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Photo of my friends and I posing in front of one of the Panels in the Orozco mural room for our writing class.

10, 11, 12

"Wait what?" My first response when students began to describe their class periods as set numbers. At Dartmouth, classes have an associated time block that usually covers a fifty minute period. Certain classes only meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while others meet longer yet solely on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The introductory language courses often gather more consistently throughout the week to give students the time to practice their language skills to the maximum extent. STEM courses include labs, lecture, and office hours to balance out the workload. 

So it may seem that the time spent with your professor is short, but the learning is pretty constant! 

This term, I am taking three courses that fall into the 10, 11, and 12 blocks meaning that my mornings are filled with lessons, while my afternoons are free. As someone who has always been more of an early bird, I really enjoy this schedule as it allows me to take my classes during the periods of the day I have the most energy. But do not worry, Dartmouth offers a wide arrange of times to meet so you do not have to start your day too early.

Photo of the Dartmouth Timetable that showcases all the potential times to meet for classes.
Yup, this is the Dartmouth Timetable! Which time blocks would you most like to have during your term?

My first course is an amazing class titled "Maid in America", a class cross listed between the Women and Gender Studies Department and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department. It discusses the politics of domestic labor, we analyze how caregivers and elderly care are treated. This class implements movies, plays, and other pieces of film to help facilitate our learning as it obtains an art disbursement. This class consists of twenty students. A typical day has included us discussing the articles or films we read previously. 

After that class is done, I walk across the street to my economics class. This class is an introductory course, about 40 students are taking the class this term. Professor Gracic is teaching her second term at Dartmouth and is super informative; we bonded over experiencing our first winter and coming up with different ways to try and find the fun with it. Something I really appreciate in this class is all the office hours that are available outside of the scheduled class time, allowing students to ask questions from previous lectures or problem sets. Once we are done learning about supply and demand, I usually walk past the beautiful Dartmouth Green to Dartmouth Hall.

However, today my writing class is meeting somewhere a little different today! The Orozco Mural Rooms located in the basement of the Baker Berry Library will be our classroom for today. This writing class focuses on the history of Dartmouth's establishment. The Orozco murals highlight the attention that Dartmouth gives to Mexican American and Native culture. We are currently studying the negative feedback that they originally received from the Dartmouth alumni and how this response fueled the creation of the Hovey murals. Writing classes tend to be much smaller, with approximately 16 students each—forming a close community in these types of classes comes pretty naturally. 

Photo of my friends and I posing in front of one of the Panels in the Orozco mural room for our writing class.

Shoutout to some of my classmates who are also taking the Foundations of Dartmouth. They really are what make the class even more enjoyable.

As a student, I enjoy the faster pace environment that forces us to specialize our skills into certain time periods. The 10 week Dartmouth term converts into almost a 9 week term during the winter. If you are someone who is able to adjust and can quickly pick up on new lessons, then the term is perfect for you. However, if you are not someone who can not really handle the fast pace schedule, know that there is support on campus. The Academic Skills Center offers some helpful study advice. The STEM courses offer many times to meet to review the material as well. Overall, I have learned it is extremely important to have a game plan for each term as what works one term may not work the next. 

Although these courses may only meet for three hours total, the additional preparation to be successful within them may take some more attention of your day. So yes, at Dartmouth we only take three courses each term, but I can assure you that you are not missing out on any learning opportunities!

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