Studying Indians at Dartmouth, Part 2

Dartmouth and Hanover, NH

When attending these workshops, I go as much for the locale as for anything else.  Dartmouth was appealing because it was Ivy League school deep in the heart of New England.  Normally, I'd have some great take-aways comparing regions of the country, but because I was almost exclusively on a college campus and the adjacent downtown area, my basis for comparison is college towns and not regions.

Dartmouth is one of eight Ivy League institutions.  Undergraduate tuition per year is $48,000 per year.  PER YEAR.  So students who attend Dartmouth are paying a great deal for that Ivy League education.  And if parents paying that much for the education, they’re not going to want Johnny and Susie texting home and complaining about the food and dorms. 

Thus, of all the workshops I’ve been to this had the best food and housing.  All the cafeteria food was great, but there were also two other cafes on campus where we could purchase items.  And we had $250 put on our cards for the week and I couldn’t spend it all no matter how outlandish I got, even though one lunch was almost $30 (spicy tuna rolls, salmon rolls, three twelve-ounce milks, a smoothie, and a banana). The dorms were also very nice.   There were twenty-eight people at the seminar and we each had out own room that was normally for two students.  The bathrooms and showers are normally communal (four residents per bathroom and sixteen per shower if my observations were correct) but because of the way my room was situated, I had my own bathroom and shower. 

For $48,000, there were also other perks we had access to.  Dartmouth has public wifi accessible all over campus and it was always very strong.  It was so strong that it worked throughout most of downtown.  All of the classrooms had so much technology that no one could figure out how to work it except the tech guys.  And even though Dartmouth only has 4000 undergraduates (Univ of Iowa has 21,000; Ole Miss has 16,000 (not all in Oxford)) and 2000 graduate students (Univ of Iowa has 9000; Ole Miss has 6000 (not all in Oxford) about  it seemed to me they had more buildings than Ole Miss and as many as Iowa. 

There are other amenities available for students on the Connecticut River (a mile from campus) such as canoeing and kayaking (available to the public) and a sun tanning area (wisely not available to the public in order to keep out the creepers).  After the last day of the workshop, a few people asked me if I wanted to go canoeing and I eagerly agreed.  We rented a canoe for $10 and paddled 45 minutes down the river and then 45 minutes back up.  Though using the term river is somewhat loose because it's dammed up so it's really more of a lake... But it was a great time!

Below is the libary.  This is the Dartmouth's version of the obligatory "building outline that's on every piece of university stationary." Iowa has the Old Capitol and Ole Miss has the lyceum.

Hanover has 15,000 people and the downtown is in a two block by two block area.   There are only five bars there, all of which are also restaurants.  There was a groups of us that went for beers every night but every place was pretty quiet, even Friday and Saturday night.  Obviously, it’s different in the summer than it would be in the school year, but it was much quieter than Iowa City or Oxford are in early August.  All of the restaurants/bars served interesting fare, rather than just bar food, which makes sense considering the socio-economics of the campus and community.  There was no Airliner or Rib Cage type place...and there certainly wasn't a Union, Fieldhouse, or Library...