Hi there! I'm May and I'm sooo excited to share my Dartmouth experience with you! Coming all the way from Southeast Asia, I have loved joining such a tight-knit community under the shades of the great trees here at Dartmouth. I love blogging about food, binge watching Asian shows, and cozy movie nights! Find me in the soccer field during intramurals, with my friends in the common rooms, getting coffee at Collis (my favorite), or volunteering at local service projects!
What experience/class/program at Dartmouth has been the most memorable for you?
A:
I absolutely adore my Fall term classes! I'm taking Writing 5: Gender and Holocaust, Psychology 1, and QSS17 (Quantitative Social Science) Data Visualization. My writing class is quite small, just 16 students, and it is probably my favorite class so far.
My professor is incredibly resourceful and initiates very thought-provoking discussions that extend beyond the topic of our readings. As an international student, I was not really familiar with having class discussions or voicing my opinions in groups. This class really pushed me to reflect, and most importantly, to listen, listen, listen!
For our literary pieces, we analyzed two movies — Ida and The Pianist— several film clips, and three books: Rue Ordener, Rue Labat, Survival at Auschwitz, and Who Loves You like This. I think one of the reasons why I'm so attached to this class is how the books we read and the discussions we have are based on one of the biggest tragedies in history yet so many of our time in class is spent on us trying to understand human nature and making connections with our own experiences. Another reason why I love this class is how my professor always has office hours available for us to talk about our progress with our essays or even just a casual drop-in for a chat!
My QSS class is also right up there with my writing class. If it's not my favorite class, it has definitely got to be the most interesting (and challenging!) class I have ever taken. The class focuses on using R — a programming software — to create graphics or visuals from data sets. Coming out of high school, I knew I wanted to take a class on statistics and quantitative sciences. QSS17 Data Visualization just sounded too exciting for me not to try it out.
As the class is in a "flipped classroom" style, we are introduced to the content through online videos and courses while we do problem sets during class. There are a lot of upperclassmen, but this actually turned out to work well for me as I can always reach out for questions. At times, when I find the class very challenging for me or if I don't do as well on an assignment as I have hoped, I think about how much I love what I'm learning. It might take longer for me to grasp the data, come up with a graph, or find the correct code, but I love every step of it. I think this is what really keeps me going and will continually push me to get creative at Dartmouth!
In case you didn't know, Dartmouth operates on a quarter system, which means that in each term, students typically take three classes. However, they can also elect to add an additional course!
Have you ever wondered what a Dartmouth freshman's course of study may look like? The beauty of the D-Plan is everyone can customize their own schedules, so this term I'm taking International Politics, Global Health & Society, and Expository Writing.
Professors at Dartmouth really love their discipline and want to share their knowledge with as many students as possible through a variety of resources. I'll walk you through some of the ways they do this while telling you about my classes this term.
This winter is my first term really focusing on classes in the government and economics departments, so I thought I'd walk you all through my class schedule and experiences so far!
Dartmouth's Center for Social Impact has several opportunities for students to be involved with the Upper Valley. This year, I have the privilege to be involved in Foundations, a first-year program, and can't wait for other opportunities!
While taking four classes at most other schools with semester-based calendars seems like a breeze, Dartmouth's unique D-Plan and quarter system make my efforts to take four classes this winter a bit more challenging.
DUJS is a great opportunity for students across campus to get together and discuss scientific thought and innovation, whether from psychology, astrophysics, or more social justice-oriented medical research.
