dartmouth curiosity essay

• Visual Essays
• Print Subscription

Reflection: Dartmouth Essays That Worked

One writer looks back on her admissions process in light of the dartmouth’s new book, “50 dartmouth application essays that worked.”.

Five years ago, I began my Common Application essay with the following sentence: “To quote Ferris Bueller, ‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.’ I don’t intend to miss my life.” Half a decade later, those words still ring true. 

Any college was taking a chance when they admitted a girl who quoted a film famous for encouraging students to play hooky. Not only did I open with this line, I hammered the point home as I described my disillusionment with valuing academic learning over personal experience — I was done running on the high school hamster wheel. When people ask me what essay got me into Dartmouth, I usually respond, “An essay about having a really fun summer.” While those words are true, there’s a deeper moral to the story — as incredible as Dartmouth’s academic resources are, and as academically rigorous as my high school had been, I wanted to learn outside of the classroom, to learn by doing, to learn from my friends. “As much as I value my academic identity and as far as my passion for learning goes, my interpersonal relationships teach me just as much,” I wrote.

I was honestly surprised when Dartmouth accepted me in April 2020. I had been deferred early decision, and the last student who had gotten into Dartmouth from my public Florida high school was a cross-country recruit in 2016. Like tens of thousands of high school seniors, I had the grades, test scores and extracurriculars, but I was full of self-doubt. I was also completely burnt out. Was I really “Ivy League material”? I certainly didn’t feel it. Looking over my statistics, I was just another data point. Not Ellie Anderson, but applicant 8,677. 

My “Why Dartmouth?”  and supplement essays allowed me to make my case. I crafted three versions of the former, and I could have kept going. I labored over my words carefully, drafting response after response, but it was challenging only having 250 words to respond, in some form, to a prompt that every Dartmouth applicant has read: “It is, Sir … a small college. And yet, there are those who love it!” Other than the encouraging words and flamboyant edits from my high school English teacher, I didn’t know if they were any good. Where to begin …

I would have loved to understand what makes an admissions essay compelling when I was in the throes of applying to college. Recently, The Dartmouth published “50 Dartmouth Application Essays That Worked,” a compilation of successful admissions essays. Looking through this collection, I felt like I was stepping back into my 17-year-old self. The selection includes essays featuring many of the qualities Dartmouth seems to be looking for in its students, or at least those I’ve found in my friends: compassion, curiosity, humility and a collaborative spirit. 

The book opens with essays about environment and nature before progressing to the expected categories: academic interest, arts, heritage, identity, sports and, of course, “miscellaneous.” 

A few stories grabbed me for their honesty, especially one that begins, “I have a complicated relationship with the truth.” I was hooked — it was real and raw. Her father suffers from bipolar disorder even though, to the outside world, nothing appears to be wrong. She has a secret too — she’s seeing a girl. How is one supposed to apply to college when their entire world is being torn apart, “standing in the middle of the bridge and setting fire to both ends,” as she says. But she learns a valuable lesson — to live her own truth, not anyone else’s. 

When I was applying to colleges, I was given the following advice: “Don’t make your admissions essay a sob story.” But this essay certainly isn’t a pity party, which proves you can be honest and address your difficulties in the span of a few hundred words. These kinds of essays instead place their writers’ most beautiful strengths and flaws on full display.

Another such essay begins, “My feet live in infamy.” Yes, you can write your Common Application essay about your gnarled and calloused feet. Although the story begins with an anecdote of “ugly” feet, it becomes so much more — a toe-centric reflection. As the writer’s skin became thicker, she found her voice as well. She comes out of her shell in high school, learning to speak up after several tumultuous adolescent years as an introvert. By the end, she’s finally ready to bear her infamous feet and use her voice.

A deep current of intellectual curiosity runs across the essays, too. I laughed when I read a story about an applicant playing Super Mario Bros on a childhood road trip. The writer makes an in-game blunder, sending Mario hurdling into a turtle. “It was then that the terrible realization that curled my six-year-old toes hit me: Mario would return to play again, but when I die, I will not,” they said. What could have been a decade-long existential spiral instead drove the writer to philosophy and math, where they found solace in understanding the world rather than cowering at the unknown. 

These writers are brave — both for sharing their stories to the black-box admissions panel and for allowing us readers a peek years later. On a campus where we often interact in passing “Hey, what’s up”-isms, reading the diverse selection of essays has grounded me once more in an understanding of what makes Dartmouth, Dartmouth. Students here are radically courageous in their quests for knowledge, acts of kindness and pursuits of greatness. In these essays, 650 words no longer looks limiting but becomes the etchings of a beautiful cohort.

After re-reading my own essay alongside those published, it struck me. As a 17-year-old sending off a piece of yourself to a nebulous online portal, it can be difficult to envision your future — your story is a moment in time caught in between all that you’ve been and all that you hope to become. I’m asking myself this question again as I look forward to my senior year at Dartmouth and re-read my ambitions and fears from the essay I penned in 2019. It’s been a lot of laughing at my naïvete, cringing at a heavy-handed application of adjectives and finding pride in my values.

Not only is this book a tool for Dartmouth applicants, but it’s a time capsule from the Class of 2023 to the Class of 2026, whose essays are included. This is who we were at 17. Looking back at my essay, so much has changed between now and then. How could it have not? But I see the seeds of who I’ve become in my essay, like an incantation: “I learn to understand others and to understand myself.”

Lookback on Commencement: protests in context

Ledyard offers free summer boat rentals

Q&A with Devon Kurtz ’20

Kexin cai was “magical” and adventurous, prosecutors decline to file charges against some people arrested on may 1, dartmouth reaches tentative deal with gold-ue, dartmouth dining changes remain in works, decision pending for student protesters arrested in october.

The Dartmouth

Dartmouth University Essays that Worked

Dartmouth essays that worked – introduction.

Are you interested in learning more about how to get into Dartmouth? Dartmouth is a highly-ranked Ivy League institution with a competitive applicant pool. Located in Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth is ranked #12 in the nation by U.S. News. However, this high ranking also means the Dartmouth acceptance rate is low—just 6% . So, you should understand all aspects of the Dartmouth application and review some Dartmouth essays that worked as you prepare to apply.

In this guide, we will focus on the Dartmouth supplemental essay requirement. Many Ivy League institutions have similar approaches to their application review. Reading college essay examples for Ivy League colleges and reviewing sample Ivy League essays can help you put your best foot forward. 

Does Dartmouth have supplemental essays? 

Yes—Dartmouth has supplemental essays.

The Dartmouth writing supplement is a required portion of the Dartmouth application. The Dartmouth admissions committee uses Dartmouth supplemental essays to gather additional information about each applicant.

In this article, we will cover Dartmouth essays that worked and offer tips on how to get into Dartmouth. You can also check out this guide for more college essay examples for other schools like Dartmouth.

How many essays does Dartmouth require?

The Dartmouth admissions committee requires three Dartmouth essays in addition to the Personal Essay required on the Common Application . Three Dartmouth essays may seem like a lot. However, don’t worry—it’s not as overwhelming as you might think. Each Dartmouth essay varies in length and theme. Some Dartmouth essay questions are even as short as 100 words.

Keep reading for some Dartmouth supplemental essays examples—and take our quiz below to see just how familiar you are with the college admissions process! 

Dartmouth Essay Requirements 

Dartmouth essays can vary from year to year, so you should always double-check the prompts on the Dartmouth website. The Dartmouth essay prompts are typically announced on August 1 st when the new application launches. However, it’s never too early to begin reviewing sample Ivy League essays. Later in the article, we will review a series of Dartmouth essays that worked from previous application cycles. 

Current Dartmouth essay prompts: 

Prompt #1: why dartmouth (100 words): .

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? Please respond in 100 words or fewer.

Prompt #2: Introduce Yourself (200-250 words): 

“Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself in 200-250 words.

Prompt #3: Choose One ( 200-250 words):

A. 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?

B. What excites you?

C. 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?

D. 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?

E. “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?

The Dartmouth acceptance rate can be intimidating, but CollegeAdvisor is here to help . Keep reading to review some Dartmouth essays that worked. We will start by covering three real Why Dartmouth essay examples. 

Why Dartmouth Essay Examples

Dartmouth admissions cares about why you are interested in their school. Essay prompts that ask applicants to articulate what interests them about a school are often referred to as “Why <Insert College>” essays. In this guide, we will discuss Why Dartmouth essays specifically. 

It’s important to note that Why School essay prompts can be worded differently from school to school. Prompts may also change from one year to the next. 

In this guide, we will cover four Why Dartmouth essays that worked . The first three Dartmouth essays that worked answer a more creative prompt. The last Dartmouth essay answers a more straightforward prompt. However, in each of the prompts, the Dartmouth admissions committee is asking students to ponder some of the same questions: 

Why Dartmouth Reflection Questions

• What interests you in Dartmouth compared to any other college?
• What academic and social features would make you a good fit at Dartmouth?
• How would attending Dartmouth help you achieve your future career goals?

Now, let’s review some Why Dartmouth essay examples.

Dartmouth Essays that Worked #1

Since LGBTQ+ homeless youth are often at the intersections of racism, ableism, and queerphobia, no one discipline, or class, could cover every facet of their experience. 

However, at Dartmouth, I can use the Presidential Scholar Program to research with Dr. Zaneta Thayer. By examining ways poverty and trauma affect health, I will refine the research skills I’ll use during a Senior Fellowship on Houston’s LGBTQ+ homeless youth. 

With help from a Rockefeller Center faculty member, I can spend my senior-year researching ways policymakers and practitioners can better assist LGBTQ+ homeless youth, preparing me for a lifetime of meaningful change.

Why this essay worked: 

The first of our Why Dartmouth essays that worked focuses on an element of diversity and inclusion on Dartmouth’s campus. The author has clearly done their research about what Dartmouth has to offer inside and outside of the classroom . The essay begins by explicitly stating a cause that the author finds valuable and that Dartmouth supports. The author then proceeds to mention a current Dartmouth professor whose research aligns with this work. 

Successful Why Dartmouth essay examples mention campus and community impact. This author not only paints a picture of how they might expand awareness of LGBTQ+ issues on Dartmouth’s campus, but also how they will use their Dartmouth education to engage with their broader community. Finally, the author mentions how their Dartmouth college experience will ultimately prepare them to make a lifelong impact after graduation.

A strong Why School essay should also touch on the missions and values of the institution. Dartmouth’s mission statement states, “Dartmouth educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and responsible leadership through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge”. This Why School essay perfectly embodies the mission by focusing on dedicated faculty and lifelong impact. Keep reading for more Dartmouth supplemental essays examples. 

Why Dartmouth essay examples #2

Within a venn diagram of “small liberal arts college” versus “large research institution,” I have discovered that I cannot simply choose between the two; I greatly value ideals from each distinct circle. 

Dartmouth is the millimeter-wide overlap. With the robust undergraduate education characteristic of small liberal arts colleges and the vast resources offered by large research institutions, Dartmouth encapsulates my ideal college community. Tight-knit relationships, check. School spirit, check. Top-notch alumni network, check. 

For a small college, Dartmouth furnishes big possibilities. Within a Venn diagram, it is inside this unique, all-encompassing space that I wish to make my home.

Why this essay worked:

The second of our Why Dartmouth essay examples addresses how, as a small college, Dartmouth is a perfect fit for the writer. The author places Dartmouth at the intersection between a small college and a large research institution. Not only does this Dartmouth essay example show that the applicant is knowledgeable about Dartmouth; it also shows that they have researched how Dartmouth stacks up to other schools. 

Unlike the previous essay, this Dartmouth essay didn’t feel the need to name-drop any top faculty members or signature academic programs . Instead, this author chose to highlight campus features such as school spirit and the alumni network. This Dartmouth essay example is straightforward, unpretentious, and relatively informal in its writing style. This author goes deeper than Dartmouth college rankings and paints a picture of the soul of the institution. 

Why Dartmouth essay examples #3

I loved Dartmouth the moment I heard about the Sanborn Tea. There’s something magical, romantic , about it—sitting under dark wood bookshelves, surrounded by the scent of books, sipping hot tea in front of a roaring fireplace.

When visiting Dartmouth, I asked about the tea, but my tour guide didn’t mention the checkered floors or the buttery cookies I’d read about. Smiling gently, she spoke about loving the chance to chat one-on-one with her favorite professor every week at four o’clock—tea time. 

Dartmouth offers not only academics, but absolutely unmatched intimacy, tradition, and community. Tea at Sanborn is just the start.

So far, we’ve read two why Dartmouth essay examples. Each chose to take a different approach. Our third essay in the Why Dartmouth essay examples series is no different. This author chooses to focus on tradition. The author uses descriptive language to paint a vivid picture of the Sandborn tea tradition. They use vivid descriptions and evocative language to highlight their connection to this tradition and their desire to experience it at Dartmouth. 

Some colleges use demonstrated interest as part of their admissions process. Demonstrated interest can be anything from attending a college fair or going on a campus tour to opening an email from the admissions office. While Dartmouth does not consider demonstrated interest in their application process, visiting campus is always a great way to better answer the Why School essay question. Not every author of Dartmouth essays that worked had the opportunity to visit campus. However, they all find some way to add an insider’s touch to these Dartmouth supplemental essays examples. 

Here is the last of our Why Dartmouth essay examples: 

What attracts you to dartmouth (100)   .

I always had a keen interest in numbers, probability, and finance. Early on, I could quickly calculate sales tax, analyze probabilities, and visualize complex mathematical models. After taking AP classes in economics and statistics, I became intrigued with mathematical representations for economic markets and statistical models. This sparked my desire to pursue an actuarial career to utilize my talents in quantitative reasoning. The Major in Mathematical Data Science will provide me the skills to apply abstract mathematical and statistical theories to the concrete world. I will also have the opportunity to stimulate my academic intrigue through an intensive research project.

The last of our Why Dartmouth essay examples is much more straightforward than the previous one. This author chooses to focus solely on the academic components of Dartmouth. However, this simple approach works quite well for this applicant. 

The Dartmouth acceptance rate and the Dartmouth college ranking show just how important academics are at Dartmouth. This applicant speaks directly to their ability to succeed in an academically rigorous environment. 

The author talks us through what has prepared them for the academic rigor at Dartmouth. They also mention how their passions and talents led them to choose a career in actuary science . Finally, they tell us what they plan to do once at Dartmouth. 

This is one of the more simply structured Why Dartmouth essay examples. However, it still answers the prompt perfectly. Keep reading for more Dartmouth supplemental essays examples. 

More Dartmouth Essays that Worked

The second Dartmouth essay prompt gives students several prompts to choose from. These prompts change frequently from year to year. In the following Dartmouth essays that worked, we will review a selection of these prompts.

While prompts may change frequently, a strong supplemental essay often contains the same essay components. So, don’t worry about these prompts being from previous admissions cycles. You can use these Dartmouth Supplemental essays examples and other sample Ivy League essays to help craft your own essay. 

After reading through the following Dartmouth supplemental essays examples, we encourage you to view one of our webinars on brainstorming for your college essay,  editing your supplemental essays, and essay advice from admissions officers . 

Now, let’s review some more Dartmouth supplemental essays examples. With several different prompts these Dartmouth supplemental essays examples allow students to show their personality off!

Dartmouth Essays that Worked #1: Introduce Yourself Essay 

The hawaiian word mo’olelo is often translated as “story” but it can also refer to history, legend, genealogy, and tradition. use one of these translations to introduce yourself. (250-300 words).

Since my earliest days, my favorite game has been Truth or Dare. In the 1001 ways my friends posed the question, I loudly called out “Dare!” each time and found myself devouring dead ants or climbing trees sky-high. As we grew older, we left behind our hushed whispers and daredevil operations. But something in me never quite stopped playing—never quite stopped choosing dare.

Fifteen years old, I circled the backstage of Spivey Hall, nervously evaluating a plethora of “what-if”s.” What if my bow bounces on the artificial harmonic? Worse, what if — CRACK! The room jolted into pitch black, followed by the conductor barging through the stage doors. “[NAME REDACTED], I’m so sorry… seems like… you won’t be able to perform your concerto…” he sighed. 

I was only half listening, as an idea had crossed my mind. It was crazy, the sort of thing that might have come to me in a fever dream, where nothing made sense. For the first time in years, I felt that question flicker inside me again. Truth or Dare ?

I began to tighten my bow. “Mr. Thibdeau, the show must go on.”

My intense desire to discover, to brave the unknown, is what defines me. Because of Truth or Dare, I do not fear what lies at the end of the tunnel. To dare brings the possibility of glory and of undoing. I subsist on finding the beauty in both. The fall from a tree that illuminates physics principles, the slip of memory in a blind performance that invokes a hidden propensity for improvisation—even through undoing, I make new parts of myself.

Perhaps one day, ants and trees and Mozart will have all coalesced into nothing but ancient history. Until then, my world is born through Truth or Dare.

I will still choose dare every time.

This author used the widely known game “Truth or Dare” to introduce themselves. Immediately, the Dartmouth admissions committee can see that the author has taken a unique approach to this essay prompt. This shows the applicant thinks out the box and takes intellectual risks. The author does a great job at describing how their daring nature transcends different areas of their life. 

From a stylistic vantage point, the author uses prose, descriptive sentences, and dialogue flawlessly throughout the essay. This dynamic writing style keeps the reader engaged from the beginning to the end of the essay. While the author does not explicitly mention how they might “dare” on Dartmouth’s campus, the final sentence leaves you wondering what’s next for this risk-taking student.

Dartmouth Essays that Worked #2: Celebrate Curiosity 

Curiosity is a guiding element of toni morrison’s talent as a writer. “i feel totally curious and alive and in control. and almost…magnificent when i write,” she says. celebrate your curiosity. .

Exhausted and bored, I stare at the hands of the clock in agony. With each tick I digest another spoonful: memorize the formula, rearrange it, plug in the knowns, and solve. I am left perpetually unstimulated. For years, this is what math was about for me — plug and chug. However, I have discovered that mathematics does not have to be so dry and uncreative. Probing and problem-solving captivate me. At once, I am the intrepid Olivia Benson of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit , and then I am the analytical Spencer Reid of Criminal Minds .  

And thus, as I entered Calculus BC in September of junior year, I was begrudgingly prepared to embark on the usual plugging and chugging. However, I found myself staring at a proof: determine why sin(x)/x goes to one as x approaches zero. Why . I heard pencils nervously tapping on the desks then collapsing one by one. I raced through a mental check-list of techniques I had previously learned. And, I analyzed the function in my head, visualized it, and then transferred that picture onto paper. With no single, linear method to solving it, my scribbled attempts painted pages of graph paper. Frustrating. Agonizing.  

Student’s notebooks shuffled onto different subjects. I persisted, raising question after question, much like Captain Olivia Benson, in her attempts to identify the perpetrator. I eventually found success using the “sandwich theorem” — ironic, since I was often hungry in that class. After multiple endeavors, I demonstrated that the limit equals one. Frustrating. Agonizing. Beautiful. A wave of pleasure rolled over me as I softly set down my pencil. From then on, every few weeks, an interesting problem awaited us.

Though I was not alone in solving these proofs, it appeared that I was the only one relishing this process. Like Agent Spencer Reid, I was not concerned with the “usefulness” of this information in my future; I found pure pleasure delving into this abstract material that requires creativity. 

My inquisitiveness is not learned from these TV personalities: I feel as if I were born with these analytical tendencies. Curiosity is the genesis of scientific, political, and social — practically all  — advancement. To some, mathematical skills seem mundane, but synthesizing information to surmount my daily obstacles is enticing! I find myself employing the use of these skills in my exploration of literature, synthesizing history and language to better understand the characters of Crime and Punishment: empathizing with Sonia’s suffering and Dounia’s sacrifice.

Similarly, this mindset helped me find a unique way to stop my neighborhood-famous homemade guacamole from browning and helps me expeditiously calculate distances and speed limits,  technology-free, in order to find the quickest way to a friend’s house. While Emily Dickinson immersed herself in writing and Vincent Van Gogh was constantly painting, my characteristic is to never stop my questioning. Challenges are extremely enticing, and I cannot cease exploring them on my own.

Curiosity is often thought of as the cornerstone of intellectual growth. With Dartmouth’s low acceptance rate, it makes sense that the Dartmouth admissions team would be interested in how applicants display curiosity. The author takes time to illustrate exactly what curiosity means to them while also giving examples of curiosity displayed in multiple areas in their life. 

The author describes their interest in learning for the sake of learning alone. They describe television shows, books, and courses in school as the playground that allowed them to discover their love of learning. This level of intellectual exploration is exactly the type of curious student that Dartmouth would like to see. 

Dartmouth Essays that Worked: Passion to Action Essay

Labor leader dolores huerta is a civil rights activist who co-founded the organization now known as united farm workers. she said, “we criticize and separate ourselves from the process. we’ve got to jump right in there with both feet.” speak your truth: talk about a time when your passion became action. (300 words) .

I sat waiting for my nails to dry while a hoard of anxiety-ridden freshmen trudged onto the bus. I was returning to the place where it all started four years ago: when my classmates used ‘faggot’ instead of gay and left me terrified. 

As a peer leader, I wanted to be the overzealous queer presence I wished I had seen as a freshman. Gay jokes and bigotry weren’t fortifying closet locks under my watch. 

The boys on my bus didn’t disappoint. Within the hour, an intense game of ‘find the homo’ was on. 

This was where I belonged. And after my topcoat was done, I was ready for war. 

Upon arrival, I grabbed two other peer leaders–I’ll call them Adam and Steve–and debriefed them. Although they had a religious objection to homosexuality, they agreed to support me. 

That night, we sat the freshmen before the campfire. I watched my words carefully, referencing their comments and my own experiences from freshman year so they would understand my concerns rather than dismiss me. 

I told them I was there to talk without judgment. None of them were bad people. Until that night, their behavior had gone uncorrected, and just scolding wouldn’t motivate them to change. I wanted them to learn how their peers should be treated. 

The next day, several jokesters apologized. I stressed to them that even if someone believes that homosexuality is wrong, common decency still matters. Later, several closeted students came out to me and asked for advice.

My queer identity has taught me how to create queer-affirming spaces while still having difficult conversations. I’ve learned that bringing people together has less to do with finding common ground than teaching others to respect differences.

This Dartmouth essay example centers the author’s identity while also answering the prompt. The author shows vulnerability by writing about a situation that invoked both sadness and anger. Through the author’s own queer identity, they were able to illustrate how passionate they were about this cause. 

While this is one of the Dartmouth essays that worked, this author took some risks. Using vulgar or offensive language in your college application must be done very thoughtfully. The language used in the first paragraph of this essay might be jarring at first glance. However, the author uses this language only to further underscore their passion. Being a member of the queer community also eases any negative impact of the language used. 

Keep reading for more Dartmouth supplemental essays examples. 

More Dartmouth Essays that Worked 

Yes, books are dangerous,” young people’s novelist pete hautman proclaimed. “they should be dangerous—they contain ideas.” what book or story captured your imagination through the ideas it revealed to you share how those ideas influenced you..

I think that this is best answered by sharing the letter I wrote to the author after reading A Place for Us:

Reading has always been my favorite escape, my favorite pastime. Only, your book was never an escape, but a mirror: the first time I saw my life truly reflected in literature, and not because you told an Indian-American story. I felt as though you’d written my story through the raw, honest meditation on family conveyed in your book.

As is true with many immigrant families,  my family resorts to anger too quickly. We shy away from expressing love. I’ve cried out that I hate my father on more than one occasion, passionately believing it to be true each time — just like Amar did to Rafiq. 

However, as I read Rafiq’s dying words to Amar at the end of the story, expressing his regrets, his love for his son, I couldn’t stop crying because I suddenly saw my family in a completely different light. Not that we will never disagree or fight again, but I began to consider all that goes unsaid between us.

Behind the anger is almost always love. Although I’ve known this subconsciously, there is something about seeing your struggles outside the context of your own life that compels you to confront the truth about them. 

I’m endlessly indebted to you, in awe of you, and I needed to say thank you. I cannot begin to express how much this book truly means to me but have tried to explain a small portion of my love for it. Thank you, Ms. Mirza, for my new favorite book. I will carry it with me always.

[Name redacted]

This essay takes a creative approach to answering the prompt. Instead of just discussing their favorite book, they take a stylistic risk by sharing their essay in a letter format. The letter format works because it shows just how personally the book affected the author. And it still answers the prompt! 

This author also shares a window into their culture. If you read other Dartmouth supplemental essays examples or sample Ivy League essays, you will notice many students sharing some part of their identity, background, or culture. This author does a good job of giving the Dartmouth admissions committee more insight into their upbringing. 

Dartmouth Essays that Worked: Kermit the Frog Essay 

”it’s not easy being green” was a frequent lament of kermit the frog. discuss. 300 words..

It’s well intentioned, I get it. Flowers are an ephemeral beauty, conveying underlying meaning. Yellows for friendship, red roses for romance. Remembering a girlfriend’s favorite flower is a common trope, the epitome of a loving partner.

But to me, flower shops are slaughterhouses, the vendors of a tragic foie gras. A snip severs the artery of a bud, a flower doomed to death by lack of foundation, losing the security of Maslow’s hierarchy.  A doomed career, wilting, never to see the light of sun again.

So here I am crusading for the mute, their silence a frequency more piercing than words. That flower bud had endless potential, surviving as a seedling, buried in peat as civilizations rose and fell at the hands of greedy men. That seed finally found her opportunity to thrive, to be worthy, to be a flower, then cruelly seized for a few dollars and fewer days of appreciation. It’s difficult to be a plant among the egotistical human, a being which thinks himself to be the top of the chain. The flower counterclaims – flowers mean fruit, and fruit is beautiful sustenance.

Somehow, trying to choose a thank-you bouquet turned into this internal debate, a realization of how poorly we treat other life forms, as if they are to accommodate us in this universe in which we’ve only existed for a second. I thought of that village in China, lost without its bees, its remaining flowers pollinated by hand one-by-one.

It isn’t easy being green. You have no voice, no way to fight back except at the very end to yell with a faint echo from the grave: a cry of  “I told you that you needed me,” before fading back to silence as Earth implodes around you, succumbing to exponentially rising extinctions and global warming.

This author takes a creative and reflective approach to this prompt. The essay is full of prose and shows off the authors’ strength as a writer. Instead of focusing on Kermit the Frog, the author chooses to personify flowers. In flowery language, the author describes the lifecycle of a flower, causing the reader to feel empathy.

The author ends the essay with a nod to all green things on earth. This shows their awareness of environmental issues, particularly in the closing sentence. Overall, this essay is the perfect match for this unconventional prompt. The author is confident in their approach and shows the reader they are deep, thoughtful, and aware of issues plaguing the globe. 

Dartmouth Essay Examples: Dr. Seuss Essay 

Oh, the places you’ll go is one of the most popular books by ”dr. seuss” (theodore seuss geisel, dartmouth class of 1925). where do you hope to go what aspects of dartmouth’s curriculum or community might help you get there 100 words.

With my head full of brains and my shoes full of feet, my path through Dartmouth would include a D-Plan of semesters on campus and study-abroad. While on campus, I would pursue my interest in the philosophical and linguistics aspects of cognitive science, conducting research under renowned faculty such as Dr. Kraemer, working in education and specifically teaching STEM with his papers on anxiety towards mathematics. Yet Dartmouth would also specifically support my further interest in abroad programs for global health, such as the Dickey’s Center Global Health Initiative’s research site in Peru, a place I have longed to go.

We’ve included this essay in our general Dartmouth supplemental essays examples. However, it could also be included in the Why Dartmouth essay examples. This is another example of a prompt that may be worded differently but in essence asks the same question: why Dartmouth?

This student has clearly done their research on Dartmouth. They mention faculty, research centers on campus, and other opportunities. They also display an inside knowledge of the curricular progression in their major of interest. 

How do you write a Dartmouth essay? 

Now, you’ve had a chance to read several Dartmouth essays that worked. As you likely noticed, the Dartmouth essays that worked in this guide have many of the same strengths. Next, let’s discuss how you can apply the same techniques to your Dartmouth supplemental essay. 

Check out these tips used in the Dartmouth essays that worked to assist you while writing your Dartmouth essay.

Dartmouth Essays that Worked Tips

• Answer the prompt. This one may seem obvious, but it makes a major difference. 
• Narrow the scope of your essay. You may be tempted to discuss numerous ideas throughout your essay. However, the best essays are those that are focused and narrow in scope.
• Watch out for grammar and formatting issues . It is important to have multiple proofreaders involved in your revisions. 
• Every supplemental essay is an opportunity to share “Why Dartmouth.” Don’t miss the opportunity to show that you are a good fit. 

The Why Dartmouth essay examples in this guide can help you get a better sense of what admissions committees look for. Ivy League institutions are highly competitive, and there are no guarantees. However, reviewing sample Ivy League essays can give you insight on how to enhance your application. 

Dartmouth Essays That Worked – Final Thoughts 

When strategizing about how to get into Dartmouth, supplemental essays should be high on your priority list. After all, it’s easy to be intimidated by the Dartmouth acceptance rate or the Dartmouth college rankings . 

Still, as you can see, college essay examples for Ivy League colleges don’t differ much from other essays. However, the more competitive the college, the more you need to stand out. Our Dartmouth supplemental essays examples highlight what makes each writer unique. By highlighting your strengths in your supplemental essays, you can leave a lasting impression on admissions officers. And with many colleges going test-optional , supplemental essays are more important than ever.  

Dartmouth essays that worked are specific, thoughtful, and tailored to Dartmouth. No matter when you plan to apply, you can use our why Dartmouth essay examples and other Dartmouth essays that worked in this guide to help frame your writing. While prompts change each year, the academic standard for a school like Dartmouth rarely changes. Good luck!

This article on Dartmouth Essays that Worked was written by Chelsea Holley . Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.

Personalized and effective college advising for high school students.

• Advisor Application
• Popular Colleges
• Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice
• Student Login
• California Privacy Notice
• Terms and Conditions
• Your Privacy Choices

By using the College Advisor site and/or working with College Advisor, you agree to our updated Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy , including an arbitration clause that covers any disputes relating to our policies and your use of our products and services.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 4 tips for writing stellar dartmouth essays.

College Admissions

Dartmouth College , located in Hanover, New Hampshire, is one of the best universities in the world. A member of the Ivy League, Dartmouth has notable graduates, top-of-the-line programs, and a minuscule admissions rate.

If you want to be one of the 7.9% of students accepted to Dartmouth every year, you'll need to write some amazing essays as part of your application's Dartmouth supplement.

In this post, I'll talk about what the Dartmouth essay prompts are, which essays you can choose to write, and how to craft standout responses that'll help ensure your admission.

What Are the Dartmouth Essay Prompts?

You can apply to Dartmouth using the Common Application or QuestBridge Application. No matter which application you choose, you'll also have to submit the Dartmouth Supplement.

Part of the Dartmouth Supplement involves answering three required writing prompts. The first two writing prompts are the same for all students. Students have five prompt options for the third essay and must answer one. 

According to Dartmouth's website, "the writing supplement includes questions specific to Dartmouth that help the Admissions Committee gain a better sense of how you and Dartmouth might be a good 'fit' for each other."

Basically, that means that the Dartmouth Admissions Committee wants to know who you are… and how you'll fit in on Dartmouth's campus. Your Dartmouth supplemental essays give the admissions committee a chance to get to know you beyond your test scores and other credentials. The essays will give Dartmouth a better idea of how you think and act, so they can see if you would be a great addition to the student body.

Similarly, the essays also give the admissions committee a chance to assess your passion for Dartmouth - how badly do you really want to go there? The more you can show your passion for Dartmouth, the better.

Let's take a look at the Dartmouth essay prompts.

Dartmouth Essay Prompts

Here are the 2022-2023 Dartmouth Essay Prompts. Like we mentioned earlier, the first two prompts are the same for all students. For the third essay, students are given five prompt options and must answer one. 

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? Please respond in 100 words or fewer.

Essay #2 

Please response in 200-250 words: 

"Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself in 200-250 words.

Please 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?
• What excites you?
• 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?
• 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?
• "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?

Dartmouth Essays Analyzed

Let's take a look at the Dartmouth essay prompts for 2021-2022.

Dartmouth Essay Prompt 1

All Dartmouth students are required to answer this prompt and for good reason — it's the "Why Dartmouth" essay! This essay shows the admissions committee why Dartmouth is the right school for you.

At only 100 words, this prompt doesn't give you a lot of room to expand upon your favorite parts of the College, so you should pick one or two aspects of Dartmouth that you really love and focus on those.

The prompt encourages you to talk about the program, community, or campus, so don't feel like you have to limit yourself to academics. You can talk about other things about Dartmouth that interest you, such as the student life or extracurricular activities.

Whichever features you choose to highlight, make sure your connection to them is real and personal. In other words, don't just say you're a fan of Dartmouth's sterling academic reputation. Instead, focus on a specific part of that reputation - a professor whose work you admire or a class that you really want to take.

Dartmouth Essay Prompt 2

First impressions can be daunting! How do you want to be perceived? What would you say to pique Dartmouth’s admissions counselors’ interest? This is your chance to be bold, and to stand out from the crowd. But remember the prompt: they’re not quoting Wilde for fun. You’ll need to introduce your most authentic self. In other words, introduce who you are, not who you think Dartmouth wants you to be.

Don't feel confined to traditional, linear methods of storytelling in this prompt. You can play around with form and structure, as long as you do it well. Get an advisor or mentor to read your work and offer feedback, especially if you deviate from your typical style.

Dartmouth Essay Prompt 3

Dartmouth's longer essay prompts give you plenty of room to think creatively and show off your individuality. All students are required to pick and answer one of the prompts in 250-300 words. Let's take a look at the prompts and examine how to answer them.

Prompt A: The Introduction Prompt

A. 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 prompt is more tangible and concrete than the others available for selection. If you feel intimidated by discussing your creativity or personal history, this prompt is a good one to choose.

This prompt asks you to pick a real-world issue and discuss how you wish to address it (or are already addressing it). Don't feel like you have to pick something grand and far-reaching, like starvation or world peace. You can also pick an issue that affects people locally, in your community, for instance. The key is to pick a topic that you have a personal connection to and reason for wanting to fix. Your passion will come across in your description of the issue.

Prompt B: The Passion Prompt

B. What excites you?

This essay prompt is asking you to think toward your future and write about something—anything!—that gets you pumped. Dartmouth Admissions is looking to see if you have purpose and passion.

To answer this prompt, take some time to think about your future: your goals for your time in college, things you hope to achieve, opportunities that you find invigorating. You'll want your response to be focused and organized, so choose one idea, goal, or possibility that most excites you and go into detail about that in your response.

For example, maybe you're excited about the opportunity to improve your creative writing craft in the company of other student writers at Dartmouth, so you make becoming a better writer the central idea of your response to this prompt. You might go into detail about how you're excited to take writing workshop courses, learn from other students' writing styles, and eventually work on a creative writing publication with other students.

Whatever topic you choose to write about, you need to have a central idea—something that excites you—and you need to be able to explain how your excitement will shape your life choices as a student at Dartmouth.

There are no right or wrong answers in terms of what excites you, but it is important to try to think toward your future and explain

Prompt C: The Creativity Prompt

C. In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind , William Kamkwamba, Class of 2014, reflects on constructing a windmill from recycled materials to power the 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 already made

Creativity is crucial to every field of study, and this essay prompt is asking you to show that your interests, academic or recreational, inspire you to make things. To respond to this prompt, you'll need to be able to explain an idea, issue, or interest that motivates you to make stuff, then describe what you've made in the past or hope to make in the future!

The first thing to do is establish what drives you to create . To do this, think about who you are, where you come from, what experiences you've had, and who you want to become. Like in the example given in the prompt, maybe there's a need right in your own home that inspires you to create. You could think locally, like The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, or you could think outside of your personal experience too. Is there a global issue that drives you to create something that will help others in the future, during, or after college? If so, describe that vision and the global issue that motivates it.

Keep in mind that "creating" and "making something" can be interpreted many different ways. Your vision for "making" doesn't have to be artistic or some scientific invention. It could be creating a virtual reading service for overworked parents who need help educating their children during a global pandemic! On the other hand, maybe you're creating a science curriculum through your school's independent study program so you can learn more about climate change, which is your passion.

Whatever the case may be, it's a good idea to relate that creativity to your time at Dartmouth. For instance, maybe your virtual reading service has inspired you to major in business, so you can turn that service into your future career. It would be a great idea to research and talk about joining the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth to help show admissions counselors that Dartmouth is the only school that can help your dreams become a reality.

Prompt D: The Curiosity Prompt

D. 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?

This prompt is actually just an invitation for you to dive deep into something that you're insatiably curious about. Dartmouth admissions wants to see that you have that intrinsic motivation to learn, grow, and expand your horizons, and they want to get to know you better by hearing you go off about that thing that you're endlessly curious about.

So, how do you celebrate your curiosity in this response? Start by pinpointing that one thing that you're the most curious about. You can probably look to your activities, relationships, and even your Google search history to identify what that one thing is. Maybe you're endlessly curious about food: different cultures of eating around the world, America's relationship to food, how to select, prepare, and eat it...and if you're really curious about food, you could probably go on and on about everything you know and want to know about it in your response.

This is a good thing! To organize your response, describe the thing you're curious about in a way that helps admissions counselors get to know you better . Going back to the food example, you could talk about where your curiosity about food comes from, or your background with food, how your curiosity with food plays into your day-to-day living, and some specific things you hope to learn about or do with food as you continue engaging with it.

And finally, connect your past experience, present questions, and future goals at Dartmouth in your response. This will show Dartmouth that you're a dedicated, independent learner who will be an endlessly curious student too.

Prompt E: The Baldwin Prompt

E. "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?

Some challenges in life appear insurmountable at first—and not all of them can be overcome. This prompt asks you to reflect on your own life, and on your own experiences with growth and change, whether or not you succeeded.

In your response, you'll get the chance to show that you see the value of being adaptable and accepting change. You can demonstrate this quality by writing about how you've seen something happening cyclically, something changing, or a season coming to an end in your life. It's important that you write about a situation that was meaningful to you—one where you saw yourself growing and learning.

Alternatively, you could write about an ongoing situation in your life that you are still facing. For example, maybe your school enacted a policy that you and your peers consider unfair, and you’ve been working for a while to make your voices heard.

It's okay if the thing you choose to write about is something you've had conflicted feelings about. What's important in your response here is showing how facing the challenges you describe strengthened your determination and adaptability —qualities that will be valuable when you become a Dartmouth student.

How to Write Great Dartmouth Essays

In order to write great Dartmouth essays, you need to show the committee two things. First, you need to give them a clear idea of who you are. Second, you need to show them, "Why Dartmouth." In other words, why Dartmouth is important to you. Here are some tips to help you accomplish both of those goals.

#1: Use Your Own Voice

The point of a college essay is for the admissions committee to have the chance to get to know you beyond your test scores, grades, and honors. Your admissions essays are your opportunity to make yourself come alive for the essay readers and to present yourself as a fully fleshed out person.

You should, then, make sure that the person you're presenting in your college essays is yourself. Don't try to emulate what you think the committee wants to hear or try to act like someone you're not.

If you lie or exaggerate, your essay will come across as insincere, which will diminish its effectiveness. Stick to telling real stories about the person you really are, not who you think Dartmouth wants you to be.

#2: Avoid Clichés and Overused Phrases

When writing your Dartmouth essays, try to avoid using common quotes or phrases. These include quotations that have been quoted to death and phrases or idioms that are overused in daily life. The college admissions committee has probably seen numerous essays that state, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Strive for originality.

Similarly, avoid using clichés, which take away from the strength and sincerity of your work. Don't speak in platitudes about how the struggle for gay and lesbian rights has affected you… unless it actually has! And even then, you don't want to speak in platitudes. It's better to be direct and specific about your experience.

#3: Check Your Work

It should almost go without saying, but you want to make sure your Dartmouth essays are the strongest example of your work possible. Before you turn in your Dartmouth application, make sure to edit and proofread your essays.

Your work should be free of spelling and grammar errors. Make sure to run your essays through a spelling and grammar check before you submit.

It's a good idea to have someone else read your Dartmouth essays, too. You can seek a second opinion on your work from a parent, teacher, or friend. Ask them whether your work represents you as a student and person. Have them check and make sure you haven't missed any small writing errors. Having a second opinion will help your work be the best it possibly can be.

That being said, make sure you don't rely on them for ideas or rewrites. Your essays need to be your work.

#4: Play With Form

Dartmouth's essay prompts leave a lot of room open for creative expression - use that! You don't need to stick to a five paragraph essay structure here. You can play with the length and style of your sentences - you could even dabble in poetry if that makes sense!

Whichever form you pick, make sure it fits with the story you're trying to tell and how you want to express yourself.

What's Next?

Learn more about the most selective colleges in the US . If you're applying to multiple Ivy Leagues, it's a good idea to know your chances at each!

If you're hoping to attend a highly selective school like Dartmouth, you'll need to have a very strong academic record in high school. Learn more about high school honors classes and societies.

Not sure what your GPA means for your chances of college admission? Find out what a good or bad GPA might look like based on your goals.

Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

• For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

Dartmouth Essay Prompts

• Why Us - Example 1
• Intellectual Curiosity - Example 2

View our complete guide to Dartmouth College.

Dartmouth asks for three essays, alongside your personal statement. The first is a fairly straightforward “Why Us” essay, and the second is an open ended way to introduce yourself. The third is more open ended, with the prompts changing frequently. They provide several prompts to respond to each time. As we cannot predict what new prompts will be, we will give an example of a past response, and try to discuss what Dartmouth is looking for generally in asking this question.

The second prompt is also new, so we do not yet have an example essay for it yet.

Why Us - Example

While arguing a Dartmouth-related case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1818, Daniel Webster, Class of 1801, uttered this memorable line: ”It is, Sir…a small college. And yet, there are those who love it!” As you seek admission to the Class of 2022, what aspects of the College’s program, community, or campus environment attract your interest?   (100 words)

I love the idea of engineering in the context of liberal arts. Completing the AB and the BE will allow me to be a qualified engineer ready to make a difference in the world. I love the openness of the D-plan, and how I can personalize my college experience and gain access to internships in Dartmouth faculty’s pharmaceuticals startups year-round. I’m interested in conversing with faculty about their work, such as with Professor Scott Davis about the benefits of fluorescence-guided surgery. I look forward to learning surrounded by wilderness, skiing, and camping on the banks of the river.

Why Us - Analysis

This question, though worded more fancily and in depth than some others of its kind, asks the simple question of what parts of Dartmouth attract you. As you only have 100 words to respond, you will have to be efficient with their use. You can either prioritize going deep into one aspect of the school, or try to touch briefly on multiple different programs which interest you.

The example above takes the second approach, with each new sentence turning to a different aspect of Dartmouth, and why it attracts the author. In this way they are able to cover a lot of ground, while still staying focused on the core topic. The author discusses academics, research, a professor they’d like to work with, Dartmouth’s environs, and the peculiarities of its curriculum. This demonstrates that the author has properly done their research on the school, and is invested in its culture.

What Dartmouth is looking for is to see how interested and invested you are in their campus and its culture. As with every school, they want to make sure they are admitting students who are actually eager to attend. Dartmouth is an Ivy League school, but slightly less popular than its fellows, which means it cares more about admitting students who definitely want to attend.

Intellectual Curiousity Essay - Example

”I have no special talent,” Albert Einstein once observed. ”I am only passionately curious.” Celebrate your intellectual curiosity. (300 words)

How big is a drop? Is it as big as a bead of water? Does it emerge from a pipette easily, or with force? If you’ve never considered these questions, if you regard them as trivial, you’re right where I was a year ago, before I saw the mighty, multifarious machinations of a minute microliter. 

The first week of my internship with the Translational Imaging Group was a disaster. From my concentration graphs to my liposomes, nothing turned out the way it was supposed to. Was the dust contaminating my results? Was the pipette calibrated incorrectly? Was Jupiter in the fifth house? 

I would have jumped at the feeblest of excuses to justify my lousy results. 

I needn’t have looked far; the fault lay not in the stars but in myself. My hands, my pipetting, my mistake. 

The problem wasn’t my ignorance of the mL to drop ratio, or even that I failed to recognize how my ignorance could jeopardize the experiment. My job wasn’t to squeeze splashes of solution. It was to ferret out biochemical secrets with dye and time. 

In my haste to follow the letter of my mentor’s instructions, I ignored their spirit: to discover. I shortchanged us; I was acting like a pair of hands when I should have been a pair of cerebral hemispheres. 

In weeks to come, I personalized my protocol sheets, marking up margins with notes and improvisations. In months to come, I left protocol sheets behind and automated lab tasks which previously took hours. A semester later, I accepted the finalist award at the Texas Science Fair for a motorized near-infrared imaging system that defied the conventional limitations of the technology. These days, defying conventional limitations is what I’m all about.

Intellectual Curiosity Essay - Analysis

This is one of several prompts offered by Dartmouth, though you may only answer one of them. Regardless of which you answer, Dartmouth is looking to see how you think about the world, how you approach an open ended problem, and how you write. While Dartmouth is a university, they still pride themselves on their liberal arts roots, and look for students who will flourish in that environment.

There are various prompts offered, and they have lowered the allotted word count to 250 from 300 (although this may change again going forward). Still, the base of what they want to see is the same. While it is not always easy to get good grades, a large number of students still manage it, and Dartmouth needs to sift through these students to find ones who will thrive in its programs and culture. This essay is there to demonstrate your thought process, and to show off what you want admissions officers to see.

The prompts offered are wide and varied, and you will likely find one which will allow you to reuse an essay you’ve already written. Make sure that the values contained therein, and the story portrayed, are one which show off your best aspects, and which highlight your strengths as a writer. There is no right story to tell or values to impart which will cause Dartmouth to admit you, instead you should try to highlight your best aspects.

The author above shows off a lesson they learned, and the hard way. Lessons learned this way often stick the best, and it is clear why the author chose this story. It is a tale of personal growth and learning, and these create some of the strongest narratives. It is through confronting and overcoming challenges, whether internal or external, that we grow as people. Here, the author overcomes their own mindset, and learns to embrace the joy of discovery. This is something many colleges want to see, and gives Dartmouth a taste of how the author might contribute to their campus.

Your own essay does not need to follow the same narrative format, revolve around the same lessons learned, or even involve overcoming challenges at all. What your essay should have that this one does is provide a clear sense of what you bring to the table, as a student and person.

Transform your college application.

Ivy Scholars is the leading educational consultant in Sugar Land, Texas, providing admissions coaching, test prep, and more to help students enroll at top tier schools.

Get In Touch

Call us now: +1 (281) 215-5148

Houston: 4265 San Felipe St, Suite 1100, Houston, TX 77027

Get Started

Subscribe for updates, © all rights reserved.

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write the Dartmouth College Essays 2023-2024

Dartmouth College has three supplemental essays: one that is required for all applicants, which asks you to explain your motivation for applying to Dartmouth, and two option prompts. The first gives you a choice between two different options, while the second lets you choose between six prompts.

Since Dartmouth is one of the most competitive schools in the country, you want to be sure your essays will help your application truly shine. In this post, we’ll break down each prompt, and discuss how to write an excellent response.

Read these Dartmouth essay examples to inspire your writing.

Dartmouth College Supplemental Essay Prompts

Prompt 1: 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 2028, what aspects of the College’s academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? In short, why Dartmouth? (100 words)

Prompt 2: Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

• Option A: 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.
• Option B: “Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself.

Prompt 3: Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

• Option A: What excites you?
• Option B: 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?
• Option C: Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Geisel of Dartmouth’s Class of 1925, wrote, “Think and wonder. Wonder and think.” As you wonder and think, what’s on your mind?
• Option D: Celebrate your nerdy side.
• Option E: “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 and outlook?
• Option F: As noted in the College’s mission statement, “Dartmouth educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership…” Promise and potential are important aspects of the assessment of any college application, but they can be elusive qualities to capture. Highlight your potential and promise for us; what would you like us to know about you?

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 2028, what aspects of the College’s academic program, community, or campus environment attract your interest? In short, Why Dartmouth? (100 words or fewer)

This is a classic “Why This College” Essay prompt, but since you only have 100 words to explain your interest in Dartmouth, there’s an added twist of testing how eloquently and effectively you can describe your connection to the College. 

As an Ivy League college, Dartmouth appeals to many applicants for its excellent academics and elite status within the world of higher education. But these are rather vague, surface-level attributes, that also apply to plenty of other schools around the country. So, to differentiate your response, you’ll need to get much more specific. 

Getting to the level of specificity you need will require a good amount of brainstorming, especially since the essay is so short. You want to make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say before you start writing, or else you might end up using all 100 words without actually saying much of anything.

To avoid that, reflect on your academic and career goals, and pick one or two (you really don’t have space for more than that) that are particularly important to you. Then, research specific resources available at Dartmouth that would help you achieve those goals. 

For example, say you want to pursue a career in environmental policy and conservation. You could highlight Dartmouth’s Environmental Studies study abroad program in Namibia and South Africa as a resource at Dartmouth that will deepen your understanding of how the climate crisis affects other parts of the world, where people have drastically different lifestyles. You could also talk about how you hope to work with Professor Bala Chaudhary through the two-term Presidential Research Scholarship, to study how to increase diversity in STEM fields, as you think it’s crucial that everyone has a seat at the table when discussing how to build towards a greener future.

By citing specific examples of programs that can only be found at Dartmouth, you will show admissions officers 1) that you have done your research on their school, which shows you are genuinely interested and not just applying for fun, and 2) that you already have a clear sense of how you will fit into their campus community, which will give them confidence you are ready to start contributing to Dartmouth right away.

Also remember that your life in college will be about more than just academics. If you have space, mention one extracurricular that you are interested in. It doesn’t necessarily have to be connected to the theme you’ve focused the rest of the essay on, as introducing another one of your interests can help make your response feel more thorough.

For example, you could talk about how you’d like to mentor local children through the SIBs program, to develop a stronger connection not just to Dartmouth, but to the surrounding area as well.

One last thing to be aware of is that, like any school, Dartmouth has a few features that, while distinctive to the school, appeal to a large number of applicants. These features include:

• The flexible D-plan calendar
• The historic Dartmouth Outing Club and its associated Freshman Trips program
• Being located in beautiful, remote New Hampshire

While you can talk about these things in your response, make sure you aren’t just name-dropping them. Remember, the point of this essay is to show why you’re a better match for Dartmouth than other applicants. If you just say “I love the outdoors, so I’d like to join the Outing Club,” and don’t provide any more detail, you aren’t doing anything to set yourself apart, as many other applicants are likely to say pretty much exactly the same thing.

Instead, talk about how your high school had an outdoor trip requirement, and you made some of your closest friends on that trip, so you’re hoping the outdoors will play a similar, community-building role for you in college. That extra level of detail will show admissions officers your own personal connection to this popular resource at Dartmouth.

Prompt 2, Option A

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. (250 words).

The phrasing is a little more creative, but this is basically a Diversity essay prompt, which means you want to do two things in your response. 

First, describe some particular feature of the environment in which you were raised. The prompt says just “the environment,” but 250 words isn’t enough to flesh out every aspect of your upbringing. So, you want to narrow your focus to one feature that is especially relevant to understanding “the person you are today.” Here are some examples of things you could zero in on:

• Being the oldest of 7 siblings
• Being raised by a single parent
• How both of your parents being doctors shaped your worldview

Keep in mind that “the environment in which you were raised” is a very open-ended phrase, so you can also get creative here if you want. For example, you could talk about you and your parents setting up a garden in your backyard, or about how your dad is a huge Beatles fan and played them non-stop while driving you to school. Basically, if something was an important part of your life growing up, it’s fair game to write about for this prompt.

Once you’ve narrowed your focus, the second thing you want to do is explain how that feature of your environment shaped the person you are today. In other words, how is this thing relevant to the kind of college student you will be? Why do admissions officers need to know about it?

Answering that question will require some reflection on your part, to figure out what exactly you learned from being brought up in that kind of environment. There is no one right answer. Just be honest about what you learned, and make sure that your takeaway clearly connects to your description of your environment, as otherwise your essay may feel generic or impersonal.

For example, you could talk about how your doctor parents sharing stories about patients they saw from all walks of life gave you an appreciation for our shared humanity, and responsibility to each other regardless of background.

Alternatively, you could talk about how your dad bombarding you with trivia about Beatles lyrics eventually inspired you to pursue a creative outlet of your own, to express your feelings in a personal way, which led you to becoming a photographer.

Prompt 2, Option B

“be yourself,” oscar wilde advised. “everyone else is taken.” introduce yourself in 200-250 words..

This prompt is a pretty much completely open-ended opportunity for you to tell Dartmouth about some of the key qualities that make you, you. As one of the most prestigious schools in the country, Dartmouth will receive tons of applications from students around the world with impressive GPAs and extracurriculars. This essay isn’t about rehashing your own achievements, though. Instead, you want to tell admissions officers something they don’t already know from reading your personal statement or activities list. Essentially, the question is: beyond your resume, who are you?

Obviously, this question is incredibly broad, but you only have 250 words to answer it, so you want to try to distill your identity down to a few key qualities or experiences. This filtering is much easier said than done, but asking yourself questions like the following can help get the ball rolling:

• How would your friends or family describe you to someone who has never met you?
• Which role do you play in your friend group? How do you stand out from the rest of them?
• Which three words would you use to describe yourself?

Once you’ve picked out a couple of qualities that you want to focus on, think of experiences you’ve had that highlight them. Remember, show, don’t tell–if you just tell admissions officers “Family is important to me,” they won’t really understand anything about your personality, because family is important to lots of people.

Instead, you want to share anecdotes that show your reader how important family has been in your life. For example, you could write about how hard your dad worked when you were little, but how he would take afternoons off to take you to baseball games, and how those days were some of your absolute favorites.

If you’re feeling bold, this prompt can also present an opportunity to get creative and highlight some truly unusual aspects of your personality. For example, you could pick three of your favorite Taylor Swift lyrics, and connect each one to one of your values or qualities. Or you could write about your fascination with the creatures that live in tide pools.

While these more creative approaches can do a lot to truly set you apart from other applicants, they also carry more risk if they aren’t executed well. So, if you aren’t sure if you’re going to be able to pull it off, stick to a more traditional response–you can still write an excellent, engaging essay without doing anything out of the box.

Prompt 3, Option A

What excites you (200-250 words) .

This prompt gives you the opportunity to showcase your personality and talk about a passion, hobby, or experience that does not really “fit” into the themes explored by other prompts. Think about this essay as a personal inquiry, it gives the admissions officer the ability to humanize your application and understand what type of person they are admitting to Dartmouth. 

There is no shortage of topics you can explore with this prompt. 

• Are you excited whenever Sunday Night Football is able to bring together your family for a night? 
• Or, are you excited when it rains outside and you can dance around with your friends? 
• Or, are you excited when you get the opportunity to talk about gender equality at an organization that you intern at? 

Whether it’s a monumental achievement or a simple pleasure, at the core of this essay the admissions office is asking you to speak with passion. 

It’s important to connect whatever topic you are discussing to the resources and opportunities available to you at Dartmouth. 

For instance, if you are a student who gets super excited when you can collect rocks down at the beach with your friends, this would be a great chance to connect your passion back to research opportunities at Dartmouth in the Earth History department or how the outdoorsy-feel of Dartmouth would feel like home. 

Don’t be afraid to take a risk with this prompt. If watching Avatar excites you, feel free to explore this route, especially if you are an applicant that can connect this back to East-Asian studies or film/production studies at Dartmouth. However, be cautious about going on a tangent or exploring too many things within this essay. Stick to talking about one thing that excites you and connecting it back to Dartmouth. 

Prompt 3, Option B

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 (200-250 words).

Different from the personal reflection prompts, this essay is asking you what kind of impact you hope to have on the world in the future. This prompt can be answered in a variety of different ways and largely depends on what your personal goals and passions are. 

When responding to this prompt you should first do a close reading of the quote to provide some further context for your response, “We must use our lives to make the world a better place, not just to acquire things.” Huerta specifies that we use our “lives” to make an impact, not just a single action. This implies that Dartmouth is looking for something long term that you are dedicating your time to that will make a positive impact on others. 

It may also be helpful to look into the author of this quote to discover what motivated them to say the quote in the first place – Dolores Huerta is a prominent civil rights activist who dedicated her life to advocating for the rights of immigrant and migrant labor workers. How might Huerta’s dedication to a life of activism align with Dartmouth’s core values? There are many ways to leave a powerful impact on the world, not all of which are through activism.  

The topic you choose does not necessarily have to be tied to your academic interests. For instance, you could be a Neuroscience major who also has a passion for education and volunteers as an English tutor at a ESL (English as a Second Language) school – aspiring to positively impact immigrant communities by providing them with the powerful tool of language. As long as your passion is long-term, you should be able to create a powerful narrative that will resonate with the admissions committee. 

However, if your topic does align with your academic or career goals, make sure that you explain in detail how it will improve the world around you. Perhaps you want to be a MD-PhD who does cancer research specializing in treating low-income patients? Or maybe you want to be a speechwriter for politicians and world leaders whose words will help to change the world. 

Whatever you choose to write about, be sure to narrate to the admissions committee how your topic contributes to the betterment of the campus community at Dartmouth and beyond.

Prompt 3, Option C

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 (200-250 words).

Although the quote cited in this prompt is from a familiar and likely elicits nostalgic source for many applicants, the question itself is deceptively vague. A prompt is trying to both gauge your personal interests while also evaluating your creativity.  

This essay response is the optimal space to let your creative juices flow and really be yourself. Take some time and brainstorm what unanswered questions you have about the world or what random thoughts might pop into your head during the day. Do not feel as though you have to make something up that will sound profound such as “What is our role in the universe?”or “What is the meaning of life?” These kinds of classic philosophical questions might make your response too closely aligned with cliches. 

In this response you not only want to be unconventional, but you also want to be honest. Maybe you ponder on the long term, psychological impact the pressures of social media will have on our generation in the future. Or maybe it’s something as simple as wondering if our pets can really understand us. 

Here are examples of some other thought-provoking ideas:

• Dreams of visiting the international space station
• Creating a new vaccine 
• Working as a private chef 
• Going on a bucket list trip

For example, if you are interested in history and pirates, and wonder about the possible locations of the famous Captain Kidd ’s lost treasures. Explain what sparked your initial interest and why it has remained important to you. “I was born and raised on the Jersey shore. I spent most of my summers sailing with my dad and older brothers. We always joked about how amazing it would be to one day find a mysterious clue that would lead us to a forgotten treasure.”

Write your essay response about a topic that you are genuinely curious about. Do not feel like you have to make up some dramatic narrative to impress the admissions committee and risk being perceived as authentic. Be true to yourself and show Dartmouth how the intricacies your brain functions.

Prompt 3, Option D

Celebrate your nerdy side. (250 words).

If you choose this option, the first thing to ask yourself is how you want to define “nerdy.” Maybe at first, the word conjures up the typical stereotypes, such as liking math or being obsessed with Star Trek. But remember that the point of any college essay is to set yourself apart from other applicants, so leaning too far into the familiar stereotypes might not be your best bet.

Instead, think of some intellectual or “unpopular” (at least for teenagers) interests you have that are unique to you. Here are some examples:

• Classical music
• Bad horror movies
• Norse mythology
• The technology used by Ancient Romans

Since these things are less commonly talked about in pop culture, they will feel more personal to you, which will in turn teach admissions officers more about your personality. Remember though that, like with any college essay, choosing your topic is only half the battle. The other half is using that topic as a lens to shine light on particular aspects of your personality, by citing specific experiences or anecdotes that show how your interest in that topic has impacted your growth.

For example, you could write about Yggdrasill, the world tree in Norse mythology, and how the idea of being connected to every part of your world has inspired you to read books from people who are different from you, take road trips, and listen to music in other languages, in an attempt to build that same connection in your own life.

One word of caution: make sure that your response doesn’t become too much about your topic. Particularly if you’re writing about something that you’re truly passionate about, you might accidentally slip into a tangent about, for example, Ancient Roman cranes. While that might be informative, Dartmouth is trying to decide whether or not to accept you, not a crane, so make sure the points you’re making about your topic always connect back to something about you.

Prompt 3, Option E

“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 and outlook (250 words).

Like Prompt 2, Option A, this is another Diversity essay prompt being presented in slightly different packaging. While that prompt asks you to structure your response around “the environment in which you were raised,” this prompt more traditionally focuses on what makes you different from others.

Keep in mind that “difference” can be a part of your life in a wide variety of ways. Perhaps what makes you different is your race, ethnicity, sexuality, or some other aspect of your identity that typically gets a lot of attention in discussions about difference. But there are plenty of other ways you can be different. For example:

• Having an unusual hobby, like rock climbing or birdwatching
• Speaking a language at home that isn’t the same as your country’s national language
• Being interested in something teenagers usually aren’t, like opera

Once you’ve identified some way in which you’re different, you want to explain how you have “embraced it as part of your identity and outlook.” In other words, why is it important to understand this aspect of your identity in order to understand who you are as a whole?

You don’t have a ton of room to do this, but you want to make sure your explanation still connects to anecdotes and examples that illustrate the point you’re trying to make. Otherwise, your reader may be confused about how you got from A to B. For example, compare the following two excerpts from hypothetical responses:

Response 1: “ I started going birdwatching with my dad when I was 5. At first, I found it really boring, but eventually I started to see that patience really is a virtue.”

Response 2: “ I was five years old, freezing cold, and incapable of picking out the barn owl my dad swore existed somewhere in the field of brittle corn stalks. That was my first exposure to birdwatching, and, if I had had my way, would have been my last. But my dad, aided by the promise of hot cocoa afterwards, talked me into giving it another shot. For an hour, I was deeply regretting my decision, as I was going cross-eyed staring at a steely gray lake. But then, I heard the rustle of wings, and a heron swooped down from a tree, not five feet above my head.”

Obviously, the second response is much longer. But the length is worth it, as we get to see how the writer started to change their mind about birdwatching, and the details we get about that journey make us feel like we’ve gotten to know them much better, which is the whole point of college essays.

Prompt 3, Option F

As noted in the college’s mission statement, “dartmouth educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership…” promise and potential are important aspects of the assessment of any college application, but they can be elusive qualities to capture. highlight your potential and promise for us; what would you like us to know about you (250 words).

While this prompt tells you exactly which two qualities it wants you to highlight—potential and promise—it also points out that these “can be elusive qualities to capture.” So, you want to make sure you’re thoughtful in how you present yourself.

The first thing to do when you start brainstorming is think of experiences you’ve had that show your potential. Again, there is a range of ways you can do that. For example, you could talk about how you worked one summer at a beachside ice cream shack, just to have something to do, but your boss was so impressed with your work ethic that she invited you to return the following summer, to be the assistant manager.

Your description of your promise as a prospective Dartmouth student doesn’t have to be focused on your career or on academics, however. You could instead choose to highlight your patience and dedication by describing how you spent countless hours with the traumatized rescue dog your family adopted, getting her to slowly trust people again, and eventually were even able to teach her tricks and start taking her with you into public places.

You do want to make sure you avoid stereotypical stories, like working hard to move up from JV to varsity. While you should absolutely be proud of yourself for that achievement, it’s one that many other high schoolers share, and that has been featured in many books, movies, and TV shows. So, in the context of college essays specifically, you’d be better off focusing on something else that will do more to distinguish you from other applicants.

Finally, it’s worth noting that this prompt is a little more focused than the other options. If you’re having a hard time brainstorming, don’t get worked up—just pivot to a different option, which you’ll hopefully feel a more natural connection to.

Where to Get Your Dartmouth College Essay Edited

Do you want feedback on your Dartmouth essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

• Get Started
• Join Our Team
• (212) 262-3500
• Initial Consultation
• IvyWise Roundtable
• School Placement
• Test Prep & Tutoring
• Early College Guidance
• College Admissions Counseling
• Academic Tutoring
• Test Prep Tutoring
• Research Mentorship
• Academic Advising
• Transfer Admissions
• Graduate Admissions
• School Partnerships
• Webinars and Events
• IvyWise By The Numbers
• Testimonials
• Dr. Kat Cohen
• IvyWise In The News
• IvyWise Gives Back
• IvyWise Blog
• Just Admit It! Podcast
• Admission Statistics

Crafting a Winning Why Dartmouth Essay: Tips and Tricks

One of the most stressful parts of the admissions process for many students is writing the college essay. After all, the essay carries so much weight because it provides more insight into who you are, how you think, and whether you’re a good fit for the school. Because the essay is so stressful, many students put it off until the last minute. However, the trick to writing a winning essay is to prepare in advance.  

Knowing what to expect can help you feel more confident about how to respond to the essay prompts. If you’re interested in attending Dartmouth, you will be expected to write the “Why Dartmouth?” essay. Read on for some tips and tricks to write a winning essay that will get the attention of the admissions committee.   

What Is So Unique About Dartmouth College?  

Unlike other Ivy League institutions, Dartmouth focuses on undergraduate studies. Rather than semesters, Dartmouth operates on a quarterly system known as the “D-Plan.” This allows students the flexibility to schedule when to attend classes and when to take breaks to pursue research and professional interests. This really personalizes the college experience for many students, since they can take a term off to pursue an internship or study abroad.  

Additionally, more than half of the student body is involved in Greek life, which includes 10 sororities, 14 fraternities, and three gender-inclusive chapters. Dartmouth’s rural location in Hanover, New Hampshire, encourages students to be outdoorsy, which is reflected in the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) and other extracurricular programs that offer outdoor adventure classes and excursions. Students also have access to Dartmouth’s own ski area, Skiway, just a short distance from campus.    

What Are the Best Reasons to Attend Dartmouth College?  

Many students at Dartmouth like the small class sizes that allow them to easily connect with their peers and professors, combined with the resources found at large research universities. Additionally, Dartmouth meets 100% of every admitted student’s demonstrated need — including international students —   without student loans.  

Learn how to get into Dartmouth and prepare for the Dartmouth interview. 

Does Dartmouth Have Supplemental Essays?  

Dartmouth requires applicants to respond to three supplemental essay prompts, the first of which is the “ Why Dartmouth ?” essay. The prompts may change annually, but these prompts from the Class of 2027 admissions cycle can give you some idea of what to expect: 

Essay Prompt #1 

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? Please respond in 100 words or fewer.

Essay Prompt #2 

“Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself in 200-250 words.

Essay Prompt #3 

Please 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? 
• What excites you? 
• 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? 
• 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? 
• “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? 

How Many Essays Does Dartmouth Require?  

Students applying to Dartmouth should be prepared to write four essays. First, you will complete a personal essay in the Common Application . You will have several topics to choose from, so select the one that resonates with you the most. Dartmouth requires you to complete the three supplemental essays mentioned above.  

Dartmouth Essay Requirements  

T hese essays help the admissions committee understand the aspects of you that aren’t reflected elsewhere in your application. They want you to be yourself. Use the essay prompts to demonstrate your intellectual curiosity, sense of humor, and passion — how you think and feel. This is not an easy task for responses no longer than 250 words, but the goal is to allow the admissions officers to envision how you’ll fit in at Dartmouth.  

“Why Dartmouth?” Essay Examples  

To help you brainstorm how to answer the “ Why Dartmouth ?” essay, we are sharing two examples from IvyWise students who applied to Dartmouth’s Class of 2027. We also explain why these essays worked.     

Why Dartmouth Essay Example #1 

After a final night at Skiway Lodge, I sing the alma mater with H-Croo members at The Dartmouth Green. Learning about purity’s association with heaven during the Late Antiquity under Professor MacEvitt leads me to dress as Rekha from Umrao Jaan whilst having my 4 p.m. tea at Sanborn Library. With the Leslie Centre research fellowship, I’ll create a documentary on ‘the Curse of 39’—the belief in Afghanistan that the number is linked to prostitution. I aspire to earn my way into the Rockefeller Global Leadership Program and spend the weekend in Montreal with a community eager to change the world. 

Why This Essay Worked  

Remember, the essay prompt asks you to address an aspect of an academic program, community, or campus environment that interests you. This essay worked because the student provided these details. The student’s essay references specific student organizations and programs at Dartmouth , Sanborn Library, and Dartmouth’s ski area. The answer not only addresses the community and campus environment aspects of the prompt , but the specificity also makes it so that the response is not generic and cannot be applied to just any school . The student addresses Dartmouth’s academic programs by mentioning a particular professor they want to work with, topics of study they are interested in, and the academic goals they hope to achieve.  

Why Dartmouth Essay Example #2  

Sailing a Laser across quiet Mascoma Lake. A stroll through the Green to contemplate a math proof or policy debate. Just as I think and imagine best while sailing on Sunday afternoons or walking my dog through the woods. 

Beyond these stimulating surroundings, the D-Plan will let me take more courses, diving deeply into economics and mathematics. I’m also eager to explore my diverse interests through a public policy minor at the Rockefeller Center and courses like Introduction to Opera. And I’ll have flexibility to pursue research, like studying U.S. trade policy using history and economic theory with Professor Irwin. 

This essay was successful for the same reason as the first example : the student tailored their response to address the specific aspects of Dartmouth that interest them. The student’s reference to Mascoma Lake, sailing, and walking in the woods demonstrates how they will fit into the outdoorsy culture of Dartmouth. The student also mentions their diverse interests and how the D-Plan will be beneficial to their studies. And , of course, the student mentions specific courses and a professor at the university.   

IvyWise’s Best Tips on How to Write a Dartmouth Essay  

As we’ve mentioned previously, the point of the personal statement and supplemental essays is for Dartmouth admissions officers to get to know you. This is an opportunity to let your personality shine! A n IvyWise College Admissions Counselor, shared this tip for writing your essay:  

“ One of the signs of a good writer is showing instead of telling. Instead of stating that you are caring or adventurous, show us in your essay by sharing an example or quick story. Also, let your natural voice come through. Colleges expect first-year applicants to sound like someone in their teens, so go ahead. ”

Here are some other tips for writing a winning essay that will impress the admissions office.  

Answer the Prompt  

This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how often students digress in their essays and forget to answer the prompt . It’s easier than you think to stray off-topic while you’re writing. Double check that your essay response makes a clear connection to the question the prompt is asking , and that it addresses all questions within the prompt .   

Some colleges pose multiple questions within one supplement, so be sure to read the prompt thoroughly and address each question asked. One tip is to highlight each question in a different color, and then highlight the subsequent answers in your response in the corresponding colors. This way, you can check how closely you answered each point.

Show Why You Are a Good Fit  

The “ Why Dartmouth ?” essay is designed for you to demonstrate why you are a good fit . Be specific and give details that help the admissions counselors picture how you will contribute as a student and member of the community.

Learn some college essay dos and don’ts .    

Narrow the Scope of Your Essay  

Remember, your college application essay needs to be brief. Pick a specific focal point to build your essay around instead of jumping between different examples and ideas. Share a short personal story, idea, or relationship that demonstrates the major point you want to make.   

Dartmouth’s acceptance rate is low, and it can be challenging to meet the admissions criteria. At IvyWise, our expert team of college admissions counselors has plenty of experience helping prospective students gain admission into their top-choice programs. Schedule your Initial Consultation today so we can help you plan a strategy for applying to Dartmouth.   

Related Topics

Related posts.

• IvyWise Scholars Spotlight: Afua
• 3-2 Engineering Programs
• IvyWise Scholars Spotlight: Nicole
• Princeton Interview: What Questions to Expect and How to Answer Them
• 4 Reasons Why College Prep Can Be Fun
• Admission Rates
• Choosing a College
• College Admission Advice
• College Planning
• In the Press
• Just Admit It Podcast
• Student Life

Home » IvyWise College Admissions Blog » College Admission Advice » College Prep » Crafting a Winning Why Dartmouth Essay: Tips and Tricks

• The Student Experience
• Financial Aid
• Degree Finder
• Undergraduate Arts & Sciences
• Departments and Programs
• Research, Scholarship & Creativity
• Centers & Institutes
• Geisel School of Medicine
• Guarini School of Graduate & Advanced Studies
• Thayer School of Engineering
• Tuck School of Business

Campus Life

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Athletics & Recreation
• Student Groups & Activities
• Residential Life

Writing Supplement

The writing supplement includes questions specific to Dartmouth that help the Admissions Committee gain a better sense of how you and Dartmouth might be a good "fit" for each other.

Writing supplement prompts included in Dartmouth's application for admission to the Class of 2028

Updated July 13, 2023

Dartmouth's writing supplement requires that applicants write brief responses to three supplemental essay prompts as follows:

1. Required of all applicants. 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 2028, what aspects of the College's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? In short, why Dartmouth?

2. Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

A. 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.

B. "Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself.

3. Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

A. What excites you?

B. 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?

C. Dr. Seuss, aka Theodor Geisel of Dartmouth's Class of 1925, wrote, "Think and wonder. Wonder and think." As you wonder and think, what's on your mind?

D. Celebrate your nerdy side.

E. "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 and outlook?

F. As noted in the College's mission statement, "Dartmouth educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership…" Promise and potential are important aspects of the assessment of any college application, but they can be elusive qualities to capture. Highlight your potential and promise for us; what would you like us to know about you?

Evan Richard Accatino, '25

Some Words I've Written: A DartWrite Portfolio

Dartmouth Supplemental Essays

 Curiosity is a guiding element of Toni Morrison’s talent as a writer. \”I feel totally curious and alive and in control. And almost…magnificent, when I write,” she says. Celebrate your curiosity.

It was as though she had vanished into thin air. Jennifer Farber Dulos was a prominent socialite among Connecticut’s most upscale towns, a wife to one of the state’s most exclusive luxury home builders, and a mother to five children under the age of eight. But at daybreak of 2019’s perspiration-inducing Memorial Day, the only worldly trace of Jennifer was her dried blood, haphazardly canvassed across the passenger side of her Range Rover, as it sat in her oversized three-bay garage, and her husband was to blame.

Hartford’s WFSB Eyewitness News echoed from the living room as I threw my backpack to the ground and shuffled to the kitchen sink, in desperate need of a drink. But something stopped me dead in my tracks. The name that resonated from the TV speakers – Fotis Dulos – I was sure that I had heard before, but where? Abandoning my thirst and sauntering across the house, I instantly recognized the man on the screen. I had idolized his developments in my neighboring towns, and I had even met him. What, then, within this man’s mind would drive him to murder his wife? In essence, are we truly autonomous in our behavioral reactions? With this question, I became completely infatuated.

I began to research the complexities of decision making and neurological pathways, explored the role of the prefrontal cortex in mediating emotional response, and immersed myself in research examining differences that exist in the neurological anatomy of convicted murderers. Staying up late into the night, I scrolled through countless articles recounting the case in hopes of devising a neurological explanation for Dulos’s actions. The Farber-Dulos murder served as the impetus for my greater appreciation of the command of the human brain over behavior, an unintelligible grip which utterly astounds me.

Add Project Key Words

How to Approach the Dartmouth College Supplemental Essays 2021-2022

Padya Paramita

September 7, 2021

How to Approach the Dartmouth College Supplemental Essays 2021-2022 

If you’re planning to apply to Dartmouth College, you probably already know that you need to build a stellar application in order to stand out among the tough competition. After all, Dartmouth only accepted 8.8% of students for the Class of 2024. Your scores, extracurriculars, and personal statement are undoubtedly important, but you send these to every school. So in order to be more specific about why you’re applying to Dartmouth, and convey to the admissions officers why you are a good fit, you need to take advantage of the Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022 . 

Many students apply to top schools like Dartmouth for the name and fame—to appease their parents or tell their friends they got into an Ivy League school. If you’re truly interested, writing a well-thought-out supplemental essay that demonstrates your commitment to the school can go a long way. Admissions officers use the supplemental essays to get to know you better—what you value in an academic setting, what current events matter to you, an unusual aspect of your background—and determine whether you would thrive at the college. To guide you through Dartmouth’s essays, I’ve outlined each of the prompts, how to tackle them, and more tips for writing your Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022.

How to Write the Dartmouth College 2021-2022 Supplemental Essays

Alongside the standard “why Dartmouth” question, the Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022 also offer you the chance to showcase how you might fit in with certain characteristics the school values in prospective students. While the first prompt is mandatory, you only have to answer one of the six short answer prompts. Depending on which prompt resonates with you, you can elaborate on your background or what you hope to change about the world. You might reflect on the way you find creativity or a story that has moved you. 

Let’s take a look at each of the upcoming cycle’s prompts, and some ways to go about answering them. 

Please respond in 100 words or fewer:

Why Dartmouth Prompt

While arguing a Dartmouth-related case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1818, Daniel Webster, Class of 1801, delivered this memorable line: "It is, sir,…a small college, and yet there are those who love it!" As you seek admission to the Class of 2026, what aspects of the College's program, community, or campus environment attract your interest?

The first thing that catches the eye with this prompt (other than the fact that it’s not optional) is the word limit. 100 words aren’t many. In fact, you can barely write an introduction in under 100 words. So how are you supposed to write about all of the things you like about the college?

The key to answering this prompt is to prioritize what you’re looking for from your college experience. Don’t write one sentence each about ten or twelve different things you enjoy about Dartmouth. Focus on one or two. Remember, admissions officers want to know if your interest in the school is authentic and well-informed. When the word limit is so restricted, there’s no space to beat around the bush. Browse the college’s website or social media pages and see how courses, clubs, or study abroad programs align with your passions. 

You might be fascinated by the ability to design your own unique major. You might be excited by the prospect of studying astrophysics in greater detail than ever. You may be inspired to write about how you’re drawn in by the campus improv groups and view them as a great opportunity to hone your performance skills. It’s important to think about how you might benefit from the community. 

Don’t spend too much time providing context on who you are. Get straight to the point because you have very little space. When the admissions officers finish reading your essay, they should have a clear picture of why you are excited to attend Dartmouth! Your essay should highlight your application persona, which is the memorable hook that makes you unique.  . Are you an artist who has participated in exhibitions around your state? Are you a budding zoologist who’s worked in animal shelters? Even though the word limit is so restrictive, admissions officers should be able to picture you contributing to different aspects of campus life.

Please choose one of the following prompts and respond in 250-300 words:

The Hawaiian word mo’olelo is often translated as “story” but it can also refer to history, legend, genealogy, and tradition. Use one of these translations to introduce yourself.

Dartmouth makes sure each of its classes is made up of individuals from a wide array of backgrounds, and makes it a priority to “ leverage that diversity to enrich and deepen the education of our future global citizens. ” So this prompt is a chance for admissions officers to learn more about where you come from or an interesting story about your background that they might not deduce from your application.

Since this question asks for a story, legend, genealogy, or tradition, you have freedom in deciding the part of your background to highlight. Don’t forget the second part of the question, however, which asks you to introduce yourself . So while it’s okay to talk about how your grandmother migrated to a different country at a young age or how a certain tradition holds a lot of meaning to your ancestors, your mini-essay should ultimately focus on you. How are you affected by your family history? What has the story in focus taught you about your goals and ambitions? How do you navigate a family tradition in the present day? 250 words provide slightly more room to talk about various parts of your identity. It’s important to strike the right balance between sharing your background and clearly introducing yourself within this still restricted limit.

What excites you?

This is an extremely open-ended prompt. In fact, the scope is so broad, you might be tempted to avoid answering this question altogether. However, this prompt does provide a wonderful opportunity for the Dartmouth admissions officers to get to know you beyond what you’ve stated on your personal statement and activities list. On its website , the school states that it, “encourages independent thought, and promotes a robust culture of interdisciplinary collaboration” as well as provides a “comprehensive out-of-classroom experiences, including service opportunities, international study, and global engagement.” Think about these factors as you ponder on what to write about — how do you express yourself? How have you collaborated with others? What inspires you to get out of bed every morning?

The answer to this question doesn’t have to center on a groundbreaking activity or passion. While it’s certainly impressive if you started a reproductive rights advocacy organization based on your passion for women’s health issues, you can also write about something on a smaller scale, such as how excited you are to play with your own rock band because you live and breathe music. You might add in how you plan to take action on these ideas at Dartmouth. Don’t go overboard with connecting it back to Dartmouth (the question doesn’t ask for this explicitly), but it may feel natural to reference how you plan to use these ideas at the college. 

In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba, Class of 2014, reflects on constructing a windmill from recycled materials to power the 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 already made?

This question might appeal to you if you’re someone who spends time on creative work - whether it is poetry or a documentary. Creative work definitely doesn’t mean you have to be an artist or filmmaker — Dartmouth wants to give you “ opportunities to share [your] expertise and passion ,” regardless of what it is. You could also be an engineer who has made a robot that does household chores. Or you could be a programmer who’s coded an app that helps your community. It could also be something on a larger scale, such as your own nonprofit - the word “make” in the prompt is flexible. 

Whatever your interest, there is almost certainly the opportunity to make something. Use the 250 words to write about what inspired you to start the project, what were some fulfilling and tough parts of the creative process, how you feel about the end result, and what you hope to achieve with it. Remember, what you focus on can also be something you haven’t done yet. If you’re planning to write a novel or create your own recipes, talk about your vision. The goal here is for admissions officers to read your answer and know right off the bat that what you’re describing is a project you’ve worked hard on (or plan to work hard on), and are genuinely passionate about. If your love for what you do shines through, admissions officers will gain a deeper understanding of your interests and how the school might be able to help you. 

Whether you’ve created the object of your focus yet or not, your project should be thoughtful and require effort. It should authentically reflect your goals and interests as a creator, and not be something you make up on a whim as an answer for this question. 

Curiosity is a guiding element of Toni Morrison's talent as a writer. "I feel totally curious and alive and in control. And almost...magnificent, when I write," she says. Celebrate your curiosity.  

This particular prompt is another very open-ended question among the Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022 . To “celebrate” your curiosity can mean almost anything. And your curiosity doesn’t have to be academic either. While it’s definitely not a bad idea to connect the prompt to your extracurricular or career interests, you can write about something entirely different from your application persona so that Dartmouth admissions officers can see a different side of you. You can use this prompt as an opportunity to talk about a unique interest and let them know that you’re not a one-trick pony!

This is the place to write about a niche topic that you could talk about forever. You could be curious about anything. If you were a dancer as a kid, you might be curious about how dancers rehabilitate and recover from injury depending on the genre of dance. If your favorite subject is math, you might be completely intrigued by the Pigeonhole Principle.

Another way to tackle this prompt might be to narrate an anecdote which demonstrates the ways you expressed your curiosity. For example, you could outline a series of instances in your childhood when you asked your dad questions completely threw him off. Just like the, “Why Dartmouth” essay, don’t try to squeeze all of the questions or anecdotes you may have about your curiosity about the world into 250 words. Find one or two related topics that you are curious about and elaborate.

"Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away," observed Frida Kahlo. Apply Kahlo's perspective to your own life.

This prompt asks for a story of growth. It might be intimidating at first to try and analyze the quote, but upon greater observation you may realize that it’s very similar to how the personal statement prompts often expect you to reflect on moments of change. Dartmouth admissions officers hope to use this prompt to understand how you’ve dealt with change, and what you’ve taken away from situations that may even have forced you to change yourself. 

Over your four years in high school, you meet a lot of new people and go through a lot of new experiences. It’s not unheard of for someone to feel like a completely different person by the end of those four years. Like the other prompts, there’s no one way to interpret what the question asks. You could have gone from the weakest link on your football team to the star player, or from the singer in the back of your choir to the top a capella soloist. If you found yourself working hard to practice and improve, the end result may have been impressive. Don’t forget to highlight what you learned about yourself through the experience. It could be your own grit and never-give-up attitude. You could have learned who your true friends were in a time of struggle. Whatever it may be, make sure to exemplify how your actions have changed since the growth - is there anything different that you’ve noticed in your behavior or approach to matters? Demonstrate your self-awareness and ability to adapt to new circumstances.

In the aftermath of World War II, Dartmouth President John Sloane Dickey, Class of 1929, proclaimed, “The world’s troubles are your troubles…and there is nothing wrong with the world that better human beings cannot fix.” Which of the world’s “troubles” inspires you to act? How might your course of study at Dartmouth prepare you to address it?

Dartmouth College appreciates students who are aware of current events and aren’t afraid to have a “ sense of responsibility for one another and for the broader world. ” This question on the Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022 directly aligns with that value. The heart of this prompt is in the last two sentences: admissions officers want to know which issue in the world you’re the most concerned about, and how a Dartmouth education can help you improve it. 

Think about which academic program or department might connect with the “trouble” that drives your future plans the most. If you’re passionate about the environment, you could write about your concern regarding the current state of climate change, and how you want to work with an organization that studies and tackles the issue. Support your passion with details about how the Dartmouth College Environmental Studies can prepare you for your career, mentioning specific courses, such as ENVS 60 - Environmental Law or ENVS 80.1—Arctic Environmental Change, that can instill the skills and knowledge that you need. Complement your course choices with relevant activities you’d want to participate in such as the organic farm, sustainable living community, or study abroad program in South Africa to learn more about how to best prepare for tackling climate change.

Additional Tips for Writing Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022

• You have a choice - use it well - Since you have the option to choose one from the six prompts for your second essay, the topic selection could make a significant difference to your admissions decision. You could also look at the finished product and make your decision. If it turns out that a story about your sketchbook fits prompt D better than prompt C, then select prompt C. Don’t be afraid to be flexible with your ideas, but ultimately choose the prompt that you believe will bring the strongest essay out of you.
• Cut unnecessary words - It’s obvious that the Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022 provide you very little room to write your answers. Between the two essays, you have to write you only get 350 words! It can be tricky to get your point across in so little space, but you can’t change the limit. So don’t waste your time sulking or complaining about the fact that you’re 200 words over on your essay, but instead start cutting words. Use a thesaurus, ask a teacher or friend for feedback, and read sentences out loud to see if they still make sense after you shorten them.
• Don’t repeat your personal statement - Since a lot of the options in the second part of the Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022 ask you to reflect on your goals, achievements, or background, it could be easy to repeat what you’ve written about in your personal statement. After all, your personal statement is a story unique to you, and the topic of it might overlap with one of the Dartmouth prompts. But, remember that the admissions officers will already have read your personal statement. Supplemental essays are meant to add another layer, providing schools with more context on who you are. Don’t repeat your personal statement and give admissions officers the idea that you have no other interesting stories to tell. 

The Dartmouth College supplemental essays 2021-2022 provide you with the chance to tell the admissions officer who you are. While the first prompt is all about showing that you really have done your research, the optional essays enable you to share more about your background and interests. All are golden opportunities to solidify your interest in Dartmouth and convince them how you embody the values they look for in students. So take advantage of the supplemental essay component. Your knowledge of the school and your stories exemplifying Dartmouth’s ideal characteristics might culminate in an Ivy League acceptance letter.

Tags : Dartmouth College , How to get into Dartmouth , dartmouth supplemental essays 2021-2022 , dartmouth supplemental essays , dartmouth essays

Schedule a free consultation

to find out how we can help you get accepted.