Evan
There will be classes where the amount of students exceeds 50, but these are very rare. And even in these classes, the professors are still very accessible. I loved my film class in Freshman Fall because my prof actually cared about us and she helped me come up with an awesome idea for my final project. There hasn't been a class I despised yet, so I'm holding my breath. Students tend to study a lot, but are not that competitive. As I said before, I tend to ignore the few competitive students because they are extremely annoying and spend most of their time in library alcoves anyway.
Dartmouth is very much a center for intellectualism. Students will often times have intellectual conversations outside of class, especially if they are taking a course that genuinely interests them (and this is common, even when we have to take distributive requirements.)
Royce
I have good relationships with many of my professors. I may not be the norm, but I have 9 or 10 professors (and yes I am only a sophomore) that I will stop and talk to if I see them. They are very amenable to consultation and try to help you through there classes in any way they can (for the most part)
Education here is geared both towards getting a job and learning for its own sake, it depends on the department.
Jesse
Dartmouth is unique among the Ivies in that it is only an undergraduate institution; it is a college, not a university. While it has excellent Business, Medical, and Engineering schools affiliated with it, Dartmouth is entirely focused on its undergraduates. Because of this, even freshmen get into small classes with excellent professors. The Economics and Government departments are famously large, but even the intro classes in those deparments are usually capped at around fifty students. Aside from those and from large pre-med classes, Dartmouth does a fantastic job at facilitating small class sizes and student-professor mentoring. If you come here, the best advice I can give you is that you should go to office hours with your professor. If you're confused about something, they will work with you until you get it; if you just want to chat about the class, other classes in the department, majors, or life in general, they will be thrilled to hear from you.
Because of the quarter system, Dartmouth students usually only take three courses per term (you can have a limited number of terms with either two or four courses). I personally love this system: your classes end before you ever hit that end of term slump that semesters seem to encourage. However, ten week terms mean that classes move very quickly, and "midterms" last pretty much from the second week to the second to last week of classes. Dartmouth students have to work hard, but the workload is definitely manageable. But the upside to the quarter system is the D-plan, which allows students to choose what terms they want off, what terms they want to be on campus, and what terms they want to participate in study abroad programs. Dartmouth's study abroad programs fantastic, and the system practically begs you to spend at least one term, if not more, abroad.
Sean
Yes, I know professors name and they insist you call them by it. My favorite class was an animation class because the professor (Ehrlich) was inspiring, and each day we would create and eventually showcase our creativity.
Least favorite was Math 18 (Multivariable Calculus). I placed out of the lower levels of math and was put in a class with folks who were better prepared for it. I thought I was a math nerd...turns out I was only a math nerd in suburban Florida.
Students study often. Certain majors (Math, Chemistry, Economics) more than others (English, Film).
Student participation is very common, particularly in non-lecture classes.
Dartmouth students have many intellectual conversations outside of class. Sometimes all-night philosophical discussions, sometimes in discussion groups, heck, I even had intellectual discussions at midnight in the basement of a frat while playing drinking games.
Students can be very competitive. It's how they got into Dartmouth and some don't stop...ever, even after graduation. I tended to hang out with the less competitive bunch (the comedians, film majors, creative folk). But, yes, the math/pre-med/econ majors are very competitive.
Most unique was probably the animation class. It was taught by a world class animator (David Ehrlich) and probably required more work than other class I ever took. But, we were animating cartoons.
Film Studies department at Dartmouth is growing. Now they have a bigger budget and much more resources. When I was there, we had "enough" but nothing more. Editing on steenbecks was a very informative but I prefer the current avids I hear students have access to. The professors of film are very well known in their field. Authorities on Hitchcock (the late Al LaValley) as well as famous screenwriters (Maury Rapf) were a couple that stand out.
I did not spend much time with professors outside of class but I have stayed in touch with a couple. Also, several folks in whichever class DID have a lot of contact with professors.
Dartmouth academic requirements were, across the board, awesome. It's a liberal arts education so you have to take a little of everything and a lot of your major. It was challenging but rewarding.
Education at Dartmouth is to prepare you for the world for your own sake. Certain corporate recruiters come to campus to get Dartmouth students but, in general, Dartmouth is educating you to help you.