Dartmouth College Hanover, NH: Envision, if you will, a college with classical architecture, a flourishing arts community, an Ivy League education and a location between the Green and White Mountains. This is how Dartmouth College can best be summed up.

On October 22, I visited Dartmouth for the day and took a campus tour. My tour guide was a sophomore from New Jersey, and he showed us many of Dartmouth's outstanding features.

We saw several residences, all of which are coed and house students from all four classes. There are no "freshmen-only" residences. We also saw sorority and fraternity houses, and learned that no one is allowed to pledge or rush until their sophomore year in order to give freshmen time to adjust to Dartmouth and discover the other possible activities. Dartmouth is one of the few schools with this rule.

Next it was off to Baker Library, Dartmouth's main library. It was unbelievable! There were wooden columns hugging the doorway, and gorgeous oak sculptures of horses were in the Tower Room, the room where students study. This was where we were told that Dr. Seuss was a 1925 Dartmouth graduate! (As you can see, Dartmouth has some important alumni!) I felt that was a good way to break up the eerie quiet.

The last stop on the formal tour was the Hopkins Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, named by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of the best performing arts centers in the nation. Plus, if film is your major interest, Dartmouth is the only school in the country where you can get a degree in film studies.

The Hopkins Center, or "the Hop" as it is affectionately called, is where all student productions are performed. "The Hop" is also a center of activity for students, because it is where student mail is delivered, as well as being home to a courtyard dining facility.

After the tour, I had lunch at the Hopkins Center Courtyard Caf", picked up a copy of the daily newspaper, The Dartmouth, and walked into downtown Hanover to visit The Dartmouth Bookstore and Dartmouth Co-op. I bought buttons that said "Go Dartmouth - Beat Yale" and "Go Dartmouth - Beat Harvard," reflecting Dartmouth's Ivy League spirit. As I was leaving, I saw a bus with Cornell football players arriving for a game the next day.

Even if you are not considering Dartmouth College as a school, I encourage you to visit - you will not be disappointed! n



Review by L. M., Wells, VT






Reviewed in 1993