How to optimize time at Dartmouth/Utilize D-Plan ?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
1

Hey, I’m a '21 and I’ve been planning out the next 4 years of my life so that I can maximize my experiences. I would love some tips on how to not only have the best experience, but also how to optimize the D-Plan. Thank you.

2

It’s very difficult to plan out all four years at this point. For example,

  • You may change your major.
  • You may want to add a minor or modify your major.
  • You may decide to go on a LSA or FSP

These are just a few things that will impact how your D-plan will eventually take shape.

With that said, I will try to make a few comments.

Just to review - with the D-plan, you have to be on campus freshman fall/winter/spring, senior fall/winter/spring and sophomore summer. That’s 7 terms out of the 12 terms you have to be enrolled. The remaining 5 terms can be chosen from the following 8 terms: freshman summer, sophomore fall/winter/spring, junior fall/winter/spring/summer.

  • Most people take freshman summer and junior summer off. You don't have to, but that's something to think about. As a result, most people try to maximize the effectiveness of that one leave term.
  • Taking a leave term off Sophomore year tends to be unpopular because people are still trying to figure things out - what major, modify or not, minor or not, distribution requirements, etc. Plus, most people took freshman summer off, so they don't need a break after one or two terms.
  • If you don't take a leave term sophomore year, that means you will have been in school for 4 consecutive terms as you start junior year. That's a long time - people start to burn out.

IMHO, junior spring is the best term to take off. You can start an internship or a job early and then continue through junior summer. I knew one woman who went on an LSA to Europe for junior winter and then stayed for junior spring and summer for an internship - pretty much became fluent in the language. That’s a long time to be away from campus, but it’s shows what you can do with the D-plan. I also knew two people that did research during the school year and then stayed on campus Junior spring and summer to continue working full-time. Both live in off-campus housing, so they didn’t have any issues with that.

Don’t know if this helped at all, but best of luck to you at Dartmouth! Hopefully, you will love it as much as I did!