U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Dartmouth seventh among the nation's thousands of undergraduate programs, and noted that its excellent academic reputation draws the top students from each state.
It seems likely that such a concentration of extremely bright students would create an "intellectual" atmosphere, in which conversations would display terms and concepts seen only in doctoral dissertations, on campus.
High-brow, intellectual chatter is heard on campus, but this is only half the story. A Dartmouth student will not (or cannot) say anything "smart" to a fellow student without attaching slang to the intelligent phrase in order to make an excuse for sounding smart.
Campus meeting places provide a good place to hear this hybrid language of "smart talk" and youth slang, but "the Hop" is particularly good. Two days ago, I overheard one student say to another, "Dude, I used to have nightmares that Fred Flintstone was a zombie, and he was chasing me. What are the psychoanalytic interpretations?"
Last week by the soda fountain, I heard a student comment to a friend, "Like, it was harsh. I mean I was really geeked to take mythology, but I totally don't understand the diachronic or synchronic analysis of that myth."
Both of these quotes display language that demonstrates real intelligence in the speaker, but the intelligence is accompanied by slang. Please don't misunderstand. I don't think there is anything wrong with slang. In fact, I think it's sweet, but there is something wrong (particularly at a college) when no one can say anything "intellectual" without having to hide it in slang.
This camouflage of "smart talk" alludes to a more serious problem on the Dartmouth campus--anti-intellectualism. I transferred to Dartmouth as a junior only two quarters ago, and it struck me right away how concerned everybody is about not appearing too smart. Despite Dartmouth's Ivy League status, many students seem more concerned about portraying themselves as "cool" rather than seeming studious. Students often don't even like to admit that they study (even though they do).
I'm not saying that people should walk around campus wearing "floods" and studying miniature Periodic Tables, but there needs to be a balance between "coolness" and intellectualism--especially at Dartmouth, a "mega-cool, Ivy-leaguer, bud--dy" (spoken like Pauly Shore).
