Dartmouth's location has been one of the most central and defining characteristics of the school since its founding. Despite Dartmouth's status as an Ivy League school that draws from a range of potential students, the College's relatively remote location serves as a self-selecting force for many students.
Getting to school can change anything and everything about a Dartmouth student's experience. Throwing all your stuff in the back of an SUV is decidedly easier than trying to get those embarrassingly oversized duffle bags under 50 pounds so the airline won't charge you an extra $75 per bag.
Nicola Segal '14, who hails from London, considers Dartmouth pretty accessible.
"I knew I didn't want to go to school in a city, and with the Dartmouth Coach and Boston so close, I think of Dartmouth as one of the more accessible rural schools," Segal said.
Segal cited the time difference and the inability to simply call or text people from home as the real challenges of Dartmouth's location.
Having to travel so far to get to Hanover can also add a dimension of excitement when returning home, according to Segal. Immersing ourselves in a new culture can awaken us to features of our home that we may have never previously noticed.
"I appreciate the culture and the accents so much more when I go home now," she said. "It's more exciting. Sometimes I even feel like a tourist."
Understandably, students from locations closer to Hanover felt the distance hasn't affected them significantly. Sam Golini '15 comes from Rochester, N.Y., which is about a six-hour drive away from Hanover. Golini said that distance from home was not a primary consideration when he was considering where to attend college, partially because the effect of geographic location on relationships with family and hometown friends is minimal due to the ease of communication nowadays.
"Geographic distance has a much less significant effect than commitment to communication," Golini said.
Golini also said there are benefits to relocating to a remote location away from home for college.
"Two of my closest friends from high school stayed close to home and haven't really branched out socially because of it," he said. "A new physical location forces you to separate and form new social ties."
Emily Li '14 makes the trek from Kansas every time she has to return to Dartmouth. In order to get to Hanover, Li has an hour drive to the airport, a flight to Boston that requires a connection and a ride from Boston to Hanover. Li said she has lost touch with some friends from high school and has seen the size of her social group decrease, but distance from home was not factor in this change.
"When I return home and see my friends, we usually just click right back in," she said. "I don't think my being so far from home has caused me to grow apart from them."
Relocating to a new place with a distinctly different culture makes some homesick, but others view carving a completely new life separate from home positively.
"I don't get homesick," Kara Dastrup '14, who hails from Kauai, Hawaii, said. "My life at Dartmouth is completely different from my one at home. If nothing here reminds me of my life at home, then I don't get homesick."
The D-Plan makes situations like these even harder (as it always does), preventing some students from seeing their families for long periods of time for 11-month stretches, in Dastrup's case. Even the most minor aspects of college life are often affected by students' distance from home.
"I have to have everything I need for the entire year in my room at all times," Dastrup said. "My room gets really cluttered because I can't easily ship things to school or home it's just too expensive."
Some students leave home for school out of necessity, feeling that local schools could not satisfy their academic desires. Others make a deliberate decision to restructure or start a new chapter in their lives by relocating to a place that will require or provide a new perspective. Demands made by a new location and a newfound distance from home can be high and prove a drawback to some students in deciding where to attend college. However, the many modes of communication that we can easily and quickly access make it possible to maintain relationships in ways previously impossible.
In the end, traveling halfway across the world is no longer an excuse for losing touch with friends and family, and being close to home is no guarantee those ties will be preserved. Yes, sometime Hanover feels like the middle of nowhere, but the reality is that we have everything we need to stay in touch with people from home. Don't be lazy guys the ball's in your court!
