Hi everyone! I'm Julia from Seattle, WA. Reading this blog during my junior and senior years of high school helped me to envision myself on this campus, so this all feels very full-circle. I'm studying QSS and I'm looking forward to taking my French skills abroad later this year in Toulouse. I love cooking/food, watching old Modern Family episodes (my favorite character is Mitch), and finding cozy places to study on campus. Talk to you soon!
This class served as a great introduction to the Quantitative Social Science department. My favorite part of class was working with real-world data in our problem sets each week. I also adored my professor, Elsa Voytas. It was her first term as a professor here, and she was constantly eager to answer any questions you might have. I'm really looking forward to taking more QSS classes in the future!
I loved this class and especially my professor, Michele Tine. My favorite part of the course was watching the "Up!" documentary series as a class. The episodes began with a cohort of children at age 7, and has continued to follow them throughout their adulthood. We got to analyze the children's decisions and lifestyles in the context of what we were learning about, culminating with a paper highlighting one of the cohort members.
Paris and Literature and Film was the last part of my first-year writing experience. Professor Kane did a great job of bringing a variety of sources into our classroom discussions (books, movies, articles, etc.) which made the course very engaging. Plus, it was so much fun to learn about France before visiting in 25W!
Rails and Trails (Part 2 of 3): We're Not Really Strangers
Hi from West Glacier, Montana! I am boarding my Amtrak back to Boston in a couple of hours, and I wanted to sit down and write this series of blog posts before I forget any details. You might ask yourself, "Why am I in Montana and getting on an Amtrak?" I went on a break trip! The Dartmouth Outing Club sponsors a smattering of student-led trips around the world throughout the year, and I was lucky enough to join seven of my classmates on an epic backpacking adventure to Glacier National Park. The catch on "Rails and Trails" is that we only use public transportation leaving from Boston, hence the Amtrak! It has been such a great adventure that I feel compelled to write three blog posts about it. This is my second post, so feel free to click here to read about the trip's sense of place. Today's post is all about my lovely fellow trippees (the people on the break trip with me)!
When I was accepted to Rails and Trails in July, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go on the trip; I barely recognized any names copied on the emails, and I was afraid of spending two weeks with people I didn't know. I was daunted by the possibility of feeling lonely on a trip that would already be physically demanding. But, after talking with my family, I realized I needed to push myself outside of my comfort zone. So, I responded to the email in the affirmative. I am glad I did.
Since the trip ends two days before the fall term starts, I knew that I needed to move my things for the term to Hanover before stepping on the train and heading to Montana. As this date was long before fall dorm move-in day, I needed to find a place to spend the night before meeting up with the rest of the trip. I nervously texted one of my trip leaders, Kelby, and she immediately told me that she could pick me up from the Dartmouth Coach station and that I could spend the night at her off-campus house. From that moment on, I knew that I was going to be with some good, caring people.
Including our trip leaders, there were eight of us on Rails and Trails. Throughout the trip, we rotated through tent groups and hiking orders so that everyone got to know each other well. I think that the strategy was pretty successful, given that my peers were telling me facts about myself that I didn't even remember mentioning by the end of our hiking adventure.
This was at our peak tiredness, happiness, and stinkiness.
One of my favorite parts about our group was the diversity in class years: there were three '27s (including myself), one '26, and three '25s. When my sister graduated from Dartmouth this June, I felt like I was losing a key part of what I love about Dartmouth: inter-class connections. I adored getting to spend time with seniors as a first-year student. Earlier this summer, I was afraid that I wouldn't have friendships like that this fall. Now, I feel confident saying that I will have '27s, '26s, and '25s to turn to at all points in time.
Above all else, this break trip taught me that you can drop any group of Dartmouth students in the middle of the woods, and we'll be happy. We might not all be from the same place and might not study the same thing, but we all share a core love of the Upper Valley and nature. With that, I realized we were not as different as I initially presumed. Even the middle of Montana can feel as warm and cozy—like Dartmouth's campus—when surrounded by Dartmouth students who felt like strangers only a couple of days before.
I applied through Questbridge's National College Match, but did not match. To others who also did not match, this is not the end of your application process! Here's what I did following match decision day.
Unlimited buffets, flavorful drinks, an assortment of breakfast pastries—Dartmouth has so many great food and drink options to choose from! Join me as I rank my favorite ones.
Walking around the Wellelsey campus, it's clear that it was built with intentional incorporation of the surrounding nature. The architecture of many buildings were also mindfully crafted to support Wellesley's unique principles.
