Did you recently visit Dartmouth College? Share your experience with the community! Post your review in the comments below.
Some ideas for what to share:
- When did you visit?
- Where did you stay? Would you recommend it?
- Where did you eat? Did you try any local specialties?
- How did you get there? What’s the best transportation mean to get to-from the campus?
- What was the campus vibe?
- What did you think of the dorms?
- What are some must-see things in or around campus?
- How were the school facilities?
- Did you like it more or less than you thought you would? Why?
- Did anything surprise you?
We’d love to hear any tips or recommendations you can share for people planning their visit!
I visited in early August 2023 with my D24. Here is my writeup from another post:
Dartmouth was great. It felt like something of a university-LAC hybrid in size and felt a little more bustling with students there for summer term. We ate at one of the dining halls, which, like Bowdoin, was cheap and very good. We also got a personal tour of the studio art facilities, which are slightly disconnected from the main campus and more in the town of Hanover (but not particularly inconvenient). The recently constructed art facilities are very impressive and well resourced. One drawback, however, is that Dartmouth doesn’t currently offer a study-abroad program at a foreign art school or even one with a studio art focus. It sounds like art students have been pushing for one though. Dartmouth’s post-degree internship program is a cool opportunity for fine artists. Parent tip : If you like rye whisky and/or extremely bucolic Vermont locales, the WhistlePig Tasting Room is worth the 15-ish minute drive to Quechee, VT from Hanover.*
*ETA: If you like artisanal glassware and/or fine dining, check out Simon Pearce immediately next door to WhistlePig.
1 Like
We did a quick drive through and lunch in July 2025 and an overnight visit in October 2025.
For our overnight visit, we stayed at the Hanover Inn. It was wonderful to be right on the Green with a view of Baker Library right out the window. It was also great for people watching since students traverse the Green all day long. The hotel itself is lovely–a nice lobby to hang out in and drink coffee. We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant. A solid offering though we would have preferred to eat at Lou’s (there was a long line and we didn’t have time to wait).
The tour itself was solid. Lots of talk about traditions, the D-Plan, close professor/student relationships, as you’d expect. We also had a private tour of the Black Family Arts Center. My S26 is interested in minoring in fine arts and he was impressed with the sculpture, metal and woodworking spaces. The people we met in the arts building were very open and accommodating to S26 and his questions. We arranged this by reaching out to the art department, not through admissions.
We ate dinner at Murphy’s on the Green. Food was decent, beer was terrific, and the people watching and eavesdropping even better. It was great to listen in on students talking about their lives, classes, etc. After dinner we walked around and ended up in a poster/record/memorabilia shop. My S26 got to chatting with the shopkeeper and learned so much about Hanover and Dartmouth. I’d say that this conversation is what really solidified Dartmouth as my S26’s top school.
Earlier in the summer, we’d driven through on our way to VT for Middlebury and UVM tours. We parked, asked directions from someone walking by – who turned out to be a librarian and she gave us a 30 min mini-tour as she walked us to the library and gave us some pointers about what to see while there. My S26 liked what he saw – especially seeing the school busy with Sophomore Summers on campus.
My big takeaway from our visits to Dartmouth is that the standard school tour is lovely and the guides are personable… but it’s actually quite easy to engage with shopkeepers, passersby, students in restaurants, etc. We got a fuller picture of the experience this way and I encourage anyone who makes it out to Hanover to do the same.
1 Like