The Class of 1998 may rule the campus this summer, but they are not the only Dartmouth students enjoying Hanover in the sunny season.
Every year, several hundred freshmen, juniors and even some seniors decide to stick around Hanover for Summer term.
Of the 148 enrolled students who are not sophomores, 88 are juniors, 26 are freshmen and 34 are seniors. Many other students are here but not taking classes.
Some freshman simply cannot wait for the celebrated summer experience. Most of the seniors on campus are finishing up their graduation requirements, just a little late.
Many of the juniors are picking up three course credits now so they can relax senior spring with their graduation requirements behind them.
Regardless of the specific reasons people stay in Hanover, nearly everyone agrees summer is the best time to be at Dartmouth.
Jeremy Gelber '97 and his five roommates, all juniors, are living in a house near Foodstop. Three are taking classes, and three are not.
Gelber said the summer is by far the best time to spend in Hanover.
"It's a good time to experience a lot of things that you don't get a chance to do during the year," he said. "A lot of things happen because its a closer, more friendly environment. Everybody relaxes and feels a bit more free."
Gelber is in Hanover studying for the MCAT, scheduled for Aug. 17. He said his classmates with internships may be wasting their time.
Asked what he thinks about the legions of his classmates who are spending the summer working as interns in law offices, at corporate headquarters or on Wall Street, Gelber said "Personally, I think that's really stupid."
"I'll be working in offices my whole life," Gelber said. "Why not take time when you're young and enjoy yourself, and have experiences you won't be able to have when you're 30."
Gelber said many students are "so serious and job motivated that they're willing to sacrifice everything for future goals."
"If someone is going to be working on Wall Street, they're going to be there for 30 odd years," he said. "Why do they have to be there this summer?"
Gelber is taking a Kaplan course to prepare for the MCAT. He has two three-hour classes each week.
"Besides that, I screw around a lot. I hang out and talk to everyone," he said. "Most of the time we're just sitting around and watching movies."
The consensus among the six juniors is that roommate Natasha Lamb has thus far won the prize for leisurely summer lifestyle.
A bit sheepishly, Lamb admitted she spends about three hours a day lying in the sun on the river docks.
In addition to looking for a waitress job, Lamb said she "watches a lot of movies with people living in the house."
But for some people, "Camp Dartmouth" may be dissolving into regular-old workaholic Dartmouth College.
For Lamb, who is not taking classes, the onslaught of work comes in the form of two unpaid research jobs she is starting just this week. One is with Psychology professor Richard Hughes, and another is as an intern in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center breast-cancer research lab.
Her tan may suffer even more if she lands the waitress job she is seeking. She has inquired unsuccessfully at Lui Lui's, Murphy's and Sweet Tomatoes, but she said she may have secured a job at Panda House.
"I've been picky," she said. "I wanted a place where I could really make some money. Maybe I shouldn't be so picky."
Lamb said she was "psyched" to have another summer at Dartmouth following a sophomore summer she thoroughly enjoyed.
"My home town is really quiet," she said. "There were more people up here I really wanted to hang out with anyway."
Lamb is from Acton, Massachusetts.
Having fun during sophomore summer is as much a Dartmouth ritual as freshmen rushing the football field, Lamb said.
"Everybody pumps it up before hand, and then all of the sudden it's just the thing to do," she said.
Ngina Simpson '97, another resident of Lamb and Gelber's house, is in town this summer to take photography classes with visiting professor Brian Miller.
Miller is a specialist in areas of photography Simpson is interested in as a studio-art major.
Like her roommates, Miller is a Dartmouth-summer buff. This is the third summer in a row she has spent on campus.
Some juniors said it is strange to walk around campus with so few of their classmates around, but Simpson said her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, has kept her in touch with the sophomore scene.
She said she goes to weekly meetings despite her elder status.
Other members of Greek houses said they do not go to their house meetings, since summer is considered the time that sophomore brothers and sisters bond with the other sophomores in their houses.
Simpson said she thinks Dartmouth summers are all about "not taking things as hard-core as normally, bonding with friends, and enjoying the weather, since you usually can't enjoy it here unless you ski."
Rusty Talbot '99 is one Dartmouth student who is enjoying the only season in Hanover which is not in some way cold, snowy, muddy or all three.
As a rower for the lightweight crew team and an avid rock climber, summertime is heaven for Talbot. The crew team hits the Connecticut river at seven or eight in the morning, and climbing spots like Rumney, Cannon and Whitehorse beckon Talbot from all directions.
"I'd heard that summer at Dartmouth was supposed to be a lot of fun, so I decided to spend two summers up here," Talbot said. But there was also some "D-planning" involved.
Talbot plans to go on a Language Study Abroad program in France this Fall term and said he wants to spend the following Winter term traveling in Europe and taking advantage of its world-reknowned rock climbing and mountaineering spots.
"I figured it would be a waste to use up two of my vacation terms before my sophomore year," he said. So he decided to stay.
Talbot said classes have not gotten too stressful yet, and everything from the pace of life at the College to the mood of students and professors seems more relaxed in the summer.
Talbot's only real complaint about this summer has been the capricious weather, he said.
"The weather is really weird. In the morning it can be completely overcast and kind of chilly," he said. "Then an hour later it can be sunny and hot. Then in the afternoon it rains."
Deb Whitney '96 graduated this June but decided to stick around because she already has a job right in Hanover.
Whitney has been doing computer programming at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center since January.
