Dartmouth is the smallest college in the Ivy League. With a campus nestled into the picturesque New England town of Hanover, New Hampshire, the school is perfect for outdoorsy types or those looking for a legendary Greek experience. Dartmouth has an acceptance rate of about 6.4% making it highly competitive to get in. Dartmouth asks students to fill out a 3 question supplement and today, we want to share tips on how we would approach the Dartmouth supplement.
Please respond in 100 words or fewer:
Dartmouth celebrates the ways in which its profound sense of place informs its profound sense of purpose. As you seek admission to Dartmouth’s Class of 2027, what aspects of the College’s academic program, community, or campus environment attract your interest? In short, Why Dartmouth?
This is a very short “why do you want to go here?” essay. The word count is what makes this tricky. It might seem easier, but it asks you to pack a lot of information into this very short prompt. You need to hit a couple of important points. In every “why do you want to come here?” type of essay, highlighting your academic interests are key.
You first need to state specifically what you want to study at Dartmouth. This major can change when you actually get in, but you should talk about it like this is 100% what you will be studying at Dartmouth. You should also name a higher-lever class, teacher, and/or specific departmental program that has drawn you to this subject at Dartmouth. Don’t be afraid of specifics, the more specific you can be for this answer, the better.
You then want to talk about a club or on-campus opportunity that aligns with your interests. For example, if you do your school play every year, talking about specific art or theater clubs on Dartmouth's campus would be a great choice. You can also mention a tradition or feature of the campus if you have time, but with this low of a word count, you will probably only have time to mention an academic subject you are passionate about, specifically why you love it at Dartmouth and something you connect with on campus.
Please respond in 200-250 words:
“Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself in 200-250 words.*
Our first piece of advice for this question is to get creative. You can try to tell everything about yourself in 200 words, but it’s probably easier to zoom in on something specific about you that connects to a personality trait that is important to you.
This is a great opportunity to explain a quirk that makes you unique. “I am a person who tries every recipe in the cookbook.” “I am a person who listens to new music every day.” “I am a person who loves trivia.” Whatever the quirk is, use it to explain more about yourself. If you love trying every recipe from a cookbook, you are adventurous when it comes to trying new things and detail-oriented. If you listen to new music, you care about the arts and love researching new things. If you do trivia every week with your friends, you are curious about knowledge and are a team player. Whatever your quirk is explore why it makes you unique and why that uniqueness says something positive about you. This is a great time to talk about a quirk or a passion that defines you.
The last question lets you choose a prompt from a list of 5. Some are better than others, but if one calls to you specifically, we advise choosing that one.
Choose one of the following prompts and respond in 200-250 words:*
Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta recommended a life of purpose. “We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things,” she said. “That is what we are put on the earth for.” In what ways do you hope to make—or are you making—an impact?
This might be our least favorite prompt on this list. Only choose it if you feel very strongly about it AND are already making an impact of some kind. It’s hard to write this essay if it’s 100% hypothetical. You need to already be doing some kind of social justice or social good work in your community. This question is really for people deeply involved in mutual aid. For example, if you run a community fridge continuously you can talk about food deserts and your passion for feeding people. But if you just do a food drive once a year, this isn’t a question for you.
If you don’t eat, breathe, and sleep community building, your answer is probably going to sound kind of fake. A lot of students do community service just because they think it looks good on applications and not because they are extremely passionate about it. If you aren’t passionate about this skip it. If you are, tell a story about the work you do in your community and why what you do is important.
What excites you?
This is a great prompt. Mostly because you can write about almost anything. Dartmouth is looking for passionate people and this is a great opportunity to delve into one of your passions. This is another one where you are allowed to be quirky. If you choose this prompt, try to choose something that feels very different from the “be yourself” prompt. They run the risk of being similar, so a good rule of thumb would be to choose something somewhat academic for one and something purely fun for the other. For example, you could write about cooking for the first prompt and about going to museums for the second. It will make them feel more unique.
Choose something that legitimately gets you excited. You can tend to tell when students choose something because they think it sounds good rather than it’s real. A great mystery novel is a better answer than “community service” if you aren’t passionate about community service.
Once you have your quirkiest passion chosen, tell a little story about it. It can be a typical day doing your passion or the moment you fell in love with it. Whatever the story is, your excitement and love should come through for your passion.
In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba ’14 reflects on constructing a windmill from recycled materials to power electrical appliances in his family’s Malawian house: “If you want to make it, all you have to do is try.” What drives you to create and what do you hope to make or have you made?
This is not our favorite prompt for most students. It works best for people who are both deeply creative and have a good story around their creative projects. This is another one where it doesn’t work well if you can only talk about a hypothetical future. The prompt allows for that, but they usually aren’t good essays.
This prompt also has two parts and you have to make sure to answer both of them fully. This means before you start writing, you should know what project you are writing about and why you are driven to make things like the project. The best case scenario is you are someone who does a project that is connected to a social good. It’s not necessary but look at the person they use in the prompt. Like if you build computers for local children out of recycled used parts, this is a great prompt for you. If you aren’t doing highly creative, community projects, you can still pull this one off, but it’s harder to do well.
Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Geisel of Dartmouth’s Class of 1925, wrote, “Think and wonder. Wonder and think.” What do you wonder and think about?
We like this prompt a lot, however, we have one stipulation. This one needs to be a story. If not, it gets very wishy-washy. Ideally, in the story, you should learn about something casually, think about it, and then pursue more knowledge about it.
The more creative or interesting the wonder is, the better. It doesn’t need to be an academic wonder, but it can be. This question is trying to get students to be deep, so the wonder should feel mature and interesting. For example, maybe you wonder about the deep sea. You can take a course on oceanography online, you could learn more from books, or follow deep sea divers online, and there would still be much more to learn and think about.
Maybe it’s dead languages, AI ethics, or how the ancients proved math equations. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t be like “I wonder what the quadratic formula is?” Because the answer would be just to look it up. If your topic would be common knowledge to an adult or easily researched to completion, skip it. Otherwise, get creative.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced,” wrote James Baldwin. How does this quote apply to your life experiences?
This is probably the toughest question on this list to answer and answer well. This is a hard one because this quote does need to apply to you. If you have read it and it doesn’t immediately connect skip it. First, it’s important to understand this quote and its context. James Baldwin is talking about oppression and how we need to stand up and face the realities of our history and our society if we are to change those realities. If it resonates, you can use this question to tell a story about a time you tried to change something or stood up for yourself and your community.
A gentle reminder, Baldwin was a gay, black man who faced so much prejudice as an activist in America, that he moved to France. You don’t need to talk about your race or sexuality in this essay, but don’t choose a reason these words resonate with you in a way that might seem tone-deaf.
Ideally, you can choose a small story, but one that has societal implications. What do we mean by that? For example, maybe you use “they/them” pronouns. You keep getting misgendered at school and while you can’t change everyone’s mind or the establishment at large, you convinced one of your teachers to use your correct pronouns and be more open to others as well. Conversely, maybe you are someone who at first didn’t understand “they/them” pronouns but after a friend comes out, you make the effort to learn about them and challenge your thoughts on the matter.
The story isn’t changing society as a whole, but it’s a small win that is a part of a bigger movement. Most 17-year-olds aren’t single-handedly changing the world. That is fine. Keep your story personal. The thing that needs changing doesn’t need to be political, but it should be progressive. We don’t mean that in a “democrats vs republicans” kind of way. When we say progressive, we mean it as moving forward. It can be standing up to a bully or facing an uncomfortable truth. This one is tricky, so if you don’t feel passionate about taking it on, think about choosing a different topic.
Dartmouth’s supplement is shorter than you think. While there are several essays to write, they are very short. It can be hard to fit everything you want to say in under the word limit. It might take you a couple of drafts just to get the word count right. Give yourself time and really think about your answers especially when it comes to your prompt options.
If you still don’t know how to start, reach out! We can help with that!