Welcome to the blog of an Englishman studying at Dartmouth—do take a look around! Hopefully, my blogs will provide you with an insight on life at Dartmouth, and specifically through the eyes of an international student. Dartmouth has a tonne to offer from the staggering natural beauty of its surroundings and stellar academic programs to the wonderful people you meet along the way. So stay a while, I'll make us cups of tea, and take a moment to discover life at the College on the Hill.
Oh you thought the work of getting into college was over? Now you have to choose!
Ahhhh, sweet bliss. You finally submitted your last application, your essays are all written, and you can finally hit the hay for some uncompromised sleep for the first time in months. The hard work is all over now, right? Essays were a rough time, sure, but now they're submitted? You just have to wait for the results to come back, whatever they are, and off you pop to college! Well if you are anything like I was a year ago when decisions were returned to me, this utopia of never thinking about college admissions ever again very quickly shattered into a million pieces. Not only was receiving denials hard, but then I had to actually decide WHERE I wanted to go; when you spent hours working on each application, that is a tough call to make.
The process gets us attached in unique ways to each of our choices as we spend hours trawling their websites for cool things to talk about in our essays, and honestly without even accounting for the anxiety induced by the long period between submission and decisions I think the bulk of stress for a lot of students can come from the period in which they must commit.
Come to the Dartmouth side... We have a doggo!
Yes I am a blogger at Dartmouth, but like anyone here at Dartmouth all I want is for you to succeed! I urge you when making decisions to take all voices out of your head other than your own. I urge you to picture yourself on campus at each institution. I urge you to research potential classes you want to take and profs you want to work with. Finally, I urge you to think about where you think you will feel most at home and comfortable.
For me this was of course Dartmouth. I found solace in the simultaneous busyness and yet quietness of living in a fairly remote college town. I could walk 15 minutes and be in a peaceful wooded clearing, and yet I could walk 5 and be right in the middle of the action! I found the work-hard play-hard atmosphere and laid-back attitude of the students to be refreshing, and the unique sense of community drew me in immediately.
Even the centre of Dartmouth is beautiful and relaxing!
The important thing here is that you remain true to yourself and your personal interests, and trust your gut and its decision-making! College is a great experience and a place of great personal growth, and wherever you go you will inevitably have an awesome time! One thing I can say though, is that choosing Dartmouth was a great decision and I'll never regret it.
You don't have to be outdoorsy to love Dartmouth, but even the most "indoorsy" Dartmouth student will benefit greatly from easy access to nature from campus!
