Nuna Agbodza

Course Compass: Class Selection at Dartmouth

It was a bright and sunny Friday morning, and all the students on campus were excited for the weekend. All the students except me, because I was in my room agonizing over what classes to take for my first quarter in college. Did I want to specialize in my STEM-based background? Did I want to go completely off-track and try the courses that just looked interesting? Did I just want easy classes to get through the fall? I managed to answer all these questions, and I'm enjoying my classes and trying my best to handle the workload. Here's how I made my decisions. 

Advising is a big part of life on campus. Before I picked my classes, I spoke to my faculty advisor, undergraduate advisor (UGA), and other upperclassmen I knew who had taken some of those courses before. Each of them gave me their opinions, but the final decision was down to me. Finally, I prioritized: 

1. My Interest: As much as I loved the idea of exploring new areas of study, I thought that choosing three completely unfamiliar courses might be akin to jumping into a pond when you don't know how deep it is. I decided to choose one class that matched my interests and background in STEM. For me, this is Chemistry 11, also called General Chemistry. While it is challenging and extremely time-consuming, I find it a lot of fun and I have been able to keep up with it, so I'm pretty sure I made the right decision here.

My chemistry professor giving us a demonstration of magnetic properties using liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen! This was such an engaging experiment to spectate!

2. Prerequisite Course: Depending on your intended field of study (if you have one at all), pre-requisite courses may be different depending on each individual. As a possible pre-medical student, I would have to take at least one calculus course. I decided to take Math 3 (Calculus), which is a prerequisite course for many upper level science courses, so I thought to knock it off the list as soon as possible. Juggling two STEM classes in my first term definitely takes work, but it's not impossible, and I'm glad I won't have to push any other classes back just to take this in a later term.  

3. Exploration: I have always wanted to study sociology, and so I signed up for an Intro to Sociology class. However, I did not get into this class before it filled up. I quickly pivoted and enrolled in an Intro to African Studies class with the African and African American Studies department. I absolutely love this class. The lectures are engaging and the professor makes the work exciting. Exploring courses outside my intended field of study really opened my eyes to other subjects that I enjoy. I also don't have to worry about not getting into that sociology class, because I can definitely take it in a later term. 

The course image used by my African studies professor. It's an artwork by Everett Spruill called "Sankofa - Learning from the Past". I love this artwork because the concept of Sankofa comes from the Akan culture in Ghana, so it feels close to home.

There are a few other things to think about when choosing courses such as distributive requirements. As a first year, I didn't have to think about those just yet because whatever classes I take will fulfill requirements. My reasons for picking classes may change in the upcoming terms, but I'm not currently worried about that. For now, all I have to do is "lock in" for the term and make the most of my decisions.