Det blev grundlagt som en skole til at uddanneoprindelige amerikanere i kristen teologi og engelsk kultur, men trænede hovedsageligtkongregationalistiske præster i dets tidlige historie før universitetet gradvist blev mere sekulært og omkring starten af det 20. århundrede gik fra at være relativt ukendt til et nationalt førende universitet.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Med omkring 6.400 studerende er Dartmouth det mindste universitet i Ivy League. Det er stor konkurrence om at blive optaget. I 2019 blev kun 7,9 % af ansøgerne optaget. De optagne havde en gennemsnitlig score på 1501 ud af maksimalt 1600 på den standardiserede adgangsprøveSAT.[9]
Dartmouths hovedcampus ligger på et 109 ha stort område vedConnecticut-floden.[10] Universitetet fungerer med et kvartalssystem med studieåret inddelt i fire 10-ugers perioder.[11] Dartmouth er kendt for fokus på bachelorstudier, dets studenterorganisationer (fraternities og sororities) og et stort antal skoletraditioner.[12][13][14]
^Hoefnagel, Dick; Virginia L. Close (2002).Eleazar Wheelock and the Adventurous Founding of Dartmouth College. Hanover, New Hampshire: Durand Press for Hanover Historical Society.
^Sayigh, Aziz G.; Boris V. Vabson (1. oktober 2006)."The Wheelock Succession".The Dartmouth Review. Arkiveret fraoriginalen 23. oktober 2007. Hentet 23. august 2008.
^"The World's Most Enduring Institutions"(PDF). Booz Allen Hamilton. 16. december 2004. Arkiveret fraoriginalen(PDF) 7. februar 2017. Hentet 23. august 2008.; "Dartmouth College went from a floundering, financially weak institution of about 300 students over the next 20 years to an enrollment of more than 2,000, a robust endowment, and a national reputation as the most prestigious undergraduate college in the United States."
^"Dartmouth College".Encyclopædia Britannica. Hentet 18. november 2014.Dartmouth is regarded as one of the most innovative liberal arts colleges in the United States. The school concentrates primarily on undergraduate education with small classes, numerous seminars, and close student-teacher contact, but Dartmouth is also well known for the quality of its professional schools...
^"Dartmouth College".Encyclopedia.com.Building on the strong foundations and rich traditions laid down by the Wheelocks, Nathan Lord and his successors embarked on a broad program of expansion that, before the end of the century, gave Dartmouth a greatly increased endowment, additional buildings, an observatory, and a strong faculty. It was not until the twentieth century that Dartmouth experienced its greatest growth. After the 1890s, the number of students increased tenfold, stabilizing at about three thousand by the mid-1900s. Endowment, faculty, and the physical plant increased accordingly. A center for the arts, facilities for graduate work in a number of fields, and an extensive research library were added.
