Whether you are well into or just beginning your Dartmouth undergraduate experience, it is never too early to look forward to the future. Many of you will be going straight into the workforce once you graduate. Others will take a year or two off to figure out exactly what you want to do with your life. And there are those of you that will be considering graduate programs in order to be an even bigger force in your chosen field.
While none of these paths are better or worse than the others, I wanted to highlight some of the graduate program options available to you specifically at Dartmouth. The four graduate schools at Dartmouth (Geisel School of Medicine, Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business) all offer an abundance of opportunities for advanced academic study and placement.
The newest of all of the graduate schools, Guarini, became an official graduate school of the college in 2017. The Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies oversees mostly STEM Masters and Ph.D. programs. However, there are also three humanities master’s programs that reside under Guarini.
Digital Music, Comparative Literature, and Master of Arts in Liberal Studies are all strong humanities programs with excellent facilities and resources connected to them. Click here to see a list of all of the programs in Guarini.
Being that I am enrolled in the program, I wanted to put a special focus on the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program (MALS). This program is not as widely known on the Dartmouth campus as it could be. It can be a great opportunity for any of you to explore creative and critical theory through an interdisciplinary lens once you graduate.
The MALS program has four tracks that one can choose from: Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, Globalization, and the General Track which is open-ended and allows for a combination of disciplines. See a more detailed description of the MALS concentrations here.
The MALS program requires all of its students to complete at least one independent study project and one long term thesis paper/presentation. These two opportunities allow students to hone into their individualized research for a great chunk of their time in the program.
As MALS runs on a flexible schedule catered to the needs of its students, you would have the possibility to finish the program anywhere from 1.5 to 6 years. However, most full-time students usually finish in about 2-3 years.
With the MALS program, you are able to build a repertoire of writing and research that will prepare you for the workforce, doctoral programs, and/or professional schools. MALS at Dartmouth is a full-degree-awarding, masters-level program at Dartmouth College - not a continuing education program. Click on this link to see more information on why MALS may be the program for you.
While in MALS, I was able to complete my Creative Writing concentration while also further strengthening my research skills and my overall love for academia. If you have any individual questions about the MALS Program or the MALS application process, feel free to reach out to MALS.Admissions@Dartmouth.edu or to me at Ashley.E.Wells.GR@Dartmouth.edu.