Garrett Crouch
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Garrett's D-Plan
What's a D-Plan?-
FallOn Campus
Favorite Class: EARS 14: MeteorologyFor 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.
WinterOn Campus
Favorite Class: COSC 1: Introduction to Programming and ComputationI 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! ; )
SpringOn Campus
Favorite Class: Introductory Latin III 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.
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FallOn Campus
Favorite Class: Psych 6: Introduction to NeurosciencePsych 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.
WinterOn Campus
Favorite Class: Psyc 50.09: Motivation, Drugs, and AddictionI 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).
SpringOn Campus
Favorite Class: Psych 28: Cognitive PsychologyAt 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!
SummerOn Campus
Favorite Class: Humanities 4.02: The SixtiesInstructed by the esteemed Reverend Dr. Randall Balmer, The Sixties was by far my favorite course during my sophomore summer at Dartmouth. As its title suggests, the class was an in-depth historical overview of American history spanning the years 1963–1974. Now, I wouldn’t typically consider myself a history buff, but this course was extremely intriguing. For one, while we explored widely known 1960s American history topics like Watergate and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., we also covered less mainstream subjects such as Freedom Summer and the murder of Medgar Evers. Additionally, as a class, we examined each topic in far greater depth than I had anticipated—the course was structured so that, in each week of the ten-week term, we covered a new year of “The Sixties.”
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FallOff Campus
WinterOn Campus
Favorite Class: History 38.02 Lewis and Clark in Indian CountryIn 1804-06, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark completed a remarkable odyssey, from St. Louis to the Pacific, and back. They wrote more than one million words, describing the country, and paid particular attention to the Indian nations they met.” This course, taught by Professor Colin Calloway, reminded me time and time again that what I think I know about American history, that is to say, how I think my nation developed, is remarkably untrue—as students of history, we often forget about the first actual inhabitants of this land before it came to be what we know as America, and in that way I would say this course completely changed the way I view the world (a reoccurring theme in Dartmouth courses ;))
Spring Term Update!
It seems like just yesterday I was trekking through the green in knee-high snow—today I walked to class in sandals…
First-Year Housing at Dartmouth
Coming in as a first-year student, I'll admit, I was fairly nervous about Dartmouth's random roommate system (as well as some other things)—let's talk about my experience.
The Great Snowball Fight: A Sense of Tradition
After receiving my first mysterious email from Dr. Seuss, I've been thinking a lot about the nature of tradition at Dartmouth.
Collaborative Learning: Dartmouth's First-Year Writing Requirement
I wasn't sure what to expect from my first college-level writing course, here's a glimpse into my experience thus far.
Winter Term Wonder
There's something special about Dartmouth's atmosphere in the winter—here's a look into why my first winter term on campus is shaping up to be my favorite.
Homesick for Hanover
Although winterim is a nice break from campus life, I'm eager to return to the woods!
On Applying Early Decision
The early decision route can be extremely rewarding! As an ED student myself, let's talk pros and cons.