Hello there! My name is Shuyi and I'm a '23, which means it's my senior year here at Dartmouth! Follow me for my last year at Dartmouth as I reflect upon my college experience. At Dartmouth, I enjoy playing squash, eating at late night, and of course, blogging. You can ask me about studying social sciences, coming to Dartmouth as an international student, and anything else really. I hope you enjoy the blog!
I actually wasn't planning on taking this class but it eventually became my favorite class. The professor was very funny and created a relaxed classroom environment where I enjoyed looking at diversity in different contexts, such as college admissions and group dynamics.
This class was a perfect mix of philosophy, classical studies, and writing. We were able to reflect on societal views, our own ideas of optimism and pessimism, and how we can lead more fulfilling and compassionate lives.
My first experience with computer science was my Freshman winter, and I quickly became interested in the subject. I followed up CS1 with CS10 in the Spring, which I found just as cool. I love how you can solve problems by applying logic and math with computer science, and I look forward to diving deeper into the major!
Econ 21 is required for all Econ majors, and I loved my experience with Professor Gustman. He made the material super easy to digest and allowed me to take exams in my timezone, which I thought was really nice.
It was really interesting to study public speaking in an asynchronous environment, and I came away with a deeper understanding of not only public speaking but speech writing. I wrote a separate blog post about the class, so check it out!
Since English was one of my favorite classes in high school, I wanted to take another writing course at Dartmouth. This was a great choice, as it was a perfect mix of lecture and discussion. I loved reading and learning about several American dramas, and even discussing modern topics such as Trump's rhetoric!
SummerShanghai
I took my Sophomore Summer off, which many international students do, and got involved with the Tuck School of Business through the Bridge and Paganucci programs! You can read more about my summer experiences in my blogs!
This was my first class from the QSS department, which was long overdue considering that I'm a QSS major! I really enjoyed picking up some coding skills and tackling problems like transitional justice with quantitative approaches.
I took Econ 25 in the Fall, and Econ 35 was the next course in the game theory sequence! It was really fun to apply game theory to cool concepts like sports, Covid-19, and auctions.
This was my first time taking a music class even though I have been involved with music my entire life, whether that was playing the piano or learning how to make beats. I loved this class because I not only learned more about music, but more about Native culture as well!
SummerNew York
I took my junior summer off to pursue a management consulting internship in New York. I had a wonderful experience!
I absolutely loved this class! Theatre was one of my favorite classes in middle school, and so it was great to reconnect with theatre again in college. The professor was amazingly kind and passionate, and the final project was a really fun group performance!
This was a small class of around 15 people, which allowed us to have intimate discussions of readings and theatre. I loved hearing from my classmates, as we used our personal experiences to guide us in our understanding of materials. My final project was a protest on campus, which also really fun and refreshing take on performance!
Coming into Dartmouth, I was excited about the classes I was going to take, the friends I was going to make, and all the clubs I was going to join. As I reach the halfway mark on my college journey, I'm excited to say that Dartmouth has met my expectations and then some. One thing I could never have anticipated, however, is becoming a student leader in the Admissions Office.
My involvement with the Admissions Office began as a student blogger, where I enjoyed writing blog posts such as these. Since then, my role has expanded into being featured on Dartmouth social media accounts, becoming a student panelist for prospective students, and more. In fact, you can read about my journey to becoming a student blogger here! Recently, I was given the opportunity to take on a larger role for the Admissions Office as a Communications Intern. This means that I'll be able to take on more administrative responsibilities, while also being able to work on projects that I'm passionate about and which will hopefully have a real impact on the College!
A map of 3D Profiles I created for the Admissions Project!
One of the first projects I'll be working on is reviewing our content and messaging for international students. As an international student myself, I'm excited to look at how we're reaching our international population, and where our strengths and weaknesses are. Furthermore, I'm hoping that by analyzing our international student messaging, I'll be able to provide actionable steps to help improve our communications. Working on this project has been super fun because I'm able to apply some of the skills I've taken from my classes and past experiences to help the Admissions Office, which interacts with thousands of students each year. Although I definitely wouldn't have thought that I'd be prepared to carry out a project like this before coming to Dartmouth, I'm confident that I can use the lessons I've gained over the past two years to produce something valuable for the Admissions Officers! So far, I've identified geographical gaps in our content, in addition to the questions that we do well in answering and the questions that we could improve on.
Working on this project has shown me that Dartmouth reaches out to students from around the world, and that my experience as an international student is just one of thousands. In fact, one of the goals of my project will be to try and shed a light on the questions or stories that aren't being portrayed. While I hope that my reflections on my Dartmouth journey is helpful, I would love to learn more about any questions you have left unanswered by People Places Pines! If you do have a question (international student-related or otherwise), feel free to submit it here and one of our Bloggers will get back to you. For example, ask about what I found from my project and I'll (hopefully) have some pretty cool conclusions in a few weeks!
Dartmouth changed my life. A large part of that change comes from the support I have received from professors. Learn more here about some mentor-mentee relationships I have made!
In Solid Mechanics, we designed and constructed a bridge that held 10kN, around 1000kg! The process, from SOLIDWORKS design to laser cutting to gluing parts together, took us weeks, but it was one of the most rewarding projects I have ever done.
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.
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.
My first time in Chicago at the Society of Women Engineers Conference in Chicago, Illinois! Fully funded by Dartmouth, I had a great time meeting amazing companies and getting to know fellow women engineers.
