<p>Excuse my slightly presumptuous tone, but I am struggling with the idea that 3 classes can be even stressful? This notion came to my head after reading a "four courses" thread down below and I really began to wonder how stressful the Dartmouth experience can be?</p>
<p>I am sure with the increased freedom with just being out of the house, out of the control of parents, somehow one's circadian rhythm begin to find more room to breath. However, I have an unconventional experience. Having finished literally 19 out of 21 credits (that is, 2 more full year classes left) by the end of junior year, I was really given free rein to do many things. I still kept myself fairly occupied, with a few college classes and a slightly ponderous load of reading.</p>
<p>My own drivel aside, I am really asking, how much real time is put into a class? I have friend who's finishing up a B of arts degree in our state's flagship school next year, having only entered this year (with full summer schedule). Dartmouth is not exactly at the same level, but how much does it differ?</p>
<p>I am thinking about double majoring (econ + psych), so perhaps your input will be really helpful.</p>
<p>3 classes in ten weeks is plenty stressful. Midterms run from week 2.5 to week 8.5, for one thing, and its a very compacted quarter, so fifteen weeks of material is made to fit ten weeks, which can mean more reading and more work outside class. Lab also doesn’t count as a credit at Dartmouth the way it does at some schools, so if you are taking a lab course (and you will have to take at least one) that can be like a fourth course. So basically in college, expect to spend less time in class, more time doing work outside of class. But yes, you have more free time…to volunteer, work, hang out etc. But it can get very stressful. And I’ve never taken a four course term, and because I planned well enough I won’t have to, thankfully.</p>
<p>I don’t think technically being done with high school credits by the end of junior year of high school is all the uncommon…i think I was half an art credit shy of accidentally graduating a year early or something. I’m not really sure what your question is on that one, but it is different in college. At Dartmouth, you certainly have students who are all done by the end of senior fall or winter, and just stay on working on theses. Or just stay on and hang out. </p>
<p>Personally, as a double major, I’ll be done with one of my majors by junior spring, and then just have a few credits for my other major and one distrib left for senior year, which I’ll knock out in two terms, or maybe two terms worth of classes spread over three terms.</p>
<p>Can you give me some numbers about the amount of time you spend for specific classes, just in your experience?</p>
<p>I read somewhere that AP/College credits dont count for the distributives, is that true? I guess I am going to a Liberal Arts school, but I really am not too overly interested in the massive spread required for graduation. I have Art History and credits for Philosophy and such, yet they dont really seem to count for anything. That seems a bit frustrating!</p>
<p>How does double major really work? I am really thinking about trimming down on the distributives and have courses in both of my majors fitted into my 4-year schedule.</p>
<p>At my local state college, my credits can kick me into Junior standing, but I guess Dartmouth is a bit different.</p>
<p>No worries, I am still greatly excited about the school</p>
<p>Dartmouth’s curriculum is compacted. Thus, what your friend would take over a full year (36-38 weeks), at D you will cover the same curriculum in 2 quarters (21-22 weeks).</p>
<p>I actually like that a lot, since most of the time I get very impatient in the class and I just start reading the textbook to the end.</p>
<p>Is double major difficult? I am sure my adviser would work this out with me quite quickly, but could someone just give me an idea about it? I mean, can I forgo some distributive requirement, or if not, do I have to take more classes than people with just a single major?</p>
<p>You will probably find that most of your distribution requirements are met by major courses, and it shouldn’t be a big deal to fulfill the other ones. It seems that double-majoring is common, so it can’t be such a big deal.</p>
<p>Three courses can be stressfull when you realize that you are starting to have exams and papers 2 or 3 weeks into the term. I went from a semester system undergrad to a quarter system in grad school, and you basically had to decide what you were going to write the big final paper about just a couple of weeks into the class. Not easy.</p>
<p>You still have to fill distribs if you double major, but at most you’ll have to take two or three courses just to fill a distrib. Personally, my two majors cover all my distribs except Sci and the lab requirement, and my freshman seminar ended up being a Sci credit, so even that met multiple reqs. Basically, you have 35 credits you need, 36 you can take if you take all 3 course loads. About 10-12 of them will go to a single major. So if you double major, that’s 20-24 credits. That still leaves you another 12-16 for distribs, a random fsp, a language, whatever you want to use them for. </p>
<p>I honestly don’t know how much time I spend on a single class…some classes are hours almost every night, some classes are two hours a week. Most classes are somewhere between the two. </p>
<p>Most students don’t just single major. Some double major. Some have a major and a minor. Some have a major modified with another major. There have been triple majors. More common is a single major and two minors if you really want to do three, or a modified major and a minor.</p>
<p>Everybody’s right, kidwithshirt. Three classes doesn’t seem like much, intuitively it even seems kind of easy at times. But in the span of 10 weeks, it is quite stressful. Between the three classes there is usually SOMETHING due every week. It’s imperative to plan ahead, making a schedule of assignments, to realize weeks beforehand that in one three-day span you will have a midterm, a presentation and a paper.</p>
<p>However, I will say that once you fall into a rhythm - the short breaks, the coming back, etc. - it becomes easy. Or at least it did for me. Plus the grading system at Dartmouth is really lenient; like, you have to really suck/struggle at something to get a B in it. So there’s that.</p>
<p>^^Since the top 35% of your class DAlum10 was a ~3.58, there must be a LOT of kids who “suck/struggle”, meaning at least as many B’s as A’s.</p>
<p>(The grading system in Hanover is not as generous as the gimmes in Cambridge or New Haven or Providence.)</p>