Hi everyone! I'm Kabir, an international member of the class of '26, from New Delhi, India. I'm thinking of majoring in Psychology and Film & Media Studies. Outside the classroom, I enjoy watching movies, going on hikes, hanging out with my friends, and going on runs (if you see me on the streets of Hanover, say hi!) In the short while I've been here, I've come to love Dartmouth, so if you're interested in what I have to say, stick around! This should (hopefully) be fun :)
My Writing 5 class was definitely my favorite class this term — it opened my eyes to the realities of the food industry, strengthened my skills as a writer, and helped me make a ton of new friends.
My seminar was possibly the best class I've taken so far at Dartmouth. I learned about the importance of free speech and journalists in a democratic society, and how those rights to freedom are being stripped everywhere, all the time.
I've loved Cognitive Psychology as a class so far, especially because of the cool demos that the professor uses to illustrate every type of phenomena we learn about. From illusions to memory tests, it's so cool to see how the human psyche can be tricked so very easily.
Each year brings with it the promise of new beginnings and so much excitement, and it's honestly crazy how fast my Dartmouth experience seems to be going. I'm now a sophomore, so I thought I'd share with you the classes I'm taking this term. I'm a Film & Psych major, so all 3 of my classes are directly related to those fields.
1. Introduction To Film: One of the best things about the film major at Dartmouth is that you don't have to take the intro classes before you take the higher ones, so I actually skipped out on taking this class my freshman year because it clashed with another intro class. I'm honestly having a great time in it: we're talking about classics like His Girl Friday and The Wizard of Oz while also dissecting more contemporary pieces like La La Land. It's a lot of fun. I'm also going on a Film domestic study program next term to Los Angeles (more on that later!), so this course is one of the pre-requisites for that.
2. Social & Affective Decision Making: This is an upper-level psychology course that dissects social psychological constructs, and how they can be modelled using decision theory (we even go into economic concepts like utility, value, and probability). We also have a super fun project where we watch a season of Survivor, the reality TV show, and use the learnings from this class to predict and understand behavioral patterns among contestants.
3. Writing for the Screen 1: This is my final class of the term, and this is also a film class. It focuses on scriptwriting and storyboarding — important concepts to learn. The class has just started but it's a lot of fun. I especially like the fact that you don't need a particular skill level to do it, and that everybody can comment on each other's works and help improve their writing. This class is different from my other two in that while those are theoretical and analytical, this is more creative.
These are my courses this term! I can't wait to see how they unfold, and I'll keep updating my blog as and when they do :)
After returning from an enriching study abroad program, I'm diving into a bustling spring semester here at Dartmouth. Here are my four courses I'm taking this term!
Dartmouth's liberal arts curriculum pushes students to explore new departments and draw connections between seemingly disparate disciplines. Come explore my Economics, Physics, and Asian, Societies, Cultures, and Languages classes!
At Dartmouth, there is an undergraduate requirement for language; after all, it is the liberal arts! Fulfilling this requirement looks different for various people and I will focus on my experience.
