Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog, also known as my digital diary. I'm majoring in Asian Studies modified with Business, a new program here at Dartmouth, so feel free to ask me anything related to that. Beyond the classroom, I love the Dartmouth sunsets, the traditions, the classes, the merch, and the people, of course. Come along with me as I explore the ins and outs of life in the woods.
A course that definitely surprised me, I did not know what to expect and had very little philosophical knowledge before taking this course. It was a mixture of current and past readings, with the final project to make a group video, testing my technological ability. Professor Bumpus was amazing, and I got to know her more when I took her to breakfast at Pine through the Take Your Professor to Lunch Program.
I was recommended to take a history course, specifically a history course with Professor Lu, and it has not disappointed! This course is cross listed with Asian Studies, my major, but it has made me consider a history minor... We start every class off with a song relating to the topic of that class, and then we move on to discussion based activities.
So far, the Dartmouth classes I have taken have been all based around discussion and essay writing. As an Asian Studies and Government major, I expected that the rest of my time at Dartmouth would follow a similar pattern, but in fact a pre-requisite for the Government major is a Political Analysis class. This class involves coding, analyzing survey samples, and other quantitative methods. The professor is amazing—a friend and I got to know him better by taking him out to breakfast at Pine through the 'Take Your Professor to Lunch' program. The final group project involves making projections for the 2024 elections using past data. Although, obviously, this election already happened, some of our predictions were more accurate than the polls! It is super interesting to take a class that I can see the themes in real world news outlets.
My favorite class this term had to be Developing Vietnam, which is a ten-week course taken in Hanover, in preparation for three weeks in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam during the winter break. The goal of this class was to plan and carry out a research project pertaining to development in Vietnam. During our time at Dartmouth, we collaborated with Fulbright University Vietnam students to come up with a shared research topic, research brief, and agenda. The interdisciplinary nature of this class meant that we had the opportunity to explore Vietnam through different angles/themes spanning religion, history, political economy, and environmental governance.
Despite being a College, Dartmouth has various graduate schools attached to it, including the Tuck of Business. These schools offer various course for undergraduates, taught by its own faculty. Tuck 1 is an introduction to financial accounting, drawing from various case studies and real-world examples. We got to hear from leading experts, and were given an overview of life at business school and careers in business. As with regular undergrad classes, the professor made himself incredibly available for consultation outside of class hours, but this time, at Tuck.
Throughout my first five terms at Dartmouth, I have taken some fascinating classes, ranging from Reproductive Ethics to Financial Accounting to Earth Sciences, classes that have no relation whatsoever to what I believe I want to major in. And Dartmouth encourages this! Our liberal arts philosophy promotes taking classes that explore the breadth of studies that Dartmouth offers, and in doing so, we fulfill distributive requirements. During our first year, beyond mandatory Writing classes (a sequence of 2 or 3 terms, depending on what you are placed into), the course catalogue is literally our oyster, giving us time to develop skills and examine areas that we are interested in. This is leading up to the point in our Dartmouth journeys (winter/spring of sophomore year) where students must declare their major, a position I am in now.
I came into Dartmouth convinced that I was going to double major inAsian Societies, Cultures and Languages (ASCL) and Government. Some students come in knowing exactly what they want to study, whereas others come in with no idea. I was talking with someone during Orientation Week who was debating being pre-law or pre-med—two very different paths. Anyway, I knew that I was not looking to study anything to do with STEM, and had heard amazing things about Dartmouth's Government department. And so, during my first term, I enrolled in International Politics, an introductory government course that is a prerequisite for the major. I continued on the Government track, taking one or two classes a term that would count towards the major. As a typical course-load is three, that meant I had room in my schedule to take classes from other departments.
In a casual conversation with one of my upperclassmen mentors, they mentioned and highly recommended Professor Lu of the history department. He specialized in East Asia, specifically China, and taught a course titled 'The History of China Since the 1800s.' Naturally, this course intrigued me, and so in the spring of my first year, I enrolled in his course.
This led to me taking another one of his classes in my sophomore year, 'Business History of Modern China.' These classes were taken out of interest, not counting towards Government major credit.
During mystudy abroadover the break between fall and winter term of sophomore year led by Professor Edward Miller, who teaches both in the ASCL and history department, I realized that completing a History major would be more aligned with my interests, and would allow me to continue with my regional historical focus on East Asia. After a year and a half of being at Dartmouth, I had switched my major.
Now, being this indecisive may have posed an issue elsewhere, but the incredible flexibility of the Dartmouth curriculum and schedule meant that this switch would pose no problems. Most majors require around 10 classes, and with 12 terms, that means it isn't a problem at all if there are terms where we don't take any classes related to our major.
After discussions with my Dean and my major advisor, Professor Miller, I declared my two majors (ASCL and History). Crucially, though, if in the future I decide that I want to add a Government minor, or even a major, I have the ability to do so. By the end of sophomore year, the only requirement is that we have something declared, but it can be subject to change.
All in all, I have found that having the opportunity to delve into Dartmouth across departments has widened my academic lens, as well as my interests. I look forward to the next two years, continuing to study and explore.
True to the theme of a liberal arts education, Dartmouth requires students to take one or two classes each in several different subject matters, or distributives, in order to graduate.
This fall, I took INTS80.06: Multilateralism and US Leadership. The course was taught by visiting Professor DeLaurentis. We finished off the term with a trip to New York City to visit the UN and various UN Embassies.
Welcome back to Open Doors—your inside look at life in the Woods! This week, Sarah Getraer '26, a studio art major, showed me around her dorm room, where we discussed Dartmouth residence halls, classes, and campus life.
