Welcome! I'm Olivia Koo '26, hailing from Los Alamos, New Mexico. I hope to study biochemistry on the pre-health track, and I'm excited to supplement it with music, as a classical musician and songwriter! Some of my favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos about my favorite TV shows, fiddling on my guitar, and reading New York Times op-eds.
Unsure whether I would enjoy the biology-heavy pre-health track, I took an intro biology class. I surprisingly found myself so invested each class—I didn’t think I’d ever be excited trying to determine if the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) had DNA or RNA, but here we are! I found it a great introduction to thinking processes at Dartmouth.
I loved coming to this class with its supportive environment! The professor's feedback really helped me improve in my writing. This course guided us through personal narratives and organizational writing while discussing what it really means to be authentic. It also introduced me to the library’s resources for writing and research!
This class was definitely not easy! The accelerated version of general chemistry, it was my first class at Dartmouth that used a textbook, and I had to adapt and learn how to use a textbook for a class properly. But that didn't mean I didn't have a good time! The classes were full of physical demonstrations, and I felt very supported in the lab and beyond.
This was the first group music class I took, and I loved it! Each class we'd move a little forward in time; one day we'd talk about medieval chants, and by the next couple weeks, we talked about Baroque music. We even got to observe original medieval music scores from the Rauner Library, and attend a performance of Baroque music by the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra!
Songwriting 1 was the first time I was able to work on something creative/in the arts at Dartmouth, and I really loved it! I got to learn how to improve my songwriting and get to know a community of fellow songwriters on campus. The class was both supportive and constructive, and I pushed myself to my creative limit with the assignment of writing one new song a week. This class inspired me to continue writing and being expressive, whether in an academic setting or not.
Happy New Year! Plans and Hopes for a Dartmouth Sophomore
Welcome to 2024! I hope that the application season for '28s went well; congratulations to those who have been accepted early! Here's a sight that awaits you next winter:
So snowy!
2024 is an exciting year for me; for the first time, I'll have a full year of school! Due to the D-Plan, in which students can choose the terms in which they are enrolled, my plan for 2024 is to be enrolled for all four terms (winter, spring, summer, and fall)!
The D-Plan continues to surprise me with the effect it has on the campus. Because not everyone is on campus at the same time due to unique D-Plans, there have been terms when I haven't seen some of my peers. Dartmouth's robust study-abroad programs add to this phenomenon, as students who are still enrolled can be far away from campus. As a result, the early part of the term always includes puzzling out which faces I see on campus and those which I don't. Despite that, it's exciting to see a friend that you haven't seen in a long time! I'm excited to see my friends who are "off" (away from campus) in future terms.
The D-Plan also impacts my education plans—because specific classes are not offered every term, I've been viewing when classes that I need to take are offered to make sure that I am "on" for those terms—this is why, as of right now, I plan to take classes during the fall term of 2024.
Most importantly, however, the D-Plan strongly recommends that students take at least one term during the summer, especially during their sophomore year, called Sophomore Summer. It's a beloved tradition among Dartmouth students, and I am interested to see what the fuss is all about.
But just because I'm "on" for all four terms doesn't guarantee that I'm on campus for the entire year. For my spring term, I plan to attend the London Foreign Study Program for music! During this FSP, I'll get to live in student housing in London for a term, attending concerts and taking piano lessons with an instructor in London. I'm very excited about the opportunity, and I hope that it's a nice change of scenery from Hanover!
It's interesting to reflect upon the different position I was in a year ago, at the beginning of my first winter at Dartmouth. Dartmouth, then, was still very new to me; the possibilities endless in what I could study and do. This year, it seems that the path has narrowed somewhat, but not in a negative way at all; instead, I feel that there is a bit more focus in the direction I hope to explore and a bit more purpose behind my actions (or at least, I hope so). I'm looking forward to combining my interests in science and music, but I'm just as excited to continue pushing out of my comfort zone while maintaining my well-being. Who knows what the next term will bring?
Until next time!
For my first week, I got to sit in at a small bluegrass concert!
It's easy to forget how easy it is to access walking trails during the hustle of a Dartmouth term. As graduation nears, I am reminded of how special it is to step off campus and enjoy quiet moments in nature.
With a solar eclipse sweeping across North America for the first time in nearly seven years on April 8th came a road-trip with hundreds of other Dartmouth students to a zone of totality near campus: St. Johnsbury, Vermont!
Over half of Dartmouth students study abroad at least once during their undergraduate journeys—quite a high percentage, right? Do you want to know how to best prepare for your own abroad experience? Come check what it was like for me.
