<p>Got to see the Dartmouth Aires perform last night in Wolfeboro NH! What a group of talented, adorable, charismatic kids! Many of them are freshmen, so it’s not exactly the same group that has been appearing on “The Sing Off”, but they’re equally as good! The first half was high-energy, recent songs while the second half was more traditional a cappella…mostly traditional Dartmouth songs. Awesome performance!</p>
<p>Dumbo11, my son will be too busy to distribute the ti leaves at Homecoming. So maybe next year.</p>
<p>For you potential Dartmouth parents, we couldn’t be happier. My S grew up on a tropical island 2500 miles from the nearest continent, and while the winters are cold, he couldn’t be happier. I think he is taking ice skating for PE. He loves his classmates and the school has exceeded his expectations. Dartmouth and President Kim inspire him. We love visiting Hanover, and once you have a kid there you will want to visit there more often than they want you to. Ask any parent on this thread. Just saying!</p>
<p>D went on an early morning hike to nearby Gile Mountain. Instead of seeing the sunrise, she saw the season’s first snowfall, enough to make a mini me snowman.</p>
<p>FYI, parents of graduating seniors–where has the time gone!–today is the first day the Simon Pearce restaurant is taking reservations for graduation weekend. The number is 802-295-1470, and you may have to call repeatedly to get through. At this time, they are taking names and numbers, and calling back.</p>
<p>Here is an article about a impressive '14!!!<br>
[Devin</a> Chu ?14 Reaches for the Stars from Hawaii|Dartmouth Now](<a href=“http://now.dartmouth.edu/2011/11/devin-chu-14-reaches-for-the-stars-from-hawaii/]Devin”>http://now.dartmouth.edu/2011/11/devin-chu-14-reaches-for-the-stars-from-hawaii/)</p>
<p>My husband is in Hanover today, eating at Lou’s as I type. He had a trip up north (we are from Houston) and so had the opportunity to make a side trip to Hanover. He says it is beautiful and cold. The leaves have changed, but not yet fallen and there is still some snow on the ground. He had a nice dinner last night with our son and his roommates and is looking forward to being on campus while school is in session. </p>
<p>Our son is having a fabulous sophomore year. He loved school last year but a few weeks ago he mentioned that this year is exponentially better. I think he now really feels at home. He loves his classes, has great roommates and is happy with his dorm choice (across the street from his dorm last year - says it is a great location in the middle of campus) and is enjoying pledging a fraternity. I know that fraternities can get a bad rap but for him it has really made him feel at home. There are many places to find a home (I had recommended the local church campus group) but for him the fraternity is welcoming. </p>
<p>Incidentally, my son also had a fantastic internship this past summer (though I don’t suppose it will make the headlines). I do feel that having Dartmouth on his resume was definitely helpful. The man who recommended him for the job had previously worked with a Dartmouth grad and mentioned being very impressed with him. The classes he took his freshmen year were directly beneficial, particularly his writing classes. He worked as a computer programmer. At times he would notice that the other interns (all of whom were older) had difficulty expressing themselves in emails (questions, proposed solutions, etc). He felt that his writing classes helped him to write more effectively in a business environment, though neither of his classes were “business writing”. He intends to continue to take writing classes each semester to further improve his communication skills, even though he is an engineering major. </p>
<p>Overall we couldn’t be happier with his college experience so far. We are looking forward to taking our family (we have three more sons) to visit Dartmouth this summer during Sophomore summer. We will look forward to seeing you again, Dumbo, but will miss you Magnum and Mrs. P.I. Have a great Fall, Y’all.</p>
<p>Hi LHMom, sound like your son is doing great. That is wonderful that he found a great internship last summer. My D feels exactly like your son. As much as she loved her freshman year, she feels sophomore year is even better. She is loving greek life, and she likes knowing so many people on campus. Her only concern is finding an internship for spring term. She had planned to take off winter term, but she really wasn’t ready to leave yet, so she decided to try and find a spring internship instead. She really wants one in Boston, so that she can visit Hanover on the weekends. We live in the midwest, so we are of no help. Hopefully this all works out. Worst case, she will stay on campus and do research. The uncertainty is a bit unsettling. Glad you will be there for family weekend this summer. Are you staying at Six South again? If so, hope to see you at the lobby bar.</p>
<p>OK now you guys are making me jealous. I may try to make it to Hanover for sophomore summer family weekend if the fares are favorable and I can sneak away. Thanks LHMom for finding the article about that star-crossed kid from Hawaii who is a good friend of your rock-star son. I am so glad they became friends too. Although I bet your son could perform with the Aires! </p>
<p>Dumbo, a good thing about spring quarter internships is that she will not be competing with the hoards of summer applicants. My son will be interning on Capitol Hill then and is really excited about it. Have her check out Partners in Health in Boston, where President Kim was a founder. Aloha, MPI</p>
<p>Hi Magnum! That’s great about your son’s internship this spring. What an incredible opportunity. You’ll have to fill us in. Congrats! Thanks for the suggestion also. I sent it to her. She is most likely majoring in Math and Social Science, so we will see what happens. Placement for this major seems to be very high, so hopefully this all works out. </p>
<p>About the Dartmouth Aires, I am absolutely hooked on this show. I had lunch with some other DM moms this week, and we are going to get together next week to all watch it together. Their Queen performance last week blew me away. They were awesome this week also, but in a class by themselves last week. I can’t wait to see what next week brings, although the preview clips they showed did not sound encouraging (but they probably do that just to get ratings up). I really hope they win it all!</p>
<p>And Magnum, hope you can find a way to make it this summer. A much harder, longer and more expensive trip for you than the rest of us. You might want to consider getting a hotel room…you can always cancel it. We are hoping to spend a bit of time exploring Vermont and Maine.</p>
<p>Magnum, my husband and I were in your neck of the woods a couple of weeks ago. A business trip brought us to Maui (with a quick stop in Honolulu to see Pearl Harbor). Being from NH, our trip out to Hawaii ended up, with delays, taking us 23 hours door to door!!! Aughhhhh! Trip home was much better. That is one heck of a trip for us East Coast dwellers! I totally understand your distance now! What a stunning state you live in!!! We loved every minute and wished we could have stayed much longer than 8 days. What made it worse was returning to Boston the morning after the big nor’easter and 5 days without power! We were dreaming of Maui for sure!</p>
<p>Aloha Garnets, glad you were able to experience the 50th state. We have about the same population as NH, but we are spread across 5 main islands. Maui is nice, especially for the beaches on the West side. I’ll be there tomorrow for business. Honolulu is a city, and I only go for meetings and then get back to the island of Hawaii as soon as I can. There is a small Dartmouth alumni group here. Not too sure. The Dartmouth cycling team may come out next December for their training camp and I am assisting with that. Our weather in December is much like any other month here, mid-80s, tropical, pretty boring, no 4 seasons, no sweater weather, no winter. </p>
<p>Our trips to Hanover take about 16-18 hours depending on the route. I have the headphones and a kindle for the haul. Hope to see you guys there…or here! Aloha -MPI</p>
<p>Was in Hanover last weekend. Went to three sporting events on Saturday. Dartmouth won all three with a win over Cornell in football and soccer and a hockey win over Princeton. Went to see the damage to the Quechee bridge from Irene. What a mess. Started the process of going through our son’s stuff as he is a senior. We took a suitcase home of stuff and took a bunch to the Salvation Army. It is hard to believe that it was four years ago that I found CC and was lurking around to see what my son’s chances were for ED. Now his time is almost done and a new chapter will begin. It has been a great journey for him and he has certainly gained much knowledge, friends and experiences. He was able to accomplish “the 50” this year. He walked 56 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 30 hours. We are hoping that Dartmouth can beat Providence on Thursday in soccer. The team would then travel to Santa Barbara for a playoff game against UCSB. We know a couple of guys on the team and would be fun to watch Dartmouth play out here.</p>
<p>Shucks Dartmouth Soccer ousted by Providence in the NCAAs.</p>
<p>In case any of you missed it, The Dartmouth Aires are in the final 3 for The Sing Off. The winner is announced on Monday night. Please vote. You can vote 10 times by text and 10 times by phone. Phone 877-674-6403 to vote, or text the number 3 to 97979.
If there are any alumni who visit this thread, maybe there is an alumni facebook page or way to get support for them? How can we get this to go viral within the Dartmouth community?</p>
<p>In other news, D came home late last night! She didn’t really want to leave Hanover with so much work, but she hasn’t seen her sister so the pull was great to come home. So nice having her here. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>Our son is a 15 and has had a chance to put a couple of months of college under his belt at Dartmouth. I do have a question to ask other parents - how do you get your kid home. No, no its not the transportation how do you get them to leave Hanover! I find that to be a good problem. He is having the experiance we had hoped for and more for a freshman year. Good to see the football team had a pretty good season, sorry to see soccer get knocked out. Looking forward to see what the hockey team produces and enjoyed seeing the Aires on TV last night make it to the finals on the Sing Off. We did get our votes in. Its greet PR for the College!</p>
<p>And you can vote online 10 times at nbc.com with your email address. What a wonderful accomplishment for these kids. I would imagine that attending the live performance may cut in to their exam studies, but I hope the college understands!</p>
<p>Yes. We have been watching the Sing Off for the last couple of weeks. My son who is a 12 knows some of the kids. Some of these Aires have actually graduated. We saw Michael at Lou’s a couple of weeks ago. I am sure Dartmouth has some very coordinated social media on this and Blitz is working overtime. Remember if you have more than one e-mail you can use other e-mail addresses. The only team I really worried about was BYU. The Mormons can organize just about better than anyone else. </p>
<p>Son caught the Coach and is leaving Boston in an hour. We will have him and his sister home for Thanksgiving. A full house is great. Planning a poker night for tomorrow night for three moms and their boys. These boys and the moms have been friends since first grade. Time flies.</p>
<p>Time sure does fly, from the initial launch in Hanover to middle of the soph year, Son is enjoying the total DC experience. Looking forward to seeing him in a week. We will watch the Sing off videos and get some sun. Happy Holidays parents!</p>
<p>Happy holidays to you Magnum and to all the other DM parents. Time is flying by fast. D is loving sophomore year, but she is really working hard. She can’t wait to be done with finals, projects, etc. Hope everyone enjoys the time with their kids. We are going on a cruise, and I cannot wait for quality family time together!</p>
<p>Back to the empty nest again now that S’14 is back in Hanover. I thought I would revive this thread to invite any new parents of the class of 2016 to join us.</p>
<p>Greetings, Dartmouth Parents. S2 was accepted ED and we are so excited for him to be going to Hanover next year as a member of the class of 2016! He broke away from a family of Dukies to chart his own path and we couldn’t be happier for him. I, myself, was a bit worried that, by foregoing the legacy bump at Duke and straying into the scary waters of being an unknown, unhooked applicant from a large public school, he was taking a big risk. Well, he really made it happen for himself and it was nice to see that you don’t have to be a legacy, athlete, or have some other hook to get in ED at Dartmouth. </p>
<p>We visited Dartmouth for the first time last summer, the weekend after graduation, and he really fell in love with it (so did my wife and I). The focus on undergraduate teaching, the D-plan, and the intimate and cohesive campus environment really closed the deal for all of us. As a Duke grad, I can say that I rarely come across schools that I think match the esprit de corps, camaraderie, and love for the campus and school that I found at Duke and continue to feel years after graduation. I guess we chose the perfect weekend to visit Dartmouth. As we sat in Lou’s Restaurant, we got to talk to so many alumni that had come back for the alumni weekend at graduation. In addition, we saw and talked to a number of graduates that were saying their goodbyes to their classmates. What struck me is how much they loved their time at Dartmouth and the bonds that they had built over 4 years in Hanover together.</p>
<p>We’re so excited that our son will be part of this amazing Dartmouth “family” now and cant wait to see what the future holds for him at Dartmouth and beyond.</p>