Dartmouth is a prestigious liberal arts university that is also the most outdoorsy member of the Ivy League. Located in Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth a tight-knit community of about 4,500 undergraduates and more than 40 academic departments and programs. Dartmouth has a strong emphasis on research, with 60% of undergraduates participating in research, and on leadership. 80% of students complete at least one internship. The acceptance rate was for the Class of 2029.
Notably, the 6% acceptance rate was a .7% increase over the previous year and was combined with a 11% decrease in applications submitted. The decrease in applications can mostly be connected to one thing: the reinstatement of required test scores. While many colleges have decided to stay test-optional, Dartmouth after years of analysis and consideration. The university now requires all first-year applicants to submit scores, and for students in the US this must be either an ACT or an SAT score. So, don’t stop studying. A strong SAT is well over 1500, while a strong ACT score is a 33 or above.
In this post, we’ll be focusing on the parts of you that aren’t quantifiable. Below, we break down each of the supplement prompts including all of the options Dartmouth gives so that you can figure out your best approach to an acceptance.
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The Dartmouth supplement isn’t painfully long, as there are only three pieces of writing and each is 250 words or less, but reading through the supplement can still be pretty overwhelming. They have really leaned into the idea of giving you options. Yay! Thanks! But, actually, not really. There is no world where they need to offer 7 prompt options for one supplement. And yet, they do. So, let’s dig into them.
RESUME
First, Dartmouth invites you to upload a resume. We have resources specifically about how to write a winning college resume, but let’s get a few things straight. First, you need to upload a resume. Next, it needs to be a professional resume like what you would submit for a job. And it needs to be only one page. That is a firm limit. There is no justification for a resume over a page. If your resume is longer than a page, it’s an editing problem — not that you’ve simply done so much. If you are struggling with this, get in touch.
PROMPT ONE
As you seek admission to Dartmouth’s Class of 2030, what aspects of the college’s academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you? (100 words, required)
This first supplement is a short one at only 100 words. Functionally, you have one pretty short paragraph to work with — although you can edit it into a few shorter paragraphs if you would like. As you brainstorm what you want to say in this condensed amount of space, remember that you are applying to college, not a party. While Dartmouth invites compliments about their campus, that isn’t where we want our students to put their focus. Instead, highlight one specific part of the academic program at Dartmouth that you find exciting. This should be super specific, not just the department. Maybe it’s a long-term research opportunity, a course the brings together on campus study and study away, or an opportunity to participate in experiential in-the-field learning in Hanover.
Don’t forget to mesh the opportunity with who you are, though. Simply saying you like something doesn’t make a strong argument for why you would thrive in that environment. Start the supplement with a short scene, a condensed vignette that shows you engaging with something similar to the aspect of Dartmouth that you’ll be highlighting next. Then, pivot towards Dartmouth. Share the thing, or two, that you want to spotlight about Dartmouth, and then end the supplement by reinforcing how you and Dartmouth are a perfect fit.
PROMPT TWO
Respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:
For this supplement, you have two options to pick from. We’ll break each one down, but take a moment, first, to notice that they are very, very similar. So, there isn’t really a wrong pick, you just have to go with what feels right for you.
Option 1: There is a Quaker saying: Let your life speak. Describe the environment in which you were raised and the impact it has had on the person you are today.
This prompt is all about where and how you grew up. But you shouldn’t answer it by trying to tell your life story. Instead, you need to start from a place of focus. Zoom in on one thing, even if that one thing is chaos, and let that take the lead.
You want the reader to feel something, and it really shouldn’t be sadness or pity. So, once you’ve picked a piece of your childhood to zoom in on, select an emotion that you want to create in the reader. This could be hope, excitement, joy, or anything else that makes them excited to keep reading your application.
Really internalize that. The most important takeaway that the reader can have from this prompt is: “Wow, I want to know this kid better.”
Option 2: “Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself.
This option doesn’t require you to write about your upbringing, but the strategy for it isn’t all that different from the previous one. Just like Option 1, how you make the reader feel is as important as the story you tell. So, ultimately, it all comes down to how you tell the story. This is where expert guidance becomes so crucial. Some students happen to have lives packed full of dramatic and emotional stories that naturally lend themselves to these supplements. Most, though, don’t. So, you need to find something small and specific that makes you, you. Whether it’s picking out your outfit for a Friday, taking on an independent research project, a weekend in the woods, or walking your dog early on Saturday mornings, we cannot repeat this enough: how you tell the story to create emotional connection with the reader is what matters most.
PROMPT THREE
Respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:
For this prompt, Dartmouth gives you far too many options. Pick your best one by narrowing things down incrementally. First, remove the two or three you feel no connection to. Then pick two or three that you may actually want to take on. Brainstorm for each, and see where your ideas flow. First, though, let’s break down the options.
Option 1: What excites you?
We love this prompt. Every time a college asks a question like this, we encourage our students to take it on. Why? Because, more than anything, it is fun. This prompt lets you be you. However, there is one situation where we would advise a student not to pick this option. If you chose option 2 for the above supplemental essay, you probably should not pick this one. This isn’t because you wouldn’t write a great response, but because the spirit of it is simply too close.
If you pick this one to go with, focus entirely on telling one story about one thing. Don’t try to make this a mini-resume of all of your experiences exploring a subject or in a lab or every internship you’ve ever done. That’s completely the wrong approach. When essays written in response to this prompt hit, it’s because they are enormous by being wonderfully small.
Option 2: 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 already making—an impact? Why? How?
This is a great prompt, but the students who jump to answer it are inclined to take a less than stellar approach. This is because they look for the ‘biggest’ thing they have done, not the most impactful for this particular set of questions.
So, if you are excited about this prompt, let’s get one thing straight: a strong response to this one doesn’t position you as someone who is saving the world already. Instead, a strong response is centered on something you are doing now that positively impacts your local community and relies on working with others. It’s all about community and collaboration. So, tell a story that shows this.
Option 3: In an Instagram post, best-selling British author Matt Haig cheered the impact of reading. “A good novel is the best invention humans have ever created for imagining other lives,” he wrote. How have you experienced such insight from reading? What did you read and how did it alter the way you understand yourself and others?
We are in an era when educators are terrified that teenagers aren’t reading. We think that this is why they put this prompt in, but we aren’t in love with it. If you are a student interested in pursuing the humanities, we would immediately remove this option as, well, an option. The only students that we advise to pick this one are ones who fit two criterions:
They are looking to major in the mathematics or sciences.
They genuinely love to read.
But there is something else that is super important: you should write about fiction. Do not write about celebrity memoir — or any memoir — and stay away from nonfiction in general because you’re already someone who is immersed in fact. What this supplement can give your application is a dream factor. Here you can show the ability to envision a future and write a story. And we love that.
Option 4: The social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees have been the focus of Dame Jane Goodall’s research for decades. Her understanding of animal behavior prompted the English primatologist to see a lesson for human communities as well: “Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.” Channel Dame Goodall: Tell us about a moment when you engaged in a difficult conversation or encountered someone with an opinion or perspective that was different from your own. How did you find common ground?
This is the question of the moment, and we call it the “civil disagreement” question. Basically, can you get along with someone different from you? The answer should be yes, but how you answer this isn’t as simple. This is not the time, for example, to frame meeting someone with an opposing viewpoint as being akin to running into a mythical monster in the breakfast cereal aisle and being amazed that you made it past them without losing a limb.
We love Dr. Jane — in fact, the member of our team writing this post worked for her — but you can ignore all the set-up to this question. Ultimately, what you need to do is to tell a story about being around someone with a difference of opinion and navigating it to a place of understanding, even if not agreement. This could be a friend, a peer, a family member, or the 75-year-old that you share a shift with at the food pantry. Whomever it is, we advise our students to lean into storytelling for this post, and let the way you tell the story deliver the ‘takeaways,’ not some big “this is the lesson I learned” sentences at the end. Use dialog and imagery to bring the conversation to life.
Option 5: Celebrate your nerdy side.
This is basically the same as Option 1, the only difference being that they are appealing to self-described nerds instead of creatives or entrepreneurs. All of the same guidance applies. And, like Option 1, we love this one.
Option 6: It’s not easy being green…” was the frequent refrain of Kermit the Frog. How has difference been a part of your life, and how have you embraced it as part of your identity, outlook or sense of purpose?
This is not a good prompt for the vast majority of students. The only students who strengthen their applications through this prompt are those with very real differences that are not related to their mental health nor their ability to thrive in a classroom. No person should be defined by a diagnosis, but if you spend this supplement explaining how hard it is to thrive that isn’t going to make them super excited to save a space for you in the Class of 2030.
If you are someone who has lived with a physical disability, or other challenge, and answer for this prompt probably jumps immediately to mind. Remember that there has to be a real story, not simply a description of the challenges you face due to difference, and there needs to be a forward oriented perspective that sets you up as someone more capable of positively contributing to the community, not less.
Option 7: The Mindy Kaling Theater Lab will be an exciting new addition to Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts. “It’s a place where you can fail,” the actor/producer and Dartmouth alumna said when her gift was announced. “You can try things out, fail, and then revamp and rework things… A thing can be bad on its journey to becoming good.” Share a story of failure, trial runs, revamping, reworking, or journeying from bad to good.
This is a fun prompt if two things are true:
The fail was epic.
The ‘good’ outcome was just as epic.
Too often, we see students try to answer this prompt with fails that were, at worst, a belly-flop. What plays well for this prompt isn’t a mild set-back or disappointing quiz score. It needs to be a true nail-biter of a fail. And the success needs to be just as sweet as the fail is sour. It’s all about balance, and that comes down to having an experience that fits the bill and the chops to tell the story of it.
Our team is packed with professional writers and storytellers who have honed their craft working for some of the most well-respected publications in the world. We know story far beyond a single supplement or college essay, and teach our students to employ professional writing tools to craft acceptance-earning essays. If you don’t know where to start with Dartmouth, get in touch.
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