There’s no energy like back-to-school energy, and that buzz has been building across Dartmouth as waves of students from around the globe made their way to campus in the lead-up to fall term.
The entire community celebrated the new academic year with the annual cookout on the Green on Monday, which marked the first day of classes for undergraduate students, Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, and Thayer School of Engineering. Over a buffet lunch and live music, students, staff, and faculty caught up with old friends and made new ones.
With strains of bluegrass playing in the background, Eun A Jo sat in the sun chatting with Pei-Yu Wei. The two postdoctoral fellows at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding had met for the first time that morning.
Wei, who came to Dartmouth from the University of Texas at Austin, said she has been enjoying walking around Occom Pond and working in the East Reading Room, and looks forward to interacting with her “wonderful new workmates” and possibly trying out some winter sports.
Jo, who had arrived on campus just the day before, had recently finished her PhD at Cornell University.
Having spent the past year writing her dissertation, it’s nice “to be in a space where I can talk about it with people and have more structure to my days,” she said.
Colby Lish ’25, who was relaxing with friends in the shade, said part of the fun of fall is the flurry of club activities.
“It’s the time to get ourselves out there and do lots of performances,” said Lish, a biochemistry major who is president of the Glee Club and music director of the Dodecaphonics a capella group. “It’s the best time of the year, just to see all the excitement for the College again.”
Classes kicked off on Aug. 19 for first-year Tuck School of Business students, the First-Year Summer Enrichment Program began on Aug. 10, and incoming Geisel School of Medicine students started classes in early August, coinciding with the arrival of pre-season athletes.
Across the schools, orientations focused on student wellness, highlighting the supports that are available throughout campus, and emphasized Dartmouth’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Tours of the grounds, libraries, and labs helped new students get their bearings. Team-building activities, experiential programs, and community gatherings—think barbecues and ice cream socials—provided get-to-know-you opportunities. And woven through the programs was an emphasis on respectful communication.
In a ceremony welcoming incoming undergraduates and their families on Sept. 4 at Memorial Field, President Sian Leah Beilock told students they would acquire skills “to help change a polarized world,” such as how to converse and find common ground with people they disagree with.
“This is all possible because we strive here to create an environment with shared community principles and an expectation that every one of us will uphold these principles,” President Beilock said. “You need that sort of environment to have the kinds of tough conversations that push us forward.”
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The recent run of beautiful weather intensified the festival-like feeling around campus, including at the Graduate Students Council Clubs and Activities Fair, held Sept. 13 on the Class of 1978 Life Science Center lawn. Students meandered from table to table, learning about any number of organizations—the Dartmouth South Asian Graduate Students Association, known as Desis, the Dartmouth Writers Society, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, and Graduate Women in Science and Engineering were among those represented—and some stopped to knock the ball around with the DartSlam Volleyball Club.
Geisel School of Medicine
In late July, Geisel welcomed its incoming class of medical students with a four-day orientation highlighting the curriculum and campus counseling and wellness resources. Activities and events to help students get to know one another—such as coffee hours, a scavenger hunt, and small group dinners—were also part of the transition into fall term, which, for first-year medical students, started on Aug. 5.
That day also was the start of orientation for Geisel’s incoming public health students. Members of the Master of Public Health and Master of Science in Health Care Research programs took part in information sessions, team-building activities, and community get-togethers. A scavenger hunt on their first day of classes took them to landmarks such as Occom Pond, Alumni Gymnasium, and the Hood Museum of Art, after which they enjoyed an ice cream social.
Tuck School of Business
Aug. 5 also marked liftoff for the Tuck MBA Class of 2026. Tuck Launch, which continued through Aug. 16, uses experiential learning and reflection to help prepare students for the demands of the MBA program. The discussions included a look at community norms and expectations, grounded in Tuck’s Ground Rules for Navigating Difficult Conversations.
Ryan Montgomery, of Seattle, Wash., Tuck ’26, was impressed during orientation by the focus on being vulnerable, having hard conversations, and creating a space of respect and active listening.
That emphasis on emotional intelligence “speaks really highly to the culture that Tuck tries to create,” Montgomery said.
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Second-year Tuck students started classes early this month and were welcomed back on Sept. 13 with Tuck Relaunch, a day to reconnect, focus on their individual and collective priorities and goals for their remaining time at the school, and consider their contributions to building the Tuck community. They heard from visiting speaker and leadership coach Lou Bergholz, shared breakfast and lunch in the McCormack Courtyard, and continued a Tuck tradition, sitting down for Small Group Dinners with first- and second-year students and their partners and families.
Arts and Sciences
Pre-orientation programs for international students and Native and Indigenous students started on Sept. 2, followed by orientation for all incoming first-year and transfer students, beginning on Sept. 4. A busy two weeks followed, with programs designed to help incoming undergraduates acclimate to life at Dartmouth and explore such themes as dialogue and dissent, and finding and creating belonging.
An introduction to the Dialogue Project, an initiative aimed at fostering constructive conversations within the Dartmouth community, included strategies for navigating disagreements with care, a chance for students to practice those skills with their classmates, and time to reflect on the experience together. Led by Kristi Clemens, executive director of the Dialogue Project, and Elizabeth F. Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the session in Alumni Gym included scenario-based learning on how to respond with integrity, honesty, and respect when disagreements or conflicts arise.
Students also connected with their peers, staff, and faculty members during house community meetings, first-year trips exploring such places as Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, regional museums, and local organic farms, meals with orientation leaders, and games at Collis. They learned about off-campus programs and began their academic journeys with advising sessions and department open houses. And on Sunday, Sept. 15, as orientation wound down, they engaged in two Big Green rituals—matriculation and the Twilight Ceremony.
JJ Kim ’27 was among the student orientation leaders who helped with the Class of 2028 photo last Wednesday outside Dartmouth Hall.
Her favorite part of being an orientation leader was “having big events for the ’28s and just seeing them get to know each other,” said the English major from Maryland and Georgia. “It’s really fun, especially since we were in the same position not too long ago.”
Friday afternoon on the Green, first-year students Archer Noordhoek, from Lincoln, Neb., and Anna Cooper, of Columbia, S.C., were sharing a shady bench, preparing to meet with their faculty advisers. Noordhoek, who had just returned from a first-year trip focused on meditation, described the experience as “awesome.”
She had chosen the trip in the hopes of meeting other meditators, and wound up with “the most amazing, eclectic group that I never thought I would get from a meditation crowd,” she said. “I think the universe definitely did some mingling there.”
For Cooper, high points so far had been meeting people from a wide variety of places and a session called “Explore the Arts,” which spotlighted opportunities available through academic departments, the Hood Museum, and the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
The program was eye-opening, she said. “I just feel like I have so many opportunities at Dartmouth.”
Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies
Guarini’s student orientation, from Sept. 10 to 13, featured lab safety training, a dean’s welcome and staff panel, a program for international scholars, and a community barbecue dinner for all graduate students and postdocs on Sept. 12 on the lawn of the Class of 1978 Life Science Center.
Orientation wrapped up on Sept. 13 with a panel discussion and Q&A in Baker Library with graduate teaching assistants from various programs, including the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies and Ecology, Evolution, Environment, and Society.
Thayer School of Engineering
A three-day student orientation at Thayer from Sept. 11 to 13 featured an open house for Dartmouth ’28s in MacLean’s GlycoFi Atrium, an introduction to engineering career services, and a presentation by Dartmouth Wellness Center and the Thayer Student Council. Students socialized at a barbecue lunch for the broader Thayer community in front of the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center on Sept. 12, and on Sept. 13 attended presentations by Feldberg Business and Engineering Library and Thayer Computing Services before wrapping things up with a community pizza party.
Amayr Babar ’24, a master of engineering management student, said meeting with the program’s leaders was a highlight.
“I felt pretty inspired, learning about their backgrounds, especially in engineering, but also on the business side of things, which I think kind of makes the MEM program unique,” Babar said.