<p>For Dartmouth students...how have you used your D-Plan, or how do you plan to use it?</p>
<p>I'm trying to figure out how much it really sets Dartmouth apart, or if its just another scheduling system. What kinds of things has it allowed you guys to do?</p>
<p>It allowed me to get a great internship opportunity. During the summer, the place averages 12-15 applications per spot; there is less competition in spring, and I got to work more closely with higher-ups than summer interns do.</p>
<p>Also, it let me spend sophomore summer in Hanover, which was quite probably the best summer of my life.</p>
<p>D was on campus entire freshman year
on campus entire sophomore year (recommends to any incoming student to do a leave term sophmore year to break the year up)
currently at sophmore summer
Fall 06- off doing a study abroad program
Winter 06- off doing an internship (there are currently on campus interviews taking place for fall and winter internships )
return to hanover-spring 07
will be on senior year.</p>
<p>Many of her friends were off spring 06 doing various study abroad programs (spain, mexico, france, argentina & prague), back in hanover for sophmore summer and will be off again in the fall on another study abroad in the fall (germany, copenhagen, rome, spain & brazil) then taking leave terms winter 07.</p>
<p>(I transferred in)</p>
<p>Sophomore Fall: Campus
Sophomore Winter: Campus
Sophomore Spring: Campus
Sophomore Summer (BEST EVER!): campus</p>
<p>Junior Fall: Campus (Reading course to prepare for thesis research)
Junion Winter: Full paid grant ($10K) to Marshall Islands for thesis
Junior Spring: LSA Barcelona
Junior Summer: Internship at top firm in NYC</p>
<p>Senior Year: On campus living in apt with best friends</p>
<p>Insane, I can assure you, the D-PLan is quite unlike any other college. When I visited friends at Penn and Cornell and mentioned Dartmouth students constantly coming and going for various internships, LSA's, FSP's, research, and volunteer work, they just kind of looked at me blankly. If you want to do that at most other institutions, especially the more famous ones, it takes lots of initiative, hard work, research, blood, sweat, and tears, just to snag an internship. At Dartmouth, they literally THROW money at you to travel to interesting places and participate in fantastic projects for off-terms. And the best part is, it is completely for students. Check out this page:</p>
<p>and this page of study abroad programs:</p>
<p>Even when doing your study abroad, you can take courses in your major (one of D's friends is a classics major and will be doing both classics programs in rome and greece), D is doing her study abroad in her major. </p>
<p>You can fulfill a minor or take a course just because you are interested in the subject. The language programs are most popular because they are given each term (f/w/s) and can be used to fulfill your language requirement at the school or just because you want to be immersed in a language and a culture.</p>
<p>D's roommate taught in Marshall Islands fall of sophmore year (got a stipend) and will be returning again junior year for the study abroad program.</p>
<p>If you think you wil lnot be able to afford it, don't worry as there are increased funds given for Financial aid in order for you to do your trip. The school never wants money to be the cause for a student not taking advantage of the opportunity.</p>
<p>D will be on soph fall and winter (taking senior seminar course to be ready for honors thesis in her preferred concentration), will be abroad soph spring, on soph summer, then off junior fall. Her plans for junior fall aren't firm yet, she might do an internship or something abroad like work for a thesis or more volunteer type work, she's not sure yet. She originally thought about doing 2 study abroads, but is now leaning more toward a double major, and the study abroad for one of her majors is not that enticing, she would rather save that space for on campus classes, or possible thesis work.</p>
<p>The big advantages are flexiblity and more internship opportunities in the "off-season" as has been said. Money is not such a big issue for the FA student, although it is for D because she doesn't get FA - she will though qualify for support for research work, or more "volunteer-like" experience, such as teaching in the Marshall islands, or some clinic work in Africa that she may pursue.</p>
<p>This thread makes me giddy :) And all the more anxious for September to arrive!</p>
<p>There are over 300 students currently registered for the 2 sections of engineering 3 this summer with Ron Lasky. D says that the professor is amazing. Even with 300 students, he is taking them all out to dinner in groups of 15-20 students. D went to class with the mindset of knocking out her and Applied Sciences (TAS) distributive requirement and this would be an unnecessary evil she would have to endure. Her comments now is that it is such an interesting course and had she been able to take it earlier in her dartmouth career, she would have seriously considered majoring in engineering or material science</p>
<p>but doesn't the d-plan make it sort of hard to keep in touch with a group of friends?? like isn't everyone constantly coming and going? i love the idea of being able to schedule my own breaks, doing LSAs and being able to get great internship opportunities, but i also like to feel settled in with school and people, which i think may be hard if people leave at different times</p>
<p>I've heard the D-plan is one reason why people don't really date or get into relationships at Dartmouth. It's really hard to stay in a relationship in a situation where, say, you take one term off, your partner takes the next, and one of you takes the one after to do a study abroad program. You could not see each other for as long as one whole academic year; at the very least, it's highly likely that you'll end up not seeing each other for at least one term.</p>
<p>Jsullivan and Half-baked - yes, those are the downsides, and one of the reasons that people treasure sophomore summer as a time to connect with everyone in your year. I get the feeling everyone sees or feels those negatives aspects of the D-Plan, and it is a real incentive to have/make a large circle of friends - you always need someone to share a room. The real problem is schlepping all your stuff to and from storage - many students go through at least one year of changing their room or state or country 2-3 times. Forces you to pare down the amount of "stuff" you accumulate.</p>