Hi all! Welcome to my blog! My name is Robin. I am a senior studying Economics and the Digital Arts. Outside of class I'm a guitarist, amateur rock climber, and seasoned billiard player–if you're on campus, there's a good chance you can find me at the Collis pool hall. I love Dartmouth and am sharing my journey through this blog. So if you're a prospie, parent, or Dartmouth enthusiast, you've come to the right place!
In this class, I'll be learning about stellar evolution, the origin of the elements, the deaths of stars, black holes, the structure of our Galaxy, other galaxies, dark matter, the expanding universe and the big bang.
In this class, we explore the issues of mark, line, scale, space, light and composition. I'm not naturally a great artist, but I love art and am taking this course to improve my skills.
This course studies the economic behavior of employers and employees as they interact in the labor market, covering topics such as human capital investment, the structure and determinants of financial compensation and benefits packages, contract negotiations and arbitration.
Painting I is an introductory class in oil painting techniques, painting language, and critical thinking. Major topics that will be covered include: basic color theory, color mixing, paint application, and color composition.
This course explores how the brain controls our motivation to pursue goals and how drugs of abuse hijack those systems, exploring in detail how narcotic drugs (opioids, stimulants, alcohol, cannabis) act in the brain and the mechanisms underlying the transition from drug use to addiction.
After taking courses in virtually every department and editing my major plan spreadsheet more times than I can count, I'll be finishing my Economics major at the end of spring term 2023. To complete the major, students must take a total of twelve courses exploring different branches of economics. The required number of courses to graduate from Dartmouth is 35. So, if you schedule your courses correctly, there is plenty of room to explore other majors and take classes for fun and out of interest. In my time at Dartmouth, I took advantage of the flexibility that the liberal arts curriculum offers by taking Studio Art and Digital Art classes whenever possible. Below are some of my favorites, and a little bit about the projects we worked on!
SART 15 - Drawing 1
The main objective of this class is to allow students to explore the issues of mark, line, scale, space, light and composition. The majority of our projects were based on observed forms — like still-life sets with flowers, personal objects, and self-portraits. For these projects we played around with charcoal, ink, and pencil to familiarize ourselves with different styles of drawing. My favorite project of the course was the self-portrait. I chose charcoal as my tool, and based my drawing off a picture I'd taken recently. It took a couple of long nights in the studio, but I loved the results.
SART 25 - Painting 1
Painting 1 introduced me to oil painting techniques, painting language, and critical thinking in the visual arts. Like in Drawing 1, our projects were based on observed forms. One thing I found surprising was how long it takes to mix paint! It's a skill on its own and took a lot of practice to get just right. Our professor and TA were awesome, though, and were always available to help. My favorite project was the final assignment, where we got to choose our subject. Since I was in the middle of my senior year, I decided to paint some of my favorite memories from my time at Dartmouth — looking back on my freshman year, sophomore summer, and my time studying abroad.
COSC 22 - 3D Digital Modeling
Lastly, one of my favorite courses was 3D Digital Modeling, where I learned how to make models and environments like those in films, games, and VR applications. Each week, we learned to use different features of Maya, an animation program used by studios such as Pixar. It was time-intensive work, but extremely rewarding. For one of my favorite projects, we were to create a room that meant something to us. So, I decided to recreate my high school band's practice room — complete with Led Zeppelin posters and a Fender guitar.
Unlike some other universities, many of the STEM lecture classes at Dartmouth require concurrent enrollment in a laboratory section. What is it like navigating that time as a student?
