reading my dartmouth essays

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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.

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Dartmouth College Supplemental Essays Guide: 2021-2022

Not sure how to approach the Dartmouth essay prompts? CollegeAdvisor.com’s guide to the Dartmouth application essays will show you exactly how to write engaging Dartmouth supplemental essays and maximize your chances of admission.

If you need help crafting your Dartmouth supplemental essays, create your  free account  or  schedule a no-cost advising consultation  by calling (844) 505-4682.

Dartmouth  Essay Guide Quick Facts:

• Dartmouth has an acceptance rate of 9.0%— U.S. News  ranks Dartmouth as a  highly selective  school.
• You must answer both Dartmouth supplemental essays. The first Dartmouth essay essentially asks, “Why Dartmouth?” The second gives you a choice of six Dartmouth essay prompts!

Does Dartmouth have supplemental essays?

Yes. The Dartmouth essay prompts are available on the  Common App , which all Dartmouth candidates must use to apply. After responding to the Common App’s main essay prompt, you’ll also need to write two additional Dartmouth application essays. The Dartmouth supplemental essays are also on the college’s website.

Need some help writing your Common App essay? Get great tips from  our Common App essay guide .

How many supplemental essays does Dartmouth require?

There are   two school-specific Dartmouth application essays on the 2021-2022 Common App. Both Dartmouth essay prompts are  required , meaning you must complete both essays in order to apply. You should consider how your Dartmouth application essays will complement and enhance the other elements of your application.

How to write the Dartmouth essays:

The Dartmouth supplemental essays allow you to create a narrative around your identity as a student beyond your academic credentials. Take the time to understand the individual Dartmouth essay prompts. As you begin each Dartmouth essay, consider the following questions:

• What does the prompt specifically ask me to include?
• Do I include new information or building upon a point I’ve made elsewhere, or do I repeat information already included in another section of my application?
• Does my response highlight my unique qualities?
• Does my essay authentically reflect my experiences?

What does Dartmouth look for in essays?

Personality! Your Dartmouth application essays should not only reflect what you’ve done but should also capture who you are. In reading your Dartmouth essays, the admissions team wants to get a sense of you as a person: your qualities, your passions, and the way you move through and see the world. Your Dartmouth supplemental essays should help admissions officers understand what makes you  you  and imagine what you will bring to campus.

How do you respond to the Dartmouth supplements?

We have provided the  prompts for the 2021-2022 Dartmouth supplemental essays  below. You’ll find a breakdown of how to approach each of the Dartmouth essay prompts. We’ll also discuss tips for writing Dartmouth essays that will help you stand out in admissions.

Dartmouth Supplemental Essays – Question 1 (Required)

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? (100 words or less).

Although this question begins with an anecdote, the first of the Dartmouth essay prompts can be distilled into two words: “Why Dartmouth?”

This Dartmouth essay is your chance to highlight what specifically about Dartmouth stands out to you. As you prepare to answer this question, consider the three categories the prompt provides and do some research into each. A great place to begin is Dartmouth’s website. If you want to discuss academic programs, look into different  areas of study . Or if you want to address community, look into different  student groups & activities . If you want to write about the campus environment, look into various  student resources . Successful Dartmouth application essays will include details specific to the school.

As you do your research, imagine you are a freshman on Dartmouth’s campus. How would you be excited to use your time, both in and out of the classroom? Are there specific faculty or opportunities you would seek out? What student groups or organizations would you explore?

This Dartmouth essay is limited to 100 words or less, so you’ll have to be concise. Even if everything about Dartmouth appeals to you, limit your response to 2-3 specific attributes you want to spotlight. Additionally, you will want to avoid writing general statements, like “I am excited to join a student group” or “I am interested in Economics.” Instead, get as specific as you can. Which student groups are you interested in joining? Are there specific courses or methods of thinking that interest you?

Finally, you’ll want to explain  why  you are excited to have these experiences. Don’t leave it up to Admissions to guess why you’ve chosen to include a specific group or organization. It is important you only highlight the things you are passionate about, whether it is connected to your academic interests, hobbies, or sense of self. For example, if you are passionate about the  Dartmouth Outing Club , include a brief reason as to why having clubs dedicated to hiking, kayaking, skiing, or organic farming is important to you. Dartmouth application essays that address both the school’s offerings and the applicant’s relationship to these offerings will stand out to Admissions Officers.

Dartmouth Essay Draft Key Questions:

• Does your response answer the question “Why Dartmouth?”
• Do you name the specific attributes that excite you?
• Does your response reflect something you are passionate about?

Dartmouth Supplemental Essays – Question 2 (Required)

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

A. 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.

B. What excites you?

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?

D. 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.

E. “Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away,” observed Frida Kahlo. Apply Kahlo’s perspective to your own life.

F. 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?

Unlike the first prompt, the second of the Dartmouth application essays revolves around you. Not only do you get to choose which of the Dartmouth essay prompts to answer, but many of the Dartmouth supplemental essays are open-ended. This leaves you free to use the Dartmouth essay prompts to discuss anything in your life and experiences that resonate with you. As with the first essay prompt, your response is another opportunity to add to the story of who you are. What is important to you that haven’t you included in other parts of your application?

To help you get started, let’s break down each prompt and unpack what they ask.

This prompt is actually multiple prompts rolled into one. As you think about this Dartmouth essay, consider the different translations as lenses through which you might examine who you are. What is the story of your life through the traditions you or your family practices? Through tracing your family tree? Through the stories of your great-great relatives, or the cultural or religious figures you believe in?

Since you only have 250-300 words for these Dartmouth essay prompts, you’ll want to be concise. You may choose to open your Dartmouth essay with an anecdote about your history, traditions, or culture. Then, get right into describing how the trait you choose reflects your identity.

Remember—the Dartmouth application essays are intended to help Admissions Officers get to know  you . Don’t get hung up on the semantics of a particular tradition or story. Instead, use your topic to help Dartmouth Admissions Officers understand more about who you are. In this case, the Dartmouth application essays that focus on the applicant’s own identity will be the most successful.

This Dartmouth essay prompt is all about your passions. Is there a specific anecdote that embodies your passion? Or is there an origin or starting point you can trace your passion back to? Is there a personal reason you are passionate about a specific area of study?

Since this prompt is so open-ended, you can use it to give Dartmouth an honest glance into who you are and how you view the world. Above all, be honest! Authenticity is key when approaching the Dartmouth essay prompts.

Quickly explain what excites you, then delve into  why  it excites you. For instance, if you’re interested in geology, don’t spend your Dartmouth essay just talking about rocks; instead, quickly explain your interest, then move into a discussion about how your interest relates to your overall identity. Admissions officers should come away from this Dartmouth essay with a clearer image of who you are.

This Dartmouth essay prompt is about creativity. What are you passionate about making? Why are you passionate about it? Where does your passion come from? What effect do you hope your creation has on others? On yourself? On the world?

As you approach this Dartmouth essay, begin by brainstorming different things you have either already created or want to create. Keep in mind that “creation” can mean a wide variety of things! Maybe you invented a device in your engineering club; maybe you put in place a new set of community guidelines to promote kindness and equity at your school. Any form of creation will be suitable for this Dartmouth essay!

You can answer this Dartmouth essay prompt in a variety of ways, choosing to discuss either something you’ve already made or something you hope to create. Either way, your response should foreground the relationship between creativity and your own life. Again, make sure your response talks about YOU and how you view the world!

This Dartmouth essay prompt can also be a great chance to supplement your candidate profile by showing particular ways you’ve engaged with your interests. For example, if you won a state-wide robotics competition but didn’t discuss robotics in your other essays, the Dartmouth supplemental essays give you the chance to talk about the things you’ve made in more detail.

Like the other Dartmouth supplemental essays, this prompt allows for a lot of flexibility. In fact, it doesn’t even pose a question—instead, it asks you to “celebrate your curiosity.”

As you approach this Dartmouth essay prompt, think about what curiosity means to you. What are you curious about? Is there a specific story or anecdote that embodies your curiosity? What does your curiosity look like? Is it research? Reflection? How do you like to learn and feed your curiosity?

In responding to this prompt for the Dartmouth supplemental essays, consider how curiosity manifests in your own life. Maybe you taught yourself ASL to communicate with a Deaf classmate; maybe you took a road trip to the desert to study ecological phenomena. This Dartmouth essay prompt is the chance for you to celebrate who you are and convince Admissions Officers that you would be a great addition to their community.

This Dartmouth essay prompt asks you to consider how change manifests in your own life. There are many ways you could approach this prompt, whether you agree or disagree with Kahlo’s perspective. In what ways has your life changed? How has your understanding of change and impermanence developed? When were you forced to change?

If answered appropriately, this Dartmouth essay question can help show Admissions Officers your intellectual maturity. After all, change is a huge part of life, and few changes are more momentous than the transition to college! In this instance, successful Dartmouth supplemental essays will use the theme of change to tell a story about how a student has developed and will continue to develop at Dartmouth.

As you answer this Dartmouth essay prompt, be careful about your choice of topic. Change can be a great thing, but it can also be a challenge. While you can certainly write about difficult topics in your Dartmouth supplemental essays, be careful not to veer into subjects that might negatively impact your application. As a general rule, Admissions Officers tend to struggle with essays about high school drama, mental illness, or severe trauma (though there are exceptions to every rule).

Finally, this prompt has to do with passion for change. What do you believe should be different in our world? What is your medium for change? Activism? Technology? Invention? What specific course(s) at Dartmouth will feed and grow this passion? Are there current members of the faculty or alumni involved in the kind of work you hope to be doing?

This Dartmouth essay prompt also hints at the “Why Dartmouth” question. With this in mind, the most successful Dartmouth supplemental essays will use Dartmouth as a means of expressing how a student hopes to change the world.

Above all, your answer to this Dartmouth essay question should be genuine. Additionally, you’ll likely want to choose a “trouble” related to your overall candidate profile. For instance, if you’re interested in electrical engineering, you may not want to write about solving world hunger. Be honest, be humble, and express what matters to you.

As you can see, there is a wide variety of Dartmouth supplemental essays. If you’re having trouble choosing one of the Dartmouth essay prompts, try setting a timer for five minutes and write out a bulleted list for each of the prompts that interest you. The longer the list, or the more detailed the bullets, the more likely it is you’ll have plenty to write about. If none of the Dartmouth supplemental essays immediately jump out at you, try one of our  writing exercises  to jumpstart your brainstorm. Then, see how you could connect it to one of the Dartmouth essay prompts.

• Does your response reflect a unique experience or perspective?
• Do you offer new and valuable information not found elsewhere in your application?
• Does your response address the specific question asked in the selected prompt?

What kind of students does Dartmouth look for?

The Dartmouth essay prompts help Admissions to look for students that believe in building community and will embody  their core values . They aim to admit students who are committed to academic excellence, integrity, collaboration, and respect. Dartmouth is dedicated to a diversity of opinions and looks for students from all backgrounds and financial means.

If you think Dartmouth is the right school for you, try to demonstrate their values throughout your application. The Dartmouth supplemental essays give you lots of opportunities to discuss your identity in a clear and authentic way. Take advantage of the Dartmouth essay prompts and show Admissions Officers that they want you at their school!

Dartmouth Supplemental Essays: Final Thoughts

The Dartmouth supplemental essays help the Admissions team learn more about who you are and why you belong at Dartmouth. Your Dartmouth essays give you space to express who you are and what matters to you on your own terms. Rather than viewing these essays as a challenging task to complete, view them as an opportunity to be honest about your experiences and let your personality shine through. This will help your Dartmouth application essays stand out!

Distilling everything important about yourself into the Dartmouth supplemental essays may seem intimidating, but remember that you are your own greatest asset. As you craft your Dartmouth essays, use this guide to help. Be sure to give yourself enough time to draft and revise each of your responses. Remember, you have complete control over how you answer the Dartmouth supplemental essays, including good spelling and punctuation. Good luck!

This 2021-2022 essay guide on Dartmouth College was written by Stefanie Tedards, Northwestern  ‘17 . For more CollegeAdvisor.com resources on Dartmouth,  click here . Want help crafting your Dartmouth supplemental essays? Create your   free account  or  schedule a no-cost advising consultation  by calling (844) 505-4682.

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How To Answer Dartmouth's Supplemental Essay Prompts 2023/24

What's New in 2022/23

What Are Dartmouth's Essay Prompts

Why Dartmouth Question

Dartmouth's Deep Dive Questions

Dartmouth's "Exploratory" Questions

Dartmouth is an Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. It has an acceptance rate of around 6%, making it one of the most prestigious and selective schools in the United States. The Supplemental Essays offer you a unique opportunity to showcase your motivations for being a Dartmouth student. These essays are also a great opportunity to provide insights into your journey of self-awareness, your values, and aspirations. This blog serves as a comprehensive guide to each of the prompts in the Dartmouth Writing Supplement for 2023/24. Use the tips and insights below to craft strong responses that will help you stand out from other applicants.

How Julian Got Into Dartmouth

Dartmouth College's 2023/24 Supplemental Essay Updates: What's Changed?

Gaining admission into Dartmouth College, an Ivy League institution with an illustrious history, is no small feat. Among the diverse components of the college application, the supplemental essays play a pivotal role in presenting your unique story and illustrating how you resonate with Dartmouth's values.

Elite universities like Dartmouth continually adapt their application requirements each year, seeking a holistic grasp of their potential students' backgrounds, aspirations, and values.

This year, similar to last year, Dartmouth applicants have three required “writing supplements” to complete. For the 2023/24 admissions cycle Dartmouth has made some limited but notable modifications to essay prompts.

1. Modification of Existing Prompts

The foundational prompt about Dartmouth's distinctive sense of place and purpose remains largely unchanged, with minor tweaks in phrasing for clarity.

2. Introduction of New Topics

Dartmouth's second required essay now offers a choice between introducing oneself, in line with Oscar Wilde's famous quotation, or describing the environment in which one was raised, inspired by a Quaker saying. This presents applicants with the opportunity to either present a personal introduction or delve deeper into their upbringing and its influence.

3. Expanded Choices for the Third Prompt

Previously, Dartmouth gave applicants five options to choose from for their third essay. This has been expanded to six, including a chance for applicants to "celebrate their nerdy side", discuss embracing differences, or share about their promise and potential in line with Dartmouth's mission statement. These additions seek richer insights into applicants' personalities, values, and potential contributions to the Dartmouth community.

4. Rephrased Prompts for Clarity and Depth

Several of the essay options have been reworded to invite deeper reflection. For instance, the Dolores Huerta inspired prompt now adds "Why? How?" to drive applicants to think more about their motivations and methods.

5. Inclusion of Diverse Themes

The newly introduced prompts encompass diverse themes like embracing differences and individual promise, showcasing Dartmouth's commitment to nurturing a varied and dynamic student body.

These alterations underline Dartmouth's ever-evolving admissions perspective, spotlighting a more profound comprehension of applicants' diverse experiences, aspirations, and the intrinsic values they might bring to its vibrant academic community.

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What Are Dartmouth's Supplemental Essay Prompts for 2023/24?

For the 2023/24 application cycle, Dartmouth College has thoughtfully designed supplemental essay prompts that delve deeply into the perspectives, backgrounds, and aspirations of its applicants. These prompts aim to illuminate your personal growth, understanding of Dartmouth's ethos, individuality, and potential contributions to the Dartmouth community.

1. Dartmouth's initial prompt is the “Why Dartmouth” prompt.

This prompt revolves around the institution's essence and its impact on your educational pursuits. Note, this first supplementary essay is only 100 words or fewer, making it shorter than the remaining two essays.

Dartmouth's Unique Ethos : 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 or fewer)

For the remaining two essays (each 250 words or fewer), Dartmouth offers several creative prompts. Choose ONE from each list.

2. Deep Dive Questions

Pick one prompt from two offered. These essay options are crafted to provide a window into your character, upbringing, and thought processes.

• Personal Background and Upbringing : 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 or fewer)
• Introducing You : "Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself. (250 words or fewer)

3. Exploratory Prompts

Pick one prompt from the six offered. These prompts are diverse, encouraging you to showcase various facets of your personality, aspirations, and beliefs:

• Passions and Interests : What excites you? (250 words or fewer)
• Purposeful Living : 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? (250 words or fewer)
• Inner Thoughts: 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? (250 words or fewer)
• Embrace Your Quirks: Celebrate your nerdy side. (250 words or fewer)
• Celebrating Otherness: "It's not easy being green..." was the frequent refrain of Kermit the Frog. How has the difference been a part of your life, and how have you embraced it as part of your identity and outlook? (250 words or fewer)
• Unearthing Potential: 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 or fewer)

Requirements

Ensure your response to the initial question does not exceed 100 words. For the deep dive and exploratory questions, maintain a word count of 250 words or fewer.

Dartmouth's admissions process is exceptionally competitive, but these essay prompts offer candidates a golden chance to shed light on their unique experiences, aspirations, and the richness they'd contribute to the Dartmouth mosaic.

How to Answer Dartmouth's Supplemental Essay Questions?

How to answer the “why dartmouth” question, 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 or fewer.

This prompt seeks to understand your motivations behind choosing Dartmouth. It's an invitation to dive deep into your reasons and showcase how Dartmouth aligns with your academic and personal aspirations.

Reflect on Dartmouth's Essence

Think about the distinct attributes of Dartmouth that appeal to you.

• Is it a specific academic program?
• The close-knit community feel?
• The rich traditions and serene campus environment?

What combination of features like these, and others, make Dartmouth appealing to you and why?

Be Specific

Avoid vague statements. Instead of saying you're attracted to Dartmouth's "strong academic reputation," mention a particular program, research opportunity, or professor that aligns with your interests.

Personalize Your Answer

What personal experiences or goals make Dartmouth the right fit for you? Maybe you're drawn to Dartmouth's unique D-Plan or its emphasis on undergraduate teaching. Relate these aspects back to your own journey and aspirations with authentic and genuine insights into your unique interests, aspirations, and values and how they fit with specific campus attributes.

Stay Concise

With only 100 words, every sentence must be purposeful. Ensure each word contributes meaningfully to your response, and avoid redundancy.

• Drawn to Dartmouth's renowned Engineering program, I'm excited about its interdisciplinary approach, blending liberal arts and technology. Additionally, the Dartmouth Outing Club aligns with my passion for outdoor leadership.
• The intimacy of Dartmouth's community and its emphasis on undergraduate research in the sciences resonate deeply with my aspirations. Coupled with the picturesque Hanover setting, Dartmouth embodies my ideal learning environment.

Dartmouth's first essay prompt provides a canvas to illustrate your unique connection with the college. By being specific, personal, and concise, you can effectively convey why Dartmouth's academic program, community, and environment align seamlessly with your aspirations.

How to Answer Dartmouth's "Deep Dive" Questions?

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 or fewer.

Dartmouth, like many elite institutions, values a diverse student body, recognizing that every individual's background shapes their perspectives, values, and contributions. This prompt is an avenue to shed light on the influences that have shaped your character, beliefs, and aspirations.

Exploring Your Roots  

Begin by painting a vivid picture of your upbringing:

• Physical setting: Were you raised in a bustling city, a rural village, a suburban neighborhood, or a tight-knit community?
• Cultural influences: What traditions, customs, or rituals were integral to your family or community?
• Key figures: Who played pivotal roles in your formative years? How did they influence you?

Reflecting on the Impact

Moving beyond mere description, analyze how these elements of your background molded your beliefs, values, and aspirations:

• Challenges and Triumphs: Did certain experiences, perhaps dealing with adversity or celebrating triumphs, particularly influence your growth?
• Evolution: How have the cultural and familial lessons from your upbringing influenced your worldview, values, and future aspirations?

Crafting a Cohesive Narrative

While 250 words might seem restrictive, focus on weaving a concise yet impactful story that encapsulates your upbringing and its influence on you.

Dartmouth's first "Deep Dive" prompt seeks to understand the fabric of your background and how it has sculpted your character and aspirations. Dive deep, be introspective, and craft a narrative that offers a genuine glimpse into your world.

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

Dartmouth's prompt resonates with the essence of individuality. Every student brings their unique narrative, beliefs, experiences, and quirks. Through this prompt, Dartmouth seeks to understand *you*, beyond academic achievements and extracurriculars.

Embracing Your Uniqueness

While it's tempting to present an idealized version of oneself, Dartmouth is looking for authenticity. Reflect on:

• Personality: Are you introspective, outgoing, witty, or analytical? What qualities define you?
• Passions and Hobbies: What do you love doing in your free time? How do these activities reflect your character or aspirations?
• Personal Stories: Share an anecdote or experience that captures your essence.

Moving Beyond the Resume

Avoid reiterating what's already in your application. This is a chance to share aspects of your life and personality that don't fit neatly into traditional application boxes.

Be Genuine and Introspective

While keeping your introduction relevant and the tone appropriately formal, consider how you can also incorporate some touches of intimacy and vulnerability with some deeper introspection and with some authentic and genuine sharing about who you are.

Using Your Voice

Sometimes an introduction is formal. But for this essay, also consider using elements of your authentic personal voice to help convey unique features of your personality. Be it a streak of humility or a sense of humor, use an authentic voice to reveal meaningful insights into your individuality.

Crafting a Personal Statement

Given the brevity of the prompt, every word should contribute to your narrative. Be concise yet compelling, ensuring the introduction offers a genuine reflection of who you are.

Dartmouth's second "Deep Dive" prompt is a canvas for you to paint a portrait of yourself. This isn't about showcasing achievements but about presenting an authentic, holistic image of who you are. Dive deep into introspection, embrace your uniqueness, and introduce yourself in a way that remains memorable and genuine.

How to Answer Dartmouth’s “Exploratory" Questions?

Navigating Dartmouth's exploratory essay prompts requires a blend of introspection and a clear understanding of what the college values. While each question is a chance to spotlight a distinct facet of your character, they collectively serve to convey your fit for Dartmouth's vibrant community.

What excites you?

Genuine enthusiasm.

Share what genuinely excites you, not what you think Dartmouth wants to hear.

Make it Compelling

Don't only skim the surface or introduce sources of excitement that are superficial in nature. Connect what excites you with deeper passions and aspirations.

• Look for more profound topics. For example, going to a baseball game may be exciting for you, but does it connect to deeper experiences, reflections, or aspirations? That said, maybe going to a baseball game with a specific family member was exciting because of the relationship and the opportunity these baseball outings presented to deepen it.
• Emphasize sources of excitement that truly reflect or shape your personality and which connect with things you care deeply about.

Personal Anecdote

• Illustrate your passion through a personal story, giving a genuine glimpse into what drives you.
• Highlight anecdotes that will help the reader appreciate the contexts that make your insights compelling for you.
• Craft vivid narratives that cast light on people, events, or circumstances that shaped your feelings of excitement and to make your response more memorable.

Connect with Dartmouth

Maybe there's a Dartmouth program or club that aligns with your passion or with what excites you. Showing that connection can demonstrate both your genuine interest and how you'd immerse yourself on campus. Reveal how what excites you will shape your contributions to campus life and specific goals or aspirations you have for college and beyond.

• Discovering the world of computational biology during a summer program transformed my view of computer science, from merely app development to solving biological mysteries. Dartmouth's interdisciplinary courses promise further exploration into this thrilling intersection.
• Art, for me, isn't just a hobby; it's a lens through which I see the world. Every brush stroke or sketch is a reflection of my interpretations. At Dartmouth, I'm excited about the potential of integrating art with academic studies, enriching my perspectives further.

The first "Exploratory" prompt is very open ended. Try to home in on a source of excitement that offers insights into your more profound passions, motivations, and perspectives on life. Be genuine and be sure to connect what excites you with larger aspirations.

Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta recommended a life of purpose. ‘We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things,' she said. 'That is what we are put on the earth for.' In what ways do you hope to make — or are you already making — an impact? Why? How?

This prompt calls for a profound understanding of your own commitment to betterment and change. Dartmouth values students who are not just achievers in the academic sense but also those who aspire to make a meaningful impact on society through commitment, conviction, and courage.

Genuine Motivations

Deeply reflect upon the driving forces behind your actions. What inspires you to create change? Whether it's a personal experience, someone you look up to, or a broader vision for society, share the root of your motivations.

Link to Dartmouth's Values

Show that your vision aligns with Dartmouth's ethos. Perhaps there's a Dartmouth initiative, club, or program that corresponds with your efforts to create positive change.

Narrative Engagement

Use storytelling to bring your experiences to life. Instead of simply stating facts, walk the reader through your journey, the challenges you faced, and the lessons learned.

Vision for the Future

Expand on how Dartmouth can be the platform for furthering your initiatives or supporting your drive for societal improvement.

• Driven by witnessing educational inequalities in my community, I initiated a tutoring program for underprivileged students. Dartmouth's Tucker Center, with its extensive community service programs, inspires me to scale my initiative to broader horizons.
• Ever since participating in a local environmental cleanup, I've been motivated to promote sustainable living. At Dartmouth, I see an opportunity to engage deeply with the Dartmouth Organic Farm, expanding my understanding and driving larger community initiatives.

Dartmouth's second "Exploratory" prompt offers an avenue to express your genuine commitment to pursuing a purpose-driven life and enacting positive change. Through a combination of personal storytelling and a forward-looking mindset, this is your chance to showcase how your life's purpose aligns with Dartmouth's values. Share how you can contribute positively to campus life and reflect on how Dartmouth can help you further your impact on the world.

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?

This unique prompt from Dartmouth encourages you to introspect and share your musings, highlighting how deep reflection forms an integral part of your character. It offers a window into your mindset, showcasing how you engage with the world around you.

Venture Beyond the Superficial

While it might be tempting to discuss a recent event or popular topic, delve deeper. Reflect on those bigger questions or thoughts that linger in your mind. It could be something philosophical, societal, or even a personal revelation.

Relate to Dartmouth’s Legacy

Given the mention of Theodor Geisel, an illustrious Dartmouth alumnus, consider ways in which your reflections might connect to Dartmouth’s storied history, its emphasis on liberal arts, or its commitment to fostering critical thinkers.

Just as with the previous prompt, storytelling can be a powerful tool here. Walk the reader through your thought process, the genesis of your musings, and the conclusions or further questions they led to.

Consider Dartmouth’s Environment

Dartmouth's unique setting, amidst the serene landscapes of Hanover, provides the perfect backdrop for reflection. Consider weaving in how such an environment can further fuel your introspection and quest for answers.

• Contemplating the ever-evolving nature of language, I often wonder about the next phase of human communication. Dartmouth’s rich linguistic courses and its diverse community provide the ideal setting for such explorations.
• In today's digital age, I ponder the balance between connectivity and genuine human interactions. Dartmouth’s tight-knit community offers a compelling environment to explore this, bridging the traditional with the contemporary.

Dartmouth’s third “Exploratory” prompt is an opportunity to provide insights into your deeper reflections and how you process the world around you. By delving into genuine thoughts and connecting them with Dartmouth's ethos and environment, you can craft a compelling narrative that underscores your fit for the institution.

Celebrate your nerdy side.

Dartmouth recognizes that it's often our quirks, those distinctive characteristics and passions, that make us uniquely interesting. This prompt invites you to showcase a side of yourself that might not be immediately evident but is an intrinsic part of who you are.

True Colors

It's vital to ensure your response is genuine. Highlighting an authentic quirk or passion can create a more memorable and personal essay. Whether it's a hobby, a talent, or a particular mindset, delve into something you truly identify with.

Narrative Storytelling

Consider using anecdotes or personal stories to illustrate your point. A short narrative about a time when your "nerdy side" played a significant role can effectively showcase your personality and make your essay more engaging.

Relate to Dartmouth

While discussing your quirks, find a way to connect it to Dartmouth's environment or ethos. Perhaps there's a club, organization, or course at Dartmouth that aligns with your quirky side. Demonstrating how your unique traits would fit into and benefit the Dartmouth community can add depth to your essay.

Deep Reflection

Go beyond just describing your quirks. Reflect on why they matter to you, how they've shaped your perspectives, and the role they've played in your life.

• Ever since I started collecting antique calculators, I've been dubbed the "math historian" among my friends. At Dartmouth, I hope to merge this love for history and math by delving into the evolution of mathematical theories.
• I've always been fascinated by the intricacies of board games, often creating my own. Through Dartmouth's Game Design Club, I hope to bring my unique designs to life, encouraging strategic and creative thinking.

Dartmouth's fourth "Exploratory" prompt offers a chance for applicants with a passion for, or obsession with, a particular intellectual or academic interest, or other kind of interest that captivates them, to embrace it and share it in an essay that is compelling and memorable. By focusing on genuine characteristics and weaving a narrative that connects to Dartmouth's values and offerings, you can create a standout essay. Highlight an important area of personal fascination while helping Dartmouth understand how this might shape your aspirations and participation in college life.

'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?

Dartmouth acknowledges and celebrates the diverse backgrounds and experiences of its students. This prompt provides an avenue to discuss how you've encountered, processed, and embraced differences in your life, be it in terms of race, culture, beliefs, or personal experiences. It’s an opportunity to highlight your unique journey — and perhaps exceptional resilience or insights shaped by this journey — while foreshadowing the positive ways you’ll impact the college community.

Personal and Genuine Experiences

Begin by introspecting on moments in your life when you felt different or stood out. Was it due to cultural, racial, personal beliefs, or perhaps a unique experience? Share these genuine stories to give a deeper insight into your journey.

Navigating Challenges and Growth

Being different often comes with challenges. Discuss how you navigated them, the insights gained, and how these experiences contributed to personal growth. Show how these challenges strengthened your character and shaped your worldview.

• Did they help you develop personal resilience? If so, how is this reflected in real events or relationships in your life, or in challenges you’ve faced?
• Does your experience with difference shape your worldview, personality, or your perspectives?
• Do these factors impact other facets of your life experiences, such as interpersonal relationships, school or community life, or your views on society?

Connect to Dartmouth

Highlight how you see Dartmouth's diverse community as an extension or complement to your experiences. Maybe there are student groups, initiatives, or programs at Dartmouth that align with your journey. This connection can underscore your fit within the Dartmouth community.

Celebrate the Differences

Rather than merely discussing the challenges, celebrate the advantages and strengths that come from embracing diversity. How has it made you a more empathetic, open-minded, or resilient individual?

• Growing up in a multicultural neighborhood, I've always been the bridge between various cultures, facilitating understanding. Dartmouth's Global Village program, emphasizing cultural exchange, resonates with my experiences.
• Being the only left-hander in my family always made me feel unique. This simple difference taught me early on that there's no one-size-fits-all approach. At Dartmouth, I'm eager to be part of communities that appreciate and celebrate such nuances.

Dartmouth's fifth "Exploratory" prompt offers an opportunity to reflect on your personal journey and how it's shaped by the differences you've encountered or embraced. By intertwining personal narratives with Dartmouth's ethos and values, you can create an impactful essay that showcases your understanding and appreciation of diversity in its many forms.

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 is seeking students who not only excel academically but also exhibit promise in their endeavors and potential to impact the world. This prompt is your opportunity to showcase your capabilities, determination, and the promise you hold for the future.

Highlight Authentic Moments

Recall instances where your potential was evident, be it through academic accomplishments, extracurricular leadership, or personal growth moments. Choose stories that capture your drive, ambition, and the qualities that set you apart.

Relate to Dartmouth's Values

Dartmouth's mission emphasizes both lifelong learning and responsible leadership. Ensure your essay reflects these aspects. Discuss how Dartmouth's programs, values, or opportunities align with your potential and how they can further amplify it.

Evolution and Growth

Rather than just stating your achievements, reflect on your journey. How did you overcome challenges? What did you learn? Demonstrating growth gives depth to your potential and makes it more tangible.

Envision Your Future

Project into the future. How do you see your potential evolving at Dartmouth? In what ways do you hope to contribute to the community and eventually make an impact in your chosen field or the broader world?

• My initiative in founding a community service club showcased not just leadership, but a potential to drive change. At Dartmouth, I'm excited to further this potential through hands-on service projects and leadership seminars.
• From initiating a school-wide recycling program to representing my school in national debates, my journey has been about discovering and nurturing my potential. Dartmouth's focus on holistic education and fostering leadership resonates deeply with where I see myself evolving.

Dartmouth's sixth "Exploratory" prompt is an open canvas for you to highlight your strengths, journey, and vision for the future. By weaving in authentic experiences with Dartmouth's values and offerings, you can craft a compelling narrative that showcases not just who you are, but who you aspire to be in the Dartmouth community and beyond.

General Guidelines for Answering Dartmouth's Supplemental Essay Questions

1. deep dive into dartmouth.

Dartmouth's prompts allow you to demonstrate your affinity with the college's ethos and community.

• Highlight specific courses, faculty members, research opportunities, or clubs that align with your interests.
• Be detailed in your approach to specific aspects of college life or specific academic offerings or resources that hold a genuine interest for you personally in order to spotlight the depth of your commitment to understanding Dartmouth.

2. Introspective Insight

Dartmouth highly values self-aware learners. When discussing personal experiences or academic interests, always loop back to the personal growth, insights, or lessons you've absorbed over time.

3. Champion Diversity

Dartmouth is proud of its diverse and inclusive student community.

• Highlight the unique perspectives, experiences, or backgrounds you'd bring and how these have influenced your own evolving self-awareness and life journey in profound ways.
• Emphasize how these perspectives and experiences will enhance diversity at Dartmouth and shape unique contributions you’ll make to community life and academic dialogue at Dartmouth.

4. Genuine Narratives

Honesty resonates deeply. Craft responses that echo your true passions, hurdles, and aspirations, rather than what you feel the admissions committee wants to hear.

• Use a personal voice and/or personal anecdotes to convey authentic glimpses into your unique life circumstances and influences.
• Keep it relevant to the college admissions process, but don’t shy away from sharing intimate features of your personality, inner thoughts, “hidden” interests, and remember some glimpses of humility and vulnerability may add authenticity or further help you make your essay more memorable.

5. Focus on Depth

The word limits mean precision is crucial. Opt for depth over breadth, delving into a few points in detail rather than skimming over many.

6. Engaging Storytelling

Craft your essays in a compelling narrative format. An evocative story or reflection often remains etched in the reader's mind longer than mere facts. Use relevant narrative or storytelling techniques and vivid description, with an emphasis on showing, not telling, to help make introspective elements and reflections more natural, convincing, compelling, and memorable.

7. Meticulous Proofreading

Ensure your essays are impeccable. Beyond checking for grammatical errors, ensure your narrative flows smoothly and communicates your main points effectively. Consider getting feedback from peers or mentors for fresh insights.

8. Tie to the Larger Context

Position your answers in the broader context of your potential contributions to Dartmouth.

• Highlight future-facing aspirations, goals, or commitments.
• Describe how the college's offerings and ethos align with your aspirations.
• Reveal what contributions you expect to make as a valuable member of the Dartmouth community.
• Explain how Dartmouth will further your goals and aspirations.

9. Embrace the Process

Remember, these essays offer a unique opportunity to showcase facets of yourself beyond academics. Relish this chance to illustrate why Dartmouth and you could be the ideal fit.

Armed with these guidelines, you're poised to craft compelling responses that not only answer Dartmouth's supplemental questions but also resonate with the spirit of the institution.

What Makes Crimson Different

Final Thoughts

Dartmouth doesn’t shy away from creative supplemental essay prompts. Nor do they want you to shy away from embracing and celebrating what most makes you, you — whether something deep and purposeful, something quirky, something that’s complex and laced with vulnerability, or an exciting passion…

When multiple prompts are offered, choose the prompt that resonates best with you and will allow you to probe qualities of your personality, life journey, and college aspirations that will play a central role shaping your contributions and achievements at Dartmouth.

Dartmouth wants to get to know you better. Be authentic to your personality. If you’re unsure if the essay sounds like you, have someone close to you read it and tell you if it sounds like you. While grammar and spelling are important, showcasing the unique qualities that make you perfect for Dartmouth are equally important.

Need help with your supplemental essays? Crimson Education is the world’s leading university admission consulting company. Our expert admission strategist can help you narrow down your ideas and word choice to help you craft the perfect essay prompt response. Get your essay reviewed today!

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Dartmouth Supplemental Essay Examples

Dartmouth supplemental essay examples will help you in your quest to deliver the very finest essay that you can. Seeking guidance on how to write a college essay can be useful, but equally useful can be reading over existing essays to see what the pros do, and how all the bits fit together.

Your essays are one of the most important aspects of your college application, and they should be as polished as possible. This might mean seeking out an essay workshop for students or reading expert college essay tips , but checking out examples can be helpful as well.

This article will take you through the necessary essays for Dartmouth’s supplemental section and provide you with some general essay writing tips.

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 10 min read

Dartmouth supplemental essays.

Dartmouth requires students to write three essays. For the first two essays, students get one prompt that they will all follow. Pay close attention to all three prompts but note that if a school is requiring absolutely everybody to respond to the same prompt, that prompt is universally important, and something Dartmouth cares a lot about.

There are several prompts for the third essay, so you can choose the one you think will show off your unique abilities, talents, and experiences. Remember: essays in applications are about showing why you are the best possible candidate for that particular school.

All Applicants

Essay no. 1.

“Dartmouth celebrates the ways in which its profound sense of place informs its profound sense of purpose. As you seek admission to Dartmouth ... what aspects of the College’s academic program, community, or campus environment attract your interest? In short, Why Dartmouth?”

Word limit: 100 words, max.

With the beauty of New England, the academic discipline, and exciting research opportunities, there is nothing about Dartmouth that doesn’t appeal to me. 

My primary reason for wanting to attend Dartmouth is the research potential in energy engineering; I want to make an impact on environmental conservation, starting with energy. Dartmouth’s research on biomass processing technologies is very exciting.

Besides academics, I also have family in Hanover, so my support network would be strong at Dartmouth. Furthermore, the beauty and heritage of the campus is inspiring.

Dartmouth imbues me with a sense of place and purpose that inspires.

“‘Be yourself,’ Oscar Wilde advised. ‘Everyone else is taken.’ Introduce yourself...”

Word limit: 200–250 words

Given the prompt, it seems appropriate to start by saying that I am a big fan of Oscar Wilde. I am normally a shy person, and I may be uncomfortable being talked about, but I know there are worse things…

My sense of humor is my favorite aspect of myself, and I have always had a love of comedy – hence my interest in Oscar. My parents have said I laughed uproariously as a baby and they have taken as much delight in introducing me to Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, and Mr. Show as I have in laughing with all of them.

I believe that a sense of humor and irony will aid everybody, and we could all use a good laugh at our own expense now and again. So much of politics and business and social anxiety could be better managed with a few well-placed guffaws.

In fact, learning to laugh at myself has been instrumental in conquering my shyness and allowing me to meet people and gain opportunities. Without that, I couldn’t have run for student government at my school – becoming vice president – or attempted stand-up comedy for the first time this summer. For the record, I mostly bombed my set, but I’m re-writing my material and learning how to bounce back from a setback – they won’t stop me!

So, that’s my “me.” Let everybody else be taken, Wilde, I’m perfectly content as I am.

Essay No. 3

Students choose one of the following essays to complete.

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?”

Six hours in the sun pulling a wagon, knocking on doors, and asking people for used aluminum isn’t a fun way to spend a day, but I knew the importance of helping out with our local recycling programs. In this case, we were looking for aluminum tabs from pop cans to be remade into wheelchairs and provided for low-to-no cost to those in need.

My brother Jack uses a wheelchair, and so this cause appealed to me on two levels: I am also an environmentalist – like my parents, who are environmental scientists. Aiding a recycling program and getting wheelchairs to patients was therefore a win-win.

Let’s start with your format, while looking at how to write a college essay . You will follow the standard essay format as often as possible. This is composed of three major sections: the opener, the body, and the conclusion. You can think of them as “beginning, middle, end,” if that is helpful.

The opening paragraph should start with an attention grabber, or “hook,” that will live up to its name and command the focus of the reader. This is the best approach to how to start a college essay . Make it such a good opening line that even someone who isn’t on the admissions committee would want to keep reading.

Your opener also sets up the rest of the essay, providing the central themes and ideas that you’ll explore – these are all contained within the prompts provided by Dartmouth, but your opener will connect those prompts to you, personally. Specifically, reading college essay introduction examples will show you how to accomplish this.

In the body of the essay, you will explore the prompt, how it relates to you, and, ideally, show how you have grown as a person or student, some accomplishments you have made, or skillsets and abilities that you have – all of which must be desirable for a potential Dartmouth student.

If you can connect specifically to Dartmouth, all the better. Mentioning programs or research that are unique to the school or highlighting that you have the qualities they are seeking in their mission and vision statements will connect you to the school and show off how you would be the ideal candidate.

Your overall goal is to make the committee want to bring you in for an alumni-conducted interview, so if your conclusion would make anybody want to meet you, ask questions, and learn more about you and your experiences, you will have succeeded.

Most of Dartmouth’s essays have a short limit of 250 words. The exception is a 100-word essay: even shorter. What this means for you is that you don’t have a lot of space to develop a variety of complex ideas per essay. Be surgical; get in, tell the necessary details for the prompt, and get out.

Be prepared to truncate and mess with the essay format a bit for the 100-word essay, as that prompt really requires a precision answer, and you might not be able to shape the essay in a standard way.

To build a successful application, give yourself every edge and benefit. A strong supplemental essay will achieve that. You are already taking the right steps by reading up on essay writing and seeking out examples to improve your work. Take your time refining the essays for your dream school.

No, you must answer those two essay questions, as per the requirements. Most schools want answers to the questions “Why this school?” and “Tell us about yourself.” They are two of the most common questions asked of students for a reason: they produce information that the admissions committee needs to know.

The amount of time will vary, but generally speaking, we think you should take 2–3 weeks to work on your essays. You don’t need to put in 40+ hours per week, but give yourself time to brainstorm, write, re-write, edit, and proofread; you’ll likely need and want time to get professional feedback as well.

If you’re stuck on an optional prompt, you could switch to a different prompt proposed by the school and see if it resonates more with you. If your required essay is giving you difficulty, you’ll want to break your writer’s block with a little brainstorming. Take two minutes to free-associate on your topic, writing down anything you think of, and you’ll likely open up your thought processes and start to figure out what you want to say.

If you are successful, you will be invited for an interview, which means that you might want to start thinking about how to prepare for your interview.

The Common Application allows for changes to essays after submission, but with Dartmouth, you will specifically need to upload additional materials via your portal.

Look for a credible college essay review service . Teachers and other mentors might be able to help as well, but keep in mind that they are already busy people, so sticking with a professional service might be the better option.

You might think that all you need to do is hit your academics and emphasize how smart you are, but that strategy might not be all that clever. Your transcripts and high school resume will show off your numbers. Instead, use your essay to introduce the “real you” to the admissions committee. They want to know you, and your uniqueness is your best shot at getting into your school of choice. Put the essential you on display for the best results.

Deadlines change from year to year, so just follow the instructions in the Common App or Coalition App. Start as early as possible to maximize your time between now and the deadline.

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August 2, 2023

2023-2024 Dartmouth College Essay Prompts

Dartmouth College has released its essay prompts for the 2023-2024 college admissions cycle. In addition to The Common Application ’s Personal Statement, applicants to Dartmouth will be required to answer three supplemental essays: one of 100 words or fewer and two of 250 words or fewer. So what are this year’s Dartmouth essay prompts ?

2023-2024 Dartmouth Essay Topics & Questions

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?

Make no mistake: it’s a Why College essay . While the prompt may be a bit wordier than the equivalent essay for other universities, Dartmouth is asking applicants to detail specifics on why they wish to attend the College on the Hill.

And if you’re a regular reader of Ivy Coach ’s college admissions blog , you know that name-dropping professors or listing classes do not count as genuine specifics. Why College essays should not be approached like a game of Mad Libs where you find and replace a specific for one institution with another’s. Instead, it’s about capturing enduring specifics about a university that only apply to the school in question.

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.

This essay should be approached as a chance to share a story about who you are and where you come from. But there’s a trap. When so many students read the word “raised,” they’re inclined to write about themselves as children. Instead, admissions officers would much prefer to read about you as high schoolers. They want to understand who you are, how you think, and how you want to leave a mark on the world now — not as children.  

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

This option is even more of a free-write than the first option for Dartmouth’s second essay. Just as The Common Application allows students to write whatever they’d like, Dartmouth provides another opportunity to write what they wish. Students should always write material that complements their other essays rather than tell the same story twice. Essays, in this way, should be thought of as puzzle pieces. They must fit neatly together, and no two essays can be the same shape.

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

A. What excites you?

This prompt allows a student to showcase how they will change the world. Too often, students write about silly things for such broad questions, and such answers usually don’t showcase intellectual curiosity. Since Dartmouth, and all highly selective universities, seeks to admit singularly talented students — rather than well-rounded students — we at Ivy Coach would always encourage students to creatively shine a spotlight on their hook in such an answer.

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?

This essay prompt allows students to showcase how they’ve contributed — ideally through their singular hook — to their school or larger community. But it should not be misconstrued as an opportunity to brag about one’s achievements since doing so will render an applicant less likable in the very human admissions process.

By simply writing about what a student has done — and leaving out even subtle brags — it’s easy for students to make the leap of what they hope to accomplish. And students should always make sure the goal isn’t too grandiose. For a student’s storytelling and activities in college admissions, saving sea turtles always beats ending climate change.

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?

Dartmouth’s admissions officers want to know your thoughts and what drives you. They want to understand what you go to sleep thinking about or, in essence, how you hope to change the world in a singular and meaningful way. Like all admissions officers at elite universities, Dartmouth’s readers want to know that you’re introspective and driven to leave your mark on the world.

D. Celebrate your nerdy side.

It’s a broad prompt that allows students to write whatever they wish. But it’s also a booby trap: too many students think that just by spotlighting their nerdiness, they’ll wow Dartmouth admissions officers. If students write about physics, they may write in indecipherable jargon. That’s a mistake. The writing must always be understandable — even to laypeople, as Dartmouth admissions officers aren’t physicists.

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?

Like some of Dartmouth’s other essay prompts for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, this prompt has appeared before in the Dartmouth supplement. And we at Ivy Coach claim credit as one of its authors — along with our Kermit the Frog applicant to Dartmouth from several years ago.

But the prompt has new meaning this year — notably after the outlawing of Affirmative Action. The essay question aims to understand an applicant’s diverse background and appreciation of diversity in all forms. For students, in particular, of diverse backgrounds, we strongly encourage them to write about their culture or race in their answers.

Yet they should approach it as an art form so that it doesn’t come across as though they’re trying to game the system. And even students from non-diverse backgrounds, in their own creative way, can spotlight the diversity they hope to bring and benefit from during their college years.

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?

It’s another broad option that essentially allows students to write what they wish to Dartmouth’s admissions officers. It’s another opportunity for students to write about how they hope to leave a mark on the world in their own singular and meaningful way. Oftentimes, it’s a small story that will leave the most indelible mark.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with Dartmouth College Essays

If you’re interested in submitting powerful essays to Dartmouth to optimize your case for admission, you’ve come to the right place. Ivy Coach is known as The Dartmouth Whisperer because of our track record of helping students earn admission to the Ivy League institution. Over the last 30 years, all of Ivy Coach’s Early Decision applicants to Dartmouth got in 28 times (in all but two Early Decision cycles). Bo knows baseball. Ivy Coach knows Dartmouth .

So if you’d like our help, help offered directly with Ivy Coach’s Ben Schwartz , a former Dartmouth admissions officer, fill out our consultation form , and we’ll be in touch to delineate our college counseling services for seniors.

You are permitted to use www.ivycoach.com (including the content of the Blog) for your personal, non-commercial use only. You must not copy, download, print, or otherwise distribute the content on our site without the prior written consent of Ivy Coach, Inc.

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How to Write Dartmouth's Essays (with Dartmouth Essay Examples)

Kate Sliunkova

AdmitYogi, Stanford MBA & MA in Education

14 min read

When it comes to college applications, writing an exceptional essay can be the key to standing out from the crowd. And for those aiming to join Dartmouth College, mastering the art of crafting compelling essays is crucial. But what exactly distinguishes a Dartmouth essay from the rest? In this article, we will delve into the insider tips and strategies for acing each of Dartmouth's essay prompts, accompanied by inspiring examples from successful applicants. Whether you're at the initial stages of brainstorming or adding the finishing touches to your essays, continue reading for expert guidance on how to captivate the admissions committee at one of the most esteemed institutions in the world. Prepare to unlock the secrets to making your Dartmouth application shine.

Dartmouth's Essay Prompts:

Dartmouth University requires its students to write three supplemental essays.

"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."

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

Choose one of the following prompts:

"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 to Write Dartmouth's Essays:

How to approach dartmouth's "why dartmouth" essay.

The Prompt: "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."

When approaching the Dartmouth essay prompt that asks why you are interested in the College's academic program, community, or campus environment, it's crucial to demonstrate your genuine enthusiasm and understanding of Dartmouth's unique characteristics. Remember, you only have 100 words or fewer to make your case, so it's important to be concise and impactful. Here are a few tips to guide you:

• Research and specificity: Take the time to research Dartmouth's academic programs, campus community, and environment. Identify unique aspects that resonate with you. Whether it's the interdisciplinary approach, the tight-knit community, or the stunning natural surroundings, be sure to highlight the elements that truly attract your interest. Be specific!
• Personal connection: Connect your own aspirations, interests, or experiences to Dartmouth's offerings. How do you envision yourself thriving academically or contributing to the community? Share personal anecdotes or examples that demonstrate your alignment with Dartmouth's values and opportunities.
• Show, don't tell: Use vivid and concise language to paint a clear picture of why Dartmouth stands out to you. Instead of making general statements, provide concrete examples or specific details that illustrate why Dartmouth is the perfect fit for your academic and personal growth.

Remember, brevity is key in this response, so choose your words wisely. Craft a compelling and authentic answer that showcases your passion for Dartmouth and conveys your potential contributions to the college community.

Here's a great example of the "Why Dartmouth" essay from Ellie, who got into Yale and Dartmouth.

"Hidden below Hanover sits Base Camp, a Nepalese restaurant and home of the spiciest, most delicious noodles I’ve ever had. At Dartmouth, I’ll spend my time as I did during that meal: with a fire in my gut and a smile on my face. Under the instruction of Dr. Katie Hixon, I will continue my fascination with tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Biomedical Engineering for Global Health is the perfect class for me to pursue my passion of the intersection of science and social work. No matter what, I’ll work with passion, smiling ear-to-ear."

How to Approach Dartmouth's "Introduce Yourself" Essay

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

When approaching the Dartmouth essay prompt that asks you to introduce yourself, think of it as an invitation to paint a vibrant portrait of your true self. Embrace your quirks, passions, and idiosyncrasies that make you who you are. Instead of presenting a generic laundry list of achievements, focus on sharing the experiences and interests that ignite a fire within you. Whether it's the adrenaline rush of scaling mountains or the magic of capturing moments through your camera lens, reveal the unique facets of your personality that set you apart from the crowd.

In particular, consider highlighting pivotal moments that have shaped your worldview. Perhaps it was a transformative trip that exposed you to different cultures or an unexpected encounter that sparked a deep curiosity within you. Dive into these formative experiences and explore how they have influenced your aspirations, values, and sense of purpose. Then, showcase how these experiences tie into your broader desire for intellectual growth, collaborative learning, or making a positive difference in the world.

Here's an awesome example of Dartmouth's "Introduce Yourself" essay from Sophie. Beyond Dartmouth, Sophie's profile also includes the stats, essays, and awards that got her into Yale, Columbia, Cornell, and Brown.

"My orchestra in Boston is like a flock of flying geese, circling back whenever someone makes a mistake and moving toward our shared destination. With the conductor at the forefront of the V, we are one hundred independent geese paying rapt attention to each other so we can fly together harmoniously. Every Saturday when I see New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall with its tall glass windows, I walk faster in anticipation to join my flock inside as if I were coming home. Before rehearsal and during breaks we chat and laugh about topics ranging from Tchaikovsky to chai tea. Our strong connections arise from communicating in a language deeper than words during rehearsal. When we play, our charged moments of eye contact to coordinate entrances and the smiles we give to each other when we finish a solo are magical.

In one of my flute solos I remember crafting my interpretation in the moment. The freedom made me feel like a flying bird, yet I was in a comforting flock supporting my interpretation. I realized orchestra provides a rare balance between freedom and support. If we have too much freedom, it is hard to synchronize the parts, but if we conform exactly to everyone else, the music feels restricted and lifeless. This balance is why I feel so emotionally connected to orchestra, willing to spend seven hours traveling every Saturday to go to rehearsal. I am a free-thinking explorer, whether in my academic interests, political beliefs, artistic preferences, or any other area of my life. Yet I always look for a nurturing community to belong to, whether it is an orchestra, study group, volunteer group, or college. When I find a community with this rare balance, the excitement drives me to push boundaries and bring others with me."

Strategies for Dartmouth's Final Supplemental Essay

There are so many essay prompts for Dartmouth's final supplemental essay. To ensure you know how to approach each potential option, we recommend you check out our page with a full list of supplemental essay examples from Dartmouth!

Writing Dartmouth's "Dolores Huerta" essay.

The Prompt: "Approaching 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?"

When tackling the prompt about making an impact, draw inspiration from Dolores Huerta's powerful words and reflect on how you aspire to contribute to the world. Share your vision for creating positive change, whether it's through activism, community service, or pursuing a career that addresses pressing issues. Be specific about the causes or areas you are passionate about, and provide examples of how you have already started making a difference. Discuss any projects, initiatives, or organizations you are involved in and highlight the impact they have had. Additionally, explore your long-term goals and how you envision utilizing your skills, knowledge, and resources to bring about meaningful change on a larger scale. Convey your genuine commitment to making the world a better place, demonstrating your determination to leave a lasting and positive impact on society.

Writing Dartmouth's "What Excites You" essay.

The Prompt: "What excites you?"

When tackling the Dartmouth essay prompt that asks "What excites you?", it's an opportunity to showcase your passions, interests, and what truly ignites your enthusiasm. Dig deep and reflect on the activities, subjects, or experiences that bring you joy and fuel your curiosity. It could be a particular field of study, a hobby, a social cause, or an extracurricular pursuit. Be specific and provide examples that demonstrate your genuine excitement. Explain why these interests captivate you and how they have influenced your personal growth or worldview. Moreover, consider sharing any experiences where your excitement led you to take action, such as participating in research, leading a club, or engaging in community service. Use this essay as a platform to convey your authentic enthusiasm and showcase your motivation to pursue these exciting passions further. Ultimately, let your genuine excitement shine through your words and demonstrate how it aligns with Dartmouth's dynamic academic environment and vibrant community.

Writing Dartmouth's "William Kamkwamba" essay.

The Prompt: "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?"

The Dartmouth essay prompt referencing William Kamkwamba's inspiring story in "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" invites you to delve into your personal drive to create and the impact you aspire to make. Reflect on the motivations that fuel your desire to bring ideas to life. Explore the sense of curiosity, passion, or purpose that compels you to innovate and create something meaningful. Discuss the areas where you have already exercised your creative abilities, whether it's in the realm of art, science, entrepreneurship, or any other domain. Share specific examples of projects or initiatives you have undertaken and the impact they have had on others or on your own growth. Additionally, articulate your aspirations for the future and the creations you envision making. Whether it's a technological invention, a work of art, a social initiative, or a solution to a pressing problem, explain how you aim to contribute to the world through your creative endeavors. Convey your determination to embrace challenges, learn from setbacks, and persist in the pursuit of your creative visions. By showcasing your unique drive to create and make a difference, you can demonstrate your potential to contribute to the vibrant community at Dartmouth and beyond.

Writing Dartmouth's "Dr. Seuss" essay.

The Prompt: "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?"

When contemplating the prompt inspired by Dr. Seuss's words, "Think and wonder. Wonder and think," you have the opportunity to explore the topics that ignite your curiosity and engage your thinking. Reflect on the areas of knowledge, ideas, or phenomena that captivate your mind. What subjects, concepts, or mysteries do you find yourself pondering? It could be scientific phenomena, philosophical questions, social issues, artistic expressions, or anything else that sparks your intellectual curiosity. Dive deep into your wonderings and share the thoughts that occupy your mind. Discuss why these topics are important to you and how they have shaped your perspective or influenced your personal growth. Furthermore, consider how your wonderings and thoughts have led you to take action, whether through research, discussions, creative projects, or community engagement. Explain how your curiosity fuels your desire to seek knowledge, challenge assumptions, and explore new frontiers. By sharing your genuine wonderings and thoughtful reflections, you can provide insight into your intellectual curiosity and demonstrate your potential to contribute to the academic community at Dartmouth and beyond.

How to Write Dartmouth's James Baldwin Essay

The Prompt: "'Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced,' wrote James Baldwin. How does this quote apply to your life experiences?"

This prompt forces deep reflection on the application of this wisdom to your own life experiences. Consider moments when you confronted challenges, obstacles, or difficult truths. Reflect on how facing these situations influenced your growth, perspective, and ability to effect change. Share personal anecdotes that demonstrate your willingness to confront difficult realities and take action. Discuss how this quote has shaped your approach to personal development, relationships, or societal issues. Acknowledge that while not everything can be changed, the act of facing and acknowledging the truth is a catalyst for transformation. Highlight instances where you have embraced this mindset, whether it's initiating tough conversations, advocating for justice, or pursuing personal growth despite adversity. Ultimately, by illustrating how you have applied Baldwin's quote to your life experiences, you can showcase your resilience, introspection, and commitment to effecting positive change in yourself and the world around you.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the essay prompts from Dartmouth University provide a platform for you to express your passions, values, and aspirations. Crafting standout essays that capture the attention of the admissions committee requires genuine introspection and thoughtful reflection. Here at AdmitYogi, we understand the significance of these essays and aim to provide valuable resources to enhance your application process. We offer a vast collection of successful college essays , including examples from Dartmouth students and admitted students at other prestigious institutions like the Ivy League, MIT, and Stanford.

By exploring these examples, you can gain insight into effective storytelling, personal expression, and impactful writing techniques. Reading these essays not only serves as a source of inspiration but also allows you to grasp the nuances of successful applications. We believe that learning from the experiences of others who have navigated the college admissions journey can be instrumental in shaping your own unique approach.

Remember, Dartmouth values authenticity and a genuine connection with their applicants. Utilize the prompts as opportunities to showcase your unique qualities, experiences, and aspirations. Whether you are discussing your passions, reflecting on your personal growth, or sharing your commitment to making a difference, strive to convey your true self in a compelling and engaging manner. The road to Dartmouth and other esteemed institutions is filled with opportunities for growth and self-discovery. Embrace the challenge, trust in your abilities, and confidently present your unique voice and experiences. Good luck!

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How to write excellent dartmouth supplemental essays 2020-2021: the unrivaled guide.

One of the oldest colleges in the nation, Dartmouth College is a small but mighty institution with a 10.5% acceptance rate.

The college has highly ranked academic programs and offers over 50 majors, making it one of the most sought-out Ivy League institutions.

Despite its prestige, the Dartmouth application is quite accessible and available on the Common App .

The writing supplements for Dartmouth College stand out in comparison to other schools due to the creativity required to answer them. From Harry Potter to Einstein to the Olympics, there are a variety of topics you may choose to write about!

Click above to watch a video on Dartmouth Supplemental Essays.

The Dartmouth Supplemental Essay Requirements

There are two writing supplements required for your application.

• The first response is short and addresses why you would like to attend Dartmouth. It is a 100-word essay.
• The second response has a longer word count and six different prompts to choose from. It is a 250-300-word essay.

According to their website, the college uses the supplements in hopes to get insight into your personality, as well as your “sense of humor, passion, intellectual curiosity, self-awareness, and social awareness.”

While the prompts are fun, they should also be carefully crafted to present your story.

Dartmouth Supplemental Essay 1: “Why Dartmouth?”

The first prompt for Dartmouth requires a short response of fewer than 100 words. You must respond to the following:

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?

Thanks to this limitation, you should read the question carefully in order to decide how you would like to respond.

The prompt asks you to describe your interest in Dartmouth College as it relates to their programs, community, or campus environment. This is the quintessential “ Why This College ” essay.

The “or” in this case is important to recognize. This means that the admissions reviewers do not expect you to cover all three topics in fewer than 100 words.

• Instead, you should choose one or, maybe, two of the three options to write about.

If you are passionate about attending Dartmouth, it may be difficult to decide which topic to cover! When making your choice, consider:

• Which of the three choices could I discuss and my response not be easily transferred to any college application?
• Am I most excited about Dartmouth’s programs, community, or campus environment?
• Have I researched enough about my choice to make accurate references in my writing?

The other key term in this prompt is “aspects.”

Dartmouth does not want you to simply write that you like the college, as the example above cites, because it is small.

Instead, describe what is it about a small college that excites you? Why would their particular school be the right fit for you as an individual above all other schools?

• For example, you might be interested in pursuing neuroscience , and Dartmouth has close collaborations through the medical school and surrounding hospitals.
• By virtue of Dartmouth being a small school, this would allow you to pursue more opportunities, such as working closely with faculty members on research projects or building a mentor-mentee relationship with your academic and research advisors. This would be more difficult at a larger institution.

With a tight word limit, you will want to be brief when discussing what makes Dartmouth most attractive to you as a future student.

We recommend you use as close to your entire 100 words as possible to express yourself.

• You’ll want your response to be more than “I like (insert aspect) about Dartmouth because (insert reason).”
• Be sure to use the specific names of programs, professors, projects, and other compelling factors that draw you to Dartmouth.

Whatever you do, be specific. Specificity will help you win the admissions game because you’d be able to demonstrate why you want to attend Dartmouth.

Dartmouth Supplemental Essay 2

The second part of Dartmouth College’s writing supplement gives you plenty of freedom. Not only do you get a longer word count (250-300 words), but you also get to choose one of six interesting and diverse prompts.

Six options!

That’s wonderful, but how do you know which one would be the best choice?

Our first piece of advice is not to choose a topic simply because you love the references. 

First, read every option carefully and consider what it is asking. Eliminate the prompts that you feel would elicit a vague response or those that you might have a hard time finding a specific example from your life to reference.

Then, brainstorm events from your life that you might discuss to address the remaining prompts. This college essay brainstorming guide is one of the best you will find on the Internet.

Here are the six prompts and suggestions on some things you could write about for each prompt. This is how you can answer each one:

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.

We strongly recommend that you do not focus on your life story – it’ll be too much for 300 words. Instead, focus on one story or anecdote that is a microcosm of your life. What about that story describes you well?

• You could write about hardships you’ve faced , such as a physical or learning disability.
• Did your ethnic or economic background ever keep you from an opportunity?
• What skills did you learn while dealing with and overcoming these hardships?
• What changes in your life have forced you to show resilience? Perhaps you moved several times in your life or experienced a loss that affected you deeply.
• What about your values and characteristics shifted and changed while you played your hand?

If you choose to write about how you’ve dealt with a problem, don’t write about only the hardship. Spend more than 50% of your essay on how you overcame it and in what capacity the ordeal changed you. Focus on action steps.

Tell Dartmouth that your story has shaped your character. And so, what about your character will you bring to Dartmouth, and how will it help their campus?

Maybe your story includes a positive trait, like a photographic memory. How did you use this skill to reach a goal?

Get personalized advice!

What excites you?

Similar to option #4, this is an incredibly broad question. Don’t write broad just because the question is broad! It is your job to create a narrative. Stay focused and specific.

It is best to think of one thing that you feel like excites you to the point of driving you as a person. Consider: 

• What do you get most excited about or enthusiastic to do during your week? Why? What is at the heart of that drive? 
• Where does that excitement come from, or how was it formed? 
• Has your excitement had any impact on other areas or your life or the lives of others? Does that fuel your enthusiasm? 

Paint a picture of your excitement, and above all else, avoid: 

• Being general. Don’t give an answer like “education excites me” and talk about the broad impact of education on the world. This essay is about you. 
• Giving an answer you think the admissions committee wants to hear. Don’t say politics excites you if it doesn’t. If bird watching is your thing, tell them that, but drive at the heart of why. 

This essay should give the committee an understanding of the forces at the core of who you are. When you finish, ask yourself if it accomplishes that.

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?

There are two parts to this question, and it’s important to make sure that you address them equally to fully answer the question. By nature of the question, the committee is assuming that you are, in fact, driven to create, and wants to know more about that. If your instinct was “well, I’m not driven to create,” then do not answer this prompt!

Similarly to the prior question, this asks you to get at the core of your personality. First, consider what drives you to create? 

• Was there a time early in life that you remember creating something of your own? What was it? What motivated you to attempt this thing? 
• When you are most innovative, what has the task at hand been related to? Was it out of necessity? Passion? Intrigue? Pure curiosity? 
• If you had to describe your primary motivation in life, what would it be, and does it relate to your urge to create? 

Once you’ve tackled this part, ensure you get to the second half: What do you hope to make, or have you already made? 

Remember, there should be a clear connection between this part of the question and the first part. For example, if you were driven by necessity, do you believe that has led you to your greatest creations already, or do you see leveraging that to solve the problems of others in the future?

• What creation are you most proud of? 
• Do you have a desire to solve problems in the world through creativity? If so, which ones? How do you see yourself achieving that?

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 is a particularly broad question, so stay disciplined when writing.

We strongly recommend that you stick to one curiosity when writing this essay. Curiosity can be an inspiration, idea, experience, passion, or concept that encourages you to delve deeper into its inner workings.

You want to start by briefly mentioning the curiosity. Then, paint a picture of why it’s important to you. Here are some ideas:

• Were you close with your mom before she passed away? Are you now interested in the meaning of life and suffering?
• Did you learn anything valuable from a volunteer experience?
• Are you passionate about STEM, politics, writing, or Spanish?
• Describe a conversation where you learned something new because you asked lots of questions and allowed your curiosity to embody you.
• When has your intellectual curiosity paid off? Maybe you discovered and were awarded a scholarship that started as a random Google search.
• Important : Do not provide test scores or grades as evidence of your intellect. Your intelligence already shows on your transcript.

A foolproof approach to this essay is extrapolating your past experiences while exploring this curiosity. In other words,  how did you work toward this curiosity?

Here’s an outline of an example essay:

• You love the idea of interplanetary travel because you’d gaze at the stars when you were younger. Your dad bought you a telescope, which only bolstered this passion.
• In high school, you founded and served as president of the Propulsion Club, where you and your team designed and built rockets.
• You then took your best rocket design and pitched it in a local innovation solutions challenge. Your team won first place.
• After studying at Dartmouth, you want to work at SpaceX or NASA and help bring humanity to Mars. You eventually want to join a manned mission to an extraterrestrial body.

Don’t simply state facts about your intellect, but don’t be too modest. State a fact about your intellectual curiosity, and then move on to give details.

If you’re interested in this essay but are struggling to hone in on one curiosity, ask yourself, “What makes me intellectually unique?” Dartmouth is full of bright students, so think beyond the numbers.

When writing the latter half of this essay, you can let Dartmouth know you’re going to pursue this curiosity on campus.

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

This is a particularly vague and perhaps confusing prompt. If this quote or sentiment does not immediately resonate with you, avoid answering this question, as your response is likely to miss the mark. 

This quote asks you to reflect on the ephemeral nature of life and the world. This idea can be received and applied in a negative way or a positive way. Your job is to explain how you yourself would apply it to your own life. Consider: 

• What idea was Frida trying to convey? Does this sentiment resonate with a certain emotion to you?
• Are you a planner or do you go with the flow? Why? What philosophy do you use to guide your decisions? 
• What things in your life serve as guiding pillars or your truth, if any? Do you have certain core values, people, events, etc. or do you agree with Frida in the truest sense? 

This essay is an opportunity for you to be truly philosophical and share some of your guiding principles or notions with the admissions committee. However, be careful not to miss the mark of your own life by getting too theoretical. Make sure you explain how your understanding of her words applies in actionable ways in your own life.

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?

This essay provides a great opportunity for you to elaborate on activities you love or ambitions you want to pursue. The “trouble” that inspires you to act can be something pandemic and political or deeply personal.

Either way, if you care about something that affects people, you can write about it here.

We recommend spending only a brief amount of time stating and explaining the problem. The admissions officers have access to the Internet, so they can check up on in-depth statistics if they’re further interested in the problem you mention.

Once you explain the problem, go into how you were inspired to take action and address this problem on a personal level. Did you participate in volunteer projects, internships, protests, or extracurricular activities that encouraged you to do your part in addressing this problem?

Then write about one of the following.

• What about your past experiences or values guided your actions?
• What did you learn from your actions? What did you learn from your engagement
• How can your kindness shape Dartmouth’s campus? What do you have to offer?

Then, explain how an education at Dartmouth will help you develop your skills so you can take your involvement to the next level.

More Dartmouth Supplemental Essay Tips

As mentioned above, Dartmouth has carefully crafted these prompts in order to get to know their potential students.

• While drafting your response to the second writing supplement, keep in mind that admissions officers want to know about a combination of your passions, curiosity, humor, self-awareness, and social awareness.

If you read your final draft and can’t see yourself in it, it may be time to revise.

One way to ensure that you have written a strong response is by including specific details about your life and experiences.

• Dartmouth claims to read every word of these responses and wants to find out more about you than what appears on a resume. If you are rehashing any part of your application, you need to rethink your strategy (or pick a different prompt).
• Think of it this way: You want to introduce a new part of your personality to the admissions officer. Don’t get stuck mentioning the same thing in both essays and on the Common App.

While responding to the second supplement, make sure that you have cast yourself in an active role.

If you describe an incredible organization, their mission, and the selfless volunteer coordinator who introduced you to service-learning, that’s cool to hear, but admissions officers haven’t learned anything about you.

• Instead, you should include detail about the work you did with the organization and the difference it made to your worldview, education, and career choice.
• Including action steps is the safest way to craft a powerful supplemental essay. Mention what you did and how you took the initiative to pursue your curiosity.

Always remember, you must “help [the college] envision what you’ll bring to Dartmouth.” Show Dartmouth that you will be a contributing student on campus.

Conclusion: The Dartmouth Supplemental Essays

Before you write your response, remember that writing supplements are not full-length essays.

Do not waste your word count attempting to fit in an introduction and conclusion.

Instead, get directly to the point, address the question, and allow your passion to show through your writing. After all, Dartmouth says that their intention is to get to know you, and you wouldn’t want to disappoint!

Also, make sure your responses sound like you. Have someone who knows you well read over your responses. They’ll be able to let you know if your voice and personality were captured.

Dartmouth’s website encourages this authenticity when crafting your essays. They say, “If you’re always funny, be funny. But if you’re the serious type, show us that side of you.”

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50 Dartmouth Application Essays That Worked : Crafting a Compelling Ivy League Admissions Essay Kindle Edition

Unlock the Door to the Ivy League with “50 Dartmouth Essays That Worked”

Assembled by the seasoned staff of The Dartmouth, America’s oldest college newspaper, this collection presents fifty successful application essays that paved the way for students admission into the prestigious halls of Dartmouth College.

Each essay in this meticulously selected anthology not only secured its writer a coveted spot at Dartmouth, but also showcases the unique blend of personality, ambition, and creativity that the admissions committee values. From personal narratives to insightful analyses, these essays serve as models for students striving to craft their own memorable application pieces.

• Print length 119 pages
• Language English
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• Publication date April 7, 2024
• File size 961 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D15MMHWQ
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 7, 2024
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 961 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
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Reflection: Memories Make the Place

One writer looks back on the places that made her freshman year beautiful..

Last fall, I arrived on campus in awe of Dartmouth’s beauty.

I remember a vibrant row of trees glimmering alongside North Main Street, with a green hue made even more vivid by the summer glow. I remember seeing the Connecticut River for the first time and raving to friends from home about the plants lining the water. I remember standing next to Occom Pond at 7 a.m. during First Year Trips, breathing deeply, existing alongside nothing but the bird chirps and whispers of early morning nature — a rare moment of groundedness for me amid the chaos of orientation week. 

The campus was so green, so glittery and so alive. I’ve since realized that these three adjectives truly capture the essence of Dartmouth. 

But very few things glisten all year. Over time, I watched as the once-sparkling trees became tinged with autumnal shades of maroon and rust, leaves falling into piles at their roots. Almost without warning, those same trees have once again sprouted under the spring sun over the course of this term, full of the same beauty that greeted me last fall. 

After a year at Dartmouth, I’ve taken countless walks around Occom Pond — which I call “woccoms,” of course. The pond changes with the seasons, but it never falters in its ability to impress me. Gazing out at the water — breathing, soaking in the calm around me and letting myself be still — might just be one of my favorite feelings. I’ve even gotten to take a few friends on their first woccoms. Introducing them to the pond felt close to sharing a small part of myself.

I dipped in the river for the first time on the Saturday of Green Key weekend. Although the water felt like an ice bath — several of my muscles may have gone numb — and my friends and I struggled to climb back onto the slippery dock, it was exhilarating. I dipped again that following Wednesday. 

With its four-sided clock and majestic presence, Baker Tower has taken up a good amount of my camera roll. Yet, it became all the more special to me when I had the chance to write an article on the Baker bells this past winter. I remember climbing into the tower, talking to the graduate student in charge of programming the bells and feeling invigorated by my love for journalism. Hearing their ringing throughout campus now reminds me of that story and the joy I had while writing it. 

But even more notable, perhaps, are the places that once appeared rather ordinary, locations that have now become richer for the joy that bloomed for me there.

I moved into my dorm room on Aug. 30, 2023, greeted by blank walls, empty drawers and the simultaneous promise and slight trepidation of a new beginning. Over the course of this year, it has become the site of countless memories, from playing Bananagrams to singing with my friends. Now, it’s special to me not only because I’ve lived in it, but because I changed during my time there. 

The Class of 1953 Commons went from a confusing dining hall to a place where I debated how many ingredients were needed to constitute a salad, where Glee Club bonded over “Glee Dinner” after rehearsals and where I discovered my love for both Foco scrambled eggs and Foco soups .

Last but not least, Sudikoff Hall has transformed, in my mind, from a random building next to North Park into probably my favorite place on campus. This year especially, music has been my form of solace, catharsis and healing, a development to which Sudikoff has borne witness. It’s the place where I took voice lessons for the first time, probably annoyed my practice room neighbors with all my vocal warmups, attempted to harmonize with friends during karaoke nights, re-learned my favorite classical piano pieces, had lengthy conversations in the practice rooms and, most of all, where I felt most like myself.

As I near the end of my freshman year, I no longer see these places as merely buildings or bodies of water. I now view all the versions of myself that have made memories there, and that makes them all the more special.

I still find Dartmouth’s campus breathtaking. And though some of its novelty may have worn off, Hanover now feels lived-in. I wonder if this is what it means to turn a house into a home.

Of course, not every moment of my first year has been joyous or beautiful. I’ve felt overwhelmed by the newness of my life during New Student Orientation and sat in my dorm room longing for the comfort and stability of my hometown friendships. Inevitably, I’ve stressed over papers that I had given myself too little time to write. 

And yet, I don’t think these moments detract from the joy I’ve found here. If anything, they make the joy and the beauty even more precious. As I now return to wearing shorts, shielding my eyes from the sun and switching on my room fan to its strongest setting, I find myself realizing how differently I’ve come to see Dartmouth from nine months ago, the last time the trees sparkled so brightly. 

Somehow, all the places where I once found beauty have become more charming for the times I’ve spent there and the memories I’ve made. I’ve learned that the memories make the place. I hope, then, that Dartmouth will only grow more beautiful to me by the day.

Moreton, Huang and Voekel: Staff and Faculty Open Letter In Response to the College’s ‘Day for Community’

Nadeem: no, i don’t want your mental health advocacy.

Reflection: What’s in a Woccom?

Graduate student kexin cai found dead, dartmouth faculty votes 183 - 163 to censure beilock, more than 4,200 people sign pro-beilock letter, new food options to open in west lebanon.

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Hiv and advocacy 4 person panel by dartmouth's dickey center, professor lucey's linkedin, check out mals course 373, see dr. lucey's 40 reflections, professor lucey's wikipedia page, dr. daniel lucey '77 med '81/82 awarded the 2024 lester b. granger '18 award, posted on april 02, 2024 by mals program, amanda watson.

MALS own, Dr. Daniel Lucey '77 MED '81/82 has been chosen by the Division of Institutional Diversity and Equity at Dartmouth to recieve the 2024 Lester B. Granger '18 Award.

Dr. Lucey teaches MALS Course 373 Epidemics: Vortex of Fear and Wisdom and we are so excited that the college has chosen to honor him.

"The Lester B. Granger '18 Award is presented annually to a Dartmouth College graduate or graduates whose lifelong commitment to public service has been exemplary. Granger Award recipients have exhibited leadership and innovation in meeting community needs and benefiting an underserved population" 

"The award honors your extraordinary  work and dedication as an international infectious disease specialist focusing on the intersection of infectious diseases and historically marginalized populations. It also recognizes your tireless work calling on governments and international bodies to do more and be better prepared in the face of global health epidemics." 

Read the annoucement article here ! 

Please join us in congratulating Professor Lucey! 

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Join us for a book talk with dr. tarek el-ariss hosted by dartmouth libraries.

Attend a reading by Professor Tarek El-Ariss from his recently published memoir, Water on Fire: A Memoir of War, hosted by Dartmouth Libraries.

Tarek El-Ariss (James Wright Professor and Chair of Middle Eastern Studies) will read from his recently published memoir,  Water on Fire: A Memoir of War . This work has been described by Alaa Al Aswany, author of  The Yacoubian Building , as a "beautifully written book" in which the author "takes his reader on a journey of discovery of one's identity, commitment to humanity, and sorrows and ambitions, drawing a vivid picture of life at war from Beirut to New York." The reading will be followed by a Q&A. The event is hosted by Dartmouth Libraries. 

Registration is required. There are 26 seats available. 

Follow this link to access the Dartmouth Libraries page and register your seat:  https://libcal.dartmouth.edu/event/12254231

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How to Write the Dartmouth College Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

Tucked away in the idyllic greenery of Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College has long been a sought-after institution of higher education since its founding in 1769. At the center of this community is its small, tight-knit group of 4,400 undergraduates, who enjoy the resources of over 40 departments and 60 majors.

Due to the bucolic nature of its location, approximately 70 percent of undergraduates participate in Greek life, as it serves as the hub of social interaction. Athletics and outdoor activities are also extremely popular – 75 percent of students are involved in a varsity, club, or intramural sport. Besides playing in NCAA Division I in 34 sports, such as basketball, football, and lacrosse, Dartmouth is also home to the largest collegiate excursion club in the U.S.; with roughly 3000 student and non-student members, it serves as the coordinating organization for many outdoor winter activities, notably skiing, mountaineering, ice climbing, canoeing, and kayaking.

Dartmouth College currently sits at #11 in U.S. News and World Report’s National Universities Ranking , its selectivity maintained by its low acceptance rate of 11%. Admitted students typically score 750, and 760 on SAT Reading, and Math, respectively. For those taking the ACT, accepted candidates scored, on average, in the 30-34 range. 1,217 undergraduates enrolled out of 20,035 applicants for the Class of 2021.

It is the alma mater of a host of notable alumni, including Robert Frost, Daniel Webster, and Mindy Kaling. Additionally, Dartmouth is also the 22nd richest college in the U.S., with an endowment of $4.95 billion as of 2017.

To apply to Dartmouth College, candidates may submit either the Common Application, or the Coalition Application. The college does not prefer one or the other. Candidates may apply through the Early Decision process (due November 1st), or the Regular Decision process (due January 2nd). In addition to the required essay in the Common Application or Coalition Application, Dartmouth requires two supplemental essays: applicants are all required to complete the first prompt, but may choose from 6 different options for the second prompt. Read on to find out how to tackle them!

Want to learn what Dartmouth College will actually cost you based on your income? And how long your application to the school should take?  Here’s what every student considering Dartmouth College needs to know.

How to Write the Dartmouth College Admissions Essays

Every essay you write in this college application process, including the Common App, is a component of your candidate profile. To help maximize the admissions committee’s understanding of you, for each school’s essay portfolio, be sure to choose topics that complement each other.

For example, if you wrote about a personal geology project in your Common App, don’t also write about your aspiration to solve a geological crisis in the second prompt, or only concentrate on the geology program in the first prompt.

Dartmouth asks for two supplemental essays – one in 100 words, and the other in 300 words. Since these essays are so short, you need to jam-pack your Common App essay with even more personal information, which will allow room for you to focus more on Dartmouth-specific academic, professional or extracurricular programs in these supplements.

Your response to prompt 1 needs to be tailored to Dartmouth specifically. If in your prompt 1 essay, it is possible to switch out the name “Dartmouth” for another school’s name, with the essay still making sense, then you probably need to dive into greater detail.

Since Dartmouth is a more academically-oriented school than its counterparts, it is critical to explain why you would like to pursue the major you choose in at least one of the supplemental essays.  

Prompt #1:  Please respond in 100 words or less:

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 2023, what aspects of the college’s program, community or campus environment attract your interest.

This is essentially the classic “Why X School?” essay . With only a meager 100 words available, the goal of this is not to mention every program or component of Dartmouth that attracts you, or give an elaborate praise of those programs. Rather, you have to demonstrate why the essence of Dartmouth resonates with you . Here are some dos and don’ts to get you thinking in the right direction:

Pick one aspect of Dartmouth that you feel deeply connected to. For example, if your academic love is environmental science, consider writing this essay on Dartmouth’s prioritization of sustainability through emphasis on programs like beekeeping, ethical fish farming, and proper extraction of maple syrup from sugar maple trees.

That said, keep in mind that ultimately, you need to present a holistic candidate profile to the school. That means showcasing as many aspects of yourself as possible – if you focus on an academic interest in this prompt, make sure to hone in on your favorite aspects of campus life and extracurricular offerings in the next prompt.

Do not, however, dive into a detailed dissertation of why the program you choose to write about is so necessary in our world today. Whichever reason attracts you to Dartmouth, chances are, someone else wants to attend the college for the same reason.

The admissions committee is not interested in reading the 1052nd essay on why the school made the right choice to implement these sustainability initiatives — the admissions officers likely know the school well enough to understand why Dartmouth initiated those programs. Instead, what admissions want to know is why these are deciding factors for you to choose Dartmouth.

For example, perhaps you lived in an area that was affected profoundly by a catastrophic natural disaster, and since then, you have been hyper-aware of the interactions between people and their habitats, and want to devote your energy towards decreasing the likelihood of a natural disaster happening to someone else.

Focus your essay on one core theme. For example, if you choose to write about Dartmouth’s unique outdoor-centric student life, structure the entire essay around this topic. 100 words do not provide you with enough leeway to cover multiple topics well. That said, if there is a tangential factor relevant to your core theme that attracts you to Dartmouth, do add it in to spice up your essay.

Do not write a list of everything you love about Dartmouth. Don’t try to expound on your love of the college’s vibrant Greek life while attempting to describe your passion for sustainability and your appreciation for the school’s flexible curriculum. Doing so would only allow you to mention each element in passing without connecting it to you personally.

Prompt #2:  Please choose one of the following prompts and respond in 250-300 words:

Option a: “i have no special talent,” albert einstein once observed. “i am only passionately curious.” celebrate your curiosity., option b: 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., option c: you can’t use up creativity,” maya angelou mused. “the more you use, the more you have.” share a creative moment or impulse—in any form—that inspired creativity in your life., option d: 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, option e: in the bingo palace, author louise erdrich, class of 1976, writes, “…no one gets wise enough to really understand the heart of another, though it is the task of our life to try.” discuss., option f: emmy and grammy winner donald glover is a 21st century renaissance man—an actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, singer, songwriter, rapper, and dj. and yet the versatile storyteller and performer recently told an interviewer, “the thing i imagine myself being in the future doesn’t exist yet.” can you relate.

Here, you select one of the 6 options below to answer the question in 250-300 words. Though precision and conciseness are hallmarks of quality essays, you are not recommended to go below the 250 word benchmark. These are all open-ended questions that could elicit a much longer response – if you find yourself dipping below the minimum by more than 50 words, you probably are not optimizing your opportunity to showcase your personality.

Some tips on prompt selection:

Tip #1: Read through each of the 6 prompts.

Tip #2: Immediately categorize them into 3 segments: “likely,” “possible,” and “unlikely”.

(a) Under “likely” are all of the prompts that you have an immediate answer for upon first read

(b)  Under “possible” are all prompts you find interesting and would be open to

(c) Under “unlikely” are prompts that you find are prone to cheesy answers, or those that you simply cannot relate to at all

Tip #3: Jot down an idea or anecdote for each topic under “likely” and “possible”.

Tip #4: Review them and select the topic with the most unique story, or one that best showcases your wit and intellectual prowess.

Though this may appear like an “analyze the quote” prompt, you do not actually have to make any reference to it. The Albert Einstein quote is only a way for the prompt writers to frame this topic. Focus instead on an anecdote in which your curiosity produced a tangible result.

For instance, you may describe the time when after hearing about a friend’s horrifying experience with a violent teacher, your curiosity urged you to investigate the school’s protocol for managing these type of complaints, only to find that a standard procedure does not exist. After realizing that cases like your friend’s are evaluated on an individual basis that downplayed the seriousness of the issue, you started a widespread petition among the student body and parents’ association to pressure the school into establishing a safe channel for students to express their concerns.

If the example you are thinking of using did not necessarily produce a distinct change in a public setting, that is completely fine. It does not preclude you from this prompt.

For example, you can also write about your curious fascination with electronics – how you tirelessly disassemble every device in your house, sometimes leaving a trail of scattered parts around your room. Though you were not able to fix any of the devices you dismantled, this determination to understand the components of every machine piqued your interest in mechanical engineering, and encouraged you to devote your academic career to understanding, improving, and inventing more machines.

Try to keep the timeframe of your anecdotes to your high school career – though the chocolate volcano you engineered in 5th grade may have been cool, the more recent your example is, the easier it is for the admissions committee to get an accurate picture of who you are now.

This prompt cannot be immediately categorized as one of the “classic” essay questions and requires a bit more creativity for effective execution. It also adds yet another layer of decision-making to essay-writing – choosing the translation to continue with.

A few tips on which interpretation to choose and how to write your essay:

Tip #1: Out of all available translations, the term “story” is the most generic of the five. It is easy to argue that your story encompasses your history, your family’s legends, your genealogy and your culture’s traditions. If you do not have an instinctive response to this prompt, but still prefer this question as a whole, then choose this interpretation. The broad scope of this translation will allow you to take your essay in whichever direction you see fit.

In regards to writing the essay, you can choose to narrate a defining moment of your life that does not easily fit under any of the other four headings: perhaps on a family hike on Chirico Trail during winter break in your sophomore year, you witnessed the majesty and freedom of paragliders and became fascinated by this extreme sport ever since. You can then expand on how the sport has changed your perspective on the feeling of existence, of your resoluteness to live every moment to the fullest, etc.

Tip #2: History here can refer to family history, academic history, employment history, recreational history, etc. Choose this translation if there is a chronology in a certain aspect of your life that you want to highlight, a more or less linear process through which you matured.

Perhaps your illustrious history in competitive chess is especially important to you, and was critical in shaping your attitude towards work. Then use this opportunity to delineate your competitive history, and delve into the intellectual, and emotional impact it has imprinted on you.

Tip #3: Legend is one of the trickier ones, and will likely be a less popular selection. If you are particularly confident in your creativity, and prefer to distinguish yourself from the onset, then this is the one for you.

One way to interpret this is to relate a folktale important to your culture, and use it as a segue to introduce your culture and the role it has played in shaping your values and character. The same thing could be done with a “bedtime story” that you grew up on – you could use the fable as an entry point to describe your upbringing and the continued impact it has on your personality today.

Tip #4: Genealogy is also an interesting one – similar to “legend,” you could leverage the anecdote of your family lineage to depict important family members, or even family heirlooms, and the significance of their role in shaping how you feel about your culture.

Perhaps you share an unique bond with your grandmother, who was your primary caretaker while you were growing up. Her lineage could be traced back to Edinburgh, Scotland, where generations before, her ancestor braved the extreme weather and fed their community as hardy wheat farmers. Though you had previously hated your ginger hair, and purposefully distanced yourself from Scottish culture because you were teased, you feel more grounded and closer to your origins through the family tales passed through generations.

Tip #5: Tradition can be approached in a very similar manner to genealogy, or legend. Choose this translation if the topic you wish to discuss is more a custom than a linearly chronological account of a cultural phenomenon.

Option C: “ You can’t use up creativity,” Maya Angelou mused. “The more you use, the more you have.” Share a creative moment or impulse—in any form—that inspired creativity in your life.

This prompt asks you to impress the admissions committee with a dazzling example of your creativity, but don’t forget the underlying premise – you would really be indulging this prompt’s true purpose if you address how that inspiring moment fostered a greater, more extended flow of ingenuity, and associated examples.

Creativity comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes – you don’t have to have invented the next iPhone to call yourself creative. It could have been an internship project that none of your colleagues could find the solution for, but you viewed the conundrum from a different angle that ultimately allowed you to hone in and resolve the root of the issue instead of trying to address insignificant details.

Sometimes, the ability to shift mindsets and concentrate on the bigger picture is a form of creative thinking too. In time, this experience trained you to metaphorically step away from the present dilemma and approach puzzles with fresh eyes, which translated into your analytical skill in academics as well as your strategic plays in soccer.

This prompt alludes to two routes: one is the classic “why X program of study?” route, the other  invites you to elaborate more on your extracurriculars, especially if they happen to pertain to an advocacy issue of some sort. If you decide on this prompt, the route you proceed with should consider your overall candidate profile – if your first essay on Dartmouth focused more on the college’s alignment of academic offerings with your own interest, choose an anecdote that pertains more to you personally or to your extracurriculars, and vice versa.

Keep in mind, we are trying to depict you in as holistic a manner as possible. Each individual essay needs to dive deep into an aspect of yourself, and should not cover too wide a variety of topics, especially given the brevity of available word count. However, there should be variety between each essay in your profile, to highlight the multiplicity of your passions.

The split between answering the two questions in this prompt should be 30-70, respectively.

Use 30% of the essay to explain why you feel personally connected to the “trouble,” with a brief anecdote if possible. The less generic the problem you choose is, the easier it is to bring out your personality. Try to avoid generic topics like “gender equality,” “global warming,” and “refugee crisis.” There are many people who genuinely care about these issues, but each of these topics are so incredibly broad that it is near impossible to discuss them thoroughly and explain how Dartmouth’s course of study helps you address the problem. Instead, pick a specific sub or sub-sub topic within these sweeping subjects and focus on showing your attachment to it on a personal level.

70% (the majority) of the writing should focus on how specific programs, activities, courses, or even professors at Dartmouth can help you understand the nuances of this problem better. Remember to explain how you would then leverage these resources to galvanize more activists to contribute to a solution.

For example, you may be interested in remedying the antagonizing political climate in which there is a trend of labeling dissenting opinions as untrue and fake. To better understand why this is an increasingly prevalent phenomenon, you are intrigued by Professor Meghan Meyer’s research on the neuroscience behind our self-centered bias, and believe that grasping the scientific explanation behind our selfish tendencies could allow us to consciously combat it, and stop thinking of ourselves as the only righteous ones.

This is another unconventional, open-ended question that lends itself to a very personal piece. Though the prompt dictates, “discuss,” it is not suggested that you treat this as a literary analysis question. Your SAT essay is already an example of the aptitude of your academic writing, so there is no need to do that again here.

One way to respond is to chronicle the progression of your relationship with an important family member, friend, mentor, or even adversary in your life, and how, as you mature and play different roles in other people’s lives, you start to understand more of his/her perspective. Remember to always jump back onto the big picture, and explain how this journey has influenced your continued quest to try and “take a walk” in someone else’s shoes.

As an example, you may choose to detail the turbulent relationship with your mom growing up – you thought the way she was overprotective was absolutely crazy, and you didn’t understand why she would be so easily hurt or upset by your minor actions and words. However, as you grow up and experience hurt through the unintentional words or gestures of your close friends or significant other, you begin to realize how your similar expression could deeply upset your mom.

You could then go on to discuss how through the assumption of different parts in other people’s lives, you emotionally feel and comprehend the mindsets of those you care about much more. Then, bring the focus back to the big picture – how did this particular experience change the way you view human interaction, your relationship with those you initially dislike, and your attitude toward people going forward?

The key to an effective response here is to not get too carried away by the infinite directions you could take this in, and make sure to develop the essay around a key idea. Here are some ideas:

(1) This could be an especially advantageous prompt for you if you are the typical “well-rounded” candidate, without an incredibly clear direction or passion in one specific area. You could use this prompt to laud the virtues of having pursued several different interests – only through exhausting all possible options of what you could love can you be sure that whatever passion you follow is the most optimal option.

(2) Alternatively, you could use this prompt to discuss how you relate to this sentiment because you never want to be limited to a label, a reputation, or other people’s perception of you. As an example, you could write about how liberating it felt when you branched out from your usual STEM focused activities to write poetry instead, and enter in the Scholastic Arts Contest, and how this first breakthrough to a different realm catalyzed your pursuit of the arts.

(3) Or, you could interpret this prompt as meaning that one can pursue multiple passions and play multiple roles and be multiple people at the same time. You could share the multifariousness of your intellectual endeavors, as well as the depth and range of your mental capacity in reconciling different aspects of you and your variety of passions.

All in all, to respond to each of these prompts effectively, you will need to reach deep into your treasure trove of memories and truly reflect on the defining experiences that changed the way you view yourself, your work, and others. Never fear though, these guidelines will get you started thinking in a good direction! Good luck!

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

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Make sure your essay illustrates your personality! 

Applicants to Dartmouth are required to complete four essays – a personal statement and three brief supplemental ( writing supplement ) essays.

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

The Common App offers a variety of topics to choose from for your personal statement as well as access to Dartmouth's supplemental essay prompts .

Your essays should help us understand those intangibles that can't easily be reflected in a resume. Show us the qualities that make you you. Your sense of humor, your passion, your intellectual curiosity, your self-awareness, or social awareness, or some mix of these. Your writing lets us get to know you and we read every word. Help us envision what you'll bring to Dartmouth.

• Writing Supplement

• A Theoretical Engagement With Remix – Distant Reading

Having performed a term of research doing all kinds of operations on the Brut – applying transcription tools on the text itself and on secondary texts, using it in accordance with artificial intelligence, and documenting my experience, I find m yself back in this project, without being able to read the Brut . Though I have been “working with” the text from various angles, a crucial experience that is lacking in the center of it is a most canonical one that one associates with books – reading.

In my first meeting with Professor Warren, I asked for some factual knowledge on the past research done on the chronicle. What I have discovered was that except for a few past students who have read The Brut , most people who partook in Remix could not read Middle English. Considering that the main group of people who are constantly working with The Brut is the Remix project group, I have discovered that the relationship between us researchers and The Brut is essentially one of not reading – rather than reading.

Franco Moretti, in his Distant Reading theory, proposes that close reading is problematic, and it is because: “But the trouble with close reading (in aIl of its incarnations, from the new criticism to deconstruction) is that it necessarily depends on an extremely small canon. This may have become an unconscious and invisible premise by now, but it is an iron one nonetheless: you invest so much in individual texts only if you think that very few of them really matter.” (Moretti, 48). Moretti claims that with the abundance of text available to the readers – the expanse of which is greatly enlarged by the introduction of works outside the anglosphere – the reader does not have the capacity to closely engage with enough texts that will equip them with the necessary picture of the reality of texts in the world. The only way to access that kind of picture, to understand, as Moretti says, “the system in its entirety”, is to resort to the literary canon (Moretti, 49). Moretti proposes that, “At bottom, it’s a theological exercise-very solemn treatment of very few texts taken very seriously-whereas what we really need is a little pact with the devil: we know how to read texts, now let’s learn how not to read them.” (Moretti, 48).

By distant reading, Moretti means: “Distant reading: where distance, let me repeat it, is a condition of knowledge: it allows you to focus on units that are much smaller or much larger than the text: devices, themes, tropes-or genres and systems.” (Moretti, 49-50). Smaller units – frequency of word occurrences, topics, themes, names, and time stamps that can be categorized into systems, and larger units – cultural milieu, the larger historical reality under which the text was produced – are not the text itself. The ultimate goal is the “system” as Moretti calls it, which is the sphere, the manners, and the genealogy of the production of texts, and Moretti imagines that distant readings – by looking at small fragments or larger structures than the text itself – will take researchers to this understanding.

FromThePage.com is doing exactly this operation. Under the “subjects” section, fragments that are smaller than the texts are collected, and categorized into sections called “author/people”, “document title”, etc. The belief that metadata schemes reveal certain things about the text and the endeavor to extract meaning from the study of these metadata schemes are means of distant reading.

Michael Gavin’s essay, “Why Distant Reading Works”, follows up on Moretti’s judgment by continuing to place values on – and gives us another way to look into what Moretti means by – the idea of the “entirety of the system”, and the vision that Moretti wants to gain from distant reading. Gavin explains such visions through the scope of relevance, and he uses Dan Sperber and Deirdue Wilson’s definition of relevance: “There is a single property,” they write, “. . . which makes information worth processing for a human being.”13 That property is relevance: “Every act of ostensive com- munication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance” (Gavin, 620). Gavin expands on Moretti’s vision by arguing that “If it’s true that discourse is optimally directed toward the cognitive environments of its readers, then words naming the most contextually relevant facts are precisely those words most likely to appear in syntagmatic relation.” (Gavin, 625).

Through the parallel and proportional relationship between the frequency of words and their relevance to the people of a given time and space and their linguistic system, understanding those frequencies on an expansive level will equip the reader with the historical realities of such time and space – such reality operates not only on the material level but also on the linguistic level, which concerns the way that people used language.

Looking back at FromThePage, when one clicks on a subject that is frequent enough or appears multiple times, FromThePage offers something like this:

Here, the subject is “Ella Wheeler Wilcox”, and it disperses into different subjects that are mentioned frequently with it through topic modelling. On the right side are pages with mentions of the subject, and the project, after extracting data from the raw material, organize them into the graph on the left. It is possible for the viewers to see the graph as its own coherent body of text, revealing a series of linguistic units – smaller than the text itself – organized by the principle of relevance.

At this point, we get enough conceptual understanding about distant reading in order to compare it to our – similar but different – endeavor at Remix. First, distant reading focuses on units that are smaller and larger than the texts themselves; and second, distant reading is supposed to give rise to an understanding of a greater picture – for Moretti, such a picture is “world literature”, and for Gavin, “relevance”. Both of these concepts, however, depend on the existence of an extensive corpus of textual materials that allows distant readers to formulate certain claims about a certain period in (literary) history. Remix, on the other hand, uses one text as its object of study across almost a decade.

A critique by Katherine Bode on distant reading is also helpful for us to decide two ways in which the project of Remix differs from Moretti’s methods: “In my view, these criticisms describe the symptoms—not the essence—of a problem, which in fact inheres in Moretti’s and Jockers’s common neglect of the activities and insights of textual scholarship: the bibliographical and editorial approaches that explore and explicate the literary-historical record.” (Bode). This study of literary scholarship which is lacking in Moretti’s method, for Bode, renders distant reading accomplice with close reading – one only studies the textual information in the original sense, even if distant reading allows a machine to process this textual information. It only focuses on the text at the moment of its production – on the author’s side – and ignores the way readership and literary scholarship potentially grant a text new meanings. Remix, on the other hand, cares about the literary scholarship, as secondary texts like provenance documents, as well as the notes on the margins of pages by earlier readers – one of the notes say “It ys to harde for my lernyng”, and one of the provenance texts addresses this complaint.

Remix, on one hand, instead of aiming at studying a large corpus of texts in a short period of time, dedicates long, extensive research periods to one text. While we have the Handlist of Brut Manuscripts , which fits the Dartmouth Brut within a corpus, we nonetheless dedicate a long time to the Dartmouth Brut itself. On the other hand, Remix does not limit its own focus to the textual content of the Brut , and instead studies its materiality and readership, and how current and future readers – the ones with the digital tools – might interact with the text differently and create a new kind of literary scholarship.

Remix, thus, has a claim of a kind of fidelity to the text, and strangely without requiring one to do close reading. One can argue that the methodologies and maneuver of Remix invents a new kind of proximity and fidelity to the text that is different from the Russian Formalists and the New Critics. When a Remix researcher examines the bindings, the handwriting, and the captions of the Dartmouth Brut instead of the textual content itself, Remix arguably has a closer level of fidelity towards the text than the formalists, in the sense that textual content itself is mass-producible, while the idea of a unique and original manuscript is not. Walter Benjamin’s argument of the contrast between theater and film can be borrowed here to contrast manuscripts and printed text: “Any thorough study proves that there is indeed no greater contrast than that of the stage play to a work of art that is completely subject to or, like the film, founded in, mechanical reproduction.” (Benjamin, 10-11). The textual information itself, in its form, is reproducible – pure textual information has no sense of originality. There is no original version that one can claim fidelity to. For manuscripts, however, the idea of originality is very much alive. One argument posited by Benjamin helps illustrate this idea: “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence. This includes the changes which it may have suffered in physical condition over the years as well as the various changes in its ownership.” (Benjamin, 3). The presence in time and space of the Dartmouth Brut is ubiquitous in our study, and we’ve invested much energy into the changes of its physical condition and ownership.

Benjamin criticized “high art” in favor of mass-reproduced texts, which he uses film as an example, he argues: “It is inherent in the technique of the film as well as that of sports that everybody who witnesses its accomplishments is somewhat of an expert.” (Benjamin, 12). He thinks that these mass-producible media will democratize the public’s involvement radically and distribute some form of expertise to all of them, while “high art” – like painting – does not allow this kind of engagement. While Benjamin made his criticism, we are working with a manuscript – and one of canonical British history – which would’ve been part of high culture. Strangely, we undergraduates who (mostly) can’t read a sentence in Middle English are valorized as the experts. Despite the exclusivity of the idea of “Original” and the object of our study, our project of democratization through digital means is placing the tasking of democratization on not the object of study itself, but on the way we study it and engage with it. Remix fosters the idea that expertise is just practice, and it fosters a different kind of expertise. Most Remix researchers conclude their projects without knowing how to read Middle English but gain some kind of expertise in the tools that they use to engage with the Brut . The close reading of a text that is usually pursued in research is here substituted by the close reading of the tools themselves. The tools take less time to learn than Middle English, or at least, takes less time to learn to the extent to engage meaningfully with the Brut .

Partially, this democratization of the expertise of the researchers comes from the conditions under which the Remix project occurs. One of the very earliest projects of Remix was to transcribe the text into a full, textual form. Remix scholars tried using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to help transcribe, but it generated too much garbage text, and the researchers needed to transcribe manually. Transcribing even with the help of digital tools is very time-consuming and exhausting for the researchers, who are primarily undergraduate students. The transcription project was thus never finished and the Dartmouth Brut never had a full-text digital version. Dartmouth’s quarter system makes the students very conscious of how much time and dedication they can afford to spend on Remix. There are rarely graduate students who participate in Remix, and considering that the Comparative Literature program lasts for only a year, many graduate students who are interested in Remix are in a more hasty situation than undergraduates. Remix itself is a long, expansive project in which the researchers put together an archive. Archival work is often slow, and researchers might not have a clear sense of progress in the short run. Researchers who only have a short amount of time to spend on the project don’t tend to engage with long and arduous works like transcription. What the inaccessibility of the full transcribed text means for the students is not the creation of aura and elitist condition of critical agency as Benjamin suggests, but the shift in the research focus. The students are constantly in a position of distraction so Remix needs to find a way so the students can engage with the texts critically in this state of distraction.

So what have we accomplished? Professor Warren insists that it’s curiosity. It’s the engagement of each student. Remix has continued for almost a decade and has been through the hands of different researchers. The constant involvement of students makes Remix their own projects. In the end, it is about the process more than the result. Other than the archive that we form that whoever is interested might look into, it’s what each student takes with them when they leave the project that counts.

My inquiry about the lack of experience in reading the manuscript as a Remix researcher ended up as a homage to the decade of their hard work. The inquiry started with a question about the kind of intellectual material that a researcher can cultivate from Remix, and I have arrived at some kind of an answer. I joined Remix during my sophomore summer, which was the start of my junior year, with academic confusion about where my theoretical interest lies. Partaking in Remix has given me quite a lot of incentive and time to think about these questions. I think that the answer to the question I posted at the beginning of the investigation is arguably in the question itself.

Works Cited:

Benjamin, Walter, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Illuminations , edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Harry Zohn, Schocken Books, 1969, pp.1-26

Bode, Katherine. “The equivalence of “close” and “distant” reading; or, toward a new object for data-rich literary history.” Modern Language Quarterly 78.1 (2017): 77-106.

Foucault, Michel. “What is an Author?.” The Critical Tradition , edited by David H. Richter, Publisher, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp.520-530.

Gavin, Michael. “Why Distant Reading Works.” New Literary History, Volume 53, Number 4, Autumn 2022 / Volume 54, Number 1, Winter 2023, pp. 613-633.

Moretti, Franco. “Conjectures on World Literature.” Distant Reading , Verso Books, 2013, pp. 43-62.

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Guest Essay

America’s Military Is Not Prepared for War — or Peace

By Roger Wicker

Mr. Wicker, a Republican, is the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

“To be prepared for war,” George Washington said, “is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” President Ronald Reagan agreed with his forebear’s words, and peace through strength became a theme of his administration. In the past four decades, the American arsenal helped secure that peace, but political neglect has led to its atrophy as other nations’ war machines have kicked into high gear. Most Americans do not realize the specter of great power conflict has risen again.

It is far past time to rebuild America’s military. We can avoid war by preparing for it.

When America’s senior military leaders testify before my colleagues and me on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee behind closed doors, they have said that we face some of the most dangerous global threat environments since World War II. Then, they darken that already unsettling picture by explaining that our armed forces are at risk of being underequipped and outgunned. We struggle to build and maintain ships, our fighter jet fleet is dangerously small, and our military infrastructure is outdated. Meanwhile, America’s adversaries are growing their militaries and getting more aggressive.

In China, the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, has orchestrated a historic military modernization intended to exploit the U.S. military’s weaknesses. He has overtaken the U.S. Navy in fleet size, built one of the world’s largest missile stockpiles and made big advances in space. President Vladimir Putin of Russia has thrown Europe into war and mobilized his society for long-term conflict. Iran and its proxy groups have escalated their shadow war against Israel and increased attacks on U.S. ships and soldiers. And North Korea has disregarded efforts toward arms control negotiations and moved toward wartime readiness.

Worse yet, these governments are materially helping one another, cooperating in new ways to prevent an American-led 21st century. Iran has provided Russia with battlefield drones, and China is sending technical and logistical help to aid Mr. Putin’s war. They are also helping one another prepare for future fights by increasing weapons transfers and to evade sanctions. Their unprecedented coordination makes new global conflict increasingly possible.

That theoretical future could come faster than most Americans think. We may find ourselves in a state of extreme vulnerability in a matter of a few years, according to a growing consensus of experts. Our military readiness could be at its lowest point in decades just as China’s military in particular hits its stride. The U.S. Indo-Pacific commander released what I believe to be the largest list of unfunded items ever for services and combatant commands for next year’s budget, amounting to $11 billion. It requested funding for a raft of infrastructure, missile defense and targeting programs that would prove vital in a Pacific fight. China, on the other hand, has no such problems, as it accumulates the world’s leading hypersonic arsenal with a mix of other lethal cruise and attack missiles.

Our military leaders are being forced to make impossible choices. The Navy is struggling to adequately fund new ships, routine maintenance and munition procurement; it is unable to effectively address all three. We recently signed a deal to sell submarines to Australia, but we’ve failed to sufficiently fund our own submarine industrial base, leaving an aging fleet unprepared to respond to threats. Two of the three most important nuclear modernization programs are underfunded and are at risk of delays. The military faces a backlog of at least $180 billion for basic maintenance, from barracks to training ranges. This projects weakness to our adversaries as we send service members abroad with diminished ability to respond to crises.

Fortunately, we can change course. We can avoid that extreme vulnerability and resurrect American military might.

On Wednesday I am publishing a plan that includes a series of detailed proposals to address this reality head-on. We have been living off the Reagan military buildup for too long; it is time for updates and upgrades. My plan outlines why and how the United States should aim to spend an additional $55 billion on the military in the 2025 fiscal year and grow military spending from a projected 2.9 percent of our national gross domestic product this year to 5 percent over the next five to seven years.

It would be a significant investment that would start a reckoning over our nation’s spending priorities. There will be conversations ahead about all manner of budget questions. We do not need to spend this much indefinitely — but we do need a short-term generational investment to help us prevent another world war.

My blueprint would grow the Navy to 357 ships by 2035 and halt our shrinking Air Force fleet by producing at least 340 additional fighters in five years. This will help patch near-term holes and put each fleet on a sustainable trajectory. The plan would also replenish the Air Force tanker and training fleets, accelerate the modernization of the Army and Marine Corps, and invest in joint capabilities that are all too often forgotten, including logistics and munitions.

The proposal would build on the $3.3 billion in submarine industrial base funding included in the national security supplemental passed in April, so we can bolster our defense and that of our allies. It would also rapidly equip service members all over the world with innovative technologies at scale, from the seabed to the stars.

We should pair increased investment with wiser spending. Combining this crucial investment with fiscal responsibility would funnel resources to the most strategic ends. Emerging technology must play an essential role, and we can build and deploy much of it in less than five years. My road map would also help make improvements to the military procurement system and increase accountability for bureaucrats and companies that fail to perform on vital national security projects.

This whole endeavor would shake our status quo but be far less disruptive and expensive than the alternative. Should China decide to wage war with the United States, the global economy could immediately fall into a depression. Americans have grown far too comfortable under the decades-old presumption of overwhelming military superiority. And that false sense of security has led us to ignore necessary maintenance and made us vulnerable.

Our ability to deter our adversaries can be regained because we have done it before. At the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, in the twilight of the Soviet Union, George H.W. Bush reflected on the lessons of Pearl Harbor. Though the conflict was long gone, it taught him an enduring lesson: “When it comes to national defense,” he said, “finishing second means finishing last.”

Regaining American strength will be expensive. But fighting a war — and worse, losing one — is far more costly. We need to begin a national conversation today on how we achieve a peaceful, prosperous and American-led 21st century. The first step is a generational investment in the U.S. military.

Roger Wicker is the senior U.S. senator from Mississippi and the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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