Dartmouth, a
liberal arts institution, offers a four-year
Bachelor of Arts and an ABET-accredited
Bachelor of Engineering degree to undergraduate students. The Economics Department, whose prominent professors include
David Blanchflower,
Andrew Samwick, and
Diego Comin, among others, also holds the distinction as the top-ranked bachelor's-only economics program in the world. Dartmouth served as the host member of the
University Press of New England from its founding in 1970 until its closure in 2018.
Research Dartmouth College is a research institution designated by the
Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as having "very high research activity". In 2019, Dartmouth College was elected to the
Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of 69 research universities. Faculty members have been at the forefront of such major academic developments as the
Dartmouth Workshop, the
Dartmouth Time-Sharing System,
Dartmouth BASIC, and
Dartmouth ALGOL 30. In 2005, sponsored project awards to Dartmouth faculty research amounted to $169 million. The
Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which was approved in 2021, was based on findings that originated in a science lab at the college. In 2024, researchers at Dartmouth received a $31.3 million grant from the federal government to further their study of prostate cancer. In 2025, Dartmouth received approximately $97 million worth of funding from the
National Institutes of Health.
Rankings Dartmouth was ranked 12th among undergraduate programs at national universities by
U.S. News & World Report in its 2022 rankings.
U.S. News also ranked the school 3rd best for veterans, tied for 5th best in undergraduate teaching, and 7th for "best value" national universities. Dartmouth's undergraduate teaching was previously ranked 1st by
U.S. News for five years in a row (2009–2013). Dartmouth College is
accredited by the
New England Commission of Higher Education. In
Forbes 2019 rankings of 650 universities, liberal arts colleges and service academies, Dartmouth ranked 10th overall and 10th in research universities. In the
Forbes 2018 "grateful graduate" rankings, Dartmouth came in first for the second year in a row. The 2021
Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked Dartmouth among the 90–110th best universities in the nation.
Admissions Undergraduate admission to Dartmouth College is characterized by the Carnegie Foundation and
U.S. News & World Report as "most selective". The
Princeton Review, in its 2024 edition, gave the university an admissions selectivity rating of 99 out of 99. For the freshman class entering Fall 2023, Dartmouth received a record 28,841 applications of which 6.2% were accepted, consistent with the prior two years; approximately 67% of those accepted are expected to matriculate. Of those admitted students who reported class rank, 444 were ranked first or second in their class, while 96% ranked in the top decile. The admitted students' academic profile showed an all-time high SAT average score of 1501, while the average composite ACT score remained at 33. Additionally, for the 2016–2017 academic year, Dartmouth received 685 transfer applications of which 5.1% were accepted, with an average SAT composite score of 1490, average composite ACT score of 34, and average college GPA of about 3.85. Dartmouth meets 100% of students' demonstrated financial need in order to attend the college, and currently admits all students, including internationals, on a
need-blind basis. In 2020, Dartmouth made it optional for students applying to the college to submit their
SAT scores due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, the college became the first Ivy League school to announce that it would once again require applicants to submit their test scores.
Financial aid Dartmouth guarantees to meet 100% of the demonstrated need of every admitted student who applies for financial aid at the time of admission. Dartmouth is one of seven American universities to practice international need-blind admissions. This means that all applicants, including U.S. permanent residents, undocumented students in the U.S., and international students, are admitted to the college without regard to their financial circumstances. At Dartmouth, free tuition is provided for students from families with total incomes of $125,000 or less and possessing typical assets. Dartmouth is also one of a few U.S. universities to eliminate undergraduate student loans and replace them with expanded scholarship grants. In 2015, $88.8 million (~$ in ) in need-based scholarships were awarded to Dartmouth students. The median family income of Dartmouth students is $200,400, with 58% of students coming from the top 10% highest-earning families and 14% from the bottom 60%. However, a 2022 article from
The Dartmouth disputes the college's claims by saying the following: "To put it all together with the $9 million of student debt from the Class of 2021, this change in Dartmouth policy, hailed as "eliminat[ing] loans for undergraduate students" actually eliminated only about a quarter—27.4% to be exact—of student loans for undergraduate students. So, while Dartmouth gets glowing coverage in news publications across the country, 72.6% of the debt it saddles its students with remains." In March 2024, the estate of
Glenn Britt gifted over $150 million to Dartmouth to enable students from middle-income families to attend the college for free.
The Dartmouth Plan Dartmouth functions on a quarter system, operating year-round on four ten-week
academic terms. The Dartmouth Plan (or simply "D-Plan") is an academic scheduling system that permits the customization of each student's academic year. All undergraduates are required to be in residence for the fall, winter, and spring terms of their freshman year and two terms of their senior year, as well as the summer term of their sophomore year. During all terms, students are permitted to choose between studying on-campus, studying at an off-campus program, or taking a term off for vacation, outside internships, or research projects. UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region. == Campus ==