Freshman Traditions
“Tradition Takes Time”

M.R. Topeka, Kansas Fall 2016

Informant Data:

M.R. was born in Topeka, Kansas in January of 1999. She attended high school in the suburbs of Topeka as well. At Dartmouth, she studies Psychology and Design. M.R. is a member of the Class of 2020. Outside of work, M.R. enjoys drawing and digital design.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context:

Dartmouth College was founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock and is the ninth-oldest institution in the United States. Dartmouth currently has 4,310 undergraduates. It is located in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth is known to be a small, research university that emphasizes a liberal arts curriculum to its students.

Social Context:

As a college that is over two centuries old, Dartmouth offers a distinct series of events that provide every new student with an iconic freshman year experience. Freshmen go through first-year outdoor trips, a matriculation ceremony, and more. The College on the Hill has unique traditions and rites of passage that welcome freshman into the Big Green community. 

Item:

Dartmouth traditions stretch beyond the formal events such as the bonfire

*(M.R. preferred not to be filmed or recorded)

Transcript:

How did you feel your introduction to college was?

It was not great. Trips was nice though, you got to meet a lot of people under one activity. O-Week could have been better, with regards to getting to meet more people.

When do you feel you were finally incorporated into your school?

A lot later than most people. I took my freshman Winter and Spring term off due to medical reasons, and the Fall term wasn’t enough for me to feel fully integrated, so I reached that point somewhere in sophomore Winter or Spring term.

What traditions or events helped you feel incorporated?

Just Trips, everything else felt like a lot of work.

Does your school have any rites of passage for freshmen?

I guess Writing 5? Because we all have to do it at some point in freshman year. I guess also the bonfire and Trips.

What/why do you think school traditions are important? Their purpose?

Their purpose is to bring everyone together regardless of how they feel about social groups. There’s a feeling of community by doing stuff together with people from your school. Even if they’re celebrated in different ways, everyone can relate since they’re all doing that thing. An example is the meme page on Facebook; only Dartmouth students can understand.

Collectors Comments: 

Feeling incorporated into the campus does not happen in one night. Each stage of the rites of passage can take different amounts of time and many individuals part of the same folk group experience variations in this duration of time are present.

The most memorable experience of many Dartmouth students are the ones that successfully went through the three stages of a rites of passage: separation, transition, and incorporation. For some, the transition stage can take much longer than usual, which can lend to them feeling isolated before being fully incorporated.

Ruba Iqbal Dartmouth College Russian 13 Spring 2019