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!
My Experience as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at Dartmouth
Last winter, I began working in a neuroscience lab here on campus studying the cellular and behavioral mechanisms of Psilocybin—the main psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms. Within the lab, I'm currently working under a graduate student who is responsible for directing my work; she also plays a a sort of mentor role on the side which has been really helpful in figuring out what I want to do after I graduate. More on that to come…
This is only my second term in the lab, but it feels like I've already grown so much as a scientist—everything from learning how to weigh and handle lab mice to being able to use a microscope to analyze for critical neural activity has been a massive stepping stone in my academic journey.
It's also been extremely rewarding being able to do hands-on research as an undergraduate. I thank the stars every day for being more than a number in my classroom. On top of this, I get paid! Through Dartmouth's URAD (undergraduate research assistantships) program, I'm able to receive a termly stipend for my work, which is quite nice I must say.
Another aspect I've enjoyed about working as a research assistant is the flexible schedule. Although my experience may not be entirely representative of all Dartmouth undergraduates doing research, URAD suggests about 10 hours a week of research as the norm. In my opinion, 10 hours doesn't feel like extra work, especially since I enjoy the research process and the independence I have in the lab now.
Here is a picture of me in the wet lab using one of my favorite machines, the cryostat—it's mainly used to slice different types of tissue samples at frozen temperatures, in this case, brain tissue!
Oddly enough, my absolute favorite part of my research experience thus far definitely has to be the nature of how I got the job—in classic Dartmouth fashion, a couple of cold emails was all it took! The story goes like this: last fall I was sitting in Filene Hall (a classic lecture room for neuroscience and psychology courses at Dartmouth). The course I was in was Psyc 6: Introduction to Neuroscience (phenomenal course by the way, you can read my overview here!).
My professor was showcasing a selection of interesting neuroscience-related phenomena through a series of YouTube videos, (one of the topics was something along the lines of "Your Brain on Psychedelics") when she mentioned a fellow colleague in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences was doing research on psilocybin. I went up to her after class and asked for the professor's name and email, and the rest is history…
No really, all it took was a few emails back and forth asking about research interests, etc, and I was able to get the job! Coming into Dartmouth, I knew there was significant emphasis on getting undergraduates involved in research, but it wasn't until that interaction that I realized the true nature of the ease in accessibility this place offers in relation to pursuing your curiosities within the realm of academia. It's extremely unique and something not very many institutions are able to boast the way Dartmouth does.
It's got me thinking…what other areas of research could I maybe pursue? Who knows!
Academics can be challenging at Dartmouth. But there are lots of groups across campus here to support you through your academic journey. Read on for my experience asking for help and a few organizations that might be helpful to you!
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
