“DON’T WORRY IF YOU DON’T HAVE A GOOD ANSWER to that absurd question, ’What’s your passion?’ We’re not expecting you to know what your ’one true calling’ is yet! Your time here at Dartmouth will give you lots of fantastic opportunities to explore diverse interests and follow various curiosities, which will let you learn not just about the world but about yourself.” Eugene Korsunskiy / Associate Professor of Engineering
“STAY CURIOUS, PRACTICE KINDNESS, AND ASK FOR HELP. Take seriously any invitations for self-reflection— inside and outside the classroom—and know that you have time, that you are not supposed to have it all figured out. Breathe.”
Office Hours Sienna Craig / Professor of Anthropology and South House Professor
ILLUSTRATION BY FERNANDO COBELO
“THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE WILL CHANGE YOU and your interests will change, too—choose a school that allows for that change and for exploration, rather than a place where you are locked into a major or school or area of study from the start. Look for opportunities outside the classroom that will help you become part of a community where you can thrive. Choose a college where you can feed your sense of curiosity and find the most moments of delight.” Lorie Loeb / Research Professor of Computer Science and Faculty Director, DALI Lab
“AS AN INCOMING DARTMOUTH STUDENT, you will receive a lot of advice about choosing a major. Here’s mine: don’t major in the field that you think you should study or that someone else wants you to study. Instead, major in what you love to study. The enduring value of a Dartmouth liberal arts education lies not in the acquisition of a store of knowledge but in the discovery of different ways of thinking and learning. Will you define academic and career success according to what others tell you or according to what you find exciting and rewarding?”
“A FRIEND ONCE ASKED ME WHY I WAS SO WISE, and I replied, ’I’ve made a lot of mistakes.’ I said it so quickly, I didn’t know I felt that way until that moment. It’s a fair example of the power of spontaneous intelligence, the way what you know reorganizes around answering a question. When you don’t speak up in class, you keep yourself from learning what you already know, so ask questions and answer them—this is why we are in that classroom, to do this together.” Alexander Chee / Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing
Edward Miller / Associate Professor of History
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