Hey everyone! I'm Cooper from Wayne, Pennsylvania, which is right outside of Philadelphia. I am a '28 here at Dartmouth, and plan on studying Quantitative Social Science and Cognitive Science. In my free time, I love getting food with friends, playing pickleball, watching sitcoms (personal favorite is Modern Family), and going on walks. I am super excited to be here and cannot wait to take you along my journey at Dartmouth!
I cannot believe that classes are almost done and finals are coming up. It genuinely seems like yesterday that I moved in and began my journey at Dartmouth! When people tell you the term flies by, that is not an exaggeration. When it comes to your first term at Dartmouth, I highly recommend taking classes that just seem interesting. You will have so much time to fulfill major and minor requirements, but take your first term to explore the many departments at Dartmouth.
And because we are almost done with the term, I think it is time to give a review of my three classes!
PHIL 01.08(Philosophy of Time and Time Travel): This class takes place on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:10-11:15 and fulfills the TMV distribution requirement. We have learned everything from the history of time to whether or not time travel is possible, and wow is this class amazing. I have never in my life been in a class where I have been so incredibly mind blown by the content we are learning. Professor Binkoski is truly unbelievable and makes the class so engaging and interesting. My favorite topic we have learned from this class is special relativity, the idea that everyone's concept of simultaneity is different. I highly recommend this to anyone whether they are a philosophy major or not because it is super interesting and you will undoubtedly learn something new! Will never stop recommending this course!
The Irving Institute, which is where my philosophy class takes place!
GOVT 003(The American Political System): This class takes place on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:30 - 12:35 and fulfills both the W and SOC distribution requirements. I absolutely adore this class. Not only is this class very engaging (all thanks to Professor Mahoney being an incredible lecturer!), but taking it during the 2024 election season made it so much more interesting. If you really liked AP U.S. Government in high school, I highly recommend this class. It touches upon the history of our government as well as how it functions today, and it has taught me some amazing new information about our country. We were tasked with writing our own op-ed on a topic of our choice, and that was certainly the highlight of the class!
The Rockefeller Center (or Rocky for short), which is where my government class takes place!
LING 001(Introductory Linguistics): This class takes place on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2:10 - 3:15 and fulfills the QDS requirement. So many people have asked how does a linguistics class fulfill that requirement and trust me, it is incredibly deductive! This class is more like a math class than it is an English class which definitely surprised me but in a good way. I like to think of the work we do in class as puzzles where we analyze data sets of languages and have to find patterns amongst them. There are three main sections of this class: phonetics, morphology, and historical linguistics. All three of them are super cool and engaging! Professor Pulju is so funny and helpful and makes the class as entertaining as it is. Take this class!!!
Anonymous Hall, which is where my linguistics class takes place!
All in all, it is undeniable that I have loved all of my classes this term—and I cannot wait for the classes that I will take in the winter term
Walking through Dartmouth's vibrant fall foliage and reflecting on my Sophomore Fall experiences underscored the importance of community and embracing opportunities.
One of the staple characteristics of the D-Plan is the off-term, a term in which you are not taking classes! Most students at Dartmouth will take at least one off-term, and this winter happens to be my turn! What will I be doing?
