Wednesday, September 30, 1998

Dartmouth Ranked Tenth Best College

Indeed, the U.S. News criteria represent subjective — and questionable — judgements about what is important in a university. Moreover, U.S. News employs statistical indicators that fail to describe their stated criteria.

The US News and World Report Rankings, Explained

Richard Morse: What you have to remember is that, significant as it may seem to Dartmouth, a drop of three places or so isn't terribly statistically significant when you consider a pool of some two hundred and twenty-nine institutions that Dartmouth is competing against. So such a change could be prompted by few small changes in any of the factors — it wouldn't take that much difference statistically to move any school up or down a few slots.

What is a College Education?

There's good news and bad news. The good news is that it is possible, yes possible, to get a college education at Dartmouth. The bad news is that the institutional Dartmouth will not tell you how to go about it.

And the Damned: Dartmouth's Worst Professors

Professor Silver is a prominent subscriber to the growing trend in English literature, feminist criticism. This 'new scholarship' essentially believes that anything longer than it is round must be a phallus. If you enjoy listening to the classics of Western Culture being destroyed by feminist deconstruction, then you will love her lectures.

The Beautiful: Dartmouth's Best Professors

Rassias is perhaps Dartmouth's most famous professor. His innovative theories on the teaching of foreign languages led to Dartmouth's LSA programs, drill sessions, and language lab. His teaching style verges on the outrageous. In class, he dresses up as Montesquieu, throws raw meat around, breaks eggs on students' heads, and rips his shirt off — all in the line of teaching.

Some Noteworthy Courses

None of the following courses have prerequisites. We provide here course reviews of a few of the introductory courses you are likely to consider, and a few smaller, upper-level courses that have met with consistently excellent reviews over the past few years.

Ivy League Football Preview

Prior to this season, most college football pundits picked Harvard and Brown to finish atop the conference. Both, however, were upset on Saturday — Harvard by Columbia and Brown by Yale. These losses have opened up the Ivy field — any of a number of teams, Dartmouth among them, could make a run at the title.

Pump Fiction: Summer as a Gas Station Attendant

When I first got to Atlanta this spring, I had no money. I had landed an excellent internship with a local radio company, but since the internship was an unpaid one — I was still broke. Having no money in my bank account began to bother me and I spent three days obsessively daydreaming about money. There was only one solution to be found: I worked the graveyard shift at a gas station.