
Why I Decided to Add a Major
Almost everyone I talk to at Dartmouth has had a “mid-college crisis,” when they contemplate changing their major, minor, modified major, or whatever combination of disciplines that they had originally set out to explore. I know for me, that’s definitely true. I applied to Dartmouth as a student interested in studying global health, which I am still passionate about and interested in. As you can see from my biography up above, I was planning on majoring in biology and minoring in global health. However, as I have progressed through my time at Dartmouth, I have seriously considered minoring in economics, public policy, and/or education. The excel sheet I have that lists all the classes I want to take still has scattered remnants of those various minors. At the time, I was thinking about ways to expand my learning of global health, and knowledge about development economics and policy-making seemed particularly applicable.
We have looked at some pretty fascinating data – such as what factors (race, gender, income) influence the probability that someone voted for Trump in the 2016 election, as well as whether political ideology influences the type of vehicle you drive. Our final research project was with a group and on any topic of our interest. My group chose to test the hypothesis that the effect of a violent offense on sentencing length was greater for Blacks than for whites. All of our findings, including boxplots, tables, predicted probability graphs, and more, were showcased in a poster.
I hope this plan works out, but who knows, I might write a post in the future about a completely different department that just happens to catch my eye… but I should probably update my bio now!