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 undergraduate research, Greek Life, as well as the Dartmouth bike shop! In my free time, I enjoy reading sci-fi, listening to 90s rock, and playing video games. 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).
Is the Greek life overpowering? Can you make friends through clubs or other ways?
A:
Yes, no, maybe so?
I'm fibbing…absolutely you can!
As a sophomore who just recently joined a fraternity on campus, I've been thinking about this question a lot lately—long story short, yes, you can absolutely make friends through clubs or other ways! However, the reality is Greek life at Dartmouth is definitely distinct at times and can occasionally feel overpowering regarding social life/social opportunities on campus, especially if you aren't the type of person who imagines being affiliated in one of these spaces. Let's talk about it.
Around 60% of the student body at Dartmouth is affiliated with some avenue of Greek life, whether it be a gender-inclusive space or a more typical sorority or fraternity; I would be lying to you if I said Greek life wasn't important to Dartmouth students. Considering my freshman experience, coming into Dartmouth, I had no idea this was going to be the case. It was extremely jarring, and oftentimes frustrating because I seriously felt like I had been lied to, or at least had the truth about social life at Dartmouth withheld from me. It felt like every weekend it was, "Oh hey, are you going out tonight? I'm going to this frat, with these people. You should come and meet some brothers!" It was all a bit too much for me. Thankfully, there was indeed a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think a large part of that had to do with Dartmouth's supportive policies on Greek life for freshmen.
Dartmouth students aren't allowed to officially join a Greek space until their sophomore year, to some this is a nuisance policy, but for me, it was a pulsing beacon of encouragement—a reminder to get involved elsewhere and make friends in the sectors of campus life I was interested in. Spaces like the DOC (Dartmouth Outing Club), my undergraduate research lab, and even my first-year required writing courses all became direct avenues for some of my closest friends at Dartmouth. I can't stress this enough, Dartmouth is exceptionally good at recognizing social norms and providing alternative ways of engagement for students of all interests and backgrounds. Whether it be a niche art club, formula racing, or organic farming, Dartmouth quite literally has a space and corresponding community for everything.
In short, while I have learned to love and appreciate Greek life at Dartmouth, it's not for everyone. But no need to fret, while it can be overpowering in some of the ways I've mentioned, there are seriously a plethora of amazing alternatives to making lifelong friendships here. I (and most Dartmouth students) found my best friend outside of a Greek space ; )
It's easy to forget how easy it is to access walking trails during the hustle of a Dartmouth term. As graduation nears, I am reminded of how special it is to step off campus and enjoy quiet moments in nature.
With a solar eclipse sweeping across North America for the first time in nearly seven years on April 8th came a road-trip with hundreds of other Dartmouth students to a zone of totality near campus: St. Johnsbury, Vermont!
