Underwood International College

1. Host school’s size, its physical location, climate and etc.

Dartmouth is located in Hanover, New Hampshire where the campus basically makes up the whole town and everyone lives in dorms. The weather is true to its seasons. I arrived at the end of summer when it was very hot. Fall was really pretty and winter was extremely cold. It drops to -30 degrees so I would recommend bringing woollen clothing, a warm winter jacket and winter boots.

2. Host school’s periphery environment

The school is surrounded by mountains so if you're into hiking, bring your hiking boots! There is also a river where you can hire out kayaks and canoes or go swimming. If you need to go shopping, online is the way to go but there is also a shopping centre/Walmart 20 minutes off campus. If you miss city life, you can also take the Dartmouth Coach to Boston or New York or drive out with your friends.

Winterim is long (around 6 weeks) so I would recommend travelling during that time if you're not going back home. I went to California and New York and during spring break (10 days) I went to Texas to a friend's house. I also went to Boston on day trips and Six Flags with friends during the term. Try make friends with people who have cars!

3. Living style/condition, food/meal

All students go on a meal plan with meal swipes and DBA. You can use meal swipes at FOCO (an all-you-can-eat dining facility), Collis (smoothies, stir-fry, pasta) and Hop (mainly burgers and fries). You can also use DBA in these places as well as KAF, a cafe with delicious baked goods and good coffee. The food is okay but I missed Korean food so I cooked at the apartment and went off campus quite frequently with friends.

In terms of dorms, I was first placed in Ripley Hall but the communal bathrooms were disgusting so I moved to the Lodge. It's one of the further dorms but you and your roommate get your own bathroom which is nice. In my last term, I got pulled in by one of my friends into the senior apartments (North Park) where I had my own room and shared a bathroom with one other housemate. I would recommend trying to apply to a Living Learning Community to get int McLaughlin. East Wheelock and Fahey/McLane dorms are nice too. Just stay away from Judge or any of the freshman halls.

4. Course curriculum, library

The quarter system was hard to adjust to at first because the terms are too short and students are "off" on different terms. There is no orientation week and midterms basically don't stop from the third week onwards until finals. There is a lot of material covered in the 10 weeks and even though it's only 3 courses, the workload is similar to our 6-course semester. It was nice having a wide variety of classes but in terms of quality/difficulty I would say they were similar to those of UIC. My favourite class was a English senior seminar called Postcolonial Bildugsroman with Professor Tanoukhi. My least favourite class was probably my introduction to film class which I thought would be fun but was not at all ? The library is pretty and has a rustic vibe. Though, I usually studied in Collis or next to KAF or at friends' dorm common rooms.

5. Host school’s administrative support

I honestly don't think I received a lot of administrative support. There weren't any separate orientaiton sessions for exchange students and we were kind of lumped in with the freshmen. If you're considering working on campus, I would recommend talking to the international advisors ASAP to get permission.

As a side note, I would highly recommend joining a club/community. I received most of my information about good classes to take, places to visit, places to eat etc. from my friends at Christian Union. I don't think I would have had half the fun I did if not for the incredible people I met at CU. It's also not easy making friends as an upperclassmen (I went on exchange my junior 2nd semester-senior 1st semester). Especially since the social scene at Dartmouth is oriented around the Greek system (fraternities and sororities). Check out the clubs, go to meetings, make the effort and get plugged in!