Dartmouth College Folklore Informant #9

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freshman Traditions
“Tradition is the Best Thing Humans Have Invented”

B.T.
Alexandria, Virginia
Fall 2016

Informant Data:

B.T. was born in Chicago, Illinois in March of 1998. He attended high school in the suburbs of Alexandria, Virginia. At Dartmouth, he studies Computer Science. B.T. is a member of the Class of 2020. Outside of work, B.T. enjoys coding and gaming.

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 are an essential part of freshman integration

*(B.T. preferred not to be filmed or recorded)

Transcript:

How did you feel your introduction to college was?

Dimensions was nice and it was fun to see Dartmouth’s ancestral entertainment line.

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

Post-Trips, when you’ve carved out a sort of niche in the community because of the aftershocks of Trips. The real moment I was incorporated was when I met up with my Tripees, and one of them said, “Hey, there’s a party at a frat, y’all should come.” It was almost midnight and it was raining, but I went, and everyone was there and it was a lot of fun.

Does your school have any rites of passage for freshmen?

Not to my understanding. Writing 5 and the Freshman Seminar, in a way. And I guess going through the unique 10-week term for the first time as a Dartmouth student.

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

They’re what sets a school apart from another school, markers of culture that exist. You can learn academics anywhere, even in your basement, but academics isn’t really why you come here. You come for a community and traditions build that community.They help distinguish that place from others. They’re probably the most important things humans have come up with.

Collectors Comments: 

It’s important that traditions can make people remember the specific moment they felt fully integrated into a community. 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. The traditions at Dartmouth helps facilitate all three stages, which is likely why they’re effective at helping students integrate.

Ruba Iqbal
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Spring 2019