An Ivy League liberal arts college in Hanover, NH, admitting 5.4% of applicants in a rural New England setting.
Hanover, New Hampshire
Dartmouth College is a private R1 research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, founded in 1769. It enrolls 4,541 undergraduates and 2,301 graduate students, a ratio that makes it the most undergraduate-focused of the Ivy League institutions. Social sciences account for the largest share of bachelor's degrees, followed by engineering, economics, and the biological sciences.
Dartmouth operates the Tuck School of Business (MBA), Thayer School of Engineering, and Geisel School of Medicine as professional schools. It holds a Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity (R1) Carnegie classification and is accredited through the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). Dartmouth operates on a quarter system, the D-Plan, which allows students to structure their academic and off-campus terms with more flexibility than a semester calendar.
Official website: dartmouth.edu
UCD scores every college on four pillars: Outcomes, Value, Affordability, and Selectivity. Within peer group A (four-year selective institutions), Dartmouth scores 80.60 overall, rated Strong. Outcomes (98.63) and Selectivity (98.66) are near-perfect, reflecting a 95.54% six-year graduation rate and a 5.4% admit rate. Affordability scores 11.54, the weakest pillar, driven by an average net price of $29,519 and median debt ($17,500) that is higher than at most peer Ivies. All scores use verified federal data only.
Dartmouth is among the most selective universities in the country, admitting 5.4% of applicants. Dartmouth is test-optional; submitting SAT or ACT scores is not required. Students who submit scores typically average 1,534 on the SAT, with the middle 50% scoring between 33 and 35 on the ACT.
Dartmouth offers Early Decision with a November 1 deadline; students admitted ED must enroll. The Regular Decision deadline is January 3. Dartmouth's review places strong weight on character, community engagement, and the student's potential to contribute to the distinctive Dartmouth community, which is shaped significantly by its rural location and the D-Plan calendar.
Acceptance rate over the last five admission cycles. The trend tells you whether Dartmouth College is getting harder, easier, or staying about the same.
Dartmouth charges $68,268 in tuition plus $19,999 in room and board, bringing the estimated total cost of attendance to approximately $91,000 before aid. Families earning under $65,000 per year pay nothing: tuition, room, board, and fees are fully covered by Dartmouth grants. Dartmouth meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted U.S. students, with no loans in aid packages. The average net price across all students is $29,519. For families earning under $30,000, the average net price is $41. For families earning between $75,001 and $110,000, the net price averages $8,534. For families earning above $110,000, it averages $52,036.
Published cost of attendance, the sticker price before grants and scholarships. Most students underestimate room & board and other expenses.
Application fee: $80 (one-time, due at submission)
Aid is need-based, so net price varies by family income. Here's what each bracket typically pays after grants and scholarships.
Cumulative federal-loan debt across the full borrowing distribution. The 10th and 90th percentiles bracket the typical range; the median sits in the middle.
Median federal-loan debt at graduation broken down by demographic. Each slice's size is proportional to the dollar amount that group typically borrows.
Dartmouth completes the large majority of the students it enrolls. The six-year graduation rate is 95.54% for full-time, first-time bachelor's-seeking students. The four-year rate is 87.47%, and first-year retention stands at 98.11%. Dartmouth's D-Plan quarter system means students may be off campus during terms for internships, research, or study abroad while remaining enrolled, which influences how four-year completion is measured relative to semester-based peers.
Dartmouth graduates earn above the national median for private research universities. Median earnings are $82,541 six years after first enrolling and $97,434 at ten years. At the ten-year mark, 89.49% of former students earn more than a typical high school graduate. Dartmouth's federal loan rate of 12.03% and median debt of $17,500 are both higher than at most peer Ivies. Finance and consulting are the dominant career paths for Dartmouth graduates, and Tuck School of Business alumni networks strongly influence post-graduate employment.
Median annual earnings 6, 8, and 10 years after students first enrolled.
Mean annual earnings 10 years after entry, segmented by demographic. Reveals gaps the headline median can't show.
Median earnings for female grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Median earnings for male grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Earnings of grads from the bottom-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the middle-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the top-third of family incomes at entry.
Share of completer-cohort borrowers paying down at least $1 of principal at the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year mark. Climbing rates show graduates settling into careers and managing debt; flat or declining rates are a warning.
Dartmouth enrolls 4,541 undergraduates in Hanover, a rural college town of roughly 11,000 residents in the Connecticut River Valley on the New Hampshire-Vermont border. White students account for 44.04% of undergraduates, the highest proportion among the eight Ivy League institutions; Asian 13.06%, Hispanic 9.91%, and Black 6.23%.
Fourteen percent of undergraduates receive Pell grants, and 17.36% are first-generation college students. The rural setting is a defining feature of the Dartmouth experience: outdoor recreation, the Dartmouth Outing Club, and a strong on-campus social culture develop partly because the nearest city (Burlington, VT; White River Junction, VT) is an hour's drive away.
Undergraduate student body composition reported to the US Department of Education.
Where students live, learn, and connect at Dartmouth College. The campus setting, housing profile, and signals that shape day-to-day life here.
Dartmouth College offers an extensive catalog of programs: 72 distinct programs across 17 majors. Below are its strongest majors, each with flagship programs and typical earnings. Open a major to explore it in depth, or browse the full program catalog.
Dartmouth operates at a 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio. 81.27% of instruction is delivered by full-time faculty. Instructional spending per full-time equivalent student is $32,539 per year, notably lower than at peer Ivy League institutions. The endowment stands at $8.27 billion. Dartmouth's small size and undergraduate focus mean that faculty teach undergraduates directly, and the student-professor relationship is more accessible than at larger research universities, even if per-student resource levels are lower.
737 instructional faculty across 6 ranks. The rank mix shows how many senior faculty are teaching versus contingent or junior staff, with average salary equated to a 9-month contract.
| Rank | Faculty Count | Share | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Professors | 323 | 44% | $244,947 |
| Associate Professors | 182 | 25% | $153,836 |
| Assistant Professors | 151 | 20% | $124,485 |
| Instructors | 4 | 1% | $10,860 |
| Lecturers | 71 | 10% | $79,273 |
| No Rank | 6 | 1% | $83,224 |
Dartmouth's strongest data points are its Outcomes (98.63), Selectivity (98.66), and the near-zero net price for families earning under $65,000. The undergraduate-focused culture, small class sizes, and D-Plan flexibility are genuine differentiators among Ivy League institutions. The challenges are Affordability (11.54) and cost: the average net price of $29,519 is among the highest in the Ivy League, and median debt of $17,500 is above the Ivy average, which suggests the aid program is less comprehensive for middle-income families than at peers with larger endowments.
The rural location in Hanover is either a feature or a significant drawback depending on the student; it shapes campus life more than at any other Ivy. Best fit for students who want a small, residential Ivy experience, value outdoor culture and a tight-knit community, and qualify for substantial financial aid.
The questions below address what students and families most commonly search about Dartmouth: how selective admissions are, what the D-Plan means, how financial aid compares to Ivy peers, and what life is like in rural New Hampshire.
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