Dartmouth College - Academics, Administration, and Ranking

Academics, Administration, and Ranking

Dartmouth, a liberal arts institution, offers a four-year Bachelor of Arts and ABET-accredited Bachelor of Engineering degree to undergraduate students. The college boasts 39 academic departments offering 56 major programs, while students are free to design special majors or engage in dual majors. In 2008, the most popular majors were economics, government, history, psychological and brain sciences, English, biology, and engineering sciences. The Government Department, whose prominent professors include Stephen Brooks, Richard Ned Lebow, and William Wohlforth, was ranked the top solely undergraduate political science program in the world by researchers at the London School of Economics in 2003. The Economics Department, whose prominent professors include David Blanchflower and Andrew Samwick, also holds the distinction as the top-ranked bachelor's-only economics program in the world.

In 2012, Dartmouth was ranked tenth among undergraduate programs at national universities by U.S. News & World Report. Dartmouth's strength in undergraduate education is highlighted by U.S. News & World Report when in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 it ranked Dartmouth first in undergraduate teaching at national universities. It also ranks first in High School Counselor Rankings as of 2012. The college ranks number seven in The Wall Street Journal's ranking of top feeder schools. The 2006 Carnegie Foundation classification listed Dartmouth as the only "majority-undergraduate", "arts-and-sciences focus", "research university" in the country that also had "some graduate coexistence" and "very high research activity." Internationally, Dartmouth College was ranked 113th in the world in the 2012 QS World University Rankings.

In 2011, 22,385 students applied for approximately 1,100 places, and 9.7% of applicants were admitted. Of those admitted whose high schools reported a class rank, 94% were ranked in the top 10% of their high school graduating class, 40% were valedictorians, and 10% were salutatorians. The mean SAT scores of admitted students by section were 734 for verbal, 740 for math, and 744 for writing.

Dartmouth meets 100% of students' demonstrated financial need in order to attend the College, and currently admits all students, including internationals, on a need-blind basis. Beginning in the 2008–2009 academic year, Dartmouth instituted a new financial aid policy extending need-blind admission to international students and replaced all student loans with scholarships and grants. Students from families with a combined annual income of less than $75,000 are not charged any tuition. However, in early 2010, the College announced that it would re-introduce loans to its financial aid packages beginning in the 2011–2012 school year due to its changed financial situation.

In order to graduate, a student must complete 35 total courses, eight to ten of which are typically part of a chosen major program. Other requirements for graduation include the completion of ten "distributive requirements" in a variety of academic fields, proficiency in a foreign language, and completion of a writing class and first-year seminar in writing. Many departments offer honors programs requiring students seeking that distinction to engage in "independent, sustained work," culminating in the production of a thesis. In addition to the courses offered in Hanover, Dartmouth offers 57 different off-campus programs, including Foreign Study Programs, Language Study Abroad programs, and Exchange Programs.

Through the Graduate Studies program, Dartmouth grants doctorate and master's degrees in 19 Arts & Sciences graduate programs. Although the first graduate degree, a PhD in classics, was awarded in 1885, many of the current PhD programs trace their origins to the 1960s. Furthermore, Dartmouth is home to three professional schools: Dartmouth Medical School (established 1797), Thayer School of Engineering (1867) — which also serves as the undergraduate department of engineering sciences — and Tuck School of Business (1900). With these professional schools and graduate programs, conventional American usage would accord Dartmouth the label of "Dartmouth University"; however, because of historical and nostalgic reasons (such as Dartmouth College v. Woodward), the school uses the name "Dartmouth College" to refer to the entire institution.

Dartmouth employs a total of 607 tenured or tenure-track faculty members, including the highest proportion of female tenured professors among the Ivy League universities. Faculty members have been at the forefront of such major academic developments as the Dartmouth Conferences, the Dartmouth Time Sharing System, Dartmouth BASIC, and Dartmouth ALGOL 30. In 2005, sponsored project awards to Dartmouth faculty research amounted to $169 million.

Dartmouth serves as the host institution of the University Press of New England, a university press founded in 1970 that is supported by a consortium of schools that also includes Brandeis University, the University of New Hampshire, Northeastern University, Tufts University and the University of Vermont.