I ♥ the College

Since I've been home for break I've seen a lot of friends who are currently seniors in high school. They're all in the midst of the college application process and I am definitely happy I'm past that. At the time it seemed like everything was do or die, but now that I'm at Dartmouth I see that I was applying without that much knowledges of where would actually be the best fit for me.

I came into Dartmouth knowing what I had been told by the Admissions Office, which is solid information but doesn't tell about the little intricacies that make Dartmouth so wonderful. So here are five unexpected things that I love about Dartmouth, and later I will post three things I don't like as much, just to be fair and balanced.

Likes

1. Most people at Dartmouth are excited about awesome goofy things. If I want to dress up in flair (crazy clothes), I know I'll be able to find someone to join me. If I want to have an impromptu study break dance party in my room, someone will dance with me. If I want to randomly do cartwheels, someone will do them with me.

2. Most people at Dartmouth are excited about cool intellectual things, like debating and research opportunities and our new president Jim Yong Kim.

3. The campus is beautiful. Sometimes when I walk around I just get this overwhelming feeling of being lucky to be at Dartmouth.

4. Upperclassmen are excited to meet freshman. I went to a high school where upperclassmen disdained freshmen, but at Dartmouth we were welcomed enthusiastically. I got blitzes from upperclassmen during the first few months of school that said that they want freshmen to go to lunch with them and ask them questions and such. It was very nice.

5. There are great resources across the board. In my classes first quarter, my profs were accessible and gave us a variety of tools to help us study. Career Services is great and there are tons of service opportunities. My UGA (undergraduate advisor - equivalent to an RA at other schools) and my GA (graduate advisor - basically a UGA but she's a grad student and can help us with resumes and such) are great resources too.