Check out our Web Chats!

During the month of April, the Dartmouth Office of Admissions coordinated a series of Live Video Chats hosted by Dartmouth students. Whether you are a newly minted Dartmouth '14 looking for a quick Dartmouth fix or a prospective student in search of different perspectives on the College, you should definitely check out the archive of these chats!

Ranging from "Service, Activism, and Politics at Dartmouth" to "Senior Reflections," these chats cover a lot of topics about academic life and student activities at Dartmouth. Most importantly, give an unfiltered student perspective on a variety of aspects of the Dartmouth experience. Our office definitely hopes to offer more live video chats this summer or fall, so if there is a topic or area of the College you would like to see covered, please let us know.

Enjoy the videos!

The Olympics! A mini photo essay from Whistler.

Last week, I took a short break from reading applications with the excuse, "My friends from Dartmouth are racing in the Olympics!" I gathered with other Dartmouth alums to watch Sara Studebaker '07 and Laura Spector '10 race in the women's 4x6km biathlon race. We also caught up with Ben Koons '08 and Tucker Murphy '06 (two more Dartmouth grads turned Olympic skiiers), who gave us a tour of the athlete village. Here are a few photos from our amazing trip:

(photo 1) Seven friends from Dartmouth met in Whistler. (2) The weather was awesome and we cheered loudly for Team USA in several skiing and biathlon events. (3) Canadian kids requested an autograph from Tucker Murphy '06. (4) We got all decked out for the biathlon relay. Go TEAM USA! And Dartmouth! (5) Sara Studebaker '07 shoots cleanly in leg one of the relay. (6) Post-race congrats to Sara!

We weren't the only Dartmouth fans at the Winter Olympics. We ran into bundles of friends that made the trip to Vancouver and Whistler to cheer on the 9 athletes from Dartmouth competing in the winter games. Two athletes from my class -- Gillian Apps '06 and Cherie Piper '06 -- took GOLD in women's ice hockey, and Andrew Weibrecht '09 skiied to a bronze medal in the men's super-G alpine race.

The whole trip a truly incredible experience. The pinnacle was watching Sara at the start of the women's biathlon race. Even thinking back on the moment gives me chills; it was such a magical experience to watch my friends and classmates compete in the Olympics.

P.S. If you want to read more about Dartmouth athletes in Vancouver, check out this link. Dartmouth has an impressive tradition with the Winter Olympics. Since 1924, Dartmouth athletes have appeared in the Winter Olympics 120 times--more than any other Ivy League school.

Check Out the LGBTQA Life Video Chat

Check out what two current students, Rigel '10 and Anna '13, have to say about LGBTQA life at Dartmouth. This is our first Dartmouth Life student chat - stay tuned for more topics! If you missed the chat when it was live or have questions about LGBTQA life for current students, you can send an email to gsx@dartmouth.edu (our student organization, Gender Sexuality XYZ).

Update: Dartmouth's Relief Efforts in Haiti

President Kim sent out a late afternoon e-mail regarding the status of our ongoing efforts to support the relief efforts in Haiti:



January 19, 2010

To the Dartmouth community:

Since last week's earthquake in Haiti, I have been astounded by our community's rapid response to this tragedy. Dartmouth people have come together, and they have reached out to their own networks. The result has been an outpouring of support from students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and friends.

A team of nine doctors and nurses from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is already on the ground providing direct care to earthquake victims at a Partners in Health (PIH) hospital in Hinche, Haiti. Another plane carrying 3,000 pounds of supplies landed in Port au Prince yesterday, and a second team of DHMC medical personnel departed from Lebanon, N.H., at 1 p.m. today. I am deeply grateful to these volunteers and the Dartmouth alumni and parents who provided the air transportation.

Dartmouth students have quickly mobilized, demonstrating that the world's troubles are their troubles. Through their organization, Students at Dartmouth for Haiti Relief (SDHR), they have raised more than $46,000 to date and are developing a long-term educational effort. Their vision is now serving as a national model, as students at other colleges and universities organize their own responses. I am so proud to see what our students are achieving through compassion, intellect, and hard work.

I have often commented on the unique spirit of collaboration at Dartmouth. Now, we are seeing how much we can accomplish by working together. While many other organizations are still trying to set relief efforts in motion, the alliance between Dartmouth College, Dartmouth Medical School, DHMC, and PIH has enabled us to quickly get help to where it is most needed. Regular updates on Dartmouth's response will be posted at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/features/haiti/index.html

Many of you have given to relief agencies, including PIH http://act.pih.org/page/outreach/view/haitiearthquake/DHR . I thank you for demonstrating such generosity even as we address financial challenges here in Hanover.

Through next week, Dartmouth is celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1963, King wrote that, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Our response to Haiti is focused on disaster relief, but we're also working to build social justice for a country that has been allowed to suffer without it for too long.

Sincerely,

President Jim Yong Kim

Pre-Med Video Chat with Dean Laskaris and Frances Vernon '10

Additional references and resources:

• More about the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
  
• Dickey Center for International Understanding
• Research grants at Dartmouth
• Credit/placement you can get from AP/IB/A-Level/SAT Subject Tests
• We offer many placement exams during First Year orientation to help make sure you're taking the classes that are best for you
• Either SAT or ACT are considered equally. Take whichever is best for you. In addition, you will need to take 2 SAT Subject Tests
• Dartmouth-run Study Abroad programs
• For those less familiar with Dartmouth and its surrounds, the Upper Valley is the region surrounding Dartmouth (the Connecticut River Valley)
• Students can get funding from a number of offices and departments across Dartmouth
• A tribute to President Jim Kim

Also, don't miss Colleen's post about Pre-Health at Dartmouth. She provides numerous specific examples of how Dartmouth's Pre-health Program stands out.

Big Sports Weekend at Dartmouth

Dartmouth's campus was a hive of athletic activity over the weekend, as Dartmouth teams hosted many matches and games across numerous different sports. Here's a condensed listing:

• Women's Volleyball - wins overBrown and Yale




• Women's Hockey - win over St. Lawrence




• Men's Soccer - win over Cornell




• Women's Soccer - win over Cornell




• Women's Tennis - won the Big Green Invitational




• Football - win over Cornell
  

It seems worthwhile to linger over the football team's victory for a couple of reasons. First, the team came back from 10-0 deficit at the start of the 4th quarter to defeat Cornell 20-17 in double overtime. The game included freshman quarterback Greg Patton breaking the Dartmouth single game rushing record in his very first varsity contest. The Big Green blocked a potential game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, and got a game winning kick from Foley Schmidt in overtime.

Equally as entertaining as the game was watching Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim roam the sidelines, congratulating players as they came off the field and encouraging the crowd to stand up and cheer at key moments. President Kim, who was a high school quarterback while growing up in Iowa, has been a prominent figure on the Dartmouth sideline this season, even braving a driving rain to cheer on the Big Green during their Homecoming win over Columbia. He's pictured below with Dartmouth's athletic director Bob Ceplikas and U.S. Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire:

While cheering on the football team may seem like a small thing, Dr. Kim's energy and enthusiasm for supporting students in many different settings has already become notable in this early part of his tenure as Dartmouth's President. I am not going to say that he does this more than other College Presidents, but I bet he can throw a better spiral than any of them. Chalk it up as another plus for Dartmouth!

So you want to be pre-med?

When talking to prospective students and parents, we field a lot of questions about how Dartmouth prepares students for medical school. Our Admissions staff met with Dartmouth’s pre-health advisors earlier this fall, and below are some key points from our discussion.

Many Dartmouth students are interested in medical careers. Typically, about 1100 students – a quarter of the student body – follow the Nathan Smith Premedical Society email list. About 180 to 200 students per year apply to Medical, Dental, or Vet programs. Learn more about the Nathan Smith Society.

Dartmouth has fantastic resources for pre-med students. Chief among them:

• Dartmouth Medical School (DMS). The medical school is on campus and many professors have dual tenure with DMS and Dartmouth College. Undergrads can collaborate on research projects with med school faculty and students.
• Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). One of New England’s best hospitals is located just one mile from campus, providing incredible research and internship opportunities for undergrads.

At Dartmouth, students do not “major” in pre-med, but they CAN take all the courses they need to be ready for medical school. Their major can be in a related area, like Biology, or in a completely different subject like Anthropology, International Relations, you name it. In fact, less than half of our medical school applicants are science majors – and this can be a real asset in the medical school admissions process.

Support for students interested in health professions abounds! Our Health Professions Program assists students applying to Medical, Dental, and Vet schools. Open office hours are available 4 days per week to assist students with course planning, internships, and applications.

Unique advantages to Dartmouth’s pre-med program:

• The advising system lasts 4+ years – we continue to work with students through graduation and beyond.
• Because of Dartmouth’s small size, the advising and letter-writing processes are very personal. Most universities have a pre-health committee that writes letters of recommendation. At Dartmouth, students select who writes the summary letter on their behalf (a faculty member, dean, etc.) This creates a much more personal letter than what typically comes from a committee.
• Dartmouth has very strong extracurricular programs that allow students to test their interests before they make a commitment to pursue this as a career.
• We have about 300 Dartmouth alumni in medical school, who have specifically agreed to assist students interested in pursuing medical school. (For example, they often host Dartmouth students visiting for interviews.) Students can also draw on the overall strength of our alumni network.
• We offer excellent support in the medical school admissions process, and the Dartmouth Medical School Admissions Office also offers guidance.

What is your medical school acceptance rate? This question comes up time and again. Here is the short answer: If a student comes to Dartmouth, works hard, utilizes pre-health resources, and has an average GPA and MCAT score, they are VERY likely to be accepted to medical school.

• Nationally, the medical school acceptance is about 45%, and Dartmouth’s is far higher (approaching twice) that average.
• 11 of 85 students in this year’s Dartmouth Medical School incoming class are Dartmouth College graduates.

More resources for our pre-med students:

• 80 Medical School Faculty members offer shadowing opportunities in a wide range of medical specialties. We also have community vet and dental shadowing programs.
• The Health Professions Program maintains a research opportunities directory, and students engage in a wide variety of medical research projects.
• Women In Science Project (WISP) connects students in their first or second year with paid part-time research internships with science faculty members (or researchers in nearby industrial or government laboratories).

In short, if you decide the medical field is for you, Dartmouth will provide the support and opportunities to make you successful!

Go Green: Environmental Sustainability at Dartmouth

Dartmouth has a long history of being "green" and in recent years the College community has done some impressive work related to clean energy and sustainability.

Dartmouth's Office of Sustainability works on a number of programs to help make Dartmouth more environmentally friendly. Environmental projects at Dartmouth include:

• The Big Green Bus, a Dartmouth student led effort to convert a bus to waste-vegetable fuel and drive cross country teaching communities about alternative energy.
• The Sustainable Living Center, a residential community where students commit to reducing their carbon footprint through a number of efforts.
• Sustainable Move-Out and Move-In, a program that recycles dorm furniture, clothes, and other student supplies.
• The Dartmouth Organic Farm, a working farm where students can work, take classes, or learn on their own about sustainable agriculture.
  
• Farm-to-Dartmouth, helping give student access to locally produced foods in Dartmouth's dining halls.
• Dartmouth has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030.

Some other really important and interesting ways the College demonstrates its commitment and creativity when it comes to sustainability are:

• Energy-efficient design and construction of new facilities, with four of our newest facilities receiving silver or gold LEED certifications.
• Many beds and desks in residence halls are made from trees on Dartmouth's Second College Grant.
• GreenLite at Dartmouth program, which helps students see their energy use on proximity-activated screens in buildings or over the web represented by the well-being of a polar bear.
  

Beyond simply programs to improve sustainability on campus, Dartmouth researchers (both professors and students) are developing new technologies to help improve energy use. Projects include research on cellulosic ethanol technology at the Thayer School of Engineering, the GreenLite project that is now being formed into a business to market this effective conservation tool, and other research projects in Environmental Studies and departments across campus.

How do you think Dartmouth is doing with sustainability? The College can continue to do more, but I'm impressed by all the programs students, staff, and faculty are undertaking to help the environment.

Dartmouth Olympians

I have spent most of the past two weeks traveling in Canada with the "Ivy Plus" group -- admissions officers from other Ivy League schools, plus Stanford. As a form of light-hearted competition, we admissions representatives started trying to one up each other with fun facts about our schools, often centered around color (really, how can brown compete with green?) or the number of athletes/medalists we had in the recent Olympic games. I know Dartmouth always has a great showing at the Olympics -- in fact, I have a trip planned to the Winter Games in Vancouver this February to see several of my Dartmouth classmates compete in skiing & biathlon! However, I had never researched the full extent of our Olympic presence until prompted by the friendly rivalries from peers. The stats below are pretty impressive. Go Big Green!

From "Ask Dartmouth":
Has Dartmouth had a strong presence in the Olympics over the years? What is the medal tally of Dartmouth Olympians?

Dartmouth has a long and distinguished Olympic history, dating back a century to when Arthur B. Shaw 1908 won a bronze medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the Games of the Fourth Olympiad in London in 1908.

Over the years, Dartmouth has sent nearly 150 representatives to the Games, including all but one Summer Olympics since 1908 and every Winter Olympics since the winter Games was founded in 1924. Among the Big Green’s notable Olympians are Dominic Seiterle ’98, who won a gold medal rowing for Canada at the 2008 Games in Beijing; Adam Nelson ’97, who won the silver medal in shot put at the 2000 and 2004; four-time Olympian Cammy Myler ’92, who competed in luge; and Carlie Geer ’80, the first Dartmouth woman to medal, taking the silver in crew at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Dartmouth’s Olympic roster also includes 12 coaches, in sports including skiing, kayak, basketball, diving, and ice hockey.

As for the medal count: through 2008, Dartmouth athletes have claimed 20 gold, 21 silver, and 12 bronze medals.

Want to Change the World?

I'm always impressed by how Dartmouth students combine their academic and personal interests to produce some pretty amazing outcomes.

A great example of the combination between intellect and passion is the Big Green Bus. As I write this post, 15 Dartmouth students are on a cross-country odyssey in a veggie­-powered bus, raising awareness about energy conservation and the environment. The bus itself is a rolling science fair project, outfitted with exhibits that highlight five areas of green living: reduce, reuse, and recycle; energy efficiency; cleaner and renewable energy and fuel; food choices; and action through voting on the local, state, and national levels.

I've loved reading about the students who make this summer's bus crew -- it confirms for me that we are definitely admitting the right students! Learn more about them at TheBigGreenBus.com

Better yet, come out and meet them in person. This month, the Big Green Bus has stops planned in Minneapolis, Madison, Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, Oberlin, Cleveland, Columbus, West Virginia, Philadelphia, Weston, Providence, Boston, and Portland, before they end up back at Dartmouth on August 22nd.

What are you doing this summer?