My name is Eva, and I'm a '25 Mechanical Engineering BE student from Upstate New York. My time at Dartmouth has been marked by the combination of the arts and engineering on campus and you can often find me working on a new project in either the Dartmouth Engineering Machine Shop or Visual Arts Center. In my free time, I love to work on lego sets and watch the craziest reality tv I can find!
Being in an academically rigorous college means, well, academically rigorous classes. Thankfully, Dartmouth has ways to help everyone succeed.
It is commonly known here that the prerequisites for engineering can be super tough for students, especially during freshman year since students are still getting used to the environment, making friends, and figuring out the best ways to handle a college level course load. The main resource that has been helping me through this are TA (which stands for teacher's assistant) sessions.
There are two kinds of TA sessions that I attend. The ones specifically set up for my classes, and ones under the title "DEE" which stands for Dartmouth Emerging Engineers. I've been utilizing both for my current math class and finding them to not only be a source of academic help, but a place where I can find community through my studies. The TA sessions that are held for my particular math class occur 3 times a week from 7-9pm and allow students to have their questions answered by math graduate students. Most classes (especially STEM ones) have these TA hours and students are encouraged to go if they either need specific help with a problem or are looking to get the most out of the class as they can. I've also found that there are always students that you can talk to during these sessions as well. Oftentimes I'll attend a TA session and figure out a couple problems with just the students that are there.
DEE sessions are something I find to be unique to Dartmouth and super helpful. These sessions are held for every engineering prerequisite class and are set up to support those looking to pursue engineering no matter what year they're in. They're held everyday (except Fridays and Saturdays) from 7-10pm which makes them super accessible to students who need them. Because they are run by TA's who first struggled in particular prerequisite classes and then succeeded, they're super understanding and helpful people who will take any questions, no matter how simple or complex. I find myself attending these super often for homework help or just when I need someone to talk to about my major!
Dartmouth has resources like these set in place as well as programs such as individual and group tutoring to make sure everyone who wants access to academic help and community receives it. I feel incredibly supported as an engineer here and continue to find more ways to increase the success I'll have here.
If you are interested in pursuing medicine after graduating from high school, as I was, you'll be looking at how different universities design their "pre-health" experience. What does that experience look like at Dartmouth College?
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