A First-Year's Spring Class Schedule
I've taken nine classes (three/term) ranging from international development to education to economics. I can't believe this term will wrap up my freshman year. Come learn about my English, psychology, and math classes I'm taking this spring!
Although three classes per term may seem like not a lot, don't be deceived! Dartmouth's 10-week quarters tend to fly by. Class material is quite extensive, but fortunately my schedule is spaced out so all three of my classes fall on the same three days, leaving my Tuesdays and Thursdays completely off to study. In addition, none of my classes happen super early in the mornings, so I like to use my mornings to catch up on work or sleep in.
ENGL 7.55: Searching for Justice (LIT)
This first year seminar teaches us how to compare the concept of justice in American literature and law. Professor Chaney has provided thoughtful, personalized feedback on all of our writing assignments. Just like my winter Writing 5, this class is composed entirely of freshmen, so I've enjoyed getting to know my fellow '24s during our synchronous meetings and Friday smaller discussion groups. Six weeks into the term, we have read literary and legal texts grappling with topics like racial discrimination, the death penalty, and indigenous land rights. I am certainly learning to think like an analytical scholar, and am currently working on my op-ed on the Senate's passage of an anti-Asian hate crime bill.
PSYC 1: Introductory Psychology (SOC)
The study of how the mind works is absolutely fascinating! I took this class because I never had the chance to take AP Psychology in high school and thought PSYC 1 would be a comprehensive introduction to psychology. On Mondays, we hear from guest speakers and take notes for weekly interview reflections we complete in our Wednesday TA groups. On Fridays, we complete lecture quizzes on topics ranging from consciousness to psychological disorders to human social development. Professors Wheatley and Wager post asynchronous lectures for us to watch on our own time. We also have the opportunity to earn extra credit "T-points" by participating in cool psychology studies! Before last week, I had never gotten my brain scanned in an MRI before, but did so for the first time in Dartmouth's Brain Imaging Center in Moore Hall. In fact, did you know that Dartmouth was the first college to have its own functional brain imaging center dedicated to cognitive neuroscience research?
MATH 10: Introductory Statistics (QDS)
Introductory Statistics is the equivalent to AP Statistics in high school. So far, we just finished up our midterm; Professor Kaveh has covered topics like the binomial formula, normal distribution, correlation, standard deviation, and elementary probability theory. He's been extremely nice in staying behind to review problems from our in-class quizzes in real time with us and answer additional questions. I've learned a ton of new Excel functions and grown much more confidence in my abilities with statistics. MATH 10 has been my first quantitative class in college (after taking very social science-heavy classes throughout my fall and winter terms). As a prospective Economics and Government major who just took six social science heavy courses in a row, I wanted to receive my "10 requirement" (which could also have been satisfied by ECON 10, GOVT 10, PSYC 10, or others) in a non-social science department. While I've loved all the courses in my D-Plan thus far, the beauty of Dartmouth is that our flexible liberal arts curriculum allows us to explore a variety of classes ranging from math to English to psychology all in the same term.
As I head into Week 7 with midterms completed, I'm planning to spread out my study schedule for my upcoming finals over the final stretch before summer break begins. Thanks for checking out the blog and come back soon for more Dartmouth-related content!