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Dartmouth CollegeSupplemental Essays

All 3 required prompts, taken apart one by one: what each is really asking, plus two annotated example essays each, so you can see more than one way to do it well.

3 supplements
Required essays
100 / 250 / 250 words
Lengths
Required (not test-optional)
Test scores
Yes, for all first-years
Supplement required?

Deadlines Early Decision November 1, 2025 · Regular Decision January 1, 2026 · ED decisions released Mid-December 2025 · RD decisions released Late March / early April 2026 Admit rate Dartmouth admitted 1,702 of 28,230 applicants to the Class of 2029, a 6.0% acceptance rate. Roughly 96% of admitted students ranked in the top 10% of their high school class. Prompts verified from Dartmouth’s official requirements ↗

Dartmouth asks first-year applicants for three short supplemental essays on top of the Common App personal statement. The first is a 100-word "Why Dartmouth", then you pick one of two 250-word prompts, and finally one of seven 250-word prompts. None of them are long, which is exactly the trap: you have very little room to sound like a real person rather than a brochure.

Two facts shape your whole approach. Dartmouth is not test-optional for 2025-2026 (scores are required), so the essays are not carrying the weight of proving you can do the work. They are carrying the weight of proving you would be good to live next to in Hanover. The core challenge is warmth in miniature: showing a specific, human, slightly quirky version of yourself in a few hundred words without padding or grandstanding.

By the numbers · Figures are from Dartmouth's official Class of 2029 profile (the most recent published cycle). Dartmouth reinstated a standardized testing requirement, so the 2025-2026 application is not test-optional.
28,230Applicants
1,702Admitted
6.0%Admit rate
Class of 2029Class
What Dartmouth rewards
Specificity over prestige

Dartmouth has read ten thousand essays praising its reputation. What lands is a named course, a particular professor's research, a club, a tradition, or an academic angle that only fits you. Concrete beats impressive every time, especially in 100 words.

A livable personality

Dartmouth is small, rural, and tight-knit. The prompts (introduce yourself, your nerdy side, what excites you) are screening for someone who would be a good roommate, lab partner, and trail companion. Likable and genuine outperforms polished and distant.

Intellectual play

The quote-driven prompts reward curiosity for its own sake. Dartmouth likes students who get visibly excited about ideas, who read for pleasure, who have a niche obsession. Earnest enthusiasm reads as a feature here, not a flaw.

Reflection, not just storytelling

Across the choice prompts, Dartmouth keeps asking the same hidden question: so what did that mean to you? A vivid anecdote with no insight feels thin. They want to see how an experience actually shaped how you think or act.

Strategy, read this first

Treat the three essays as a portfolio, not three separate tasks. Before you write a word, list the four or five things you most want Dartmouth to know about you. Then assign each essay a different job so they do not overlap. If your "Why Dartmouth" is about a specific academic program, do not also write a second essay about academics; use the choice prompts to show range, like a community you come from, a passion outside school, and a way you think. The single most common failure at Dartmouth is three essays that all sound like the same earnest applicant talking about achievement.

For the 100-word "Why Dartmouth," resist the urge to list. One or two precise connections, named and explained, will always beat five vague ones. Spend your research time finding things that are true at Dartmouth and not at every other school: the D-Plan, an off-campus program, an undergraduate research setup, a specific First-Year Seminar topic, a club you would actually join. The choice prompts are where you get to be a person, so pick the option that lets you tell a story only you could tell, not the one that sounds most impressive.

01
Why Dartmouth (Required) 100 words
As you seek admission to Dartmouth's Class of 2030, what aspects of the college's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you?
What it’s really asking

In very few words, name the specific things at Dartmouth that fit you, and connect each one to something real about you. This is a "Why us" essay with almost no room, so it is really asking: have you done your homework, and do you actually belong here?

Why they ask it

Dartmouth is small and residential, so fit matters enormously. They want students who chose Dartmouth on purpose, not as a ranking, and who understand what makes it distinct (the D-Plan, the rural setting, the focus on undergraduates).

Three ways in
Lead with one true academic hook

Open with a specific First-Year Seminar topic, a professor's research that maps to your interest, or a department strength only you could claim, then connect it to something you have actually done.

Use the D-Plan as structural fit

Point to the D-Plan or an off-campus program as a feature that fits your goals, then tie it to a concrete plan rather than mentioning it as a perk.

Name a community you would join

Reference a club, the outdoor programs, or a cultural group and link it to who you already are, not who you hope to seem on paper.

✕  Weak opening

“Dartmouth's prestigious academics, world-renowned faculty, and beautiful campus make it my dream school.”

✓  Strong opening

“I want to take Professor Hudson's First-Year Seminar on rivers because I have spent three summers testing pH in the creek behind my house and never had anyone to argue with about it.”

✦ Annotated example · The creek kid. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
I want to take a First-Year Seminar on freshwater ecosystems because I have spent three summers testing the creek behind my house and never had anyone to argue with about the data.1Dartmouth's D-Plan lets me spend a sophomore summer doing field research instead of waiting until junior year, which is the difference between watching one season change and watching three.I also want the Ledyard Canoe Club, partly to paddle and partly because the people who run toward cold rivers tend to be my people.2Small classes, a professor who knows my name, and a current I can actually wade into: that is the version of college I have been trying to describe for years.3
  1. 1Opens with a named Dartmouth offering tied to a specific, true habit. No flattery, instant fit.
  2. 2Shows social fit and personality in one line, and proves real research into Dartmouth life.
  3. 3Closes by naming what is distinct about Dartmouth (small, undergraduate-focused) without using the word prestige.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is one Dartmouth course, program, or professor you could name right now without looking it up again, and why does it stick with you?
  • What do you already do for fun or out of stubbornness that Dartmouth would let you keep doing?
  • If a friend asked why Dartmouth and not the ten other schools on your list, what would you actually say?
Before you submit
  • Could this essay be copy-pasted to another Ivy? If yes, make it more specific to Dartmouth.
  • Did you name at least one concrete program, course, or feature and connect it to you?
  • Are you under 100 words with no sentence wasted on generic praise?
02
Essay 2: Choose One (Identity) 250 words
Choose ONE: (A) There is a Quaker saying: Let your life speak. Describe the environment in which you were raised and the impact it has had on the person you are today. (B) "Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself.
What it’s really asking

Both options want the same thing in different keys: a genuine introduction to who you are and where you come from. Option A roots you in a place and the people in it; Option B is an open-floor introduction. Pick the one that gives you a true story, not the one that sounds deeper.

Why they ask it

In a class this small, Dartmouth is building a community, not a stat sheet. They want to know what you would bring to a dorm and a dinner table. This is the essay that makes you a person rather than a profile.

Three ways in
Pick one concrete feature of home

For A, choose a single feature of your environment (a kitchen, a town, a family job, a language) and trace how it shaped a specific habit or value of yours.

Lead with a surprising detail

For B, introduce yourself through a small, true detail that contradicts the obvious version of you, then unpack what it actually reveals.

Anchor everything in one scene

Either way, ground the abstract in a single image and let it carry the meaning, rather than listing adjectives about yourself.

✕  Weak opening

“I was raised in a loving family that always taught me the value of hard work and to never give up on my dreams.”

✓  Strong opening

“My grandmother runs her bakery in Tagalog, Spanish, and the specific dialect of impatience reserved for anyone who touches the dough too early.”

✦ Annotated example · The bakery. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
My grandmother runs her bakery in three languages: Tagalog with my mother, Spanish with the morning customers, and the specific dialect of impatience reserved for anyone who touches the dough too early.1I grew up on a stool by the proofing oven, learning that you cannot rush bread and you cannot rush people, though I have tried to do both.2When the morning rush hit, I was the one who translated, taking orders in English and relaying them back in whatever language landed fastest.3I did not know I was learning to read a room until a teacher told me I was good at calming arguments. I had just been working the counter.4So when people ask where I am from, I say a bakery, and mean it: the place taught me to feed people, to listen in more than one language, and to wait for things worth waiting for.
  1. 1A single vivid image does the work of a paragraph of description, and it is unmistakably hers.
  2. 2Turns the setting into a value (patience) with a wry admission that keeps it honest.
  3. 3Shows a concrete role and skill that grew directly out of the environment.
  4. 4The reflective turn: names what the upbringing built in her without overstating it.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is one room, object, or routine from your upbringing that you could describe so specifically a stranger would see it?
  • What is a small, true fact about you that would surprise the people who think they have you figured out?
  • What value of yours did you not choose so much as absorb, and where did it come from?
Before you submit
  • Did you pick the prompt with the more honest story, not the more impressive-sounding one?
  • Is there at least one concrete scene or image, not just a list of traits?
  • Does the essay end with a turn that says what this means about who you are?
03
Essay 3: Choose One (Range) 250 words
Choose ONE (250 words): (A) What excites you? (B) Dolores Huerta on a life of purpose: "We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live..." In what ways do you hope to make, or are you already making, an impact? Why? How? (C) "A good novel is the best invention humans have ever created for imagining other lives," wrote Matt Haig. How have you experienced such insight from reading? (D) Jane Goodall: "Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue..." Tell us about a difficult conversation or an encounter with a different perspective. (E) Celebrate your nerdy side. (F) "It's not easy being green..." How has difference been a part of your life, and how have you embraced it as part of your identity? (G) Share a story of failure, trial runs, revamping, reworking, or journeying from bad to good.
What it’s really asking

This is your range essay: the place to show a side the other two did not. The options run from pure enthusiasm (A, E) to impact (B) to empathy and difference (C, D, F) to growth through failure (G). Pick the one that gives you a story only you could tell, and that does not repeat your other essays.

Why they ask it

Dartmouth wants curious, generous, resilient people, and this menu lets you choose the angle where you are most yourself. They are reading for genuine excitement, real reflection, and a mind that engages with ideas and people, not just achievements.

Three ways in
Go narrow and unembarrassed

For E or A, pick one oddly specific obsession and explain it with real joy. A single niche passion beats a broad "I love learning" every time.

Show what you did, not just that you care

For D or F, choose a concrete moment of friction or difference and show the action you took or the thing you understood, not just that you are open-minded.

Spend the reflection on the change

For G, tell the failure honestly and use your last lines on what you changed about yourself, not on how it all worked out in the end.

✕  Weak opening

“Ever since I was young, I have been passionate about learning new things and challenging myself in everything I do.”

✓  Strong opening

“I can tell you the optimal order to load a dishwasher and I will, unprompted, at your house, against your wishes.”

✦ Annotated example 1 of 2 · Nerdy side: the dishwasher. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
I can tell you the optimal order to load a dishwasher, and I will, unprompted, at your house, against your wishes.1It started as a chore and became a system: bowls angled toward the jets, nothing nesting, the soap door unblocked so it actually opens mid-cycle.2What hooked me was that the manual was wrong. The factory diagram ignored water pressure, so I tested layouts for a month and tracked which dishes came out cloudy.3That is the part I cannot turn off. I want to know why the obvious arrangement is not the best one, whether it is a dishwasher, a bus schedule, or a proof.4So yes, I will reorganize your bottom rack. Consider it a gift from someone who genuinely cannot stand to watch a fork get cleaned twice.
  1. 1Picks a deliberately small, funny obsession and owns it. Instantly likable and specific.
  2. 2Real, granular detail proves the nerdiness is genuine, not a gimmick.
  3. 3Turns a joke into evidence of how she actually thinks: testing, tracking, doubting the official answer.
  4. 4Zooms out to a transferable trait (questioning defaults) without losing the playful tone.
✦ Annotated example 2 of 2 · Difference (F): the quiet table. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
For two years I ate lunch with the kids nobody else would sit with, not out of charity, but because the new-kid silence was a language I already spoke fluently.1I moved four times before high school, so I learned to read a cafeteria the way some people read a room: who is alone on purpose, who is alone by accident.2At the quiet table I met a kid who only spoke when the topic was trains, so I learned about trains, and discovered he knew every rail line in three countries.3Being the perpetual outsider taught me that difference is rarely a problem to fix. More often it is a door someone is waiting for you to knock on.4
  1. 1Reframes difference as lived experience, not a lesson, and the voice is specific and a little sharp.
  2. 2Grounds the abstract idea of difference in a concrete, repeated experience.
  3. 3Shows empathy as action (learning his subject) rather than just claiming open-mindedness.
  4. 4The reflective turn lands the insight without moralizing, and ties back to identity.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is something you geek out about that you would normally hide on an application but secretly love?
  • When did you change your mind, or fail at something, in a way that actually mattered to you?
  • What experience of being different or out of place taught you something you still use?
Before you submit
  • Does this essay show a side of you the other two essays did not cover?
  • Is there a real, specific scene rather than a general statement of belief or passion?
  • Did you spend your last lines on reflection (what it meant) rather than just wrapping up the plot?

Mistakes that sink Dartmouth essays

✕ Do not waste the 100 words on flattery

Lines like "Dartmouth's world-class faculty and beautiful campus" could describe any school and tell the reader nothing. In 100 words, every sentence that is not specific to you is a sentence wasted. Cut straight to the named program or experience and why it fits you.

✕ Do not pick the prompt that sounds smartest

The novel and impact prompts can tempt you into writing what you think Dartmouth wants. Pick the option where you have a real, lived story. "Celebrate your nerdy side" written honestly beats a forced essay about changing the world.

✕ Do not let three essays blur together

If a reader could swap your second and third essays without noticing, you have wasted a slot. Give each one a distinct subject, setting, and tone so the set shows different sides of you.

✕ Do not skip the reflection

A great scene that ends without any insight feels unfinished here. In 250 words, leave room for one or two sentences that show what the experience taught you or changed in you. That turn is what Dartmouth is reading for.

Dartmouth essay FAQ

How many essays does Dartmouth require for 2025-2026?

Three supplemental essays, plus your Common App personal statement. The supplements are a 100-word "Why Dartmouth," one 250-word essay chosen from two prompts, and one 250-word essay chosen from seven prompts.

What are the Dartmouth supplemental essay prompts for 2025-2026?

The first is a required 100-word "Why Dartmouth" essay. The second is a choice between the Quaker "Let your life speak" prompt and Oscar Wilde's "Be yourself, introduce yourself." The third is a choice among seven, including "What excites you?", "Celebrate your nerdy side," prompts on impact, reading, difficult conversations, difference, and failure.

What are the word limits for Dartmouth's essays?

The "Why Dartmouth" essay is 100 words or fewer. The second and third essays are each 250 words or fewer. These are firm limits, so write tight.

Is Dartmouth test-optional for 2025-2026?

No. Dartmouth reinstated a standardized testing requirement, so applicants must submit SAT or ACT scores. Because scores are required, your essays focus on showing who you are rather than proving academic ability.

What are Dartmouth's application deadlines?

Early Decision is November 1, 2025, and Regular Decision is January 1, 2026. ED decisions arrive in mid-December and RD decisions in late March or early April.

How hard is it to get into Dartmouth?

Very. Dartmouth admitted 1,702 of 28,230 applicants to the Class of 2029, a 6.0% acceptance rate, with about 96% of admitted students in the top 10% of their high school class. Specific, genuine essays matter at that level of selectivity.

Prompts and facts verified against Dartmouth Admissions: Writing Supplement, Dartmouth Admissions: Application Deadline, Dartmouth Class of 2029 Profile (PDF) and Dartmouth News: Admission to the Class of 2029 (Dartmouth College, 2025-2026 cycle). Supplements change yearly, re-verify each cycle.

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