Majors at Dartmouth

One of the things I do for the Admissions Office is answer emails, and I'm really surprised at how many students think they need to apply for a particular major or academic program at the same time that they apply to Dartmouth. It's not their fault for thinking this - a lot of universities require students to apply not just to the university but also to a specific college for admission. I just can't imagine going to a school where I'd have to decide on my major so early on in my college career and, once I've done that, actually apply for it and have a chance I could be rejected!

At Dartmouth, students don't have to declare their major until the middle or end of their sophomore year. This gives them ample opportunity to explore all the different academic departments that the college has to offer. Of course, some students know what they want to do right when they get here and follow that path all the way through to graduation. Many more think they know what they want to study, but after some time here find that they enjoy something else much more. As for me, I came to Dartmouth thinking that maybe I wanted to major in engineering, but I also knew that I had an affinity for the humanities. After my freshman fall, during which I took a calculus class (and found out I really didn't like it) and an introductory environmental studies class (and discovered I loved it), I knew I wasn't going to study engineering. I bounced some ideas around with my parents, friends, and first-year academic advisers, and considered environmental studies, sociology, and English, before finally settling on government (with a concentration in international relations). Since then I've added the environmental studies minor, mostly because I've taken so many ENVS courses as electives that I only needed one more to complete the minor.

Once students declare a major, they still have the option of changing or modifying it. And because we operate like a college (and not a multi-college university), changing one's major doesn't require the student to move to or take classes in an entirely different section of campus. After all, our campus isn't that big! But my main point is that here, we don't have "Engineering Students" or "Humanities Students" or "Economics Students." We only have "Dartmouth Students." And that's one of my favorite things about this place.