In each issue of 3D, we ask a current senior to reflect on a question they answered in their undergraduate application: "As you seek admission to Dartmouth's incoming class, what aspects of the College's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? In short, why Dartmouth?" Here, Sydney Wuu '24 revisits that prompt in her final year at the College. Now a Senior Fellow in the Office of Admissions, Sydney serves as an ambassador for Dartmouth to prospective students in their college search.
What do you want to be when you grow up? As a kid, that "big question" was tough for me. My answer always fluctuated—some days I wanted to be a doctor, others an author, and occasionally a businesswoman. I knew I wanted to make a positive change in the world, but I never felt married to one particular path. As I approached the end of high school and the start of college, the "big question" became: What are you majoring in?
When researching colleges to apply to, I knew I wanted a school that would encourage me to dabble in the arts, sciences, and humanities. I was drawn to Dartmouth's liberal arts curriculum because it would allow me to try different disciplines and pursue what felt right.
On move-in day in 2020, I looked up at Russell Sage Hall, my new college residence hall, as a wide-eyed, curious, undecided first-year. Coming from the suburbs of Los Angeles, Hanover's tall pines and four distinct seasons represented a new world that I was eager to explore.
Though I came in with many unanswered questions, Dartmouth has since supported me each step of the way along my journey of self-discovery. I didn't take a single environmental studies class in high school, but learning about human-ocean interactions in Professor Webster's Marine Policy class my sophomore fall inspired me to make environmental studies my major. Professor Staiger's International Trade course, my first non-prerequisite class in economics, showed me I love pondering the applications of quantitative models to study big questions about why nations trade and export what they export. When it came time to settle on my majors during sophomore winter, I decided to follow my newfound interests and declare a second major in economics.
If my 18-year-old move-in-ready self could see 21-year-old Sydney now, she would be so proud she carved her own nonlinear path. Dartmouth has made it possible for me to intern at an aquarium in coastal Connecticut; balance in warrior pose atop a paddleboard on a trip with Dartmouth's Ledyard Canoe Club; join the women's club water polo team; co-author an academic research paper through Dartmouth's Energy Justice Clinic; study economics in London on an exchange program; embark on an environmental studies Foreign Study Program to South Africa and Namibia—and many, many other spontaneous adventures.
At Dartmouth, I realized it is more than okay not to know what my next step in life is at every moment. My advice to the high school Class of 2024: Spend your senior year reflecting inwards on what your top values are, what moments make you the happiest, and which subjects in school you could stay up for hours pondering. Ask yourself the "big question:" Which colleges align with that self-reflection? And importantly—don't forget to soak up the last chapter of your high school experience to the fullest. You've got this!
