When I received my acceptance letter to Dartmouth, I knew right away I was going to be a government major. I had an affinity for the subject in high school, I knew I would enjoy classes in the department and I was sure it was the field I wanted to enter after graduation. Today, less than halfway through my Dartmouth career, on a muggy sophomore summer evening, I remain absolutely convinced that this is still true. However, I did not come to this conclusion by testing the hypothesis as a freshman. As a first-year student, I took classes in any subject that interested me my first-year seminar was in the geography department, my first-year advisor was an English professor whose class I took in the spring, I dabbled in philosophy and ended up going on the foreign study program to Edinburgh, where I decided against majoring in philosophy, I took two public policy courses with the same professor solely because I enjoyed the content and I took a course taught by a physics and history professor.
Even though I was set on being a government major from the minute that I stepped foot on campus during Dimensions, I didn't take a single government class during my freshman year. And I don't regret that decision a single bit. Today, I am a double major in English and government with a minor in Public Policy. Had I restricted myself to completing my major as early as possible, I almost certainly would not be where I am today, both academically and intellectually.
My advice to you as an incoming freshman is simply this explore. Pick classes based on what looks interesting and engaging, not what your floormates or friends are taking or what you're certain will become your major. By all means, take a major course or two in your freshman year, but don't limit yourself to a set track or overcommit to one field just because you have always thought or been told that it is the objectively "right" one for you. As a first-year student, you have every reason to explore and zero reasons to commit yourself.
This holds true for both your academics and your extracurricular activities. I have heard upperclassmen complain about freshmen grasping at too many straws when it comes to extracurricular activities, without fully committing to a single one. However, while this criticism may hold some truth I was certainly guilty of biting off a bit more than I could chew during my freshman year I also do sincerely urge you to check out at least one organization that your high school self never would have joined. Even if you don't end up joining said organization, simply exposing yourself to new ideas and communities, some of which may not have even existed in your high school, can be an incredibly rewarding and educational experience.
Speaking of new ideas and communities, I ask only one thing of you as a new member of the Dartmouth community. Please do your part to bring new ideas and fresh perspectives to your classes, your social interactions with older members of this community and whatever student organizations you decide to join. Once you've spent a little time in Hanover, you'll come to appreciate the ideological stagnation that can occur within the Dartmouth bubble. I hope that you, and your class as a whole, will help those of us who have spent what is by now perhaps a little too much time inside the bubble to appreciate that there is a world outside Hanover. As a freshman, you occupy a very special place in dialogues on campus. You are new enough to the College that no one will fault you for ignorance of and, when appropriate, posing challenges to what some believe to be "just how things are."
So, happy freshman fall! Enjoy the last rays of sun before campus settles under what will, for a time, feel like a modern Ice Age. Meet and bond with your floormates, look forward to partaking in and helping to shape the College's traditions and never, ever stop exploring.
