Dartmouth

Introduction
I would definitely make the same choice. Dartmouth is for people that work hard and play hard, so its not the place for you if your top priority is sleep. My greatest challenge was getting used to a new, more hectic pace of life.

Campus Life and Social Life
The campus is always alive-there is always a party somewhere. The partying is awesome because its crazy but not so crazy that is super dangerous or anything. There are organizations for anything you could possibly be interested in, but the bad thing about them is that everyone has these great ideas for projects so there are too many people to head up projects and not enough to staff them. Theres not a lot of spirit at football games, but hockey games are well attended and really fun. In general school spirit is not shown at the sports stadium. People generally stay on campus, but dating is difficult because the d-plan means that people take random off terms and you may not see people for 9 months at a time if you're really unlucky. Advertisement
Academics
The academics at Dartmouth are amazing, but classes are very difficult. There are a few easy classes here and there, but in general classes are intense and the work load can be very stressful. The professors are interesting and very accessable, and the student assembly will even pay for you to take a professor out to lunch so that you can get to know them better. TAs are few and far between because classes are generally small and professors don't need them, but if you have a class with them they're very helpful and will really do whatever they can to make the class easier for you. The history department is award-winning, but in general most departments are excellent. Also watch out for language classes- there's a language requirement and for languages I and II you have to take language drill, which is usually at 7:45 in the morning.

Student Body
The typical Dartmouth student is from New England, is white, and wears North Face and Birkenstocks. I'm not saying that there's no diversity because that would be a lie, but this is the majority. The very few mean or spoiled people that somehow end up coming generally transfer because they're just not happy. I know its very common for people to say that a school's greatest asset is the people who go there, but its true that the students at Dartmouth are some of the most interesting, accomplished, and genuinely kindest people I've ever encountered. It doesn't matter that you're isolated because what more awesome people could you possibly find, even in a big metropolis? Also, people tend to be very laid back about pretty much everything except pong, which is very competitive at Dartmouth.

In Closing...
Dartmouth isn't for everyone- people who hate the cold and are really attached to city life won't like it very much. However, if you don't mind the cold and enjoy dividing your time between studying and partying with maybe organizations/sports/nature stuff on the side as well, then dartmouth is a good place for you.