New Hampshire Woman Mistakes Dartmouth for Landscaping Company, Confused by Complexity and Length of Application Process

Following Dartmouth University’s recent rebranding, a New Hampshire resident applied to the university thinking that it was a landscaping company.

Deborah Walsh, 51, was born in Nashua, NH, and has spent virtually her entire life in her hometown. When her state’s famed university decided to change its logo for no apparent reason, she was sent on an unfortunate journey through the college application process.

“I just needed my hedges trimmed, so I went online and clicked on this link with a big ugly ‘D’. Before I knew it, I was filling out something called 'The Common Application' and writing an essay about the darkest moments of my life. All of this just for trimmed hedges,” she said.

Walsh isn’t the only one to suffer as a result of Dartmouth’s logo change. The university itself may soon leave the Ivy League, following a message from Penn's very own President Gutmann.

In a statement to all students on the Ivy League Listserv, she wrote, “Dartmouth’s recent move to rebrand resulted in an ugly (and frankly pathetic) logo. This reminds all of us here at Penn and Wharton of one of the darkest moments in marketing history: when Gap changed its iconic logo to what looked like an unfinished piece of modern art. Effective immediately, Penn will be trying to remove Dartmouth from the Ivy League until its logo no longer looks like the Stanford’s inbred cousin from Appalachia.”

In the end, though, Dartmouth fell for Deborah’s innocent charm and shocking past, and she became the oldest person ever accepted as an undergrad. But for Walsh, the letter of acceptance was rather mundane, as she merely thought she would finally get her (now rampant and overgrown) hedges trimmed. She was also mildly peeved that she had to wait three months to hear back.

Once she learned that Dartmouth was actually a prestigious university and not a high-end landscaping business, Walsh was at first excited, but that excitement turned to shame as she feared being associated with such a poorly branded institution.