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!
I love reading People, Places, Pines, but how realistic are these student experiences? How authentic are each blog post?
A:
I love this question, and I was definitely wondering the same thing when I was a prospective student! People Places Pines is a special place because it allows prospective students (and parents of the bloggers) to read about Dartmouth student experiences, from Dartmouth students. When I was visiting colleges, I noticed that even when I interacted with students, they were usually selected tour guides who had been trained on how to answer questions and what to highlight about their respective colleges. Therefore, I really enjoyed reading People Places Pines, as it seemed like a more genuine voice. And yet, given my unfamiliarity with the Admissions process, I also had my doubts about how authentic the student blogging voice was...
But after four years as a student blogger and taking on various roles in the Admissions Office, I can say with 100% confidence that People Places Pines gives you a genuine perspective into various Dartmouth experiences from authentic student voices. While we do undergo training at the start of our blogging careers, the training is more focused on navigating the website, personal writing styles, and general logistics. We are given freedom on what we want to write about each week, and what we want to say about our chosen topics. Of course, given that the blog is on the Dartmouth Admissions website, we can't write about whatever we want, but we are given a lot of autonomy otherwise. In fact, now that I'm in charge of publishing blog posts, I mainly check each blog post for grammar and spelling. We want to highlight the uniqueness of each blogger's voice and writing style, so I rarely make any changes unless Grammarly approves!
Furthermore, readers of the blog would notice that it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Some of my favorite blog posts are when students become vulnerable and share harder parts of their Dartmouth experience. For example, Gavin Fry is a great example of a blogger who not only shares the amazing and exciting parts about his college journey, but also the stressful and forgettable ones too. That means when you read about someone getting excited about Winter Carnival or Homecoming, they really are excited! And when you read about how a specific class was stressful or not a good fit for someone, well that's also a common part of college.
So, I hope that gives you some insight into the blog. Take advantage of being able to learn about Dartmouth through authentic student voices, and judge for yourself whether you are interested in similar experiences. Of course, each student experience is different, maybe you'll come and share yours on People Places Pines!
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
