<p>I am very blessed to have just been admitted to Dartmouth. One of it's unique attributes, of course, is its "D Plan" schedule...very different than the other school (Brown...traditional 2-semester calendar) I am evaluating as my final decision. Putting aside the significant difference between their fundamental educational philosophy (structured vs. unstructured) and just looking at the calendar, can anyone comment on the D Plan's pro's vs. con's? Is it in any meaningful way, a negative? Thanks for any insights.</p>
<p>OK, I’m only a 15 so I’m not an expert on Dartmouth life or pros and cons of the D-plan (personally I think it sounds great), but I feel like I should clarify. </p>
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<p>If by structured you mean there are distribution requirements, Dartmouth would be considered structured. But it is not structured in the same way that Columbia or Chicago is. It may be more structured than Brown (which has NO structure), but I haven’t talked to anyone that finds Dartmouth’s distribution requirements to be restrictive.</p>
<p>The D plan certainly has its advantages: Being on or off campus during “odd” terms does mean that there are more internships, overseas study opportunities, etc., available. As a parent, I see two disadvantages:</p>
<p>(1) Because each term is so short, class work is very intense. You’re always either heading into midterms or finals, it seems. You don’t have weeks and weeks of plain vanilla class work; there’s always something significant looming in the not-too-distant future.</p>
<p>(2) When you’re off, your friends from HS are not. So some of your vacations can be a bit dull – just home with the parents, no friends to hang out with.</p>
<p>YMMV</p>
<p>it’s true you can go to Brown and spend 4 years studying romantic era poetry or physics or drama or any peculiar combination you come up with, but really most students get an early dose of reality and understand that for almost anything you want to do in 4 years, finance, engineering, prof. school, grad programs, you need to show mastery of a variety of subjects and bring a recognizable set of educational experiences. Brown ug advisors have all sorts of “suggested” curricula plans, which look very much like the distribution requirements and major tracks at other schools, to guide you toward whatever goal you have.</p>
<p>Some like, some don’t, Dartmouth’s pace of instruction. With 3 classes@10weeks per quarter, there’s fewer subjects but faster more concentrated learning at any given time compared with a semester system. As I said, some like fast and focused, some prefer slower and diverse.</p>
<p>One big advantage of only taking 3 classes at a time is that you spend so much less time actually sitting in classrooms! You have so much more time to schedule your own day/week the way you’d like to. It’s very common to have weekdays with just one or even no classes. Many kids have 3 classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and no classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Another very common schedule is two classes on Monday Wednesday and Friday and one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Compare this to schools where you spend the bulk of everyday in class.</p>
<p>I don’t multitask well and would rather concentrate intensely on fewer things for shorter periods, so this system works well for me. On the other hand, if you get sick and miss a week of class, catching up is much harder.</p>