The end of Sophomore Summer has arrived, and with it has come a palpable student panic that Dartmouth’s greatest term is now a memory.  Even from my first tours at Dartmouth as a high-school junior, the words “Sophomore Summer” represented an experience that was supposed to epitomize Dartmouth itself.  No other school could provide students with such a unique summer filled with low-key classes, beautiful weather, and non-stop social events.  From the gushes of tour guides to the stories of Sophomore Summer “veterans,” the phrase became synonymous with the best that the undergraduate experience could hope to offer.  Yet as I look back on my own experience with 09X, I am more surprised by the unexpected realities of Dartmouth’s “greatest term.”

First off, for those hoping to buy in to Sophomore Summer as a time filled with incessant sunshine and perfect conditions, 09X provided a quick gut-check to most students’ hopes by bringing rain showers as frequent as they were intense.  While this year’s Sophomore Summer was still drier than last year’s, many a walk across campus fell victim to freak showers that appeared and disappeared over the course of minutes.  Mother Nature played a fickle mistress for much of the summer, and while conditions improved toward mid-July and August, many students had already given up their dream of spending every waking moment getting facetime and a tan simultaneously.

Beyond the weather, class itself proved more than a surprise, as well.  Complaints about the difficulty of Classics 4 and Astronomy 2/3 could be heard from seemingly every corner of campus.  A new Classics 4 played spoiler to many students’ expectations of an easy A, while Astronomy provided its own problems for the scientifically challenged.  Economics 26 with Professor Cohen was a different beast altogether.  Knowing who the professor would call on in Econ. 26 on a particular day became even more important than knowing which Greek house was throwing an upcoming party, as brutal tales of public embarrassment and failure provided a sickening undertone to campus gossip.  Over the course of ten weeks, Econ. 26 evolved to become a monster of a course many future students will likely view with trepidation.  In combination with the annual group of students confined to the perils of summer organic chemistry, Dartmouth lost an unexpectedly large number of otherwise carefree students to academic paranoia.  

Of course, Sophomore Summer played host to a plethora of the outdoor barbecues and all night dance parties students expected, as well.  Sig-Ep’s annual foam party went off with great success, and a majority of Sophomore Summer social traditions lived up to the hype that had been created around them.  Even Dartmouth’s seminal Sophomore Summer ritual, a campus-wide pong tournament featuring the best pong-players from each Greek house, brought students out in masses.  Or, at least it did according to numerous rumors and conversations, the majority of which are largely misinformed and unsubstantiated.  Surely.

Without question, 09X provided much of the fun most students expected from Sophomore Summer.  However, beyond the extra outdoor parties and afternoon trips to the river, the different campus dynamic generated by the dearth of upper and under-classmen set 09X apart.  A Junior or Senior will tell you that Sophomore Summer is about nothing but drinking, but many overlook the more personal feel that the absence of some 3,000 other students creates.  As a Sophomore in the summer, you are no longer a nameless face among the crowd.  Every person you meet and every friend you see triggers a subtle, mutual recognition that you both share a common identity as ‘11s.  You do not float through the on-campus organizations you participate in, but rather often play a more central part in those groups.  In effect, Sophomores come to own campus during Sophomore Summer, and this ownership magnifies every aspect of the summer term experience.  Large fraternity or sorority parties become significantly more fun once you realize that a close friend, not a random “sweet dude” or girl, is hosting the event.  Conversely, strained relationships or botched morning-after communications become that much more painful when you realize that the person you’re trying to avoid or the person trying to avoid you will run into you in the FoCo line at least twice a day.  Discussions about the new aims of President Kim become far more real once you realize you or your friends are suddenly leading organizations that impact day to day life for nearly the entire campus.

Sophomore Summer is more than merely an opportunity for alcohol-soaked afternoons and hedonistic escapism.  The summer term is a lens that magnifies every action one takes on campus.  The parties become that much more memorable as every Sophomore joins in.  The day spent on the green or down by the river gains that much more significance when one can share the feeling with another who is at the exact same point in their Dartmouth experience.  Memories from Sophomore Summer are made not solely by the experiences themselves, but rather by the sharing of those experiences with the only people who can relate to where you are and where you are headed.

So when you graduate and find yourself telling someone about your own Sophomore Summer, tell he or she about the parties you threw and the days you spent wasting the summer away.  The reality of Sophomore Summer extends beyond these parties and experiences, but the greatest term at Dartmouth is something that can only be understood once you’ve made it to the other side of summer.