Hey y'all, welcome to the woods! My name is Garrett Crouch, and I'm a '26 from Edmond, Oklahoma. Besides blogging, I'm involved in Greek Life and Dartmouth's Psychological and Brain Sciences Department. I enjoy reading sci-fi, listening to 90s rock, and playing video games in my free time. Other than that, I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share a bit of my Dartmouth student experience with you—stay a while and enjoy!
For my first term at Dartmouth, I had a lot of fun exploring different courses/areas of study that piqued my interest—EARS 14 is a perfect example. This course in particular was very friendly to new students. I had a lot of fun analyzing the ways in which Earth's weather system works, everything from the tornado and climate labs to black lightning and supercooled ice. Professor Osterberg made the course extremely fascinating and personable! I'm extremely glad I took this course and recommend it to anyone interested in Earth Science.
I had zero programming experience prior to taking this course, and quite honestly, It was a split decision on my part. Nonetheless, I'm extremely glad I took COSC 1, and as a byproduct, I have a newfound love for computers. I came out of the course with a solid foundation in computer science principles as well as programming skills. More importantly, I made my own fully-functioning video game! ; )
I didn’t anticipate this course being all that different from Latin I, but it ended up being a nice surprise. A typical Latin course at Dartmouth involves small class sizes, group work, and the occasional lecture; however, within Latin II, we had opportunities to take a wide variety of field trips and learn more about the history of the Latin language as well as the many people that spoke it. I thoroughly enjoyed stepping outside the sphere of strictly language work (grammar, vocabulary, etc.) and learning more about the history of Latin in Latin II.
Psych 6 is by far my favorite course I've taken at Dartmouth—this course made me decide to pursue the neuroscience major. Whether it was walking out of the Moore Psychology Building with goosebumps down my spine having just seen a human brain in the flesh, or lying in bed rewatching lectures on the cellular mechanisms of long-term memory storage. This course genuinely made me feel like a kid discovering the world again for the first time, I loved it.
I loved this course—it was a fascinating mix of the neuroscience behind addiction as well as a deep dive into every class of drug. What particularly stood out about this course was the ability to connect my undergraduate research lab experience with the concepts I was learning (I'm currently involved in a neuroscience research lab studying psilocybin, the main psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms, so it was fascinating to see the parallels there).
At first, I was worried Cognitive Psychology was going to be a slight rerun of some of the concepts covered in Psych 6: Introduction to Neuroscience, but this class was actually a pleasant surprise. We covered everything from how babies accurately learn their native language so quickly, to how we uniquely store complex, emotional memories as humans. We even covered a unit on everything psychologists know about the problem of consciousness, which was my personal favorite. There’s something alluring (and undeniably meta) about being conscious while learning about how we know nothing about consciousness—a recurring theme in the Brain Sciences!
Every winter at Dartmouth, with the first significant snowfall of the term, a school-wide snowball fight is announced (at midnight). Every student gets the same email from Dr. Seuss and is encouraged to attend the fight. During the fight, I probably pelted at least four dozen peers with fresh powder from the green (Dartmouth's central point on campus where the fight took place).
The Green at Night
The only way I can describe the experience is blissfully chaotic. Some students were sprawled out on lawn chairs in the middle of the green watching the fight, others were zigzagging through the crowd on their cross-country skis. My friends and I had a blast, to say the least—the sheer amount of students who attended the gathering and the feeling of finally partaking in another famous tradition so many older peers had previously talked about made it extra special. It was one of those nights where you fall asleep with sore cheeks from the amount of laughter/smiling done. Or maybe it was the icy New England snowballs to the face. Besides the point, it was one of the most memorable nights I've had on campus.
Lately, my experience has me pondering the unique intricacies of Dartmouth's sense of tradition. Besides the snowball fight, I've been a part of the candlelight BEMA initiation my-first-fall-term, and the homecoming bonfire, both of which solidified my presence as a student on campus. I've realized it's experiences/student traditions like these that invoke some of the most significant feelings of student belonging. The amount of encouragement and joy I receive from partaking in any certain event is extremely prevalent, and I'm extremely grateful Dartmouth places such a large emphasis on collaboration in that way.
Traditions like the snowball fight have really allowed me to foster meaningful relationships with peers through fellowship. In short, the nature of tradition at Dartmouth is full of camaraderie and wholesome adventures, and every day I look forward to my next student tradition experience.
Next on the list is Winter Carnival! If you aren't familiar with the carnival, check it out!
Are you a boba or coffee lover? Baker-Berry Library not only has some great study spaces but even better spots to grab a sweet treat. So c'mon, let's go before the line at Novack gets too long!
Dartmouth College is known for its small, tight-knit community and town, which takes some adjustment for some who didn't grow up in rural areas. So, what is Dartmouth like for those of us who grew up in small communities? Let me share my experience!
In August, I participated in the First Year Summer Enrichment Program, a pre-orientation program designed to help FGLI students adjust to life at Dartmouth!
