Is American College Really Like the Movies? Here’s What I Found Out
- Stella Beckmann
- Dec 27, 2024
- 7 min read
What is the American college experience like? Is it really like what we see in the movies? These questions planted the seed for me to apply for an exchange in the U.S. I’m from New Zealand (NZ), where most people grow up engaging heavily with American media and entertainment from politics to Hollywood. I’ve always been curious to know how accurate the classic portrayal of American college life we see on television and Netflix is: the one with Greek Life, football games with roaring crowds, secret societies, scandalous Halloween costumes, and so on. As the days before my exchange term dwindled, I wondered if this is what I would find, or if there was something else beneath the stereotypes?
From all of the different exchange universities that my school partners with in the U.S., Dartmouth undeniably College stood out to me. Its liberal arts focus, the allure of an isolated New England town, the old red-bricked buildings — I imagined these elements would lead to an immersive experience, rich with community and tradition.
Indeed in the first week, stepping onto Dartmouth’s campus for the first time College felt like entering into a Pinterest board, with all the things I predicted and more. Everything felt warm, golden and glowing in the September sun — beautiful historic buildings, trees with vibrant fall colors, the Green at the center filled with students chatting and reading. Everything felt warm, golden, glowing.
The first few Americans I interacted with sounded so novel to me, like movie characters, as I adjusted to hearing the accent I had only known on screen. Taking the bus with another exchange friend who was also doing an exchange program through Hanover, we admired the picture-perfect houses, the green lawns, and the people, young and old, walking the streets. We looked at each other, I said, “This is like a movie set,” and we burst into laughter at the shared understanding that we had been feeling the exact same way. For those first few weeks, nothing felt real. I visited Sanborn, where my English class is, and was transported back in time to another century. I’d never studied in historical, stunning libraries and buildings like Rauner, Towers, and Sanborn. My home university’s facilities are designed more modern and functional.
Dartmouth’s smaller classes — particularly the seminar courses — and more engaging educating style transported me back to my high school days in NZ. The classes feel more intimate with a higher ratio of professor-to-student engagement. In my home university, studying a Bachelor of Commerce, I am accustomed to hundreds of students per course in big lecture halls.
But it’s not just the historic facades and nice campus that have made me love the College. Dartmouth’s courses also tend to be very hands-on and immersive. During a weekend trip to the Second College Grant with the Dartmouth Outing Club, I spontaneously joined BIO 16 students as they waded through the river collecting aquatic invertebrates. It was random, but a fun way to learn. For my psych class, we had to spearhead a project involving a project of choice to benefit the community. I chose to lead a Mindfulness and Meditation weekend retreat at John Rand cabin near Moosilauke Lodge, teaching students how to incorporate mindfulness techniques into their fast-paced daily lives.
Dartmouth’s intellectual culture, rooted in its liberal arts foundation, drives students to think critically and engage deeply with complex ideas during class. It also sparks curiosity and encourages practical learning that extends beyond the walls of the classroom.
Additionally, it surprised me when high-calibre guest speakers like Mike Pence began visiting classes, or when I found out students could invite a professor to dine at Pine restaurant. At my home university, you would build relationships with professors primarily through office hours. The broader Ivy League network also creates opportunities for networking and intellectual exchange, with opportunities to attend events or competitions held at other Ivy institutions.
Going on an overnight cabin trip at Harris Cabin, it amazed me that we could wake up in the middle of the woods, only to be back in class by 10As, resuming life as normal. I joined a weekend trip with the DOC to Second College Grant and that was also a cultural shock—that Dartmouth owns 27,000 acres of land available to alumni. Here I encountered peak foliage, seeing the intense hues of yellow, red, and orange. Watching the leaves rain down gave me butterflies and kicking the piles of fallen leaves felt like playing in puddles as a kid.
It is incredible that there is such easy access to nature on-campus, like visiting the Connecticut river to paddle or kayak, walking through Lone Pine Forest, or stargazing at the golf course. Near my university, there are beautiful parks and mountains around, but not integrated into the campus like at Dartmouth. The parks and mountains feel more urban and to get to remote, dense trails and forests, students would need to independently drive further. It is not standard to just pop into the forest just for the night. The easy access to nature at Dartmouth offers the perfect balance and escape from the busy, fast-paced life at Dartmouth. It allows students to transport into a different world of beautiful trees and deers hopping around.
I went to my first frat party at Phi Delta Alpha, and it was exactly as chaotic as I had imagined. Trashy music blared from speakers, sticky floors clung to my shoes, and everything seemed to exist in a blur of noise and motion. As I wandered into Phi Delt’s lounge, I discovered class portraits hung with many young men’s photographs, and, weirdly enough, a dog. Frats, apparently, have dogs here?
Although Greek life does not exist in New Zealand, the party reminded me of my home university's ski club parties at the lodge at Mt. Ruapehu. It involves skiing by day and partying by night. Pong has special rules and the lodge walls are decorated with years of rich history, including last year’s ski club president’s Adidas Stan Smiths pinned up after being used for a succession of shoeys (an NZ/Australian tradition).
The Homecoming football game between Dartmouth vs Harvard — the most anticipated game of the term — was my first football game. A group of buff men next to us in the stands ongoingly screamed and tackled each other playfully, clinking their flasks before yelling at the referee. Football players on the field bumped chests, and the crowd went wild at touchdowns. Although my Dartmouth friends told me that Dartmouth isn't representative of a classic football school, my fellow exchange peers and I all echoed the same sentiment: “This is so American… this feels like a movie.” It still feels surreal to us. The equivalent in NZ would be going to an All Blacks rugby game, where the intensity is just as high, but the atmosphere is different—more about national pride than college spirit. Athletics plays a significant role in campus culture in America, transforming social dynamics.
I also sent my first flitz — a playful, flirty email that felt like something out of a romantic comedy. It was fun to write rhyming lines, add GIFs, and format words playfully. With its cute 2000s love letter vibe, flitzing is unique to Dartmouth, but it also reflects the more open, expressive nature I’ve noticed here in the U.S.
Carving my first pumpkin and going to my first American Halloween party, I think the celebrations were fairly similar to NZ, but just more dramatic, with far more decor, Halloween-themed activities, and multiple nights of celebration. NZ’s Halloween celebrations are less prominent, but students may go to friends’ flats to party. Switching locations requires commuting around the city by Uber, different to frat hopping.
What I have been realizing through all these activities is that it’s not so much the “what” that matters, but the “how”. It’s not about the football game, it’s about the school pride that the football represents. It’s not about the party, it’s about the community that Greek life creates. The American movie version of college is static, often reducing the experience to the story of the jock, the party animal, or the rebel, but at Dartmouth, one’s “football” can be anything.
This leads me onto one of my observations of Dartmouth students which is that they are passionate. Everyone here appears to be passionate about something, has purpose, and is taking action toward that. Dartmouth provides the framework and support to allow that to happen, such as through the well-established clubs and extracurriculars, the alumni networks, the accessible faculty, the research opportunities, and so on. With people’s passion follows expression. I recently watched Lingerie at Tabard, a performance of love, body appreciation, and gender queerness, and the level of talent blew me away, let alone the self-expression and diversity being celebrated. There are endless impressive performances and shows from student bands, comedy groups, dance groups, and so on. Students can pursue whatever they are interested in whether it is different types of performance, activism, politics, the Dartmouth Outing Club, or sports. Everyone is experiencing a different version of life at Dartmouth, but all bonded through the commonality of the school.
There is so much tradition that draws people in and makes them feel a part of something special. For one — , I’ve never used so many acronyms or college-specific slang in my life. I also still remember the fright I got when I was walking around campus at night and the Sun God — (a Dartmouth alum who visits campus in costume —) strolled past me for the first time. During Homecoming weekend, I could feel the circular nature of Dartmouth in celebrating the new freshmen with a cult-like march around the bonfire, surrounded by current students and celebrating visiting alumni. At a community event, I met alumni from the 70s and 80s and heard their stories about pong rules, frats, and classes without women "back in the day”, and now they’ve moved back to Hanover to retire. The traditions create an “insider” feeling, making you a part of a special world within the broader college experience.
The Dartmouth community is incredibly special. People are welcomed in and I’ve felt so integrated into the community since week one. Part of the strong sense of community is also the middle-of-nowhere location which makes student life concentrated on the campus, cabins, and one road down the streets referred to as “in-town”. My home university is integrated with the city, rather than having an enclosed, bubble-like campus. Students often live at home or flat with friends, commuting to campus every day, making student life more sparse.
I feel a deep sense of wonder and appreciation for Dartmouth. It is surreal to experience real-life movie moments and captivating to discover Dartmouth’s unique traditions and rich student life. Although Dartmouth is a singular sample size, based on this experience, the American college experience really does feel like the movie portrayals, although it is much more multi-dimensional than that. It has been everything I expected and more.
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