Hey @unsure2021. Dartmouth sophomore here, I just wanted to ask if you’ve actually visited Dartmouth? Like most elite schools, Dartmouth used to be very white, but is now almost half nonwhite, so far more diverse than you seem to have heard. I’m Indian (i.e. south asian), and have felt very comfortable on campus so far. While I am not LGBT+, we have a large and active LGBT+ association, and large pride festivals every year. My friends who are LGBT+ have felt very comfortable here. Also, for the past few years, around 15% of each incoming class has been first gen. They have an extra week of orientation at the beginning of the year to help them adjust, with talent shows and stuff included. There is even a floor exclusively for first gen students of they want to give them a support network. As an international student, I was on campus for international orientation which was at the same time as theirs, and we all had a lot of fun getting to know one another and bond.
As for drinking, I have NEVER felt pressure to drink when I go out, even to party, and I didn’t at all the first few weeks I was at college. Furthermore, while we do have an active greek life scene, for most people, greek life is just one part of what they do at Dartmouth and most have far wider social circles beyond their greek society. Most don’t even live in their house. So, it’s quite possible to have an active social life without joining a greek house. Furthermore, a number of greek houses are gender inclusive, and don’t actually hold many parties. Many are just hang out spaces, and hold milk and cookie nights, or play video games much of the time The term “greek life” applies pretty loosely to what we have here. There are a few houses where the toxic white male culture still pervades, but they are the minority. It has become increasingly hard for that culture to continue since the vast majority of greek life events are open to all students. I was not a partier in high school, but I eventually became more of one through my first couple terms since the toxicity that surrounded party culture back home doesn’t exist in most party spaces I’ve been too. The people I party with are not shallow harcore alcoholics, but fellow nerds who just want to have some fun.
Of course, if you really don’t want to party, then YOU DON’T HAVE TO. There are plenty more things going on on your average weekend than that. Our board game society has dozens of regular members and many more visitors, and meet every friday and saturday. On saturday nights, if you don’t want to go out to party, the anime society holds very well attended watch parties with free pizza. The groupme for both of these societies have over a 100 members each, clearly demonstrating how many people are interested. There are movies, improv and theater shows, trivia nights etc. That’s not including just hanging out with your friends in dorms working, hanging out, or watching shows and movies, which trust me will end up being a substantial social outlet.
Basically, the majority of Dartmouth students, like students in most colleges, will go to party on your average friday night, but the majority of dartmouth students are also quite nerdy. So they will often go to nerdy social outlets too. I went to parties for a few hours every week, but I also did a four hour D&D game every week. That game has continued through the pandemic. There were a bunch of running D&D sessions when I was on campus, and many freely take in new people when the new studnets come along, The board game society also helps new students set up their own games, and even providing Dungeon Masters if there is enough interest.
And there are PLENTY of people who don’t even party at all if you look a little. But, as I said before, you may end up going to the occasional since the people you go with will be a lot more like you, and so you’ll end up feeling a lot more comfortable in those spaces.
In sum, Dartmouth is a very diverse and extremely quirky place (partly a function. of our relative isolation), and I believe everyone can feel comfortable here. We have a tradition called “flair” which is just that students occasionally show up to class wearing ridiculous things like onesies, costumes or guys wearing skirts etc. This isn’t a halloween thing, people do this any day they feel like it. You are free to let your freak flag fly high! We also have a lot of traditions like first year trips which really encourage community bonding around shared experiences, more so than any school I know of. My friend groups here are intensely nerdy, and include many minority, LGBT+ and international students, and we have all found our place here and loved it while we were on campus. I was personally there for only two quarters, and have been dying to get back for over a year.
As for the academic side of things, our com sci program is definitely better than Amherst. If you’re worrying about getting crushed in class, I would just say that since most of our classes are small and almost all taught by professors, you will have a lot more individual attention to be able to deal with increased academic rigour. This is probably true of Amherst as well though.
Furthermore, I have heard that since Amherst is like half athletes and very small, they dominate the social scene to large extent. Of course, like for Dartmouth, my info may be dated, but that’s something to consider. I was applying several small LACs along with Dartmouth, but chose to ED Dart since they all seemed too small for me. I wanted more options in terms of academics, social life and people to meet than those colleges seemed to offer me.
Don’t get me wrong, Dartmouth has its fair share of problems. But you won’t have trouble finding social outlets here, that I can guarantee.
If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out. We seem to share a lot of common nerdy interests, so I’d be happy to tell you more about them.