Last night, thousands of students across the globe awaited the fateful hour of Ivy decision releases, the hour that would seal students’ destinies for the next four years. Though many students went to sleep ecstatic for the years ahead, the larger majority could only consider what might have been.
We can predict that Dartmouth’s Class of 2018 will be diverse, not only based on students’ backgrounds, but also their expectations for Dartmouth. Many will accept offers of admission after dreaming of Hanover for as long as they can remember, while others will settle for Dartmouth after being rejected from other institutions.
Personally, my only expectations for Dartmouth lay in New Hampshire’s infamous weather. Despite being from the also chilly state of Wisconsin, I bought a new winter jacket before coming to Dartmouth, terrified for the “polar vortex” that awaited me in Hanover. But after surviving my freshman winter, I now understand that the authors of these guidebooks are not from Wisconsin -— more likely they hail from sunny California.
I was not exactly frustrated by the warmer-than-expected weather, but there are higher stakes in others’ expectations. An Ivy League institution like Dartmouth cannot always live up to the high hopes of prospective students.
Diane Lee ’15 noted that admissions offices tend to portray their schools in an idealistic way, adding that every institution has its flaws that are not advertised. She wouldn’t expect admissions officers to change this tactic, however, as their job, first and foremost, is to attract potential applicants to their institution.
For example, when a Dartmouth admissions officer made the trek out to my high school in Wisconsin, she was quick to highlight the College’s strong and nurturing community.
It’s no surprise, then, that when I enrolled, I expected to become part of a large tight-knit group.
Similarly, Shea Flanagan ’14 said she perceived a college-wide community when she visited. “But it seems that the original sense of community that I hoped for was not as cohesive as I originally thought it was,” she said. “My choices for joining certain groups has fulfilled my desire for that.”
Malcolm Salovaara ’17 had a similar reaction to Dartmouth’s oft-touted sense of community. Like Flanagan, Salovaara chose Dartmouth partially because of the inclusive community that it is known for.
“Community is developed by shared experience, and I don’t think there’s any universal shared experience at Dartmouth,” Salovaara said. “There’s only shared experiences within the micro-communities of Dartmouth.”
Both Flanagan and Salovaara found their own communities within smaller realms of Dartmouth, such as the Dartmouth Outing Club.
Other students, including Lee and Anna Gabianelli ’16, could not initially find their place at the College, an experience which did not meet either of their expectations.
Lee remembered campus as being intimidating and overcrowded for the first three to four weeks of her freshman fall.
On a similar note, Gabianelli floundered during her first term at Dartmouth, as she wasn’t provided the community that her classmates on sports teams were and was unsure of which extracurricular activities to join.
Gabianelli became a tour guide last year, and once every two weeks, Gabianelli can shape prospective students’ expectations through her tours. While she originally tried to talk about the College as a whole, Gabianelli found that attempting to represent every student’s diverse perspective was disingenuous, and instead only relays her own experience.
“Expectations are so hard to match because Dartmouth is so complex,” Gabianelli said. “It’s important to remember what you want to get out of your experience and focus on that.”
Entering her freshman fall, Lexi Krupp ’15 was extremely excited, since Dimensions had eased her nerves about Dartmouth’s negative reputation in the media.
“It seemed like a dream,” Krupp said. “It seemed like such a wonderful community of down-to-earth, really intelligent, caring people who went out of their way to put so much energy into my experience.”
Krupp said that her Dartmouth reality has changed over the years.
As a freshman, she was disappointed. Expecting a diverse array of students with several perspectives on the world, she was surprised when her freshman floor was fairly homogeneous, with most of her floormates coming from the Northeast. Krupp said that she was also frustrated with the Greek system, as she struggled to find an alternative to going out to fraternities.
Over the next few years, Krupp discovered other communities, becoming involved with the DOC and making close connections through Foley House and an off-campus social scene. Now, she said her current reality matches her original expectations.
Dan Pham ’16 applied to Dartmouth on a whim. After spending his whole life on the East Coast, Pham said his top choice was Stanford University, where he was not accepted, because he thought it would offer a new experience, strong academics and good weather. Still, after he visited Dartmouth, he felt welcomed and could see himself fitting in.
“When decisions first rolled around, I wished that I had that opportunity,” Pham said. “But now that I’m here, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
While students may not consider the broader Dartmouth community in their day-to-day lives, he said, this community becomes more noticeable, particularly through alumni interactions.
“I disagree with the thought that there is no ‘Dartmouth community,’ per se,” Pham said. “I think my expectations of Dartmouth were met pretty well with what I encountered here. The openness and welcoming community stuck with me.”
Though some prospective students may base their expectations of Dartmouth on its reputation in the media, Adam Wright ’17 said that the media attention on sexual assault demonstrates something positive about Dartmouth, especially in its approach to handling the issue.
“It’s definitely not the media attention Dartmouth wants or needs right now,” Wright said. “However, I think there’s something to be said that we, as a school, are so open to the issue, and the administration does seem to truly be trying to combat the issue and investigate what can be done to lower the rate of sexual assault and hopefully stop it altogether.”
Overall, Wright said that his first two terms at Dartmouth have matched his pre-college expectations of meeting diverse students, studying with intelligent professors and being challenged academically.
Expectations are more than weather and a winter jacket, but unlike the not-so-disappointingly “warm” 14W, most students have worked their way through their initial expectations of Dartmouth, creating diverse realities that reflect the complexity of our campus. As for me, I recommend that Midwestern students look further than college guidebooks when researching Dartmouth’s weather.
