Posted on August 17, 2010 By Office of Public Affairs

Dartmouth has moved up to No. 9 among the best national universities in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges 2011” rankings. Dartmouth is No. 1 for “Strong Commitment to Teaching” for the second consecutive year, in a new category the magazine created in 2010 for schools “where the faculty has an unusual commitment to undergraduate teaching.”

Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures Diana Abouali teaches an introductory class. For the second consecutive year, U.S. News and World Report ranked Dartmouth No. 1 for commitment to teaching. (photo by Joseph Mehling ’69)

Noting that college presidents, provosts, and admissions deans nominate schools in all categories, Provost Carol Folt says, “It is always wonderful to see the excellence of Dartmouth’s faculty and students and our commitment to outstanding undergraduate teaching acknowledged.” In the overall university rankings, Dartmouth shares the No. 9 spot with Duke University and the University of Chicago. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale were ranked first, second, and third. Dartmouth had been ranked No. 11 for the past three years.

Dartmouth was recognized for its “strong focus on student success” and for its “outstanding” study abroad program. Dartmouth is among schools that offer “substantial academic work abroad for credit … and considerable interaction with the local culture.” Dartmouth has been offering Off-Campus Programs led by the College’s faculty since 1958, and ranks first among Ivy League schools for students who study abroad. More than 60 percent of undergraduate students participate in at least one of Dartmouth’s Foreign Study or Language Study Abroad programs. The College’s ranking improved in other categories, rising from third to second in alumni giving, for example, with 49 percent participation. Dartmouth also improved in areas such as small class size (classes with 19 or fewer students), student selectivity, graduation and retention rate, and faculty resources.

In the category of “great schools, great prices” Dartmouth is No. 7. That calculation takes into account quality, as well as net cost for a student who receives the average level of need-based financial aid.

Dartmouth also placed among the top 10 national universities with the greatest economic diversity, with 13 percent of its undergraduates receiving Pell grants, most of which are awarded to students with family incomes under $20,000.

Associate Professor of English and African and African American Studies J. Martin Favor leads an English seminar. (photo by Joseph Mehling ’69)

Editor’s note: This spring Karl Lindholm was privileged to speak to Middlebury College athletes just prior to their graduation. Here are those remarks excerpted.

My favorite team is not the Red Sox or the Celtics — my favorite team is the Panthers of Middlebury College, or the Tigers of Middlebury Union High School.

 When I hear from someone of their disillusionment with sports — with all the commercial excess and the misbehavior of entitled athletes — I tell them, “You’re not going to enough games: you need to get yourself to a Panthers’ contest where the athletes are competing for the love of the game, and one another.”

 That’s the antidote for the sports blues. When you’re sick of sports, go to a game.

 At their core, sports are an enterprise of the spirit, an enterprise of the spirit in which we are challenged to be better than we are, an enterprise of the spirit where our best selves are expressed.

 Some argue that the purpose of life is to find God, however defined. Now I cannot tell you who or what God is. I myself believe in no dogma. God is Buddha. God is truth. God is love, peace or kindness. God is beauty, God is knowledge. God is sacrifice. God is effort.

 What is religion? Religion is the appreciation of that which is sacred, that which has to do with the soul, the cultivation of the spirit. Sports are a kind of religion. Maybe we can find God in sports, in competition, in teamwork, in loyalty, in being a good teammate, in playing in “the zone” — what is the zone but some state of heightened awareness, a state of grace when all we have learned and practiced come together in perfection.

 For those who believe I play too loosely with God here, I apologize. By God, I mean the aspiration in myself to be my best, to serve others, to be a good teammate in the largest sense of the term.

 Novelist Norman Mailer declared that there are three activities that produce an unmatched adrenaline high — war, sex and sports. Soldier Phillip Caputo in “The Rumor of War” described “the manic ecstasy of contact” in combat. Thank God sports are not about war. However, sports ultimately are about ecstasy and exhilaration. When we play sports we experience joy. We make a joyful noise in the world.

 Poet James Dickey said that sports give our lives the “illusion of significance.”

 So-called trash-talking is blasphemy. It is not sporting. Sadaharu Oh, in the magnificent opening chapter of his autobiography, described his last at-bat, a home run. The rival team stood on the third base line and congratulated him as he ran home for the last time:

 "My opponents lifted my spirits and, in doing so, reminded me of something I had spent 22 years learning: that opponents and I were really one. My strength and skills were only half the equation. The other half was theirs."

 Love your adversaries.

 Oh didn’t need artificial means to psych himself up with negative emotions. The spirit of competition was sufficient, the desire to excel, the passion to win, was enough motivation. You must desire to be the best teammate you can be for that is the essence of sacrifice and cooperation and love. What is a team but a family, a community, a brotherhood or sisterhood, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

 The best thing in sports is winning; the second best thing in sports is losing. In sports we get to compete, we get to live in the moment, our lives momentarily have great significance. Sports are exciting. Life is the long haul. Sports are decisive; sports offer an immediate outcome. Sports are self-contained moments of high drama and adventure.

 Wins and losses, ultimately, and essentially, do not matter. Every game starts 0-0. Every game is a chance to live anew. Every game is a whole season. Every game has a beginning, a middle, and an end — it is the narrative of a lifetime. Don’t ever be afraid of losing if it means taking a stand, applying your best efforts.

 To you as an athlete much has been given. You have been blessed. You got to play the game you love and be taught its fundamentals and nuances by a trained expert. You got better. You made friends for life. What is asked of you in return? That you not take it for granted. Be a missionary for sports. Hold yourself to a high standard. Do not say, “others do it too,” when you are confronted with your shortcomings and mistakes. Be humble.

 Now, here you are at this precipice, on the verge of a new life. In his celebration of Ted Williams’ last game, John Updike referred to “that little death” that awaits athletes when they retire, that unwilled retirement that faces you at this point, while you are still young. We are confident that you will be reborn into satisfying lives away from Middlebury. We trust that your athletic glories are a prelude to other great things. As you leave this place that has nurtured your love of sports and competition, know that we love you and wish you well.

 It’s a beautiful day. Let’s play two!

http://www.teamusa.org/news/2010/06/10/the-dartmouth-connection/36470?ngb_id=3

Peggy Shinn June 10, 2010

Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Andrew Weibrecht celebrates bronze during the flower ceremony for the men's Super-G alpine skiing held at the on day 8 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at Whistler Creekside on February 19, 2010 in Whistler, Canada.

Peggy Shinn March 23, 2010

WILMINGTON, N.Y. — When a skier is having a good run, it looks like he (or she) flows with the terrain and carves cleanly through the ruts.

On a rain-soaked day at Whiteface Mountain, Tommy Ford had a very good run. Two very good runs, in fact.

On Ford’s first run, spectators near the finish asked, “Is that Ligety?” — referring to 2010 overall World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety — as Ford flew onto the last pitch of the giant slalom at the U.S. national championships.

While other skiers — including Ligety — clattered over the ruts and flew off into the soft spring snow around the GS course, Ford looked perfectly at home in the soggy conditions and won the 2010 U.S. men’s giant slalom title.

It was his third national title in two days. On Sunday, a day after his 21st birthday, he won the slalom and combined national titles.

“The last two years, I’ve been fighting to get that GS win right behind Jit (Tim Jitloff),” said Ford, the runner-up for the national GS title in 2008 and 2009. “I finally got it today. I’m excited. I was excited with my slalom (Sunday). I’ve been looking for speed all year and finally put it together in a race. It was fun.”

The 2009/10 season has actually been a fast ride for Ford. In his first year as a senior, he made his World Cup debut and qualified for his first Olympic team.

“He’s had a tremendous season,” said U.S. Ski Team coach Forest Carey. “Last year, he was a junior. This year, he scored World Cup points for the first time and made the Olympic team. Then he had time to come back and compete in NorAms and nationals. He showed he’s become a pretty good skier.”

On a team stacked with top speed skiers, like Olympic super G bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht and downhill, super G, and super combined Olympic medalist Bode Miller, Ford is one of the most promising tech skiers since 1984 Olympic slalom medalists Phil and Steve Mahre.

And Ligety, who finished eighth in the first run on the men’s GS at Whiteface, then declined to ski the second run in the tough conditions.

The son of ski coaches at Mt. Bachelor outside Bend, Oregon, Ford was on skis by age 2. He began training and competing with the Mount Bachelor Ski Education Foundation when he was seven.

At age 15, Ford made the radar when he dominated 2006 J2 Nationals. On the slopes of Sun Valley, Idaho, he won the junior slalom, GS, super G, and combined titles, and finished second in the downhill. With that performance, he made the U.S. Development Team.

Two years later, he impressed U.S. Ski Team coaches again by finishing second in GS at 2008 senior nationals. Ski Racing Magazine named him the Junior of the Year.

Last year, he collected three more ski racing trophies: another silver in GS at nationals, silver in slalom at the Junior World Championships in Germany, and his second Junior of the Year title, narrowly beating friend and teammate Nolan Kasper, who earned a bronze medal in slalom at Junior Worlds.

Ford bookended the 2008/09 season by starting his college career at Dartmouth College, attending the fall and spring quarters. He was unsure college was the right move, but soon realized he had made the right choice.

“Skiing had previously taken over my life, but a break turned out to be the medicine needed,” he wrote on his blog, or as he calls it, “blah-g,” onionsontop.com. “This term was short, but gave me so many new experiences. Attending class (for the first time in a while), making new friends, having a managed schedule, sort of, all helped shatter the comfortable skiing bubble I was used to.”

He was also happy to join a community outside ski racing. “I have met so many cool people, all unique, and all different than I have ever known,” he continued on his blog. “Their fresh outlooks have reinvigorated my own, and I can’t thank them enough for being the people they are. New friends and rad professors both gave interesting insights on life.”

Ford is now plugging away at his degree at Dartmouth one spring quarter at a time, and he has yet to pick a major. Maybe earth science, he said, or art, or engineering, although he acknowledges the difficulty of that program on his one-quarter-a-year plan.

In truth, any major at an Ivy League school is difficult to pursue one quarter at a time. One of Ford’s classes this spring is German 2, and it’s been a year since he took German 1. He did speak the language when he could in Europe during the winter, but most of the time when Germans saw his U.S. Ski Team jacket, they spoke English to him.

Though quiet and reserved — at least with the press — Ford’s blog/website shows that his life contains more than ski racing. Yes, there are videos of ski racing and powder skiing in Jackson, Wyoming.

But he also asks for book recommendations from his fans, and he posts more photos than anything else — everything from sunlight streaming through a hardwood forest to pink and purple sunsets. He lays them out in geometric montages interspersed with shots of his friends rock climbing and bouldering.

But for now, his main focus is ski racing, and the words “promising” and “talented” are often used to describe Ford’s skiing.

Last fall, in his first World Cup — a giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, in October — he finished the first run in 32^nd, just missing a second run (only top 30 qualify for a second run).

In mid-December, he scored his first World Cup points, finishing 24^th in GS at Alta Badia, Italy. A month later, he took 21^st in a World Cup GS in Slovenia and was named to the 2010 Olympic team.

To what does Ford credit his quick success?

“I trained hard last summer,” he said, “and I learned a lot from skiing with Ted and Bode.”

“Just skiing with them and training with them all the time, I learned how to bring speed to my skiing,” Ford added, when asked for specifically what Ligety and Miller taught him. “Watching and being around them on and off the hill, what they do and what I do, we all learn from each other. It’s the best training.”

Wearing a bright green helmet and goggles made by Shred, Ligety’s company, Ford even looks like Ligety.

Ford also had to learn how to elevate his game to the World Cup level. “I started learning about the races and how to compose myself at the races. It took awhile.”

He said he also “got the speed going and scored points just by skiing well.”

“That ended up getting me to the Olympics,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t thinking about it. I just skied.”

Ford only competed in the GS at the 2010 Olympics. On a rainy, foggy day at Whistler Creekside, he finished 26^th — a solid result for a rookie.

From the Olympics, Ford jumped back in the NorAm circuit and won the GS at NorAm Finals.

He carried that momentum to U.S. Nationals and thrived in the spring conditions — first warm sun for the super G and slalom, then rain for the GS. It was like skiing in the Pacific Northwest where he grew up.

“I’ve been skiing in rain and crappy weather for my whole life,” he said. “You just get used to it.”

For Ford, the weather was even an advantage.

“People get down in the rain — bad conditions, bad weather,” he added. “You can’t let it get you down. I get excited when I hear people talking like that.”

With three national titles in hand, Ford is now heading back to Dartmouth to wrap up his freshman year. Rooming with him is Kasper, his ski-racing friend and rival.

Then it’s back to training this summer and racing next winter. Carey thinks Ford can easily finish World Cups in the top 20 next year.

Winning three national titles in one year is a good start. Not even Phil Mahre or Ligety have matched that feat.

by Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com

Have you ever wondered if Stanford grads really do make the big bucks, or if a "party school" degree can still land you a high-paying job?

Online salary database PayScale.com put together a 2009 College Salary Report that highlights which college graduates make the highest and lowest salaries right out of college and how that changes 10 years post-graduation.

While it may be no surprise that social work came in as the least well-paid major overall in PayScale's report, you may not know that Dartmouth's grads fare better financially 10 years after college than Harvard's.

Whether you went to a small, liberal arts college or graduated from an Ivy League school, take a look at the list below to see if your alma mater made a top 10 earners list.

School Name / Starting Median Salary / Mid-Career Median Salary

1. Dartmouth College: $58,200 / $129,000
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): $71,100 / $126,000
3. Harvard University: $60,000 / $126,000
4. Harvey Mudd College: $71,000 / $125,000
5. Stanford University: $67,500 / $124,000
6. Princeton University: $65,000 / $124,000
7. Colgate University: $51,900 / $122,000
8. University of Notre Dame: $55,300 / $121,000
9. Yale University: $56,000 / $120,000
10. University of Pennsylvania: $60,400 / $118,000

Maybe you didn't get to attend one of these top schools, but there's another factor that may contribute to a higher paycheck: your major.

According to Al Lee, PayScale's director of quantitative analysis, "Even more than where you go to school, the degree you get is a bigger influencer of your pay for the vast majority of Americans." Lee says that an English major from Harvard may end up making six figures, but that person is an exception among English majors.

Which degrees bring home the most bacon? "Ones involving numbers," says Lee. Seven of the 10 highest-earning undergraduate degrees in the report are in engineering, with economics, physics, and computer science filling out the rest.

Undergraduate Degree / Starting Median Salary / Mid-Career Median Salary

1. Aerospace Engineering: $59,600 / $109,000
2. Chemical Engineering: $65,700 / $107,000
3. Computer Engineering: $61,700 / $105,000
4. Electrical Engineering: $60,200 / $102,000
5. Economics: $50,200 / $101,000
6. Physics: $51,100 / $98,800
7. Mechanical Engineering: $58,900 / $98,300
8. Computer Science: $56,400 / $97,400
9. Industrial Engineering: $57,100 / $95,000
10. Environmental Engineering: $53,400 / $94,500

What other interesting facts did PayScale discover?

• Philosophy majors earn more 10 years after college than business administration and nursing majors.
• Two of the 10 most popular jobs held by Harvard University grads are executive director of a nonprofit organization and high school teacher.
• Loma Linda University graduates have the highest median starting salaries at $71,400 per year. That's over $6,000 more per year than a Princeton grad.
• The top paid English majors are technical writers.
• The top paid political science majors are intelligence analysts.

By Jeff Greer

Posted February 22, 2010

The Ivy League is the pinnacle of competition in the American higher education system. Schools compete with one another in everything from academics and research to endowments and college athletics. In an effort to stake its claim on a rarely discussed battlefield, one Ivy League institution wants the world to know that it has the most Winter Olympians this year in Vancouver among the Ivies—and the most ever to compete in the Winter Olympics among Ivy League schools, too.

The magic number of Dartmouth-affiliated athletes who have competed in the Winter Olympics since 1924 is 110, Dartmouth College says, although IvyLeagueSports.com and its offshoot site IviesinChina.com claim Dartmouth has even more Olympic alumni, with 124. Dartmouth has nine school-affiliated athletes at this year's games—two current undergrads and seven alumni. One alum, Andrew Weibrecht, who graduated in 2009, earned a bronze medal in the men's super-G alpine skiing race last week. Up-and-coming giant slalom skier Tommy Ford, Dartmouth class of 2012, will compete Tuesday. Meanwhile, Harvard University is the next closest with 77 athletes, including the current Olympic Games, where Harvard has five athletes competing. (Some peace of mind for Harvard: Crimson-affiliated athletes have more gold medals, with 16 to Dartmouth's 10.)

What sets Dartmouth apart? Skiing. It's still safe to call Dartmouth's ski team a pipeline of Olympic talent. The 100-year-old program, the first of its kind in collegiate athletics, has sent—by its own count—97 skiers to the Winter Games since the inception of the Winter Olympics. It makes sense: Dartmouth had five All-American skiers last year alone, and the program has won three NCAA titles since 1958 while competing against the wealthier, larger powerhouses like the University of Colorado and the University of Utah. A big part of that success has come from a two-feet-on-two-rafts mentality; over the years, the program's leaders have strongly encouraged their student-athletes to focus on school while still maintaining their athletic careers, a must if a young Ivy League student-athlete wants to survive all four years. That formula has worked for the better part of a century.

"With the skiing program, they try to build people who are well-rounded athletes," says Dartmouth graduate and biathlete Sara Studebaker, who graduated in 2007 and placed 34th in the women's individual 15-kilometer biathlon on February 18 in Vancouver. "People who are well rounded are more likely to be able to stick with a sport that they love and that they are good at. For me in particular, I was able to focus on skiing and get better at skiing while I was there but also have other things going on. Otherwise, you just get burnt out." 

In recruiting prospective skiers, Dartmouth Director of Skiing and Women's Cross Country Coach Cami Thompson says she looks for kids who want the best of both worlds. "We're looking for kids who want an Ivy League education who can still ski the way they want to ski," Thompson says.

Of course, it only helps that Dartmouth is the northernmost Ivy League school, tucked away in southwestern New Hampshire on the banks of the Connecticut River, which dances along the Vermont-New Hampshire border. To steal a real estate phrase, it's all about location, location, location, says Dartmouth's Laura Spector, a biathlete whose Olympic training has forced her to move her original graduation date from spring 2010 to summer 2011. Spector, who competed for the school's varsity skiing team from 2006 to 2008, loves the school's place in the world, admitting that it had a major impact on her decision to go to Dartmouth.

"It's a great place for people to go to school and train and compete," says Spector, who is studying biology with a concentration in genetics while minoring in Jewish studies. Spector takes full advantage of the great school-great location dynamic that makes Dartmouth so attractive to winter athletes. She focuses on biathlon training all fall and winter and takes classes in the spring and summer, maintaining a full workout schedule throughout the year. She finished 77th on February 13 in her first Olympic biathlon.

Spector and Studebaker are different from each other in a lot of ways, and that's what makes them typical Dartmouth athletes. 

"We have a thinking-outside-the-box mentality of wanting to be the best, encouraging people to shoot a little higher than the average person," Thompson says, adding that the school gets all kinds of skiers interested in different events. "Many of the schools that we compete against are trying to win an NCAA championship, so they're going to give scholarships and bring in athletes who are going to win that championship for them, but they're not necessarily thinking about how that athlete is developing and what they may do outside of winning that championship for them. Our attitude is that this is a step along the way for our skiers."

Thompson's right. It's a mere four-year (or longer) stop on that Dartmouth conveyor belt that manufactures Winter Olympians. And don't expect it to slow down. With the inclusion in 1998 of women's ice hockey in the Winter Games, Dartmouth has another avenue to raise its Olympic numbers. One thing is clear: If the battle is over which Ivy League school is sending the most affiliates to the Winter Olympics, Dartmouth is winning. Handily.