My D-Plan

By now, most of you reading this realize that I'm on sort of a different schedule up here at Dartmouth. Understandably, it can be very confusing. So I've decided to put something up here which hopefully will explain things a little better.

First, Dartmouth operates on a quarter calander. Thus, we do not have a semester or trimester system. You'll notice that I call the academic terms just that - terms - because "semester" implies that there are 2 of them in a year, when in fact there are 4, which correspond roughly to the seasons. Each term about 10 weeks long, and the standard courseload is 3 courses per term. Most people will complete 3 terms/year, which results in taking 9 courses in about 30 weeks, which is pretty much the average for most college students.

Each student is able to construct his/her own "D-Plan," as it's called, determining which terms will be spent doing what. There are a few guidelines every student has to follow (exceptions can be made by petition, a not-unusual occurance).

First, Dartmouth students must be taking classes for 12 of the 15 terms of their 4 years at Dartmouth. (15 terms = fall, winter, spring, and summer terms of first 3 years, and fall, winter, and spring of senior year).

Second: Freshman fall, winter, and spring terms must be spent on campus.
Sophomore summer must be on campus.
Senior fall, winter, and spring must be on campus.

That takes care of 7 terms, leaving 5 for us to decide how we want to spend them.

Third: Students may study off campus for credit for no more than 3 terms.

Fourth (not really a guideline, just a piece of info): Terms spend off campus not part of a study abroad or exchange program are called leave terms.

So, with that in mind, here is my plan:

Freshman Year:
Fall: On campus
Winter: On campus
Spring: On campus
Summer: Leave term (I'll be doing Bike & Build)

Sophomore Year:
Fall: On campus
Winter: Study abroad (French in Toulouse)
Spring: Leave term - working as a sub in the high school/internship... we'll see
Summer: On campus, for the best term @ Dartmouth, so I've heard

Junior Year:
Fall: This is where it gets tricky. I could do the Government foreign study in London, or I could stay on campus and volunteer for a presidential campaign, since New Hampshire has the first primary, and that will be primary season.
Winter: Regardless, on campus
Spring: Depends on fall. I may do the D.C. gov program, or I may stay on campus to finish the Japanese 1,2,3 sequence (if I'm here junior fall as well) to open up more options for...
...Junior Summer: Leave term: internship. This is where the variables play in, because ideally it will be abroad, but it's also a long time from now, and a lot can happen. If I'm here junior fall-spring and have taken Japanese 1-3, I may go for an internship at the US embassy in Tokyo. Or something in France or D.C.

Senior Year:
Fall: Depends on Junior fall. If I don't go to London then to be here for the primary, I may petition to study in London this term.
Winter: On campus
Spring: On campus

Another thing: because of the schedule, my breaks don't really match up with other people's. For intance, my Christmas break started Dec 3rd and ended Jan 3rd, and my spring break is 2 weeks long (March 14-28). Spring term ends around June 5th (depending on finals) and fall term starts around Sept 20th (but I'll be up here around the 14th for freshman orientation cause a cappella groups do shows just about every day).

So I hope that clears some things up... it's pretty confusing, and even I haven't figured out exactly what I'm doing yet, but it's great because we have so many options. I mean... junior fall I have to choose between studying government in London or being on campus for all the candidate visits and working on someone's campaign... it's pretty sweet.

That's it for now, because speaking of government, I have an exam in 25 minutes which I'm really not ready for, but rather than stress myself out, I figured I'd do this. I hope it pays off... something tells me it won't. But at least I'll live longer this way.