Welcome Home!

 Posted by Vanessa Trinh at 5:08 pm  No Responses »
Dec 062012
 

This post goes out to all the Dartmouth students that are now home for the holidays with this year’s new Academic Calendar extending from Thanksgiving to New Years as well as to the brand new ’17s that are, as of today, part of our Dartmouth family! Congratulations! I am excited to meet the DC- area ’17s at the Dartmouth Club of DC Holiday Party coming up next week.

As I finish up my time at home in DC this fall quarter, I have realized how crazy fast the time has gone by. After having this “real life” job, I am ready to go back and enjoy my time as a student for a little while longer. Although I have learned so much more in these past ten weeks than I could have imagined I would, I also miss my friends, my sorority and my classes that didn’t start until ten and were only a few steps outside my door. Get ready ’17s, for a fantastic college experience, whether you are in Hanover or taking off-terms in cities all over the world, take advantage of all of it! We’re all waiting to see what you’ll do.

Also, say ‘Hi!’ on campus!

 

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Fall in DC

 Posted by Vanessa Trinh at 2:11 pm  No Responses »
Oct 112012
 

Well, unlike many of the other posts on here, my junior fall at Dartmouth is not actually at Dartmouth! I’m taking the Fall off, courtesy of the D-Plan, and working in Washington, DC. I’m interning at both the Department of State and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, for a total of at least 60 hours a week.

Overseas Private Investment Corporation

Overseas Private Investment Corporation

I’m a DC area native so I’m living at home with my parents and taking the metro every day to commute.

I know, I’m absolutely crazy. I go to State at 8 AM and leave at 4 PM for OPIC and work until at least 8 PM there! Thankfully, all of my friends are at school or the ones in DC are also working weekdays so I get to just come home and eat a home cooked meal before crashing into bed.

So far though, it’s been an awesome experience! Both of the internships are really interesting and I’m learning a lot every day. Most days I’m so busy doing work that I look up and its 7:30 already and I didn’t even notice. I know that if the jobs weren’t as interesting the 12 hour days would be dreadful so I’m thankful they are.

U.S. Department of State

U.S. Department of State

I’ve already been able to meet with the Ambassador of Panama, help with a North African entrepreneurship program, assist with multilateral agreements like the TPP and learn about development projects around the world.

The Assistant Secretary of the Bureau I work in is actually a Dartmouth grad and was really excited to have a Dartmouth intern, so it’s just another example of the Big Green network that extends across the world. It’s crazy that I get to take things I learned about in government and economics classes at school and actually see them in action here at State and OPIC, and it helps me realize how lucky I am to be a Dartmouth student and the opportunties off-terms give me. So far, it’s all been so rewarding!

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Super Sixteens!

 Posted by Faizan Kanji at 9:32 pm  1 Response »
Mar 292012
 

Hey guys! First of all CONGRATULATIONS on getting into Dartmouth. Here’s a link to my post to the early decision sixteens. Much of this applies to all of you as well.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dartmouthdirect/2011/12/to-the-sixteens/

Over the next few weeks you guys will be making one of the most important decisions of your life. Many of you might have excellent offers from other colleges as well and are closely looking at every aspect of every college to make sure you make the right decision. I was in the same position exactly a year ago. Today, while writing this post, I am filled with immense happiness and pride for choosing Dartmouth which ended up being the perfect choice for me. Although it’s probably true that Dartmouth may not be for everybody, but trust me, Dartmouth’s versatility and welcoming nature ensures that most people will have the best time of their life at this institution!

So the major question is why should you choose Dartmouth? You’ll probably find thousands of answers to that question. I’ll just add some of my own experiences to that list.

One major thing you’ll always hear about Dartmouth is the focus on undergraduate studies. Trust me that is NO joke! All classes are taught by professors. They also have additional office hours when you can ask them for help or just have a nice chat with them. To see world class professors working extremely hard for you is truly inspirational and you can find that at Dartmouth! This is one of the biggest and most important reasons i’m completely in love with Dartmouth!

Next is the versatility. This is something I’ve talked about in my previous posts. Dartmouth has something for everybody. You meet loads of different kinds of people and all of them have made their place in this wonderful institute. For example, coming from Pakistan my favorite sport has always been Cricket. Coming to the US, I assumed that I probably will not get to play cricket during my time here. However I was in for an amazing surprise when I found out that Dartmouth actually had a cricket club. I get to play cricket every single week here. Many people have had similar experiences with their passions. Sometimes when there actually isn’t an official organization for you, then you can easily create one. Best thing is that you will almost always get both funding from Dartmouth as well as support from peers, administration as well as professors. It’s magnificent!

I’m sure that many of you will already have heard of the amazing study abroad opportunities, the flexible schedule, amazing internships, world class resources, and the millions of other things Dartmouth has to offer. All of these together make Dartmouth a really magical institute. However something that struck me the most was the amount of love students have for this college. People are actually passionate about making it a better place and almost everyone wholeheartedly believes in the greatness of this institution. I’ve also talked about a magical feeling associated with being here in some of my previous posts. The best thing about this feeling is that it keeps increasing over time. As I said, each week brings something new, presents a new challenge, and gives us the opportunity to develop physically, mentally and emotionally.

Overall, I’d just like to say that you guys are a really lucky bunch. Think about your college choices carefully, but speaking from experience I HIGHLY recommend Dartmouth! I am super excited to see you all on campus and I can’t wait to see all of you soon! Make the most of your last few pre-college months!
Cheers!

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One Week at a Time

 Posted by Faizan Kanji at 4:38 pm  No Responses »
Jan 162012
 

The beauty of 10 week terms is that each week is a challenge. It’s like you’re on a reality show in which you’re given a list of tasks. You work super hard to complete task after task and get through that list. While doing that, somehow you also find moments to laugh, have fun and just breathe. Eventually, after days of working hard, you complete all your tasks. You feel proud, and happy and motivated. You go ahead and submit your list with a check mark against all the tasks with a huge smile on your face. And before you can even celebrate you’re given a new list and you have to start all over again. Each week at Dartmouth is a new list of tasks. Every Sunday night we try to make sure we’ve completed our list for the week. Monday morning, a new week starts and, with that, a new list.

Weeks and terms at Dartmouth go by really fast. Often we find loads of work piled up. Often we have to go by a day with less than 4 hours of sleep. But somehow, in some weird way, being at Dartmouth makes it completely manageable. Not only do we manage to make sure to get all our work done, but we end up making sure we have time for activities, for sports, for just having fun. And then every Sunday night when we’ve conquered one more week, we realize the beauty of this place and are ready to start the next week filled with motivation and excitement. Having said that, the magic, however, is that each week is an adventure yet no two weeks are the same. Each week brings us a new lesson, a new challenge, a new perspective, just something new. Each week adds to our personalities at least one more positive attribute. Each week makes us a better and stronger person. In this way we continue our journey at Dartmouth, becoming better individuals, and achieving something remarkable, one week at a time.

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Courses, Schedules, and D-Plans Galore

 Posted by Ajay Kannan at 8:40 pm  No Responses »
Nov 232011
 

I have way too much fun planning.  I think classes are my favorite thing to plan about my time at Dartmouth.  You know how on Macs, they have the “Top Sites” page when you open up a new tab?  Well my Banner account, where you go to pick classes, is listed there now…with other sites like Youtube, my favorite web comics, Gmail, and Sporcle.  I think I look at classes more than I watch television or surf Facebook.  That’s a good thing, right? (Just nod your head, it will make me feel better.)

There are just so many possibilities to consider.  Class topic, professor, time – sometimes it gets to be a bit much because I literally can’t hold all the information in my head.  I don’t mind courses in the morning or going to class on TuTh (Tuesdays and Thursdays) in addition to MWF (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), but a lot of my friends choose courses that only meet later on MWF.  Then there are the distributives that they fulfill, which I’m not really worrying about right now, but eventually I’ll be looking for a CI, TMV, etc.  I apologize for my abbreviations – I think it’s another sign I’ve spent way too much time on Banner.  Anyways, I especially like looking at the teachers’ reviews, especially on the site that the Hacker Club resurrected (don’t worry, “hacking” is another word for Programming, and the Hacker Club works on some awesome projects).  A great teacher can make you really enjoy thinking about subjects that you’ve never thought about before.

Speaking of new subjects, it’s my goal to take at least one crazy, creative, out-of-the-box course each term.  On the agenda for winter term: ethnomusicology, in which I’ll learn about non-western music whilst playing musical instruments I’ve probably never seen before and learning from visiting musicians.  To work towards my goal, I’m already planning (no surprises there) a list of interesting courses that I want to take by the time I graduate.

D-planning is harder to do as a freshman in my opinion, especially because there are so many variables up in the air.  Most freshman take summer off, but I don’t mind staying on-campus if it means I can land a really interesting internship or study abroad program some other term.  D-planning started with my nearly-obsessed friend (you know who you are :P , but no judgment, since I clearly cannot judge anyone).  I caught the disease from her, and now I’ve come up with a tentative plan for my first three years here (let’s not mention the hours that went into that).  D-Planning also leads to discussions about housing next year with my friends, which I won’t even go into here – it’s complicated.

Anyways, when it’s course registration time, I tend to get very little work done.  It’s a pity that course registration opened just before midterms, but I did fine on my tests, so no worries.  But now that’s its Thanksgiving break, I can relax, do a little studying (not go on Banner…hopefully that part works out), and reconnect with my family and friends from back home.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

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International Student Orientation – The Warmest Welcome

 Posted by Faizan Kanji at 12:48 am  No Responses »
Sep 262011
 

As I sat on my bed in Karachi, Pakistan, nearly 7000 miles from Dartmouth College, several thoughts rushed through my head. Dartmouth is supposed to be my home for the next four years of my life. There is excitement, but at the same time questions. How will I get to Dartmouth from Boston airport? Who will my first friends be? How will I understand the technical aspects of being an international student on an F-1 student visa (how will that effect my job on campus, my D-Plan, etc)? These and many more questions made me slightly nervous. However, soon an email cleared everything out.

Dartmouth has a very comprehensive International Student Orientation. Over the summer before coming to Dartmouth, each international student is given an upperclassman mentor. My mentor got in touch with me through email and allowed me to ask all the questions that I had. In addition to that, I was told that my mentor and other International Student Mentors (ISMs) will be there to greet me at the airport and then again at the bus station at Dartmouth. This indeed served as the perfect welcome to Dartmouth, and in general, to USA!

In pouring rain the ISMs made sure that my luggage was sent to my room and I had a peaceful night’s sleep after a very long journey. The following morning they made sure that I got my Dartmouth ID card and my room keys and even gave us international students a brief tour of Dartmouth. It was, however, after I returned from my DOC trip (Which was another adventure altogether and deserves a separate post), that International Student Orientation officially began with an awesome BBQ!

The 3 days of International Student Orientation were the perfect start for all of us international students to our lives at Dartmouth. The information sessions covered all the technical details and answered all of our questions. We got several chances to talk to upperclassmen about their experiences at Dartmouth and asked all sorts of questions. We were given the opportunity to have breakfast with professors from various departments and then were able to personally talk to them. We also had several fun activities including an amazing talent show and an awesome dance party. But most of all, I made several amazing friends during International Student Orientation.

As an international student at Dartmouth, you would never feel left out. Dartmouth, as a community, is open to all. Dartmouth’s orientation programs for incoming freshmen provide the perfect start for everybody. As soon as you arrive at Dartmouth, whether you are an international student or not, you are given several resources to make your transition to Dartmouth both easy and enjoyable. In simple words, it is as soon as you arrive at Dartmouth that you fall in love with The Big Green!

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