Although originally established to educateNative Americans inChristian theology and the Anglo-American way of life, the university primarily trainedCongregationalist ministers during its early history before it gradually secularized. While Dartmouth is now a research university rather than simply an undergraduate college, it focuses on undergraduate education and continues to go by "Dartmouth College" to emphasize this.
Wheelock foundedMoor's Indian Charity School in 1755.[24] The Charity School proved somewhat successful, but additional funding was necessary to continue school's operations, and Wheelock sought the help of friends to raise money. The first major donation to the school was given byJohn Phillips in 1762, who went on to foundPhillips Exeter Academy. Occom, accompanied by the Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker, traveled to England in 1766 to raise money from churches. With these funds, they established a trust to help Wheelock.[23] The head of the trust was aMethodist namedWilliam Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth.
The Charter of Dartmouth College on display inBaker Memorial Library. The charter was signed on December 13, 1769, on behalf ofGeorge III.
Although the fund provided Wheelock ample financial support for the Charity School, Wheelock initially had trouble recruiting Indians to the institution, primarily because its location was far from tribal territories. In seeking to expand the school into a college, Wheelock relocated it to Hanover, in theProvince of New Hampshire. The move from Connecticut followed a lengthy and sometimes frustrating effort to find resources and secure a charter. The Royal Governor of New Hampshire,John Wentworth, provided the land upon which Dartmouth would be built and on December 13, 1769, issued aroyal charter in the name ofKing George III establishing the college. That charter created a college "for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian tribes in this land in reading, writing, and all parts of learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and christianizing children of pagans as well as in all liberal arts and sciences and also of English youth and any others". The reference to educating Native American youth was included to connect Dartmouth to the Charity School and enable the use of the Charity School's unspent trust funds. Named forWilliam Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth – an important supporter of Eleazar Wheelock's earlier efforts but who, in fact, opposed creation of the college and never donated to it – Dartmouth is the nation's ninth oldest college and the last institution of higher learning established under colonial rule.[25] The college granted its first degrees in 1771.[10]
Given the limited success of the Charity School, however, Wheelock intended his new college as one primarily for whites.[23][26] Occom, disappointed with Wheelock's departure from the school's original goal of IndianChristianization, went on to form his own community of New England Indians calledBrothertown Indians in New York.[23][26]
The earliest known image of Dartmouth appeared in the February 1793 issue ofMassachusetts Magazine. The engraving may also be the first visual proof ofcricket being played in the United States.[27]
In 1819, Dartmouth College was the subject of the historicDartmouth College case, which challengedNew Hampshire's 1816 attempt to amend the college charter to make the school a public university. An institution calledDartmouth University occupied the college buildings and began operating in Hanover in 1817, though the college continued teaching classes in rented rooms nearby.[23]Daniel Webster, analumnus of the class of 1801, presented the college's case to theSupreme Court, which found the amendment of Dartmouth's charter to be anillegal impairment of a contract by the state and reversed New Hampshire's takeover of the college. Webster concluded hisperoration with the famous words: "It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it."[23]
Dartmouth taught its firstAfrican-American students in 1775 and 1808. By the end of theCivil War, 20 black men had attended the college or its medical school,[28] and Dartmouth "was recognized in the African-American community as a place where a man of color could go to get educated".[29] One of those first 20 black alumni,Jonathan C. Gibbs, served asSecretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state ofFlorida.
Dartmouth emerged onto the national academic stage at the turn of the 20th century. Prior to this period, the college had clung to traditional methods of instruction and was relatively poorly funded.[31] Under PresidentWilliam Jewett Tucker (1893–1909), Dartmouth underwent a major revitalization of facilities, faculty, and the student body, following large endowments such as the $10,000 given by Dartmouth alumnus and law professorJohn Ordronaux.[32] 20 new structures replaced antiquated buildings, while the student body and faculty both expanded threefold. Tucker is often credited for having "refounded Dartmouth" and bringing it into national prestige.[33]
Lithograph of the President's House, Thornton Hall,Dartmouth Hall, and Wentworth Hall
In 1970, longtime professor ofmathematics andcomputer scienceJohn George Kemeny became president of Dartmouth.[38] Kemeny oversaw several major changes at the college. Dartmouth, which had been a men's institution, began admitting women as full-time students and undergraduate degree candidates in 1972 amid much controversy.[39] At about the same time, the college adopted its "Dartmouth Plan" of academic scheduling, permitting the student body to increase in size within the existing facilities.[38]
In 1988, Dartmouth's alma mater song's lyrics changed from "Men of Dartmouth" to "Dear old Dartmouth".[40]
During the 1990s, the college saw a major academic overhaul under PresidentJames O. Freedman and a controversial (and ultimately unsuccessful) 1999 initiative to encourage the school's single-sex Greek houses to go coed.[31][41] The first decade of the 21st century saw the commencement of the $1.5 billion Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, the largest capital fundraising campaign in the college's history, which surpassed $1 billion in 2008.[42][43] The mid- and late first decade of the 21st century have also seen extensive campus construction, with the erection of two new housing complexes, full renovation of two dormitories, and a forthcoming dining hall, life sciences center, and visual arts center.[44] In 2004,Booz Allen Hamilton selected Dartmouth College as a model of institutional endurance "whose record of endurance has had implications and benefits for all American organizations, both academic and commercial", citingDartmouth College v. Woodward and Dartmouth's successful self-reinvention in the late 19th century.[45]
College seal at the Collis Center
Since the election of a number of petition-nominated trustees to theBoard of Trustees starting in 2004, the role of alumni in Dartmouth governance has been the subject of ongoing conflict.[46] PresidentJames Wright announced his retirement in February 2008[47] and was replaced by Harvard University professor and physicianJim Yong Kim on July 1, 2009.[48] Kim was succeeded byPhilip J. Hanlon in June 2013.
In early August 2019, Dartmouth College agreed to pay nine current and former students a total of $14 million to settle aclass-action lawsuit alleging they weresexually harassed by three formerneuroscience professors.[51]
In April 2022, Dartmouth College returned the papers of Samson Occom, who helped Eleazar Wheelock secure the funds for Dartmouth College for what Occom believed would be a school for Native students in Connecticut, to theMohegan Tribe.[52][53]
On June 12, 2023Sian Beilock began her tenure as the first female president of Dartmouth.[54]
In September 2023, Dartmouth convened an event entitled The Future of Mental Health and Wellness, which included the seven livingU.S. Surgeons General at the time.[55] In 2024, the college hired a chief wellness office in order to provide increased mental health support on campus and to help students to manage daily stressors.[56]
In April 2024, Dartmouth announced the creation of the Dartmouth Climate Collaboration, pledging $500 million towards the goal of eliminatingcarbon emissions on campus by 2050. The plan includes the installation of high-capacity heat pumps and ageoexchange system, making it the largest operational change in the college's history.[57][58]
Dartmouth, aliberal arts institution, offers a four-yearBachelor of Arts and an ABET-accreditedBachelor of Engineering degree to undergraduate students.[59][60] The college has 39 academic departments offering 56major programs, while students are free to design special majors or engage in dual majors.[61] For the graduating class of 2017, the most popular majors were economics, government, computer science, engineering sciences, and history.[62] The Economics Department, whose prominent professors includeDavid Blanchflower,Andrew Samwick, andDiego Comin, among others, also holds the distinction as the top-ranked bachelor's-only economics program in the world.[63] The Government Department similarly includes numerous eminent faculty members, such asStephen Brooks andWilliam Wohlforth, and is among Dartmouth's most popular majors. These two departments are known for enforcing a median grade of B+ in most of their courses in order to curb the burgeoning trend ofgrade inflation at American universities.
A view of East Campus from Baker Tower
In order to graduate, a student must complete 35 total courses, eight to ten of which are typically part of a chosen major program.[64] Other requirements for graduation include the completion of ten "distributive requirements" in a variety of academic fields, proficiency in a foreign language, and completion of a writing class and first-year seminar in writing.[64] Many departments offer honors programs requiring students seeking that distinction to engage in "independent, sustained work", culminating in the production of athesis.[64] In addition to the courses offered in Hanover, Dartmouth offers 57 different off-campus programs, including Foreign Study Programs, Language Study Abroad programs, and Exchange Programs.[65][66]
Through the Graduate Studies program, Dartmouth grants doctorate and master's degrees in 19 Arts & Sciences graduate programs. Although the first graduate degree, a PhD in classics, was awarded in 1885, many of the current PhD programs have only existed since the 1960s.[59] Furthermore, Dartmouth is home to three professional schools: theGeisel School of Medicine (established 1797),Thayer School of Engineering (1867)—which also serves as the undergraduate department of engineering sciences—andTuck School of Business (1900). With these professional schools and graduate programs, conventional American usage would accord Dartmouth the label of "Dartmouth University";[59] however, because of historical and nostalgic reasons (such asDartmouth College v. Woodward), the school uses the name "Dartmouth College" to refer to the entire institution.[23]
In 2017,Eric Fossum, a professor of engineering at Dartmouth College, was awarded theQueen Elizabeth Prize for his work on imaging sensor technology.[74] ThePfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which was approved in 2021, was based on findings that originated in a science lab at the college.[75] In 2024, researchers at Dartmouth received a $31.3 million grant from the federal government to further their study of prostate cancer.[76] In 2025, Dartmouth received approximately $97 million worth of funding from theNational Institutes of Health.[77]
Dartmouth was ranked 12th among undergraduate programs at national universities byU.S. News & World Report in its 2022 rankings.U.S. News also ranked the school 3rd best for veterans, tied for 5th best in undergraduate teaching, and 7th for "best value" national universities.[88] Dartmouth's undergraduate teaching was previously ranked 1st byU.S. News for five years in a row (2009–2013).[89] Dartmouth College isaccredited by theNew England Commission of Higher Education.[90]
InForbes' 2019 rankings of 650 universities, liberal arts colleges and service academies, Dartmouth ranked 10th overall and 10th in research universities.[91] In theForbes 2018 "grateful graduate" rankings, Dartmouth came in first for the second year in a row.[92]
The 2021Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked Dartmouth among the 90–110th best universities in the nation.[93] However, this specific ranking has drawn criticism from scholars for not adequately adjusting for the size of an institution, which leads to larger institutions ranking above smaller ones like Dartmouth.[94]
Undergraduate admission to Dartmouth College is characterized by the Carnegie Foundation andU.S. News & World Report as "most selective".[96][97] ThePrinceton Review, in its 2024 edition, gave the university an admissions selectivity rating of 99 out of 99.[98]
McNutt Hall, home to the Dartmouth Office of Undergraduate Admissions
For the freshman class entering Fall 2023, Dartmouth received a record 28,841 applications of which 6.2% were accepted, consistent with the prior two years; approximately 67% of those accepted are expected to matriculate. Of those admitted students who reported class rank, 444 were ranked first or second in their class, while 96% ranked in the top decile. The admitted students' academic profile showed an all-time high SAT average score of 1501, while the average composite ACT score remained at 33.[99]
Additionally, for the 2016–2017 academic year, Dartmouth received 685 transfer applications of which 5.1% were accepted, with an average SAT composite score of 1490, average composite ACT score of 34, and average college GPA of about 3.85.[100] Dartmouth meets 100% of students' demonstrated financial need in order to attend the college, and currently admits all students, including internationals, on aneed-blind basis.[101]
In 2020, Dartmouth made it optional for students applying to the college to submit theirSAT scores due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[102] In 2024, the college became the first Ivy League school to announce that it would once again require applicants to submit their test scores.[103]
Dartmouth guarantees to meet 100% of the demonstrated need of every admitted student who applies for financial aid at the time of admission. Dartmouth is one of seven American universities to practice international need-blind admissions.[104] This means that all applicants, including U.S. permanent residents, undocumented students in the U.S., and international students, are admitted to the college without regard to their financial circumstances. At Dartmouth, free tuition is provided for students from families with total incomes of $125,000 or less and possessing typical assets.[105] Dartmouth is also one of a few U.S. universities to eliminate undergraduate student loans and replace them with expanded scholarship grants.[106] In 2015, $88.8 million (~$114 million in 2024) in need-based scholarships were awarded to Dartmouth students.
The median family income of Dartmouth students is $200,400, with 58% of students coming from the top 10% highest-earning families and 14% from the bottom 60%.[107][needs update]
However, a 2022 article fromThe Dartmouth disputes the college's claims by saying the following: "To put it all together with the $9 million of student debt from the Class of 2021, this change in Dartmouth policy, hailed as "eliminat[ing] loans for undergraduate students" actually eliminated only about a quarter—27.4% to be exact—of student loans for undergraduate students. So, while Dartmouth gets glowing coverage in news publications across the country, 72.6% of the debt it saddles its students with remains."[108]
In March 2024, the estate ofGlenn Britt gifted over $150 million to Dartmouth to enable students from middle-income families to attend the college for free.[109]
Dartmouth functions on a quarter system, operating year-round on four ten-weekacademic terms. The Dartmouth Plan (or simply "D-Plan") is an academic scheduling system that permits the customization of each student's academic year. All undergraduates are required to be in residence for the fall, winter, and spring terms of their freshman year and two terms of their senior year, as well as the summer term of their sophomore year.[110] However, students may petition to alter this plan so that they may be off during terms of their senior year or sophomore summer terms.[111] During all terms, students are permitted to choose between studying on-campus, studying at an off-campus program, or taking a term off for vacation, outside internships, or research projects.[110] The typical course load is three classes per term, and students will generally enroll in classes for 12 total terms over the course of their academic career.[112]
The D-Plan was instituted in the early 1970s at the same time that Dartmouth began accepting female undergraduates. It was initially devised as a plan to increase the enrollment without enlarging campus accommodations, and has been described as "a way to put 4,000 students into 3,000 beds".[31] Although new dormitories have been built since, the number of students has also increased and the D-Plan remains in effect. It was modified in the 1980s in an attempt to reduce the problems of lack of social and academic continuity.
Dartmouth is governed by a board of trustees comprising the college president (ex officio), thestate governor (ex officio), 13 trustees nominated and elected by the board (called "charter trustees"), and eight trustees nominated by alumni and elected by the board ("alumni trustees").[113] The nominees for alumni trustee are determined by a poll of the members of the Association of Alumni of Dartmouth College, selecting from among names put forward by the Alumni Council or by alumni petition.
Although the board elected its members from the two sources of nominees in equal proportions between 1891 and 2007,[114] the board decided in 2007 to add several new members, all charter trustees.[115] In the controversy that followed the decision, the Association of Alumni filed a lawsuit, although it later withdrew the action.[116][117] In 2008, the board added five new charter trustees.[118]
The college is an active member of theUniversity of the Arctic.[119] UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region.[120]
Drawing of Wilson Hall, Dartmouth's first library building, by architectSamuel J. F. Thayer (1842–1893), which appeared inAmerican Architect and Building News in March 1885.
Dartmouth College is situated in the rural town ofHanover, New Hampshire, located in the Upper Valley along theConnecticut River inNew England. Its 269-acre (1.09 km2) campus is centered on a 5-acre (2 ha) "Green",[122] a former field ofpine trees cleared in 1771.[123] Dartmouth is the largest private landowner of the town of Hanover,[124] and its total landholdings and facilities are worth an estimated $434 million.[125] In addition to its campus in Hanover, Dartmouth owns 4,500 acres (18 km2) ofMount Moosilauke in theWhite Mountains[126] and a 27,000-acre (110 km2) tract of land in northern New Hampshire known as theSecond College Grant.[127]
American elm on Dartmouth College campus, June 2011
Dartmouth's campus buildings vary in age from Wentworth and Thornton Halls of the 1820s (the oldest surviving buildings constructed by the college) to new dormitories and mathematics facilities completed in 2006.[128][129] Most of Dartmouth's buildings are designed in theGeorgian colonial architecture style,[130][131][132] a theme which has been preserved in recent architectural additions.[133] The college has actively sought to reduce carbon emissions and energy usage on campus, earning it the grade of A− from the Sustainable Endowments Institute on its College Sustainability Report Card 2008.[134][135]
While Dartmouth's campus is located in a rural setting, it is connected to several major cities by intercity bus services that directly serve Dartmouth and Hanover.Dartmouth Coach provides service from Hanover toSouth Station andLogan International Airport inBoston as well asNew York City, whileGreyhound Lines operates a daily route connecting Hanover andMontreal. All three cities are popular weekend/vacation destinations for Dartmouth students.
The college's creative and performing arts facility is theHopkins Center for the Arts ("the Hop"). Opened in 1962, the Hop houses the college's drama, music, film, and studio arts departments, as well as a woodshop, pottery studio, and jewelry studio which are open for use by students and faculty.[139] The building was designed by the famed architectWallace Harrison, who would later design the similar-looking façade ofManhattan'sMetropolitan Opera House atLincoln Center.[140] Its facilities include two theaters and one 900-seat auditorium and the Courtyard Café dining facility.[141] The Hop is connected to theHood Museum of Art, arguably North America's oldest museum in continuous operation,[142] and the Loew Auditorium, where films are screened.[143]
Sherman Fairchild Physical Sciences Center
In addition to its 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences, Dartmouth is home to three separate graduate schools. TheGeisel School of Medicine is located in a complex on the north side of campus[144] and includes laboratories, classrooms, offices, and a biomedical library.[145] TheDartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center, located several miles to the south inLebanon, New Hampshire, contains a 396-bedteaching hospital for the Medical School.[146] TheThayer School of Engineering and theTuck School of Business are both located at the end of Tuck Mall, west of the center of campus and near the Connecticut River.[145] The Thayer School comprises two buildings;[145] Tuck has seven academic and administrative buildings, as well as several common areas.[147] The two graduate schools share a library, the Feldberg Business & Engineering Library.[147] In December 2018, Dartmouth began a major expansion of the west end of campus by breaking ground on the $200 million (~$245 million in 2024) Center for Engineering and Computer Science.[148] The center will house the Computer Science department and Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship. In October 2019, construction began on the Irving Institute of Energy and Society.[149] Both were completed by Spring 2022, and the Center for Engineering and Computer Science was renamed the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center.[150]
Dartmouth's libraries are all part of the collective Dartmouth College Library, which comprises 2.48 million volumes and 6 million total resources, including videos, maps, sound recordings, and photographs.[59][151] Its specialized libraries include the Biomedical Libraries, Evans Map Room, Feldberg Business & Engineering Library, Jones Media Center, Rauner Special Collections Library, and Sherman Art Library. Baker-Berry Library is the main library at Dartmouth, consisting of a merger of theBaker Memorial Library (opened 1928) and the Berry Library (completed 2002).[152] Located on the northern side of the Green, Baker's 200-foot (61 m) tower is an iconic symbol of the college.[153][154][155]
Dartmouth's original sports field wasthe Green, where students playedcricket andold division football during the 19th century.[123] Today, two of Dartmouth's athletic facilities are located in the southeast corner of campus.[156] The center of athletic life is theAlumni Gymnasium, which includes the Karl Michael Competition Pool and the Spaulding Pool, a fitness center, a weight room, and a 1/13th-mile (123 m) indoor track.[157] Attached to Alumni Gymnasium is the Berry Sports Center, which contains basketball and volleyball courts (Leede Arena), as well as the Kresge Fitness Center.[158] Behind the Alumni Gymnasium isMemorial Field, a 15,600-seat stadium overlooking Dartmouth's football field and track.[159] The nearbyThompson Arena, designed by Italian engineerPier Luigi Nervi and constructed in 1975, houses Dartmouth's ice rink.[160] Also visible from Memorial Field is the 91,800-square-foot (8,530 m2) Nathaniel Leverone Fieldhouse, home to the indoor track. The new softball field, Dartmouth Softball Park, was constructed in 2012, sharing parking facilities with Thompson arena and replacing Sachem Field, located over a mile from campus, as the primary softball facility.
Dartmouth's other athletic facilities in Hanover include the Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse and the old rowing house storage facility (both located along the Connecticut River), theHanover Country Club, Dartmouth's oldest remaining athletic facility (established in 1899),[161] and the Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse.[162] The college also maintains theDartmouth Skiway, a 100-acre (0.40 km2) skiing facility located over two mountains near the Hanover campus inLyme Center, New Hampshire,[163] that serves as the winter practice grounds for theDartmouth Ski Team, which is a perennial contender for the NCAA Division I championship.
Beginning in the fall term of 2016, Dartmouth placed all undergraduate students in one of six House communities, similar toresidential colleges, including Allen House, East Wheelock House, North Park House, School House, South House, and West House, alongside independent Living Learning Communities.[165] Dartmouth used to have nine residential communities located throughout campus, instead of ungrouped dormitories orresidential colleges.[166] The dormitories varied in design from modern to traditional Georgian styles, and room arrangements range from singles to quads and apartment suites.[166] Since 2006, the college has guaranteed housing for students during their freshman and sophomore years.[167] More than 3,000 students elect to live in housing provided by college.[166]
In November 2022, Dartmouth Hall was rededicated after a $42 million renovation. Fundraising for the project was led by over 1700 alumnae as part of the celebration of 50 years of coeducation at Dartmouth College.[168]
Campus meals are served by Dartmouth Dining Services, which operates 11 dining establishments around campus.[169] The Class of 1953 Commons, commonly referred to as "Foco", is the all-you-can-eat dining hall, located at the center of campus. Dartmouth also operates à la carte cafes around campus (Collis Café, Courtyard Café, Novack Café, The Fern Coffee & Tea Bar, Ramekin, and Café@Baker), a convenience store (Collis Market), and three snack bars located in the Allen House Commons (also called the "Cube"), McLaughlin Cluster, and East Wheelock Cluster.[170]
The Collis Center is the center of student life and programming, serving as what would be generically termed the "student union" or "campus center".[171] It contains a café, study space, common areas, and a number of administrative departments, including the Academic Skills Center.[172][173] Robinson Hall, next door to both the Collis Center and the Class of 1953 Commons, contains the offices of a number of student organizations, including theDartmouth Outing Club andThe Dartmouth daily newspaper.[174]
Dartmouth Student Government represents students on issues related to student life.[178][179][180] Annually, students elect astudent body president, vice president, and undergraduate senate to represent them in the following academic year. In 2006,The Princeton Review ranked Dartmouth third in its "Quality of Life" category, and sixth for having the "Happiest Students".[181] Athletics and participation in the Greek system are the most popular campus activities.[182] In all, Dartmouth offers more than 350 organizations, teams, and sports.[183] The school is also home to a variety of longstanding traditions and celebrations and has a loyal alumni network; Dartmouth ranked #2 in "The Princeton Review" in 2006 for Best Alumni Network.[184]
In 2014, Dartmouth College was the third highest in the nation in "total of reports of rape" on their main campus, with 42 reports of rape.[185]The Washington Post attributed the high number of rape reports to the fact that a growing number of sexual assault victims feel comfortable enough to report sexual assaults that would have gone unreported in previous years.[185] In 2015, the Huffington Post reported that Dartmouth had the highest rate of bystander intervention of any college surveyed, with 57.7% of Dartmouth students reporting that they would take some sort of action if they saw someone acting in a "sexually violent or harassing manner," compared to 45.5% of students nationally.[186]
Dartmouth's more than 200 student organizations and clubs cover a wide range of interests.[189] In 2007, the college hosted eight academic groups, 17 cultural groups, two honor societies, 30 "issue-oriented" groups, 25 performing groups, 12 pre-professional groups, 20 publications, and 11 recreational groups.[190] Notable student groups include the nation's largest and oldest collegiate outdoors club, theDartmouth Outing Club,[191] which includes the nationally recognized[192]Big Green Bus; the campus's oldest a cappella group,The Dartmouth Aires; the controversial independent newspaperThe Dartmouth Review;[193] Dartmouth Student Government, the college's official undergraduatestudent government;[179][180] andThe Dartmouth, arguably the nation's oldest university newspaper.[194]The Dartmouth describes itself as "America's Oldest College Newspaper, Founded 1799".[194]
Partially because of Dartmouth's rural, isolated location, theGreek system dating from the 1840s is one of the most popular social outlets for students.[182][195] Dartmouth is home to 32 recognized Greek houses: 17 fraternities, 12 sororities, and three coeducational organizations.[196] In 2007, roughly 70% of eligible students belonged to a Greek organization;[197] since 1987, students have not been permitted to join Greek organizations until their sophomore year.[198] Dartmouth College was among the first institutions of higher education todesegregate fraternity houses, doing so in the 1950s, and was involved in the movement to createcoeducational Greek houses in the 1970s.[199] In the early first decade of the 21st century, campus-wide debate focused on a board of trustees recommendation that Greek organizations become "substantially coeducational";[200] this attempt to change the Greek system eventually failed.[201]
Dartmouth also has a number of secret societies, which are student- and alumni-led organizations often focused on preserving the history of the college and initiating service projects. Most prominent among them is theSphinx society, housed in a prominent Egyptian tomb-like building near the center of campus. The Sphinx has been the subject of numerous rumors as to its facilities, practices, and membership.[202]
The college has an additional classification of social/residential organizations known asundergraduate societies.[203]
A Dartmouth varsity hockey game against Princeton atThompson Arena
Approximately 20% of students participate in avarsity sport, and nearly 80% participate in some form of club, varsity, intramural, or other athletics.[204] In 2021, Dartmouth College fielded 33 intercollegiate varsity teams: 15 for men, 17 for women, and coeducationalsailing andequestrian programs.[205] Dartmouth's athletic teams compete in theNCAA Division I eight-memberIvy League conference; some teams also participate in theEastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).[206] As is mandatory for the members of the Ivy League, Dartmouth College does not offer athletic scholarships.[206][207] In addition to the traditional American team sports (football, basketball, baseball, and ice hockey), Dartmouth competes at the varsity level in many other sports including track and field, softball,squash, sailing, tennis, rowing, soccer,skiing, and lacrosse.[59]
The college also offers 26 club and intramural sports such as fencing,rugby, water polo, figure skating, boxing, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and cricket, leading to a 75% participation rate in athletics among the undergraduate student body.[59][208] The Dartmouth Fencing Team, despite being entirely self-coached, won theUSACFC club national championship in 2014.[209] The Dartmouth Men's Rugby Team, founded in 1951, has been ranked among the best collegiate teams in that sport, winning for example theIvy Rugby Conference every year between 2008 and 2020.[210] The figure skating team won the national championship five straight times from 2004 through 2008.[211] In addition to the academic requirements for graduation, Dartmouth requires every undergraduate to complete a 50-yard (46 m) swim and three terms ofphysical education.[212]
The charter of Dartmouth College, granted to Wheelock in 1769, proclaims that the institution was created "for the education and instruction of Youth of theIndian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing and all parts of Learning ... as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences; and also of English Youth and any others".[213] However, Wheelock primarily intended the college to educate white youth, and the few Native students that attended Dartmouth experienced much difficulty in an institution ostensibly dedicated to their education. The funds for the Charity School for Native Americans that preceded Dartmouth College were raised primarily by the efforts of a Mohegan named Samson Occom, and at least some of those funds were used to help found the college.[214]
The college graduated only 19 Native Americans during its first 200 years.[214] In 1970, the college established Native American academic and social programs as part of a "new dedication to increasing Native American enrollment".[214] Since then, Dartmouth has graduated over 700 Native American students from over 200 different tribes, more than the other seven Ivy League universities combined.[214]
Dartmouth is well known for its fierce school spirit and many traditions.[215] The college functions on aquarter system, and one weekend each term is set aside as a traditional celebratory event, known on campus as "big weekends"[216][217] or "party weekends".[218] In the fall term, Homecoming (officially called Dartmouth Night) is marked by abonfire on the Green constructed by the freshman class.[219] Winter term is celebrated by Winter Carnival, a tradition started in 1911 by the Dartmouth Outing Club to promote winter sports. This tradition is the oldest in the United States, and subsequently went on to catch on at other New England colleges.[220][221] In the spring, Green Key is a weekend mostly devoted to campus parties and celebration.[222]
The summer term was formerly marked by Tubestock, an unofficial tradition in which the students used wooden rafts and inner tubes to float on the Connecticut River. Begun in 1986, Tubestock was ended in 2006 by town ordinance.[223] The Class of 2008, during their summer term on campus in 2006, replaced the defunct Tubestock with Fieldstock. This new celebration includes a barbecue, live music, and the revival of the 1970s and 1980s tradition of racing homemade chariots around the Green. Unlike Tubestock, Fieldstock is funded and supported by the college.[224]
Another longstanding tradition is four-day, student-run First-Year Trips for incoming freshmen, begun in 1935. Each trip concludes at theMoosilauke Ravine Lodge.[225] In 2011, over 96% of freshmen elected to participate.
Dartmouth's motto, chosen by Eleazar Wheelock, isVox clamantis in deserto. The Latin motto is literally translated as "The voice of one crying in the wilderness",[226][227] but is more often rendered as "A voice crying out in the wilderness".[2] The phrase appears five times in the Bible and is a reference to the college's location on what was once the frontier of European settlement.[227][228] Richard Hovey's "Men of Dartmouth" was elected as the best of Dartmouth's songs in 1896,[219] and became the school's official song in 1926.[229] The song was retitled to "Alma Mater" in the 1980s when its lyrics were changed to refer to women as well as men.[230]
Dartmouth's 1769 royal charter required the creation of aseal for use on official documents and diplomas.[213] The college's founder, Eleazar Wheelock, designed a seal for his college bearing a striking resemblance to the seal of theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel, a missionary society founded in London in 1701, in order to maintain the illusion that his college was more for mission work than for higher education.[227] Engraved by a Boston silversmith, the seal was ready by commencement of 1773. The trustees officially accepted the seal on August 25, 1773, describing it as:
An Oval, circumscribed by a Line containing SIGILL: COL: DARTMUTH: NOV: HANT: IN AMERICA 1770. within projecting a Pine Grove on the Right, whence proceed Natives towards an Edifice two Storey on the left; which bears in a Label over the Grove these Words "vox clamantis in deserto" the whole supported by Religion on the Right and Justice on the Left, and bearing in a Triangle irradiate, with the Hebrew Words [El Shaddai], agreeable to the above Impression, be the common Seal under which to pass all Diplomas or Certificates of Degrees, and all other Affairs of Business of and concerning Dartmouth College.[231]
On October 28, 1926, the trustees affirmed the charter's reservation of the seal for official corporate documents alone.[227] The College Publications Committee commissioned noted typographerWilliam Addison Dwiggins to create a line drawing version of the seal in 1940 that saw widespread use. Dwiggins' design was modified during 1957 to change the date from "1770" to "1769", to accord with the date of the college charter. The trustees commissioned a new set of dies with a date of "1769" to replace the old dies, now badly worn after almost two hundred years of use.[227] The 1957 design continues to be used.[232]
On October 28, 1926, the trustees approved a "Dartmouth College Shield" for general use. Artist and engraver W. Parke Johnson designed this emblem on the basis of the shield that is depicted at the center of the original seal. This design does not survive. On June 9, 1944, the trustees approved anothercoat of arms based on the shield part of the seal, this one by Canadian artist and designerThoreau MacDonald. That design was used widely and, like Dwiggins' seal, had its date changed from "1770" to "1769" around 1958.[227] That version continues to be used under trademark registration number 3112676 and others.[232]
College designer John Scotford made a stylized version of the shield during the 1960s, but it did not see the success of MacDonald's design.[233] The shield appears to have been used as the basis of the shield of theGeisel School of Medicine, and it has been reproduced in sizes as small as 20 micrometers across.[234] The design has appeared onRudolph Ruzicka's Bicentennial Medal (Philadelphia Mint, 1969) and elsewhere.
Dartmouth has never had an officialmascot.[235] The nickname "The Big Green",[236] originating in the 1860s, is based on students' adoption of a shade of forest green ("Dartmouth Green") as the school's official color in 1866.[237][238] Beginning in the 1920s, the Dartmouth College athletic teams were known by their unofficial nickname "the Indians", a moniker that probably originated among sports journalists.[235] This unofficial mascot and team name was used until the early 1970s, when its use came under criticism. In 1974, the Trustees declared the "use of the [Indian] symbol in any form to be inconsistent with present institutional and academic objectives of the College in advancing Native American education".[239] Some alumni and students, as well as the conservative student newspaper,The Dartmouth Review, have sought to return the Indian symbol to prominence,[240] but never succeeded in doing so.[241]
Various student initiatives have been undertaken to adopt a mascot, but none has become "official". One proposal devised by the college humor magazine theDartmouth Jack-O-Lantern wasKeggy the Keg, ananthropomorphic beer keg who makes occasional appearances at college sporting events. Despite student enthusiasm for Keggy,[242] the mascot has received approval from only the student government.[243] In November 2006, student government attempted to revive the "Dartmoose" amid renewed controversy surrounding the former unofficial Indian mascot.[244]
Dartmouth's alumni are known for frequently donating to their alma mater.[245]
By 2008, Dartmouth had graduated 238 classes of students, and had over 60,000 living alumni in a variety of fields.[246] Finance, consulting, and technology have consistently been the most popular industries to enter for students.[247] Top employers of new graduates includeGoldman Sachs,Morgan Stanley,McKinsey & Company,Bain & Company,Amazon,Microsoft, andGoogle.
^abHoefnagel, Dick; Virginia L. Close (2002).Eleazar Wheelock and the Adventurous Founding of Dartmouth College. Hanover, New Hampshire: Durand Press for Hanover Historical Society.
^Hoefnagel, Dick; Virginia L. Close (November 1999)."Eleazar Wheelock's Two Schools".Dartmouth College Library Bulletin.Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. RetrievedAugust 23, 2008.
^abcdeSayigh, Aziz G.; Boris V. Vabson (October 1, 2006)."The Wheelock Succession".The Dartmouth Review. Archived fromthe original on October 23, 2007. RetrievedAugust 23, 2008.
^"The World's Most Enduring Institutions"(PDF). Booz Allen Hamilton. December 16, 2004. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on February 7, 2017. RetrievedAugust 23, 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."
^Bahram Bekhradnia (December 15, 2016)."International university rankings: For good or ill?"(PDF). Higher Education Policy Institute. p. 16.Archived(PDF) from the original on February 15, 2017. RetrievedJune 10, 2017.ARWU presents a further data issue. Whereas in the case of the other rankings the results are adjusted to take account of the size of institutions, hardly any such adjustment is made by ARWU. So there is a distortion in favor of large institutions. If two institutions were to merge, the very fact of merger would mean that the merged institution would do nearly twice as well as either of the individual institutions prior to merger, although nothing else had changed.
^"Old Growth – Dartmouth's elms endure as defining features of the campus".Dartmouth College website, Dartmouth Life Home. June 2007.Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. RetrievedDecember 26, 2014.The College's claim on the landscape began with the felling of the great white pines that grew on the plain above the Connecticut River; planting came later. By the middle of the 19th century, villages and towns throughout New England—and eventually across the nation—were shading their streets with the American elm, Ulmus americana. A circa 1840 watercolor image of the College depicts graceful young elms edging the Green. "If you look at pictures of old Hanover," says John Gratiot, associate vice president for Facilities Operations and Management, "Main Street and College Street were completely lined with elms, like a green tunnel."
^"50 Trees in 50 Minutes".Dartmouth College website, The Graduate Forum. October 1, 2014. Archived fromthe original on January 4, 2015. RetrievedDecember 26, 2014.
^Krieger, Barbara L."The Alma Mater". Dartmouth College Library Rauner Special Collections Library. Archived fromthe original on January 16, 2008. RetrievedJanuary 7, 2008.
^Dartmouth College, Trustees' Records, 1:26. Dartmouth College Library, Special Collections, DA-1.
^Chase, Frederick; John King Lord (1913).A History of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire, Volume 2 (1 ed.). Concord, N.H.: J. Wilson, The Rumford Press. p. 373.
^"More GreenNews". Dartmouth Office of Alumni Relations.Archived from the original on December 9, 2008. RetrievedNovember 30, 2008.Jake Hooker '95:New York Times reporter, wins 2008 Pulitzer Prize for journalism for investigative reporting on the flow of dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients from China into world market. (New York Times)
^"Stuart Kauffman". Esalen Center for Theory & Research.Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. RetrievedAugust 23, 2008.
^"Vita for Dr. Jeffrey Weeks". Division of Mathematics & Science, United States Naval Academy. Archived fromthe original on October 13, 2007. RetrievedAugust 23, 2008.
^"Owen Chamberlain". Nobel Foundation.Archived from the original on November 27, 2015. RetrievedAugust 23, 2008.
^"Philander Chase".Ohio History Central.Archived from the original on March 21, 2013. RetrievedAugust 23, 2008.
^Osborne, James Insley; Theodore Gregory Gronert (1932).Wabash College: The First Hundred Years, 1832–1932.Crawfordsville, Indiana: R. E. Banta. p. 31.
Behrens, Richard K., "From the Connecticut Valley to the West Coast: The Role of Dartmouth College in the Building of the Nation,"Historical New Hampshire, 63 (Spring 2009), 45–68.
Calloway, Colin G.The Indian History of an American Institution: Native Americans and Dartmouth (Dartmouth College Press, 2010)online.
Campbell, David P. "The Vocational Interests of Dartmouth College Freshmen: 1947‐67."Personnel and Guidance Journal 47.6 (1969): 521–530.online
Kegerreis, Richard. "The Handel Society of Dartmouth."American Music (1986): 177–193.online
Person, Harlow S. "The Amos Tuck School of Dartmouth College."Journal of Political Economy 21.2 (1913): 117–126.online
Putnam, Constance. (2015)The Science We Have Loved and Taught: Dartmouth Medical School's First Two Centuries (Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, 2015).online
Richardson, Leon B. (1932).History of Dartmouth College. Dartmouth College Publications.OCLC12157587.
Syrett, Nicholas L. "The boys of Beaver Meadow: A homosexual community at 1920s Dartmouth College."American Studies 48.2 (2007): 9–18.online[dead link]
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