Brendilou Armstrong

Open Doors with Gabe Brigham '26

Welcome back to Open Doors—your inside look at life in the Woods! This week, Gabe Brigham '26, a psychology and sociology double major on the pre-health track, showed me around his room in his on-campus apartment. I sat down with him to discuss all things Dartmouth residence halls, classes, and campus life.

Q: Who are you?

A: I'm Gabe. I'm a '26 from Goffstown, New Hampshire, which is an hour and a half down from here. I am a psychology and sociology major on the pre-medicine track. I'm a learning fellow for introductory sociology courses. I'm on the Nathan Smith Society Board, which is the pre-health umbrella that covers pre-vet, pre-dental, and pre-med. 

I am also involved in several research projects on campus, all with the Geisel School of Medicine. One of them is called the Voices Study; it is an audio recording of patients with dementia and primary care doctor visits to see if doctors are eliciting conversation in what has been deemed to be an optimal way. I'm in another study that prescreens maternal health in rural areas to predict long-term genetic outcomes of children.

Q: How have you been able to pursue your interests at Dartmouth? This can relate to academics or hobbies you've developed outside of the classroom.

A: I think that there is an organization for everything, and there's a happening for everything you can imagine. In my time at Dartmouth, I've been able to get down to my most niche academic interest. At one point, I was doing research on novel drug science. I was conducting research about LSD therapy for treatment-resistant mental disorders, which is a very niche research topic, I think. 

Outside of professional pursuits, there's a community for everything. I used to box very regularly my freshman year, and that club was always very vibrant—at least 20 people there, three times a week, so that was cool. There's pick-up basketball practically every day. That's pretty great.

Q: What's been your favorite class you've taken at Dartmouth thus far, and why?

A: Sociology 062, "Love, Romance, Intimacy, and Dating" with Professor Katherine Lively, was the best. It talked about a sociological perspective on the modern issues of romantic relationships. We talked about 2025 studies on "situationships," which you would never think could be turned academic, but it was very cool. I ended up becoming pretty close with that professor, and she now advises my thesis.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit more about your thesis?

A: For my sociology thesis, I'm modeling radicalization in younger men through rhetorical analysis of three popular right-wing influencers. I'm doing a rhetorical analysis on three distinct speech patterns of Donald Trump, Andrew Tate, and Jordan Peterson to see if I can quantify their appeal to young men. 

My psychology thesis is on stereotype threat and the idea that legacy students tend to predict that first-generation students feel worse about themselves than they actually do, and thus treat them in accordance to that worse prediction. And vice versa. This fuels this isolation across generational statuses, which makes it so people experience different versions of Dartmouth.

Q: Tell me about your room now! How does it reflect your personality?

A: I'm a big fan of my little makeshift coffee bar. I'm pretty adamant about waking up early and getting to FoCo (short for "food court," when referring to the main dining hall on campus; its official name is the Class of 1953 Commons) right when it opens. The first thing I do every morning is make coffee. It's a nice, slow, quiet start to the morning.

Gabe's room features a makeshift coffee bar, complete with an espresso scale, a kettle, and a pour-over coffee maker.

I am pretty maximalist with my decorations on the wall. I did the same thing my freshman year. My idea behind it was, if I put up a million things on the wall—all of which I'm interested in and could talk about at length—and someone saw something on the wall that they were into, we would have an immediate common interest. It's not often that I have strangers in my room anymore, but it's still something that I get to look at and think, "oh, this was something cool that I did."

There's stuff here that came from Past Lives, the movie. It was one of my favorite movies when it came out. There are a lot of Community photos on the wall. Community is my favorite TV show of all time. There are several Gracie Abrams pictures on the wall. I've seen her in concert four times, and I've never paid for any of those. I just happened to make friends who had concert tickets, and I've been lucky enough to get those.

Gabe acquired a wide range of posters and photo prints based on his favorite movies, TV shows, and musicians.

Q: Where else have you lived on campus, and which dorm did you like the best?

A: My first dorm was in Brown Hall—that's on Choate Road. It was charming in its own way. The Choates are sort of known around campus as good community builders. That's where I met some of my best friends. My randomly assigned roommate is still one of my best friends at Dartmouth. We lived in Brown 102D, which was the corner dorm, so we had two windows when most people in our hall had one. So, that was pretty great.

Then, in my sophomore year, we moved to Mid Massachusetts Hall, which was right next to Foco, and that was probably my favorite room I've ever had. It was a two-room triple, and I was lucky enough to win the single. That was a great dorm. I was living with my freshman roommate and another boy who lived on our dorm floor in Brown that year. 

Then I moved to North Mass during my junior year, which is another two-room triple. I ended up moving out after one term to get my own single in Smith Hall. That room was great. It was right next to the gym, which was very helpful. 

Now I live in Channing Cox, which is a senior apartment building. I live with three other roommates here. Each of us has our own room. It has a kitchen, a living room, and our own bathroom. Serendipitously, on move-in day, I found out that my two previous roommates from sophomore and junior year live right across from me. That was entirely unplanned, but definitely a happy coincidence.

Q: Why do you think Dartmouth's housing communities build such strong relationships?

A: It's the lowest level of entry to making friends freshman year, which is really nice, because transitioning to college is a very stressful and scary time. Having a built-in community right away is really nice. 

The fact that you have mandatory floor meetings with your UGA [undergraduate advisor—similar to an RA elsewhere] every week, and the fact that everyone's moving in at the same time… you're bound to bump into people. It's worth it to build enduring friendships where you live.

Q: Any advice for prospective students?

A: I think that it's important to recognize that the people that are here are here for a reason. They're likely going to be the most unique group of people you'll ever have the privilege of having in your entire life. It's easy to forget once you get here that you were special in the first place, and everyone else around you is special, because it sort of just becomes your norm. 

But if you remember that, it's very easy to feel compelled to get the most out of your experience here, because there are so many fascinating people and fascinating experiences just waiting for you.

That's it for this week's Open Doors! Thanks, Gabe, for sharing your time and space with us. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.