MIR ROR 4.18.2018
THE IDEAL COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER | 3
ALEX BATTISON: COLLIS EMPLOYEE AND STUDENT | 4-5
A THOUGHTFUL WAY TO LIVE AND LEARN | 6 SAMANTHA BURACK/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
2 //MIRR OR
Editors’ Note
Mirror Asks
If you had to put a price on your brain, how much would it be? Jake Maguire: I honestly don’t know — I don’t necessarily consider myself to be priceless or anything like that, but I am a first-year student at Dartmouth and the sticker price for my education here is about $70,000 per year, so that’s a good place to start. Eliza Jane Schaeffer: The collective value of a group of brains, one from each Dartmouth fraternity. Zach Gorman: About $3.50. Timothy Yang: Priceless — it’s not for sale! Zachary Benjamin: At least 50 cents — I don’t want to sell myself short. What are you passionate about? JM: I am passionate about improving opportunities for other people, and I also love reading, writing, hanging out with friends, traveling and being outside. EJS: Words. I find it incredible (in the true sense of the word) that groups of letters can hold so much meaning and can shape the way we view the world, but at the same time can be a source of ambiguity and disorder. ZG: I’m passionate about life’s biggest philosophical questions. For instance, what’s the deal with airline food? TY: Personality psychology. Even knowing just a little bit of personality psychology can open your world and explain many interaction phenomena of individuals. ZB: Getting sufficient sleep. Unfortunately, I am more passionate about this topic than I am talented. MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
How often do you get lost in thought? Have you ever been daydreaming, your mind miles away from the task at hand, a distant look in your eyes? Has a friend ever turned to you and asked, “Penny for your thoughts?” Perhaps you were dreaming about the nap you planned on taking later, or your weekend plans, and you’ve now snapped out of your stupor. In a world where education has a price and is considered an investment, where theoretical education is prized over practical training, where success can be defined by the jobs we get after graduation, how do we measure the worth of our education? How valuable are our thoughts? This week, Mirror explores the different ways we measure our worth, the balance between work and education and the life of the mind on campus today.
Would you rather love what you do but make no money, or have a boring job and be paid an exuberant amount of money? JM: Back in high school, I would probably have chosen the former option, but now, I would probably choose the latter option because I’ve learned recently that choosing a well-paid career path after college doesn’t necessarily preclude you from doing something that you love down the road. EJS: One hundred percent love what I do but make no money. Doing something I didn’t like for a living would drive me insane. ZG: I’d rather love what I do and make an exorbitant amount of money. Wait, that wasn’t an option? TY: I’m tempted to choose the first option, but there’s reality and making great money in my spare time for things that I love to do. I’m probably gonna end up choosing the first though. If I gave you a penny, what would you tell me you were thinking about? JM: Hmm, right now I’m thinking about how I desperately need to start studying for midterms but next week I’ll probably be thinking about springtime in Hanover and how I can best enjoy it. Hopefully the weather will be better by then! EJS: The fact that the expression “a penny for your thoughts” is honestly kind of rude, because my thoughts are worth way more than a penny. Also, no one values privacy any more. ZG: Why do we still make pennies? TY: I’ll tell you a little bit of my insights to your personality! ZB: “Wow, I just got a penny!”
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4.18.18 VOL. CLXXV NO. 18 MIRROR EDITORS MARIE-CAPUCINE PINEAUVALENCIENNE CAROLYN ZHOU EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ZACHARY BENJAMIN
What do you daydream about? JM: I wouldn’t necessarily call it “daydreaming,” but I probably think about future courses and postcollege plans too often. A couple of my friends have told me that I need to stop “over-planning” and I think that they’re right! I definitely want to enjoy all of my time at Dartmouth and living in the moment will help me achieve that. EJS: I like to wonder where the people around me are going, and what they’re worried about right now. Worries can seem so all-consuming, but everyone has their own — it’s like worry inflation. In the grand scheme of things, our worries don’t matter. They’re cheap.
PUBLISHER HANTING GUO
ZG: I daydream about night, so I can go to sleep and nightdream. I guess that would just be called dreaming.
EXECUTIVE EDITOR AMANDA ZHOU
TY: Living in the hopefully peaceful, technologically advanced and flourishing world of the 22nd century. ZB: Naps. Which feels kind of inefficient, really.
MIRROR //3
What Seniors Want in a Commencement Speaker STORY
By Zachary Gorman
Since the College’s original Lawrence wrote in an email to be just a comedic talk, you can class graduated in August 1771, statement that a long yearly pick a comedian. I’d say that if Commencement ceremonies have process takes place for selecting you wanted to have … a thoughthonored nearly every class of a C o m m e n c e m e n t s p e a k e r. provoking Commencement talk, graduating Dartmouth students. Each fall, the President’s office you would go with people based After four or more years studying at asks for nominations from the on the characteristic of wisdom.” Dartmouth, students celebrate their Dartmouth community for that For Seeley-Hacker, having a accomplishments while receiving year’s Commencement speaker. Commencement speaker that is some final guidance. Though The faculty council on honorary “wise” is more important than Dartmouth’s d e g r e e s t h e n having someone famous. Commencement “I’d say that if you examines the list “The Montgomery Fellows e x e r c i s e s of nominations Program just hosted Yo-Yo Ma h av e e v o l v e d wanted to have ... a a n d c h o o s e s here, and he gave a lecture, and s i g n i f i c a n t l y thought-provoking a s e l e c t f e w throughout the lecture I was ove r t h e l a s t candidates for struck by the fact that this guy is Commencement few centuries, c o n s i d e r a t i o n really wise and he’s taken his life the tradition of talk, you would go by the President experience and reflected deeply Commencement with people based and The Board on it and presents it in a way that speeches remains of Trustees. The shows that he has great knowledge r e l a t i v e l y on the characteristic trustees officially of how the world works and where unchanged. choose t h e it should be going,” he said. of wisdom.” F o r College’s desired M o t e n d o e s n o t h av e a Commencement Commencement preference about the livelihood s p e e c h e s , -SEELEY-HACKER ’18 speaker, who is of Commencement speaker s Dartmouth t h e n f o r m a l l y as long as they have powerful o b t a i n s invited to th e communication skills. prominent College by the “I’m not really particular on speaker s from President. what type of background [the various walks of Though their speaker should have],” Moten said. life, including opinions are not “When Conan O’Brien spoke, that p o l i t i c s , officially factored was really interesting because he’s journalism i n t o t h e f i n a l a late-night talk show host, so he and entertainment. Some of decisions on Commencement knows how to engage a crowd.” Dartmouth’s most famous living speakers, graduating Dartmouth In contrast, Jerrel Catlett II ’18 alumni have given recent speeches, seniors have preferences for believes that a speaker’s background including Shonda Rhimes ’91 invited speakers. Maya Moten can play a significant role in their and Jake Tapper ’91. Students ’18 believes that it is integral contributions to Commencement. and their families will remember that a Commencement speaker He worries that universities may Commencement speeches for the knows how to keep an audience sometimes be making the wrong rest of their lives, so it is no small interested. choice by choosing celebrities as task for the College to choose “I’m very much someone who Commencement speakers, rather speakers who can eloquently share doesn’t maintain their attention than focusing on social issues. their thoughts. span for too long, especially “As we’re graduating, we’re College spokesperson Diana when it comes encountering to these types of so much talk things,” Moten “As we’re graduating, about our said. “So I would we’re encountering democratic like someone institution, who is exciting so much talk about immigration, o r i n t e re s t i n g. our democratic civil rights Someone who has issues, gun institution, got a few jokes violence,” he a r o u n d t h e m . immigration, civil said. “And I S o m e t h i n g t o rights issues, gun think [with] keep my attention, people who violence ... Dartmouth because I are leading h av e b e e n t o is very much a bubble the way in graduation where we aren’t really tr heogs ae r fdi ei lndgs many times and Commencement exposed to those issues that s p e e c h e s a r e types of problems.” are current always the worst.” and relevant Brett Seeleyto us now as H a c k e r ’ 1 8 -JERREL CATLETT II ’18 we ’re a b o u t supports the to enter this College’s decision world outside to choose speakers of Dartmouth, from various professions, but he is because Dartmouth is very much most drawn to a certain type of a bubble where we aren’t really speaker. exposed to those types of problems “I know Conan O’Brien did … we learn more about how we a talk at Dartmouth, and it was can participate in them using our funny, and that’s a fine thing,” new education.” Seeley-Hacker said. “If it’s going Though the College has chosen
political and social leaders to give about.” past Commencement addresses, Moten, a fan of Kaling’s work, the College has decided to go with believes that Kaling is the perfect a different route this year. Actress choice to faithfully represent the and writer Mindy Kaling ’01 Dartmouth experience in her will speak at the Class of 2018’s Commencement address. Commencement “Hearing that o n Ju n e 1 0 . “I think it’s really it was Mindy K a l i n g , w h o exciting that she’ll be Kaling, I was rose to fame for like, ‘Okay, I her work as a able to speak about can get behind writer and actor Dartmouth from an this,’” Moten on shows such said. “She’s a insider’s perspective as “The Office” funny person. and “ T h e and maybe tell some I thought it was Mindy Project,” stories or some jokes actually really previously i n t e re s t i n g, delivered a speech from her time here. though, that she at Harvard Law I’m interested to see was ... chosen S c h o o l ’s 2 0 1 4 because, in the Commencement. what she talks about.” past, I know T h o u g h that she has Kaling is not not necessarily -BRETT SEELEY-HACKER explicitly involved had the best in activism or ‘18 rhetoric when politics, Catlett it comes to believes that Dartmouth. Kaling’s selection She’s definitely is meaningful for the College. had some thoughts about her “I t i sn’t lo st o n me that time in reflecting on the school. Dartmouth has put a really large Nonetheless, I think that it’s also effort in making sure that people of really humane … having someone color are represented in terms of who might not always see the rosy Commencement speeches, at least side of Dartmouth, or who’s had over the past decade,” Catlett said. their ups and downs like any one “So it’s really exciting especially to of us have.” see females of color be honored Moten points out that as a with being able to give a speech Dartmouth alumna Kaling’s first to our class.” hand experience with the “good” S e e l ey - H a c k e r i s l o o k i n g and “bad” times that many students forward to Kaling’s speech for a experience during their time at the different reason. College is large part of what makes “I think it’s really exciting Kaling an exciting Commencement that she’ll be able to speak about speaker. Dartmouth from an insider’s “I think having someone who’s perspective and maybe tell some been able to identify with that aspect stories or some jokes from her time is really nice … I don’t think I could here,” Seeley-Hacker said. “I’m have thought of a better person to interested to see what she talks speak for us,” she said.
4// MIRROR
It appears that many employees receive transferable credit for the are either not familiar with or do classes they take. However, as Alex not want to enroll themselves in the pointed out, joining the Grant-InGrant-In-Aid program. According Aid Program does not guarantee to an email statement from associate acceptance to an undergraduate dean of student affairs Katherine program of study at Dartmouth. Burke, only one or two employees “You get credits for the classes, take advantage of the program but you are not a full-time student,” annually. Alex mentioned that to he clarified. his knowledge, he was the only T he fact that completing employee taking classes during the coursework at Dartmouth does winter. While many employees have not guarantee admission to the commitments to family or other College’s undergraduate program occupations that prevent them does not discourage Alex from from committing the time to do pursuing his dream of obtaining a coursework, Alex shared that other mathematics degree. employees at Collis who learned “That is the ultimate goal. about the program through him A math degree is an incredibly became interested in taking classes. versatile science degree,” he said. And there is good reason for interest. “It’s a good job-getting degree.” “Dartmouth T o gives you this "It's hard to balance complete all very valuable credits for an work and school if you b e n e f i t , undergraduate especially for work a late night shift. deg ree, an people like me I get home at four in employee would who do not have have to spend a degree but are the morning five nights approximately already working a week. This term I has n i n e y e a r s at the College,” taking one to drop a class because Alex said. “It is class each term a very valuable it was too early." (assuming they benefit because worked yearit contributes to ro u n d ) . A l ex your education, -ALEX BATTISON, COLLIS has completed which is the CAFE EMPLOYEE both Math 3 and best predictor Math 8 so far. of your life-long If an employee earnings.” scores below a Full-time, benefited employees “C” for any given class, they lose have to complete a short application the benefit of taking any further process in order to get into the classes. A “C” might not be out of program, which requires approval grasp for most undergraduates who from the Of fice of Human can commit multiple hours a day to Resources. Edwin Leavitt at the their academics, but it is challenging Office of Student Affairs runs for someone who also has a full-time the Special Community Student job. program and accepts applications “It’s hard to balance work and for the Grant-In-Aid. Employees school if you work a late night shift,”
Alex said. “I get home at four in the “Norwich and Dartmouth are morning five nights a week. This stark opposites,” he said. term I had to drop a class because The former is incredibly strict. it was too early.” For the first few months, students at Alex launched into the program Norwich are not allowed to speak as soon as he learned about it, so outside of academic buildings, it certainly was irritating to drop a except when they are spoken to by class and miss a term when he could a superior. Lights go off at 10 p.m. be furthering his goal. Yet for him, Wake up call is at 5:30 a.m. If a the stakes are so high that the risk student is discovered with alcohol of getting a bad grade due to poor in their possession, they are subject rest is just not worth it. to disciplinary action. Alex looks into the future with the “They held exams at 2 a.m.,” hope that he can gain acceptance at Alex said. “They did not care.” Dartmouth when he completes all Despite the strict discipline, freshmen and sophomore classes, Norwich provided Alex with the so that he can afford the degree. resources he needed to pursue a He is conscious of the high cost degree in geology. The school also of a Dartmouth education and maintained an environment where worries that even if gets admitted a good work ethic, self-control and to the College, “I might just have a mutual respect were rewarded. Alex degree for which I have to pay loans pointed out that his cadre went out forever.” That worry is reflected in of their way to arrange his leave his plan to save up while working at papers when a death in the family Collis so that he can afford a college occurred. education. Alex is also looking at A couple of months after he options to retake standardized tests dropped out of Norwich, Alex and build up a strong application. started working at Collis and noticed Despite the uncertainty and the difference immediately. challenges that lie ahead of him, “At Dartmouth, it is all about he remains optimistic. learning,” he said. “They give “I have a stable job, I can save students everything they could easily,” Alex said. “This is the best possibly need and more. At Norwich, shot at a good degree that I am they give you the necessities.” going to have, so I am taking it.” The College has much more Alex did not always have the same funds and attracts a wealthier drive. During high school, he had student body. That, however, also little idea about what he wanted has its setbacks. to do with his life. His brother got Alex quickly realized that most through high school because he students he would have to interact had the drive to become a teacher, with on a late night shift are Alex said. On the other hand, Alex intoxicated. Many of them steal. wanted to do something with science On a number of occasions, he but did not find a mentor to guide has witnessed an ambulance team him through the options. taking care of someone who had “I did not like math at all then tripped and harmed themselves … Now I attack it with much more because they were drunk. enthusiasm because it is of higher “Dartmouth students seemed, importance to me,” he said. like, happy-go-lucky,” he said. After he graduated from high It is not surprising that Alex school, he took a year off before got this impression considering he enrolled the level of a t N o r w i c h "I did not like math affluence many University. He students have at all [in high school] stumbled upon and the excessive Norwich at a ... Now I attack it drinking that is college fair and with much more part of the social embraced the culture here. idea of getting enthusiasm because it “I got a better a degree that is of higher importance o p i n i o n o f would lead to Dartmouth to me." a stable job students when as an officer I started taking in the ar my. -ALEX BATTISON, COLLIS classes with He also found them,” he said. an appeal in CAFE EMPLOYEE Here, Alex a “relatively described the hands-on duality of a job” and the Dartmouth opportunity to attend college for student that eludes many of free if he contracted with the army. them, despite being part of a The year Alex spent at Norwich community characterized by this University gave him a unique very duality. Many are passionate perspective on the contrast between about academics, but equally a military institution and a liberal excited to participate in a party arts college such as Dartmouth. culture that often justifies the loss of
self-control. And while this might not characterize all Dartmouth students, it does characterize a defining group of students that is large enough and vocal enough to shape the opinions of outside observers such as Alex. Theft is common, not only at dining locations but also at frat basements. People even steal bikes, despite the fact that there are multiple ways to get an affordable bike in the Upper Valley. Again, not all Dartmouth students steal, just as not all Dartmouth students participate in excessive drinking. But theft and belligerence speak loudly, especially when we go to a College that “gives you everything you could possibly need and more,” as Alex says. Alex, unlike many of the
employees during the Late Night Shift, has had the chance to see Dartmouth students in a far better light in class. However, the interactions many of his colleagues have with students is limited to times when they are at their worst. Alex appreciates the opportunities that working at Dartmouth has brought into his life and strives to make the most of them. He can work and go to school at the same place where he feels supported. The Grant-In-Aid program embodies Dartmouth’s effort to provide members of its community with access to the premium education at the core of the institution. The story Alex shared illustrates the complexities of the institution. That grey Friday afternoon two weeks ago, I walked
MIRROR //5
COURTESY OF ALEX BATTISON
out of the interview with a slight sense of unease. Alex also firmly believes that he can get the opportunity to matriculate at the College if he puts in the right amount of work. I could not help but question the belief Alex manifested. I do not question it because I doubt the determination he has. I question it because I know that getting into Dartmouth depends on many factors, and luck might just turn against you at the wrong point in time. Alex is on the pursuit of happiness and prosperity. I do not believe that these are contingent upon the institutions one belongs to. They do, however, depend upon the character one embodies and the respect one has for oneself and one’s surrounding peers.
Another Side of Dartmouth: Alex Battison Juggles Late Night Shifts with Studying Math
Alex Battison was 20-yearsold when he started working at Collis Café. He had dropped out of Norwich University, a private military college in Vermont , a couple of months earlier and was hired by the College through a temp agency. I met Alex in my Math 3 class last term, five years after he first came to the College. Alex’s experiences at Dartmouth have revealed some interesting facts about the nature of our school. Alex shared the story of his time at Dartmouth on a grey Friday afternoon, two hours before the start of his Collis Late Night shift. I found him in the kitchen next to One Wheelock as he was preparing the stations for that night. We had been part of the same study group, so we had spent a number of afternoons together working on problem sets in the winter. It was during those afternoons when Alex told me about his work and background. On the first day of class, I had noticed that he was carrying a key chain with a car key on it. I found that slightly peculiar since most Dartmouth students live on campus and rarely use personal vehicles to commute to class. Alex also stood out as slightly older than everyone else in the room, so I thought he might be a senior living in an apartment further away from the College. During introductions, he mentioned that he was from the area, which made me believe that he might be living at home and commuting to Dartmouth every day, where such a living situation could prevent one from fully integrating into life at the College. At the same time, I had been at Dartmouth long enough to recognize the faces of many ’18’s, and I had never seen Alex before. I was slightly intrigued, but I didn’t want to pry, so I pushed those questions to the back of my mind and tried to focus on integrals. A couple of weeks later, I was assigned to a study group with Alex. We walked out of Haldeman and
headed in the same direction after tackle advanced math equations on working through a problem set weekdays. together. I was heading to work at Alex grew up in Fairlee , a Occom Pond. He had to walk to his picturesque town in Vermont with car at the Dewey parking lot. On a population of around 1,000 the way, I exclaimed, “I have so — about four times less than the much homework that I don’t know undergraduate student body at if I will be able to finish it after I Dartmouth. The median household am done at work.” income in Hanover ($113,925) is Alex nodded in understanding. more than twice that in Fairlee He said that he had gone to bed at 4 ($65,905) according to estimates. a.m. last night after his shift at Collis The data illustrates the large had finished and that he worked the contrast between the place where late night shift five nights a week. Alex grew up and the environment In my head, I calculated that he in which he has been working for must average about 45 hours a week the last five years. Economically of work at Collis. That was three and demographically Hanover is times as much as I worked. I quickly so distinct from Fairlee that Alex’s realized that with such a work exclamation — “Dartmouth is on commitment another planet and a full compared to "Dartmouth gives cour se load, most places he should look you this very valuable around here!” — p er m an en tly benefit, especially for is not surprising exhausted. at all. Instead, he was people like me who do A l e x w o rk e d quite cheerful not have a degree but two jobs and quickly simultaneously are already working solved his part in kitchens in of the problem at the College. It is a Fairlee to provide set. Alex must very valuable benefit for himself have noticed before he came t h e l o o k o f because it contibutes to work at the confusion on to your education, College. One of my face. He the restaurants which is the best chuckled and he worked at was t h e n a d d e d predictor of your lifeput up for sale, that he was long earnings." w h i c h f o rc e d not actually an Alex to look for undergraduate additional work s t u d e n t . -ALEX BATTISON, COLLIS to cover his living Before I could expenses. CAFE EMPLOYEE ask any more “I actually think questions, he it is a good thing explained that that the business instead he was a full-time employee I worked for went through because at Collis, and the College paid for I ended up working here and him to take one class each term. making much more money,” Alex The conversation that followed commented when I asked him added nuance to my standpoint about the process of finding work on Dartmouth, what the College at Dartmouth. stands for in the Upper Valley and At first, Alex was hired as a my image of undergraduates, who temporary worker through an both stumble drunk and hungry agency. At that time, the College through Collis on Friday night and kept a lot of temporary workers at Collis for extended periods of time without offering them benefits, Alex said. He recalls that around the time when the Affordable Care Act went into effect, most of the temporary employees were laid off. Seven, among them Alex, were hired as full-time workers for the Late Night shift. Full-time employment opened the doors to a number of benefits, among them the Grant-In-Aid program that allows employees to enroll in up to one course per term free of charge. Alex learned about the program last year. “My supervisor mentioned it off-hand … There are a lot of good benefits, but it is not always spelled out for you easily,” he said. “You have to find them.”
6 //MIR ROR
A Thoughtful Way to Live and Learn STORY
By Cris Cano
COURTESY OF JULIA MARINO
Students from the Thought Project hang out over work and conversation.
“Social Media in the Age of Terrorism and Hate.” “How Social Relationships Affect our Relationship to Food.” “Should We Abolish Marriage?” What do the above topics have in common? Anything? Connecting social media and food seems easy enough: just think about the countless Instagram accounts dedicated to uploading appetizing food images. Add marriage to the mix — maybe someone is sharing a photo of a wedding cake? But then think about words like terrorism and social relationships, and finding a unifying thread becomes harder and harder. Despite how different these three topics sound, they do share one important commonality: they are all previous topics of the Thought Project’s “Food for Thought” dinners. The Thought Project is a Living Learning Community founded in fall 2015 by Julia Marino ’17 as part of the program allowing students to design their own Living Learning Community. While perhaps best-known today for its frequent “Food for Thought” dinners, which are open to campus, the Thought Project had small beginnings. After seeing a flyer on campus, Marino wrote her proposal for the Thought Project during her sophomore spring break, citing as motivation her desire to meet other students with similar interests in dialogue and discussion. As part of the proposal process, she had to find other interested students as well as a faculty advisor, the latter she found in Carl Thum from the Academic Skills Center.
After getting her proposal approved, the Thought Project began in the fall of 2015. Like any new organization, the Thought Project presented some initial challenges. “When I was advertising the professor dinners, I did not really know how to frame the topic in such a way that people would really want to come,” Marino said. “I learned a lot in the first term in terms of how [to] build events that people are most interested in.” Marino explained that it takes quite a bit of time for residents of a new Living Learning Community to get to know each other, but she believed she knew her floor well by the end of that first term. Since then, she’s had the opportunity to watch her original idea grow into what it is today — a group of 69 students governed by a complete student leadership team that hosts both open-to-campus and private events almost every week. In fact, Marino said that when she was a student, she met some of her closest friends through the Thought Project. While she spoke very positively about the group’s organized events, she said that some of her favorite memories were much more spontaneous. “I think that’s when we really started to form a deeper community,” Marino said. “Not necessarily through formal planned events, but through those impromptu conversations that happened when we were up late studying for a midterm or finishing a chapter of a thesis.” Marino graduated from the College last year and now works in the Office of Residential Life
as a program coordinator, so she still keeps an eye on the Thought Project, even meeting regularly with its UGAs. Current resident Jessica Heine ’19 echoed Marino’s positive sentiments, adding some of her own favorite memories. Heine, who joined the Thought Project her freshman summer, served as social chair last year and co-led the LLC during her sophomore summer, mainly focusing on internal programming while another resident planned the “Food for Thought” dinners. Reflecting on her experience, Heine said that she stuck around after her first term as a resident because of the provocative conversations that she didn’t find elsewhere at Dartmouth.
“It was the first place at Dartmouth where I felt like I had a community that shared a lot of the same values as me,” Heine said. “Not political or personal values, but just values in terms of caring about intellectual life and learning about new things.” Heine elaborated on the sense of community she felt, listing activities like overnight cabin camping trips as especially effective community builders. She said that there was “just something” about going on a hike and staying in a cabin that helped bring people together, even when they did not know each other that well before the trip. She also emphasized the diversity present in the Thought Project. She acknowledged that some students might view the Thought Project as a community only for people interested in deeply philosophical discussions, but refuted that belief, talking about the wide variety of perspectives represented by residents. The Thought Project’s approach to advertising has also changed to attract a more diverse pool of applicants. A relatively recent development has been reaching out to various student groups to explain what the Thought Project is — especially freshmen-specific communities. “We really made an effort to reach out to a larger Dartmouth community,” Heine said. “We were extremely homogeneous in the beginning, partly because [being] a ‘friend of a friend’ was the way most people decided to apply.” Uma Ramesh ’20, another current resident who joined this past fall, lived in the Choates cluster her freshman year but didn’t grow close to many of her floormates, which she
attributed to a lack of floor activities. Since joining the LLC, she’s been content with both how many new friends she’s made and how close she’s grown to those friends. “I feel that at Dartmouth, it can be really easy to fall into a bubble where you [only] hang out with the people in your major or your department and have friends with the same extracurricular interests,” Ramesh said. “It can be hard to break out of that.” Another aspect of the Thought Project that Ramesh has enjoyed has been its mentorship component. She recalled how last fall, the LLC received funding for gift cards to Morano Gelato so that students could meet new people over a tasty treat. Although the Thought Project will not offer housing this summer because it does not have a standalone building, Ramesh hopes that members will still plan activities and spend time together. In just a few years, the Thought Project has grown from a mere idea in one student’s head to a studentled haven for all kinds of intellectual discussions. Membership continues to grow, and with rave reviews from each person interviewed, the positive momentum doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. And in the future? Marino, who is headed to graduate school next year, expressed her desire to start a second branch of the LLC. The ultimate vision: to start a national chapter-based organization. “I’m hopeful in the future that we could start chapters of the Thought Project at other schools,” Marino said. “Eventually it would be great if it could be on college campuses all over the country.”
COURTESY OF JULIA MARINO
Students gather at the Thought Project Living Learning Community to discuss a variety of topics.
Ivy League On The Market Place STORY
MIRROR //7
By Melanie Prakash
Choosing to attend a private college comes at a price, a price many choose to pay in the hopes of obtaining a higher return. The College is ranked eighth on the list of the best universities and colleges on basis of salary potential according to PayScale, with alumni earning a median of $68,300 in the first five years of their career and reaching a median of $150,800 for those with ten or more years of experience. Out of the top universities listed, Dartmouth’s average midosalary value ranks higher than Duke University, Harvard University and Yale University. Many of the Class of 2018 have faced the reality of entering the job market. For many Dartmouth students, finding a job becomes a priority early on during their time at the College. “I think sophomore summer is when you’re first hit with the realization that you have to get a job after college [when] recruiting starts,” a member of the class 2018 said. The student recalled the struggle of going through recruiting for investment banking and consulting. She began looking for opportunities in software engineering, her present field of interest, shortly after. In comparison to other schools, she feels Dartmouth does not provide a diversity of professional support for its students. “My main friend from home goes to
[the] University of Pennsylvania, which is far more pre-professional, so relative to her, I had a harder time getting a job in a technical field,” she said. She went on to critique Dartmouth for what she said is a narrow career support system. “The only preprofessional paths that [are] really clear at Dartmouth [are] the finance and consulting paths,” she said. “Otherwise, you have to do your research online or from some other source. It’s getting a little better, but I think it is still very finance-oriented.” Other students agree with this sentiment, saying that it feels at times as though Dartmouth’s resources are more geared towards preparing students for finance and consulting. “Generally, people at Dartmouth end up getting into high-paying jobs,” another student from the class of 2018 remarked. “I think that it kind of sucks that people who are not interested in [finance and economics] can kind of struggle ... I think a huge reason is that because those are the firms that reach out to us.” She said that there are certain majors that determine what type of job students look for after graduation. “Compared to my friends who are majoring in, like, environmental studies [and other fields] that don’t have a clear career path, [choosing a job is] a lot more difficult,” she said. “I feel like I had a set
path that I kind of knew I could follow to obtain something at some point.” Similarly, another senior reflected on how choosing another major could have impacted her career plans after graduation. “It’s just really interesting how equally smart people just based on their interest can have such different options in terms of job market,” she said. This student, also going into software engineering, believes that technologybased majors can be much more pre-professional than other liberal arts majors. “Some majors funnel you right in towards specific jobs [while] some majors are just about the liberal arts, and you can do anything,” she said. “A lot of people end up teaching, but a lot of people do something totally different.” It is commonly acknowledged that the Ivy League brand does have pull in the job market. As a member of the Class of 2018 said, attending an Ivy League school is “helpful in the long run.” “Dartmouth just has the name recognition, the status, the prestige, the competition. ... I feel like people are looking for well-rounded employees who know how to problem solve, who know how to work in teams, who know how to work together and solve problems,” she said.
AMANDA ZHOU/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Specifically with regards to the finance and economics job field, students find that Dartmouth offers a broad sprectrum of opportunities. She said that for students pursuing careers in finance, finding a job is easier because of the number of consulting and finance firms that recruit directly from the College. However, despite the opportunities that accompany a degree from Dartmouth, graduating students still find the idea of making large salaries at a relatively young age to be an intimidating prospect. The students interviewed, who were all going into software engineering fields, where according to one student getting a job by the fall is more or less expected of the major, were aware of the magnitude of income they could potentially be offered. “Because I’m going into software engineering, I’ve always known that any internship or full-time offer I’ve got would have been more than sufficient just given the field, so personally for me that had never been a huge concern or something I had expectations of,” she said. The student explained that this reality diminished any interest in negotiating for a higher salary. “Without having a network of support to feel okay negotiating, it’s very nerve wracking and scary,” she said. One student faced the intimidation of salary negotiations by seeking advice from a sibling. “I called [my brother] and ... he said when the recruiter offers you a salary position you should ask for $10,000 more,” she said. The student said the prospect of negotiating her salary made her uncomfortable, but was reminded by her brother that “if you don’t ask for it you’re not going to get it.” The student also talked about the confidence needed to negotiate a
higher salary, especially as a college graduate with little experience. “I [also] think it’s because we were talking such big numbers, it felt greedy and selfish, because the salary they offered I could have easily lived off of,” she said. Similarly, most of the students interviewed felt income was not the deciding factor in choosing their job post graduation. “[During] my summer internship, I was working at a startup and it was great,” one student from the graduating class of 2018 remembered. “I loved the culture. [However], even for a software engineering start up, they paid very, very low.” The student went on to recall what it was like learning how to budget money to make sure she could cover all her living necessities. When applying for a job in the fall, she was now aware of a general propensity of how much she was willing to save and how much she was willing to spend. “I don’t think it was the biggest thing on my mind, but I definitely know that as a person that likes spending money, I wanted to do a job that would allow me to live a certain type of lifestyle,” she said. Regardless, all the students acknowledge that Dartmouth helped them prepare for the wider world. From fostering teamwork skills to broadening their perspectives, they knew they had unique skills that would set them apart from competing applicants. “I think for me, Dartmouth has been a really positive experience in that I’ve been able to stand out because of the size of the school, and in that sense I have a lot more opportunities to pick up and grow as a person,” a senior in the class of 2018 said. “You don’t get lost in the wave of students. You can stand out, [but] you have to reaffirm that constantly here.”
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Brain Storm PHOTO
By Divya Kopalle