Dartmouth College is a private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Founded as a school to educate Native Americans in Christian theology and the English way of life, Dartmouth soon turned primarily to training Congregationalist ministers throughout its early history before it gradually secularized, emerging at the turn of the 20th century from relative obscurity into national prominence.
Following a liberal arts curriculum, the university provides undergraduate instruction in 40 academic departments and interdisciplinary programs including 57 majors in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering, and enables students to design specialized majors and minors or engage in dual degree programs. Dartmouth comprises five constituent schools: the original undergraduate college, the Geisel School of Medicine, the Thayer School of Engineering, the Tuck School of Business, and the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. With a total student enrollment of about 6,400, Dartmouth is the smallest university in the Ivy League. Undergraduate admissions is highly competitive, with an acceptance rate of 10.4% for the Class of 2021, according to the university.
Dartmouth's 269-acre campus is in the rural Upper Valley region of New England. The university functions on a quarter system, operating year-round on four ten-week academic terms. Dartmouth is known for its undergraduate focus, strong Greek culture, and wide array of enduring campus traditions. Its 34 varsity sports teams compete intercollegiately in the Ivy League conference of the NCAA Division I.
Dartmouth is consistently included among the highest-ranked universities in the United States by several institutional rankings. According to a Forbes study, despite its relatively small size, Dartmouth is ranked 8th among American universities that have produced billionaires. In a New York Times corporate study, Dartmouth's graduates were shown to be among the most sought-after and valued in the world.
Dartmouth has produced many prominent alumni, including 170 members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, 22 U.S. Governors, 10 billionaire graduates, 8 U.S. Cabinet officials, 3 Nobel Prize laureates, 2 U.S. Supreme Court justices, and a U.S. Vice President. Other notable alumni include 79 Rhodes Scholars, 26 Marshall Scholarship recipients, 13 Pulitzer Prize winners, and numerous MacArthur Genius fellows, Fulbright Scholars, CEOs and founders of Fortune 500 companies, high-ranking U.S. diplomats, scholars in academia, literary and media figures, professional athletes, and Olympic medalists.