In recognition of the wind-swept hills, lone pines and famed New Hampshire granite that surround Dartmouth, the September 2003 issue of Outside magazine has ranked the College seventh among its "40 Best College Towns."
While the article includes numerous New England schools as ideal places to work and play, the top honors go to the University of California-Santa Cruz as the number one school with the ideal combination of outdoor excursion/indoor academic setting and surrounding town.
Outside magazine used criteria such as the sport-friendliness of the college, the type of town the school was located in, the involvement of the student body in outdoor pursuits on campus, including the types of outdoor clubs that exist, and the environmental initiative of the college to determine their rankings, said Katie Arnold, its managing editor.
While the magazine's target group is active outdoor people in their twenties and thirties, not current or prospective college students, Arnold added that the article merged several of the objectives of the magazine.
"The article is an interesting thing for us because our average reader is older, but we thought it was a good way to reach out to the younger demographics," she said.
Arnold agreed that the article would be useful for both prospective students and their parents with an interest in the outdoors, as well as current students of the ranked schools and their parents who might enjoy reading about their school and learning about the available outdoor options on campus.
Furthermore, she said, older readers could "live vicariously" through the article, or the article could be useful for someone looking to relocate to an active outdoor town, as "often the best towns are college towns."
The article highlights several of the "Little Ivies" such as Middlebury College and Williams College, as well as Dartmouth's Ancient Eight counterparts Cornell University and Princeton University, as schools with the appealing combination of outdoor-enthusiast locale and a commitment to the environment, as well as esteemed academics.
Dartmouth is ranked higher than the other Ivy League schools mentioned; Cornell is ranked 14, and Princeton 35. Middlebury, ranked third, is the lone New England college to outrank Dartmouth.
"Ratings have become very popular and have become a useful tool," said Laurel Stavis, a spokesperson for the Dartmouth Office of Public Affairs. Outside magazine, she added, is just the latest magazine to "rank in on the rankings."
Stavis said that the Office of Public Affairs worked with the magazine to point out Dartmouth's assets, and that the magazine spent a lot of time on campus talking to students as well.
In addition to the commendable rating Dartmouth receives in the article, the college also garners a fair amount of photo coverage. A picture of Baker Tower taken from Tuck Drive adorns the cover of the September issue of the magazine, and a photo of a Dartmouth men's eight-oared crew shell on the Connecticut River supplement the school's synopsis in the article.
Each school included in the article is briefly described in terms of the outdoor activity opportunities available in the surrounding areas, and its' environmental studies programs. Dartmouth is highlighted as the ideal of a collegiate setting, surrounded by the "mini-metropolitan area" of Hanover.
A brief description of the Environmental Studies department course offerings at Dartmouth confirms the college's interest in environmental issues, and Barry Cox, Assistant Town Manager and Human Resources Director for the town of Hanover, mentioned the Appalachian Trail as a possible reason for Hanover's commitment to the environment.
"Since the Appalachian Trail runs through Hanover, slightly more attention is called to environmental issues," Cox said. As a result, "Hanover has many committees working to protect open spaces and wetlands and has a lot of citizens interested in environmental issues."
The close proximity of the Appalachian Trail and the Connecticut River, as well as the White and Green Mountains, are cited as providing a range of options for hiking, boating, swimming and adventuring.
Also mentioned is the huge popularity of the Dartmouth Outing Club on campus, especially Freshman Trips.
Another section of each description entitled "Extra Credit" highlights an additional appealing element of each school. At Dartmouth, according to the article, this element is the "Big Green party scene," which is "still as wild as ever."
The article's description of Dartmouth's party scene reads like a throwback to the stereotypical days of "Animal House", mentioning "competitive beer pong, frat and sorority disco ragers, and the notoriously wild Dartmouth Winter Carnival" as evidence that the Dartmouth social scene remains far from tame.
Arnold said that the data the magazine obtained from their research continued to support this type of feeling about the Dartmouth social scene, and that "they would not have put that [idea] in if they hadn't gotten that data."
Nevertheless, the article from the administration's standpoint, is pleasing. "[Outside magazine] is a highly regarded magazine amongst people for whom the outdoors is a big part of their lives," said Stavis, "and to be featured so prominently in such a magazine is a good thing for Dartmouth."
"It is also manifestly true," she added, "that Dartmouth is one of the most beautiful campuses in the world."
Other schools on the magazine's top-forty list include Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, Colo., the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Va., and the University of Hawaii, in Hilo, Hawaii.
