Freshman files: Dartmouth impressions
January 22nd, 2019
Each year after the holidays I love to reconnect with past Shrop Ed students and check in on their first semester of college. This provides a great opportunity to share their experiences as college freshmen, shedding light on important elements of the transition from high school to college. Excerpts from their responses are extremely helpful to our younger students who will soon begin this journey as well, and I’m grateful to past students willing to share their thoughts publicly.
The first freshman files excerpt of 2019 comes from Isaac, a first-year student at Dartmouth College, a small research university within the Ivy League. Isaac’s commentary provides a deeper understanding of the many extracurricular opportunities and academic resources available outside of traditional classes, so important to making connections which can improve any college experience immensely.
Regarding Dartmouth, I love it here! The academics are in no way easy, but I’m finding them manageable this term. I’m doing very well in all of my classes (Intro to Anthropology, Computer Science 1, and my mandatory writing class) with the exception of a bump in the writing class … That being said, I did well on the last paper, so I think I’m getting the hang of it!
I joined Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering and am currently working on a project to improve the design of cots at a local shelter in hopes of preventing them from breaking so often to hopefully cut down on long-term expenses. I am also in Investment Club, SIBS (Big Brother Big Sister; I get paired with my Little in about a week and will meet them once or twice before break and then kick it into full swing once I’m back for winter term), and the Dartmouth Outing Club.
I also opted to do a couple of supplementary classes. I did Learning at Dartmouth which is a 14 session long informal course to help improve study skills and help first years learn about all of the resources they have available to them. I also participated in a 4 session long Koru Mindfulness class in hopes that it would help with stress management. It went pretty well and I think helped some but wasn’t a cure-all solution for me.
First Year Trips was an absolute blast! I loved all of my trippees and my trip leaders were great. I still often hang out with my trippees and keep in contact with my trip leaders. It was an amazing experience. Social life has been good too. I’ve made a lot of good friends who are really accepting of everyone. My roommate is one of my best friends. I really like him and we’ve both made friends through each other.
We’re grateful that Isaac agreed to share his experiences and wish him continued success as he finishes his first year!
Tagged: College, Freshman files, Ivy league
