Girls vs. Boys

johnleemk
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:21:27 +0000

Dartmouth is a place where you can have a very fun time, and I think to a lesser or greater extent most people do, but your chances significantly improve if you are a jock and/or are in one of the good houses (for both males AND females). If you are not one of these things, you have little hope of mattering or having a decent amount of “social capital” and that in turn affects your relationship chances significantly.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner! Having said that I do know quite a few people in relationships who are neither jocks nor involved in the Greek system, so it’s not a set in stone rule. But if you are athletic and if you join a Greek house you will definitely have a lot of fun at Dartmouth.

Which isn’t to say if you aren’t athletic and if you remain unaffiliated, you will not have a lot of fun. I’m enjoying myself even though I don’t play any sports and I only go out to the frats once a week or two. I wouldn’t say the social scene here is necessarily shallow. It is if you hang out with a certain crowd (and that crowd is quite substantial here), but that’s true anywhere. I’ve had a lot of fun in frat basements without hooking up with anyone or booting all over the place. The Greek houses are very open – the Greek scene is not at all like at most other colleges. You don’t need to be a frat brother or sorority sister to hang out at a Greek house, and a lot of people who never thought they’d be in a frat or sorority wind up joining one here.

If you’re not into drinking or athletics – and that does describe a surprisingly large number of Dartmouth students – you probably won’t be miserable at Dartmouth. You won’t have as much fun as other people here do, but you probably won’t hate it either. Overall I think the only way to tell for sure is to visit campus and see for yourself how you like things here. But I wouldn’t be so quick to jettison Dartmouth as an option just because of the Greeks and the jocks.