On a campus tour this past week, a visiting parent had a thoughtful question about his daughter’s college choices. He asked if she — one of the best students in her high school class — would become “average” at an institution like Dartmouth.
Within any academic environment, there will obviously be individuals who will emerge as more successful students relative to their peers. If all students performed equally well, grades would be dispensable. In the Dartmouth Class of 2018, 93 percent of those who provided a class rank were in the top 10 percent of their high school class. In college, however, there isn’t room for each student to repeat that achievement. My point is self-evident — most high-achieving high school students will become “average” Dartmouth students, at least in terms of grade point average.
This doesn’t mean that Dartmouth students become underachievers after matriculating. For the 2014 fall term, the average grade point average among Dartmouth students was 3.443, well above a B. Still, being just another student — as opposed to one of the best in the class — can be frustrating for many.
The transition to collegiate academics is not an easy one. Aside from the increase in workload and expectations, an incoming freshman is suddenly studying alongside some of the country’s — and even the world’s — best students. Jonathan Busam ’17 recalls being “curious about how living in such an ambitious community would affect my identity.” When he matriculated last year, Drayton Harvey ’17 did not set expectations for what his classes would entail or how the new academic environment would go. Rather, he said that he observed that “many of those around me crashed and burned for coming in with too many expectations for their first term.” Christopher Park ’17, echoed similar experiences, attributing this “sad reality” to the fact that not all high schools are equal in terms of rigor or expectations from their students.
Regardless of your individual high school experiences, it is rare to be overqualified for Dartmouth. Being surrounded by others who are also intelligent and driven is a good thing, and being in a challenging environment is exactly what the academic experience should be about.
First, there is the sense of intellectual camaraderie that one often develops with his or her classmates. For the information you do not pick up during lectures and class meetings, you will probably find someone who understands it well enough to explain it to you. There is this free exchange of information and ideas between classmates, lab partners and members of a study group — an exchange that is unique to a community where everyone takes their academics seriously. Busam talked about the “intellectual growth” he feels when he listens to his classmates ask questions about class material, and said that his peers often ask questions he had not previously considered and thus enable him to consider the concepts more thoroughly. I agree with this, and believe that there is value in the frustration that often accompanies learning. Breaking down difficult concepts to understand them makes us better thinkers, and doing so collaboratively allows us to view these concepts from various perspectives.
Second, we benefit from certain resources by being at Dartmouth. Park mentioned the opportunities for research around campus, such as the programs in the Undergraduate Advising and Research office. He said that these resources would not be here if the student body was not interested in them, arguing that “the students want to do research and care about putting their studies to practice.” Moreover, professors and teaching assistants are widely accessible for help and the Tutor Clearinghouse offers many academic support services for students — free of charge for financial aid recipients and varsity athletes.
Finally, the competitive environment at Dartmouth paves the way for higher-level intellectual attainment. I am not saying that grades do not matter — they very much do for many post-grad plans. Yet, while many of us are “average” relative to each other, we are becoming better learners and more intelligent adults along the way. We must not forget the ultimate goal of learning when we pull all-nighters in the library for finals in a few weeks.
