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!
Since I didn't blog this summer, it's felt like forever since I've written one of these. Now that I'm back, I'm excited to share all that I did when I was away! One of the Dartmouth-related experiences I had was conducting research with a Tuck professor I had met during my winter term. A lot of people do research at Dartmouth, and it's because professors are happy to involve undergraduates with what they're doing.
This summer, I worked on an operations management research project that looked at how medical billing codes could be improved to avoid fraud or exploitation. Going into my Freshman summer, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. COVID had moved my internship to a remote setting, and I wasn't sure how much I could travel to see my friends. I decided to email a few of my favorite professors and see if they had any opportunities for me. Within a week of asking around, I found a lot of interesting projects. With COVID going on, I thought the medical billing code project was especially interesting, and so I decided to sign on.
Looking back at my research experience this summer, what stands out to me is how many new skills I picked up. Our research team consisted of two Tuck professors, a recent Tuck graduate and a postdoc research fellow, so I came in feeling intimated as the only undergraduate student. In fact, during one of our first meetings, I was completely lost on what everyone else was talking about. While everyone was referring to specific passages and ideas, I didn't even know documents we were looking at. During the meeting, I was assigned a few tasks to do, which mainly was to sort our medical codes into datasets using a statistical computing program called R. Although I had no experience with R, I quickly confirmed that I would be able to handle it. In my mind, I wanted to get out of that meeting as quickly as possible before anyone realized I didn't really know what was going on.
From there, I began researching how to code in R. Since I only started taking computer science at Dartmouth, I wasn't very confident in learning a new programming language. However, after going through several books and websites, I found myself growing more comfortable with R. The team was especially helpful, as they sent me great resources and agreed to 1-on-1 meetings so I could get a better idea of what we were doing. Over the summer, I saw my anxiety grow into confidence, as I began to enjoy my research. One of my proudest moments from this summer was when I developed a program that was able to sort our medical billing codes accurately.
A summer worth of work!
Over the course of this summer, I refined and changed my program so that it could do everything we needed it to. I also picked up new skills on Excel and learned about new concepts in graph theory and statistical analysis. Through this experience, I have learned a new programming language, picked up new analysis techniques, and worked with amazingly supportive and bright people. It's rare to find an opportunity where you not only get to do practical work, but have so many people invested in your success. Doing research was definitely a highlight of my summer, and I'm happy that so many undergraduates get this opportunity at Dartmouth. Personally, I'll be looking for more research projects in the future, where I can learn more things and pick up more new skills
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.
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.
