As you know, Dartmouth's 10-week terms allow students to take three classes at a time. What the folks in the admissions office don't advertise is that professors can (and will!) schedule midterms any time from Week 2 to Week 8, which means that you will have to take some time out of your ragey schedule to sit in the library and get your learning on. Since we all want to optimize our fun while maximizing the marginal benefit of our study time (you'll probably know what this means by the end of freshman Fall), use the following guide to find your perfect study space there's one for everybody!
First Floor Berry (FFB)
Arguably some of the most desirable library real estate at Dartmouth, First Floor Berry boasts widescreen computers, irresistible rolling chairs in almost every study station and spacious desks for spreading out books and relevant documents. Studying on FFB gives you easy access to Novack Cafe and to the newly constructed King Arthur's Flour Cafe for sustenance and caffeine during your inevitable late-night study/essay-writing grinds. Freshmen, take note: if you're looking to be seen and don't care too much about productivity, wear your Sunday best and bring your books (read: troll Facebook) here.
Third Floor Berry (3FB)
While Third Floor Berry doesn't offer computers or many individual study spaces, it does provide one thing that FFB lacks: dirty looks when you talk too loudly. Located a floor above Jones Media Center, students who lug their study materials up to 3FB generally wish to avoid the constant foot traffic of FFB while enjoying the company of the their peers and gaining mad facetime. Particularly studious students are known to take a quick nap while slumped over the nearby armchairs. Athletes and non-athletes alike (but emphasis on athletes) come here to get stuff done and occasionally whisper amongst themselves.
Fourth Floor Berry (4FB)
Notoriously austere, Fourth Floor Berry is where over-caffeinated zombies get serious about their work. This floor is characterized by large, round tables surrounded by cushy L-shaped benches that double as napping cots. If you need to check out a book on 4FB, do so quietly or face the malicious glares of anxious studiers. It is nearly impossible to snag a spot on this floor during finals period, so make sure you get here early like week eight early.
The Stacks
While not for everyone, the stacks provide an atmosphere of seriousness and isolation for those willing to forgo human company to plow through their work. The creaky floors and the smell of old books, as well as the automated lights that turn on as you walk by, make this space seem like a scene right out of a horror film. But not to worry! You can find a well lit oasis in the East Asian Collections notably different because the spines of the books are decorated with foreign characters which is secretly tucked between the second and the third floors of the stacks.
Tower Room
Located on the second floor of Baker Hall, the Tower Room is one of the most scenic study areas in Baker-Berry Library and retains the old-school grandeur of the College. The room offers wooden furnishings, large windows, stately statues, gently arched ceilings and an impossibly opulent painting of the Earl of Dartmouth holding a steady gaze over us tiny mortals. Combined with the sheer warmth (it is palpably cozier than the other spaces on this list), the Tower Room is a really nice place to nap in public. Despite the Tower Room's stateliness, though, the ornate carpets and the velvet cushions may make the room an undesirable study location for those with allergies or claustrophobia.
Reserve Corridors
Located in the basement of Baker Library, the Reserve Corridors provides a wide-open yet quiet work space. Most notably, the Reserve Corridor houses the College's famed The Epic of American Civilization, a mural painted by the Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco in the 1930s. This 3,200-square-foot mural features images of alarmingly lifelike figures and apocalyptic scenes, so if you're looking for the walls to literally watch you while you work, this is the place for you. While the Reserve Corridors offer an aesthetically exciting study location, they can become pretty humid in the winter, so bring a comb.
The Class of 1902 Room, Baker Hall and Novack Cafe
Located on opposite sides of the Baker-Berry Library complex, the 1902 Room and Novack are the campus's 24-hour study areas. Novack is known as a more social study space, as friends and study groups congregate for meetings and review sessions while drinking some watery, flavorless Novack coffee to compensate for their slipping lucidity. The 1902 Room and Baker Hall, on the other hand, are quieter study areas, with individual students poring over their books or catching quick shut-eyes on couches that have arguably never been shampooed. Warning: The 1902 room smells like stress (you'll know what I mean when you smell it for yourself), and you will never shake the memories of the grim all-nighters you pulled there. On the other hand, the sunrise seeps through 1902's windows in the loveliest way.
Kresge/Dana/Feldberg Library
Kresge Physical Sciences library, Dana Biomedical library, and Feldberg Business an Engineering library are typically study spaces for the few graduate students at Dartmouth. Due to their distance from the center of the campus, these places also provide a quiet location away from the busy bustle of undergraduate life. The lack of familiar faces may appeal to some students, but these spaces offer the least facetime. Note: this is nice if you wish to keep your Sunday morning facade, with its smeared mascara and dorky glasses, a secret from the world.
Top of the Hop
A floor above the entrance of the Hopkins Center for the Arts, the Top of the Hop provides a quiet and scenic study location through its sizeable Kennedy Center-esque windows that overlook the Green. One should note, however, that there is an absence of tables. The cushy chairs makes this a comfortable spot to catch a quick nap between classes, but watch out for the couple trying to fit in one of the Dartmouth Seven in the middle of the day! Just kidding. Maybe.
Off-Campus
Once in a while, students who crave an escape from the Dartmouth bubble can make the short trek downtown to any one of the various study areas. Dirt Cowboy, a local cafe, is a popular joint for those seeking a better alternative to Novack coffee, but the screaming steamers and the incessant chatter may entice only the most committed of students to work here regularly.
The second floor of the Dartmouth Bookstore, on the other hand, provides a quiet location for study. Those who arrive early and on weekends almost always monopolize this popular study area.
Howe Library is a public library in Hanover that is unaffiliated with the College. Howe is located near the ever tempting Umpleby's and provides an alternative to student-packed Dartmouth libraries. It also provides a glimpse at an important population that is underrepresented by College students small children! Cute, but distracting.
Additional Tips
During reading period and finals Week, Baker-Berry Library is open 24 hours a day, and all manners of social propriety are promptly forgotten. Students are known to amorally "reserve" the best study areas, particularly in the 1902 Room, FFB and 4FB, by leaving their belongings in their study area for multiple days at a time an unfortunate side effect of Dartmouth's trustworthy community. Although library officials post signs around the library in an attempt to cut down on these unscrupulous practices, books and discarded coffee mugs still line the tables (and chairs) of Baker-Berry during the last weeks of each term. So get there early, grab a spot and camp out for the day it's a good excuse to reuse your first-year trips gear. Also, have your mother on speed dial for when you feel like it's the end of the world because you have seven papers due, you're about to get your first B+ and you burned your late-night snack in the microwave. And lastly, send everything to Green Print twice, and bring your laptop along for good measure you'll thank me for this later.
