This article is featured in the 2025 Freshman Special Issue.
Dear members of the Class of 2029,
Welcome to Dartmouth.
This is going to be a magical four years, and Hanover is a special place. The number of opportunities — academic and social — will feel vertiginous. Take advantage of all of it. You will find compassionate classmates, brilliant professors and an honest community. You will also realize that Hanover is a very special little piece of Earth: The White and Green Mountains are lasting friends for many of us.
However, we also want to be candid advisors to you about the culture of Dartmouth. We chose the theme of this issue to be about Greek life because over the course of the next year, you’re going to be told that it should be an essential part of your time here. Sophomore friends, in the midst of rush, may tell you that it’s the lifeblood of the social culture. Especially for the high schoolers who arrive on campus and have never had alcohol or smoked a joint, it might seem like the Greek system is the only place to be if you want to have fun, have sex and become an interesting and experienced person.
Further, the “fraternity ban” until homecoming — which keeps freshmen out — will make the Greek system into a strange forbidden fruit for you. What is a party in college really like? What cool and hot people gain admittance, while I’m kept out? One day, could I be the beleaguered man at the door, turning people away?
Our Editorial Board has very different perspectives, but can all agree on this: It’s not everything.
You don’t need to be a member of a Greek house to have a happy, well-socialized time here. You don’t need to be a member of a Greek house if you want fellowship. You don’t need to be a member of a Greek house if you like having sex, drinking beer and dancing to live music. It’s also ok if those activities are uninteresting to you.
We chose to focus on Greek life in this issue, not because it should be at the center of Dartmouth’s culture, but because freshmen here are put under the illusion that it is. In actuality, when you get past your sophomore fall, people start to care less and less. By your junior year, everyone has found a place for themselves on campus. It might be at Ledyard Canoe Club. It might be in the ceramics studio of the Visual Arts Center. It might be in the ecology lab, doing research on invertebrates. For many members of a Greek community, it’s not necessarily in their house.
That being said, there is no denying that some of us have found a social home on campus in their fraternity or sorority. For some, that has been a vital and lasting part of our time here. From growing with our closest friends, to receiving life and career advice from trusted upperclassmen, Greek life has helped create a community that persists long after Dartmouth. So while its history is far from perfect, its cohesive potential has been wonderful for some of us and so many others.
We all advise you to look for friends in many different places. Start in your freshman dorm or in clubs around shared hobbies. Don’t lose your individuality and intellectualism. Don’t be convinced that your happiness is contingent on being accepted by one of these institutions. Regardless of your path or involvement with Greek life, be your own person.
Sincerely,
The Dartmouth Editorial Board
The Editorial Board consists of opinion staff columnists, the opinion editors, the executive editors and the editor-in-chief.
