Opinion
Mattimore: Privilege and Responsibility
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | May 22, 2018Don’t open the playground — teach Dartmouth students how to play fair.
PATRICK MATTIMORE
News
Mattimore: Check the Price of Admission
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | April 1, 2013On Friday, The Dartmouth reported that the College accepted 10 percent of applicants for next year's incoming class, a slight increase from last year ("College admits 10 percent of applicants to Class of 2017," March 29). Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and a handful of other schools all announced this past week that they accepted less than 10 percent of applicants for their respective freshman classes. Apparently embarrassed by Dartmouth's inability to bludgeon applicants with the same efficiency as her sister institutions, The D's editorial board suggested that Dartmouth's meager 90 percent rejection rate coupled with a tiny downturn in the number of applicants was symptomatic of "deeper problems" at the College ("Verbum Ultimum: Symptoms of Deeper Problems," March 29). The Dartmouth's editors are correct.
Opinion
Vox Clamantis
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | September 25, 2011To the Editor: Hopefully, the newspaper's Verbum Ultimum, "Your Opinions Here," Sept. 23, will not be a "last word," but the beginning of a lively debate as to what the opinion page of The Dartmouth should look like. While the invitation to students to become engaged in writing commentaries is a good start, that enjoinder is a bit narrow.
Opinion
Personality Contest
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | February 13, 2008Personality Contest To the Editor: In their Verbum Ultimum("Admitting Character," Opinion, Feb.1) The Dartmouth Dditorial Board explains that "Dartmouth has consistently fielded a class of freshmen to uphold this legacy by relying on the personality-centered aspects of our application, valuing essays and recommendations -- especially the recommendation Dartmouth requires from applicants' peers -- above other, more objective instruments like SAT scores and grade point averages." If, in fact, The Dartmouth staff can divine what qualifications the Admissions Office prizes most highly in applicants to the College, there's something rotten in Hanover. Suggesting that the subjective evaluation of candidates unknown to the Admissions Office is superior to objective measures is just plain wrong. Relying on peer essays that the Admissions Office cannot determine who wrote is folly.
Opinion
Speak out, President Wright
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | November 12, 2007Several weeks ago, along with about 200 alumni, I attended a briefing in the San Francisco Bay Area about affairs related to the expansion of the Board of Trustees.
Opinion
Opponents of governance changes have no reason to sue
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | September 26, 2007To the Editor: Having made the best of efforts to separate the rhetorical wheat from the chaff with regard to the "governance thing," I admit to feeling left with a bowl of farina.
Opinion
The Tradition of Early Admissions
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | September 27, 2006Harvard University recently announced that it is ending early admissions beginning with fall matriculants in 2008.
Opinion
High Demand, Unclear Quality
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | April 6, 2006When we walk past a restaurant with a line out the door, most of us think, "Good restaurant." There are some other explanations for the line, of course.
Opinion
Early Decision Guided by Rankings
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | January 9, 2006To the Editor: There is a simple explanation as to why Dartmouth has not joined Harvard, Yale and Stanford in replacing binding early decision with an early action program (Verbum Ultimum, Jan.
Opinion
Pong is not all Fun and Games
By PATRICK MATTIMORE | November 21, 2005To the Editor: While I appreciated the trip down memory lane (or fraternity row, as it were) in your three-part series about beer pong, the denouement left me feeling a bit hungover. As a recovering alcoholic who developed a drug and alcohol habit during my days and nights in Hanover, I had hoped you might conclude with a look at the darker side of the college's "game." Although my life has turned out well (I've been clean and sober over 25 years), I look back on my college years with a sense of regret for lost opportunities, rather than nostalgia. Too many people I knew left the college after four years rather like the hollow men in T.S.