Howdy! My name is Crystal and I'm a '28 from 1899.2 miles away in Fulshear, Texas hoping to study Biology on the pre-health track. Outside of being on the grind in my classes at Dartmouth, I enjoy dancing (poorly and with dance groups on campus), cooking (microwave oatmeal), and taking Buzzfeed quizzes to find out what breakfast food I am. While I'll miss Bucc-ee's and brisket from my native state, I'm beyond excited to explore all that the woods have to offer! Hopefully I'll see y'all around!
Chem 11 is my first pre-health course (and consequently my favorite course thus far); I came into Chem 11 with a bit of apprehension over what to expect since the course takes the place of the two-course alternative Chem 5 and 6 sequence. I’ll admit, there was a bit of a learning curve, especially since I hadn’t taken chemistry since junior year of high school, but Prof. Wenlin Zhang’s office hours have become an excellent way for me to gain a better grasp of the course content and work with other students through new concepts. I’m super glad that I chose this course for my first fall!
My First-Year Seminar, a Dartmouth requirement for all first-year students, concerns poetry that has a unique focus on the visual nature of the work. From pieces that cover an actual description of a work of art, to pieces that form a unique shape, we discuss how form can have a meaningful impact on the interpretation of the poem itself. I originally wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy this class since my experience with poetry is pretty sparse, but I found myself really enjoying the analytical discussions that we have. Features of the class include trips to the Hood Museum of Art and the Book Arts Workshop!
So You Want to Join the Woods: All About the Peer Letter of Recommendation (Part Six)
By this point, you've made it to the other side of your application! But if you check your application portal, you may notice a section that asks you to upload a peer letter of recommendation.
A what letter of recommendation?
A unique component of your application at Dartmouth, the peer letter of recommendation, was one of the most interesting features of my Dartmouth application experience. (After all, Dartmouth is one of few schools who grants students the opportunity to submit a peer recommendation) Accepted after the initial application submission, preferably within ten days, the peer recommendation is exactly what it sounds like it is, a letter of recommendation written and submitted by someone you consider to be a peer. In the past, students have had peer letters of recommendation submitted by close friends, teammates, lab partners, and everything in between!
Personally, I asked one of my closest friends, Ashley, to write my recommendation letter with the simple instructions to write about our friendship. Within a week, she had submitted it to the application portal. In short, it's a pretty simple process that allows Dartmouth to get a better understanding of who you are.
Ashley and I circa 2011! #4lifers
I think the application process itself can seem somewhat scary (at least it was for me!), so I found the fact that Dartmouth wanted to hear from someone who was a peer to be pretty comforting. While I certainly find the regular letters of recommendation to be a pretty good gauge of how I am as a student, I thought that the peer letter of recommendation offered a greater degree of closeness that gave the Dartmouth admissions team a more authentic perspective of me as a person. After all, once you join campus, you become so much more than a student in a classroom, you become a part of a larger community, a value that I feel Dartmouth emphasizes through its implementation of the peer letter of recommendation.
So should you submit a peer recommendation? I certainly found it to be helpful! While I want to emphasize that submitting the peer recommendation is completely optional and won't impact your application if you don't, I personally wanted to take this unique opportunity to show Dartmouth through the lens of a close friend!
For more information on the peer letter of recommendation, feel free to check out the Dartmouth Admissions website or this article published in 3D Magazine, the semiannual magazine by the admissions office!
As a fun addition, here's the video Dartmouth posted of '28s who read out their peer recommendations from this past admissions cycle!
This winter break, I spent eight days participating in the TuckLAB: Energy Program before heading back to home. In this blog, I'd like to share more about what TuckLAB Energy is about, and why I decided to participate in it.
Dartmouth hosts a variety of speaker events, bringing experts from politics, journalism, and academia to campus. The 2024 Election Speaker Series featured figures such as Mike Pence, Elbridge Colby, and Ben Rhodes.
Having grown a little more accustomed to the single-digit temperatures in Fahrenheit, I decided to spend my three-day weekend participating in a campus-wide snowball fight.
