We Are What We Do
Dartmouth College, one of the original nine chartered colonial colleges of America, was founded in 1769 on traditional, unceded Abenaki land along the Connecticut River in New Hampshire. Its founder, The Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, was joined by The Rev. Samson Occom, an ordained minister of the Mohegan Tribe, to dedicate the new school to educating Native American students.
To build and sustain a new college in the wilderness, Rev. Wheelock made use of the uncompensated labor of his enslaved men and women of African descent. Later funding for the College came from private sources tied to profits from the Atlantic slave trade.
After the founding years, the initial vision to educate Native students gave way to an exclusive focus on young men of European descent. The first class of four white men graduated in 1771 to mark the beginning of Dartmouth's distinction as the only colonial college to conduct its educational mission without interruption through the American Revolution to the present.
To the undergraduates' numbers were added students of African descent, who were admitted continuously beginning in 1824, four decades before other Ivy League institutions followed suit. In 1972, the College began the transition to full coeducation. Two years earlier, Dartmouth had revived its founding commitment to Native American students. The Indigenous community is now a visible and valued presence on Dartmouth's campus, with students from more than 70 tribal nations and communities. The legacy of Dartmouth's mission has expanded to foster an inclusive and vibrant college community—with four thriving graduate and professional schools—that embrace principles of equity for all peoples of this diverse world.
Our Core Values
To educate ethical citizens, a university must be driven by a set of values embraced by the entire community. At Dartmouth, we integrate our core values into our curriculum, our culture, and our campus so that students, staff, and faculty live those principles.
- Dartmouth expects academic excellence and encourages independence of thought within a culture of collaboration.
- Dartmouth faculty are passionate about teaching our students and are at the forefront of their scholarly or creative work.
- Dartmouth embraces diversity with the knowledge that it significantly enhances the quality of a Dartmouth education.
- Dartmouth recruits and admits outstanding students from all backgrounds, regardless of their financial means.
- Dartmouth fosters lasting bonds among faculty, staff, and students, which encourage a culture of integrity, self-reliance, and collegiality and instill a sense of responsibility for each other and for the broader world.
- Dartmouth supports the vigorous and open debate of ideas within a community marked by mutual respect.
For generations, Dartmouth graduates have left Hanover with an unerring set of principles that they have carried into the world as leaders in government, industry, academia, journalism, and many other realms. In every field of endeavor and every area of expertise, our alumni are distinguished by their embrace of collaboration, their commitment to creating a vibrant community, and their loyalty to Dartmouth and to their fellow alumni.