A small New England state located in far northeast of the United States, New Hampshire is largely characterized by mountains, lakes, and forests.
It will appeal, therefore, to fans of the outdoors. Tourism is the state’s second largest industry, with punters flocking in to indulge in some winter sports, swim in its crystalline waters in the summer months, or just take in the beautiful fall colours.
Its natural beauty means that it is a famously inspiring state. Poet Robert Frost and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens are among the high profile artists who were moved to create some of their best known work by New Hampshire's charm.
It even has its own artists’ colony – the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, which having been founded 1907 is one of the country’s oldest.
Despite all this stirring nature, New Hampshire isn’t just an untamed wilderness, and though it isn’t the most densely populated state, neither is it devoid of people.
Most of the population is concentrated towards the south of the state, in cities like Manchester situated at the northern end of the ‘Northeast Megalopolis’ (the almost consistent urban area running from Washington DC, through Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, and up to Boston), picturesque Portsmouth and Boston suburb town Nashua.
These are all modestly sized towns by anyone’s standards and college towns Hanover and Durham are even smaller. If you’re looking for the thrill of a pulsating metropolis you’d be advised to look elsewhere. However if it’s a more peaceful, humble and aesthetically pleasing experience you’re after…
New Hampshire: Fast facts
• New Hampshire has a population of 1.3 million – around the same as Memphis, Tennessee alone
• The Mount Washington Observatory has labelled Mount Washington, New Hampshire ‘Home of the World’s Worst Weather’
• The state is named after the southern English county of Hampshire
• New Hampshire is represented by one of the 13 stripes on the US flag as it was one of the original 13 colonies to break away from British rule
• New Hampshire is known for being the most conservative of New England states, and has one of the lowest tax rates in the country (residents do no pay income or sales tax)
• The New Hampshire primary (in which the US’s two biggest political parties choose their candidates for the presidential election on the basis of who wins the most states) is required by state law to be the first in the country
• Famous New Hampshirites include wrestler Triple H, authors JD Salinger (though he was born elsewhere) and Dan Brown, and singer/actress Mandy Moore
• In 1719, the first potato planted in the United States was planted in Londonderry, New Hampshire
Top universities in New Hampshire
New Hampshire’s only ranked institution is of course its most famous, Dartmouth College. Ranking at 99 in the 2011, this Hanover-based Ivy League institution is one of the oldest in the country, dating from before the Declaration of Independence.
Dartmouth is the smallest Ivy League institution, with an undergraduate student body of only around 4,250, which obviously makes gaining admittance extra competitive. It is a college rather than a university, so the focus is on an undergraduate liberal arts education. It does, however, also have separate schools for medicine, engineering and business.
The prestigious university has trained three Nobel Prize winners, the CEOs of eBay, Hasbro and AT&T, 11 Pulitzer Prize winners (including Robert Frost), and countless political figures.
Dartmouth is completely need-blind for all students, domestic and international, meaning that, so long as a student is able, the college will make up any fees they cannot afford. It is also notable for being the location of one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous speeches (‘Towards Freedom').
The state’s flagship public institution, the University of New Hampshire, is based in the rural town of Durham. It is a Sea, Space and Land Grant university.
It is primarily an undergraduate institution, serving 12,000 students at Bachelors level, with a further 2,500 graduate students bolstering the student body. Over 100 majors are available at the university.
It has been called one of the most entrepreneurial universities in the country by the Princeton Review, and is also known for being sustainable.
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