Recognize that there's no need to follow all that advice. Maximizing the Dartmouth experience does not involve trying to do as much as possible. Instead, be mindful of the fact that coping with a full plate of classes and activities is not as easy as it may appear, and that you will probably have a more enjoyable time focusing on only a few pursuits.
None of this is intended to scare you about what is to come at Dartmouth. In fact, most people find a way to balance their coursework with an active social life, and still have some time left over to sleep. But balancing academics, friends and sleep is not an effortless process, and is a challenge that you should be prepared to face. Before then, however, you have a few weeks of blissful Trips and Orientation to enjoy.
