In each issue of 3D, we ask a Dartmouth senior to reflect on a question they answered roughly four years prior: "As you seek admission to Dartmouth's incoming class, what aspects of the College's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? In short, why Dartmouth?" Here, Selin Hos '25 revisits that prompt in her final year at the College.
"I must have brought the sun with me," I remember thinking as I stepped out of the car during my first visit to Dartmouth's campus. It was the middle of February, and there were still delicate piles of snow lining the bare branches of the trees. Even the birds were delighted by the sun's arrival, chirping away on the telephone wires above to spread the good news. I have now learned that I was lucky enough to visit Dartmouth on a perfect winter day—one characterized by a cloudless blue sky and the warm kisses of the sun's rays.
In my "Why Dartmouth?" essay, I mentioned the beauty of this campus visit, remarking on the "students sitting in plush armchairs, sipping coffee, laughing, and speaking to one another." Inspired by the sense of community, I tried to imagine being one of the students that I saw on my visit. What would my time at Dartmouth truly look like?
I grew up in Southwest Florida under the perpetual sunshine, so I was incredibly nervous for the infamous Hanover winters. Although it feels quite silly to me now, Dartmouth's weather became a huge point of reflection for me during my college search journey. And while I came into Dartmouth expecting the cold, I was quite unprepared for the little pockets of warmth that I found nestled in between.
There was the warm chatter and commotion of my very first day on campus. That night, I was met with the loud and enthusiastic welcome from the older students who were leading my First-Year Trip—a storied Dartmouth tradition where incoming students bond on peer-led adventures, many of them in New Hampshire and Vermont's great outdoors. Everyone's eyes sparkled with a love for Dartmouth, and eventually through the many hours of singing and dancing during Trips, I too was starting to believe in its magic.
I felt the warmth in the bubbling of the maple syrup boiling in the Sugar Shack during spring break my first year. I had signed up for Sugar Crew, a free program hosted by Dartmouth's Sustainability Office that teaches students the tradition of maple sugaring in the Upper Valley, skipping going home to Florida's white beaches in favor of tapping maple trees at the Organic Farm. The heat of the boiling sap was enough to thaw our bones after a busy day of collecting buckets of sap from across the forest. We would spend hours together watching over the sap while it boiled, our laughter ringing through the small, wooden cabin with the sweet smell of the syrup wafting through the air.
I remember the pure joy of my first spring on campus, when the sun came out after the winter. Seeing everyone on the Green laughing, chatting, and eating lunch together outside was enough to inspire me to write a love letter to the sun, which I later published in The Dartmouth. The energy of that first sunny day carried through the rest of spring, dancing to Saint Motel at the Green Key concert and dipping in the Connecticut River, making sure to take the time to enjoy the sun with my friends.
I feel so lucky to be able to say that I have been able to do everything that I thought I would during my time here and more. I became a Law and Ethics Fellow, took skiing lessons at the Dartmouth Skiway, took sailing lessons during my sophomore summer, made lifelong friendships, read countless novels in Sanborn Library, and wrote endless papers under the historic murals in the Orozco Mural Room. At age 17, I could only imagine what my time at Dartmouth would look like. Today, I am here to tell you that your Dartmouth experience is what you make of it, but it will also surprise you in more ways than one. I am so lucky that, despite all of the cold, I have been able to fill my time here with such moments of warmth.
Photographed by Don Hamerman, pictured on the banks of the Connecticut River
