How To Answer Dartmouth's Supplemental Essay Prompts 2025/26

Dartmouth College's 2025/26 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 2025/26 admissions cycle Dartmouth has left most of the prompts unchanged, but has replaced two of the personal insight prompts with new ones.

1. "Why Dartmouth" Essay Prompt Unchanged

The foundational prompt about Dartmouth's distinctive sense of place and purpose remains unchanged.

2. Prompts for the Personal Background Essay Remain the Same

Dartmouth's second required essay continues unchanged from last year, offering 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. Some New Prompts for the Personal Reflections and Insights Essay

Previously, Dartmouth gave applicants five or six options to choose from for their third essay, before expanding it to seven.

For 2025/26, Dartmouth continues to offer seven different prompts to choose from, of which five remain unchanged while prompts 3 and 7 in this section have been replaced with new prompts.

Prompt 3 offers a chance for applicants to share perspectives or reflections on the life of someone they read about in a book, while Prompt 7 invites students to share experiences and reflections about a journey from and through failure to renewed insights and success.

What Are Dartmouth's Supplemental Essay Prompts for 2025/26?

Dartmouth's Writing Supplement presents prompts in three categories:

1. "Why Dartmouth" Essay — required for all applicants
2. Personal Introduction/Background Essay — students respond to one of the two prompts offered
3. Personal Qualities and Insights Essay — students can select one prompt from among seven options

1. The “Why Dartmouth” Essay.

This essay is the shorter of the three essays, and needs to be 100 words or fewer. In this essay, it's important to be authentic, passionate, and specific when describing why Dartmouth is your ideal college destination.

2. Introduce Yourself Essay

Students choose one of the two prompts to respond to in an essay of 250 words maximum.

This essay is a chance to simply introduce yourself, but key is reflecting on what you really want admissions officers to know about you and your background — beyond what's already catalogued about in your lists of activities, your grades, transcripts, test scores, awards, etc.

3. Personal Reflections and Insights Essay

Pick one prompt from the seven offered and write an essay of 250 words or fewer.

These prompts are diverse and the variety of options offer you a chance to select a prompt that will really help you reveal something deeply authentic, personal, and compelling about how you see yourself, view the world, and interact with others, or about how you learn, respond to adversity, and how your values shape your aspirations for college learning and beyond.

Seven Prompts — Choose ONE

A.    What excites you?

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

C.    In an Instagram post, best-selling British author Matt Haig cheered the impact of reading. "A good novel is the best invention humans have ever created for imagining other lives," he wrote. How have you experienced such insight from reading? What did you read and how did it alter the way you understand yourself and others?

D.    The social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees have been the focus of Dame Jane Goodall's research for decades. Her understanding of animal behavior prompted the English primatologist to see a lesson for human communities as well: "Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right." Channel Dame Goodall: Tell us about a moment when you engaged in a difficult conversation or encountered someone with an opinion or perspective that was different from your own. How did you find common ground?

E.   — Celebrate your nerdy side.

F. "It's not easy being green…" was the frequent refrain of Kermit the Frog. How has difference been a part of your life, and how have you embraced it as part of your identity, outlook, or sense of purpose?

G.    The Mindy Kaling Theater Lab will be an exciting new addition to Dartmouth's Hopkins Center for the Arts. "It's a place where you can fail," the actor/producer and Dartmouth alumna said when her gift was announced. "You can try things out, fail, and then revamp and rework things… A thing can be bad on its journey to becoming good." Share a story of failure, trial runs, revamping, reworking, or journeying from bad to good.

With these prompts, the message is loud and clear: Dartmouth leaders are encouraging you to be yourself and write about genuine and ordinary experiences and authentic personal insights, reflections, or convictions.

This essay is an ideal opportunity to speak in an authentic voice, avoid any temptation to be performative, and consider revealing some glimpses of candor and vulnerability within a carefully crafted piece that's unified and memorable.

How To Write Dartmouth's Supplemental Essays

Below you'll find tips and ideas to make your Dartmouth supplemental essays authentic and memorable — and some common pitfalls to avoid.

It's also a good idea to start your process by asking yourself "what do I most want to be sure Dartmouth knows about me, and about my motivations for attending Dartmouth?"

Whatever direction your Dartmouth essays take, they should be polished and crafted with care while also bringing to life your unique voice, personality, perspectives, and aspirations. Use authentic reflections or splashes of creativity in ways that help your personality shine through and make your application stand out.

1. How To Answer the "Why Dartmouth" Prompt?

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 (Research Is Key)

Avoid vague descriptions about Dartmouth. 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.

Take the time to research and learn more about concrete programs, groups, programs, clubs, courses and professors (and books professors have authored or topics they research...) that are relevant to your own personal excitement about getting into Dartmouth.

Personalize Your Answer

In addition to showing you're excited about some specific and very concrete offerings, be sure to build a bridge from those to your own personal passions and goals.

• 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.
• Is there a facility, department, unique course, or individual professor you want to engage with as a Dartmouth student? Why?

Relate these aspects back to your own journey and with authentic and genuine insights into your unique interests, aspirations, and values and how they fit with specific campus qualities, resources, and offerings.

Stay Concise

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

Examples

• 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.

Recap

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

2. How To Answer the Personal Introduction Prompt for Dartmouth

For this essay there are two prompts. Both invite you to introduce yourself and provide insights into your personality and the influences or experiences that shaped it.

One prompt encourages you to focus more on environmental factors that shaped you while growing up, and the other offers more of an opportunity for showcasing a unique personality traits and a unique voice and perspective on the world.

Start by choosing the prompt that provides the best opportunity for what you want to write about.

As you plan your essay, think about concrete details that will make it concrete, authentic, and memorable — so admissions officers really get to know about core and formative aspects of your background or personality.

You'll be limited to 250 words. Avoid wasting words on resume-type information easily gleaned from other parts of your application.

Use this essay to introduce yourself in a way that's holistic but also introspective with vivid details that you can use to reveal deeper layers of your personality and the influences shaping it — the background experiences or personality traits that make you uniquely you and that won't be evident elsewhere in your application.

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.

With the word limit in mind, consider if you want to frame your essay with a well-worded insight into the main theme(s), or if you'd rather jump right into a vivid memory, anecdote, or snippet of dialogue that captures attention and creates some suspense while anchoring what's to follow.

Recap

Dartmouth's Quaker Saying prompt is probably your best option if you have background experiences that are memorable and compelling, but also continue to shape who you are and who'll you'll become, in college and beyond.

Dartmouth's Oscar Wilde 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.

While the Quaker Saying prompt is best suited for sharing a unique background and experiential journey, this prompt is more geared to focusing on personality traits and perspectives that simply make you you.

Embracing Your Uniqueness

While it's tempting to present an idealized version of oneself, Dartmouth is looking for authenticity and perhaps to see if you're able to see and reflect on some of the human flaws and vulnerabilities that also make you you.

Reflect on ways you can anchor and structure your essay around components like these:

• 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.
• How Others See You: What do others say about you, or how do they describe you? What do these perspective reveal about your personality, or what do they miss?

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.

Recap

Dartmouth's second Introduce Yourself prompt is a canvas for you to paint a portrait of your personality.

This isn't about lots of family history or growing up experiences (the Quaker Saying prompt) nor about showcasing achievements, but about presenting an authentic, holistic image of who the personality traits — including passions, beliefs, hopes, and even flaws and doubts — that make you you.

Dive deep into introspection, embrace your uniqueness, and introduce yourself in a way that's relevant for the Dartmouth context and remains memorable and genuine.

3. How To Answer Dartmouth’s Personal Reflections and Insights Prompt?

For this final Dartmouth essay there are seven prompts to choose from, giving you many options for selecting a prompt that you can use as a springboard for sharing some unique and compelling reflections and insights that offer a glimpse into how you think and engage with the world around you, how you learn, and your ability cultivate self-awareness that drives personal growth.

Navigating Dartmouth's exploratory essay prompts requires a blend of introspection and a clear understanding of what the college values.

While each prompt is a chance to spotlight a distinct facet of your character, you'll want to be thoughtful (and perhaps a bit playful and creative) in choosing a prompt that will help you craft a memorable essay — one that conveys personality, a growth mindset, and a memorable personal voice and perspective.

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.

Examples

• 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.

Recap

The first Personal Reflections and Insights 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.

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.

Examples

• 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.

Recap

Dartmouth's second Personal Reflections and Insights 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.

This unique prompt from Dartmouth encourages book lovers, or anyone deeply influenced by a particular book, to showcase a reading that led them to identify with someone different from themself — including a fictional character or real person — and the insights they discovered in this encounter.

Decoding the Prompt

As you plan, note that the Haig quote refers to "good novels" but that the prompt reframes this to encompass any kind of reading you've done. This means it can be fiction or nonfiction, book, article or some other reading material or source that had an important impact on you, or multiple readings...

Also, the prompt has a thematic focus on a specific kind of insight: how reading experiences can help you imagine other lives and a reading experience or insight that altered the way you understand yourself and others?

Set the Stage

Be sure to capture concisely and vividly the specific book, passage, or reading experience that connects with this prompt and triggered and shaped your insight. What were you reading? What character or person's life did you step into? What was the insight and how did the insight break through (an abrupt epiphany? an evolving meditation?...).

A Two-Sided Reflection

This prompt nudges you to think about how reading can unlock or trigger insights into someone else's life or life experience.

Side One: Whose life was this and what kind of experience, perspective, beliefs, actions, or world views did the reading help you imagine.

Side Two: How did this real or imagined other life resonate with you? Did it

• strengthen a conviction of your own?
• inspire you to take a different life path?
• see a new aspect of your own personality with more clarity?
• garner new--found empathy for someone in your life or for certain kinds of people you interact with?

The Reading Experience at Dartmouth

Do you have or did you gain a deeper appreciation of reading from the experience you described?

How will Dartmouth's environment be ideal for diving deeper into reading, both as a source for academic learning, for dialogue and debate, and also for personal reflection, contemplation, and growth?

Examples

1. Even described in such detail, it was hard for me to imagine what it was like, in the book Solito, for Javier as he set off to get from El Salvador to the U.S. on a dangerous journey. I try to be hardworking, and honest, and respectful, but this book made me ask myself what would trying to be brave look like in my life? How would it change me and what I make of my education?
2. Dostoevsky's The Double made me think about the motivations shaping my actions and decisions. But I also wondered if my dreams and aspirations might be worth holding up for examination too. Who is the person we create when we dream about or plan our future? At Dartmouth I will be investing in my education, but for what goals and to become who? This reading is causing me to examine different kinds of goals and opportunities I can set my eyes on as I continue to learn.

Recap

Dartmouth’s third Personal Reflection and Insights prompt offers a field wide open for intellectual reflection and thoughtful imagination, especially if books and the love of reading shape your personality and reflections.

By seeking to fashion an environment that celebrates individuality while also building community, Dartmouth understands that it needs students who can navigate diverse viewpoints and disagreement in constructive ways, and who will work to try and find common ground amid disagreement.

If you're a good listener, diplomatic as a leader, able to be flexible and agile in considering different points of views, arguments, and perspectives, then this prompt is one that will allow you to illustrate these traits and how they'll make you a better learner and a positive influence on the Dartmouth community.

Zeroing in on Key Themes

The prompt juxtaposes humans with primates, perhaps as a reminder: while disagreement is a universal experience, what's not inevitable and a sign of our shared humanity is how we choose to respond.

In this essay you'll need to be honest about your own impulses when faced with a stubborn disagreement or stuck in an unresolved argument, and then illustrate how you've been able to navigate such situations to preserve or restore goodwill and find common ground.

Setting the Stage

The prompt asks you to describe an authentic experience of your own "when you engaged in a difficult conversation" or ran up against a disagreement with someone. Because this event will be the anchor for your reflections, try to think of the most suitable example possible and then bring it to life for the reader.

The Crucial Middle Section

Between the initial disagreement and your "finding common ground," there's a journey to recount: how you got from point A — the disagreement, to point B — the resolution or finding common ground.

Be sure to describe the conversation or dialogue that unfolded, your actions/reactions, thought process...

• Did you uncover deeper differences in thought, personal experiences, worldview, upbringing, or another factor that lay below the surface disagreement?
• What insight or reflection and/or what action helped you move from disagreement to reframing the conflict, to be able to gain something from it, such as finding common ground, learning about compromise, discovering false assumptions or learning about being a better listener...?

The Resolution and Bridge to Dartmouth

Did you work to find common ground? How was the disagreement resolved in the end? What key traits (such as empathy, or...) or actions (such as listening, or...) are key to navigating disagreements constructively?

What larger insight did you take away from this experience and how will it shape or inform your life in community at Dartmouth?

Examples

• During a debate rehearsal on global environmental policy, a teammate and I got into a heated back and forth about carbon credits. After one of his remarks about factory pollution, I stopped arguing, asking him to tell me more. I quickly learned about his experience growing up in an industrial district in India. In addition to learning a lesson about debate preparation, this experience taught me a lasting lesson about empathy and the importance of using curiosity and empathy as levers for deepening understanding.
• While leading a school event committee, I disagreed with another volunteer about which priorities to put first because of our limited budget. By focusing on our shared goal — the outcomes we wanted from the event — we were able to get unstuck and refresh our approach and find not only common ground but some new ideas. I was reminded that common goals don't prevent disagreements but are important for reframing the debate and finding a new path forward.

Recap

Dartmouth wants students who build bridges, not just make points. This prompt isn’t about when you're right or wrong or why — it’s about how you listen, reflect, and engage across this kind of difference.

Choose a moment that highlights thoughtful dialogue, not just disagreement. Show some vulnerability here, but prioritize the journey to greater emotional maturity, curiosity, and empathy as tools for reaching shared understanding.

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.

Examples

• 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.

Recap

Dartmouth's fifth Personal Reflections and Insights 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.

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 feeling different from others around you (be it in terms of race, culture, beliefs, or even how you learn, see the world around you, or simply because you feel things in ways others don't).

This prompt can be a suitable option if you want to highlight this kind of journey — and perhaps exceptional resilience or insights shaped by this journey — while foreshadowing the positive ways your experience of difference will help you approach campus life with greater insight and empathy.

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?

Examples

• 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.

Recap

Dartmouth's sixth Personal Reflections and Insights prompt offers an opportunity to reflect on your personal journey and how it's shaped by the differences you've encountered or embraced. With personal narratives that put a spotlight on self-awareness, resilience, and empathy and intertwining these traits with a vision of the contributions you'll make at a campus that values both individuality and a tight-knit community, you'll have all the ingredients for a compelling and memorable essay.

Navigating failure on the path to success is a pretty common place idea, so students who choose this prompt probably want to share a personal challenge that has some highly personal and affective dimensions to it, so it can stand out.

In addition, don't get too boxed in by the idea of "failure." This prompt is your opportunity to reveal how you think or commit to acting creatively, iteratively, and resiliently.

Mindy Kaling’s quote frames this clearly: the process of trying, failing, reworking, and eventually improving is not just acceptable — it’s essential to growth.

A committed and resilient approach to growth and how it will reward your learning and inform your interactions in community at Dartmouth — not an anecdote about failure — are really the key themes of this essay.

Choose the Right Growth Story or the Deeper Personal Challenge

You don’t need a dramatic failure or collapse. A small, specific moment where you misunderstood, made a flawed first attempt, or pursued the wrong path, but where quitting or giving up on yourself might have been highly consequential, is going to be more engaging, instructive, and memorable.

Highlight Growth Mindset, not Success

The heart of this prompt is not any failure, but what you did after and your ability to pursue success and impact by committing to a process and growth mindset. What process put you on and kept you on a patch toward growth and new levels of learning and accomplishment?

• Did you reflect?
• Did you seek feedback?
• Did you rebuild from scratch?

Dartmouth values the mindset of someone who can iterate and improve — especially in creative, academic, or collaborative contexts.

Make It Human and Personal

Getting a bad grade on an exam and doubling down on studying and retaking it again for greater success involves failure and reworking, but it's too common place to stand out. Only choose this prompt if you've can interweave more deeply personal challenge into the narrative arc, challenges that some others may have not overcome or made the "journey from bad to good" authentic, touching, compelling, and engaging enough to stand out and be memorable.

Examples

• One of my biggest hesitations to debating was fear of public speaking. Freezing in panic mid-argument at my first tournament only doubled my anxiety. Instead of quitting though, I started recruiting small groups of classmates to my practice sessions and practiced in front of video cameras to acclimate myself to performing pressures. A month later, I was hardly a rockstar at regionals but placed third (and enjoyed myself!), marking a huge win for me personally.
• I spent weeks and countless hours coding a game that then crashed on launch. Instead of starting over from scratch, I got a mentor to coach me through trouble shooting. Gradually, I dissected the problem, rebuilt key sections of code, and asked peers to help with a pre-launch check. The "final" version still had some bugs, but I’d learned how to see iteration as a natural part of the creation process.

Recap

Dartmouth's seventh Personal Reflections and Insights prompt isn’t about failure — it’s about growth through failure. Choose an experience that taught you about persistence, revision, experimentation, and reflection and their role in your journey to greater creativity, new accomplishments, or achieving a bigger impact.

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.

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…

If you're unsure of what prompts to choose, or what personal qualities and insights to capture in your Dartmouth Writing Supplement, Crimson consultants have years of experience guiding this process alongside students applying to Dartmouth and other highly selective universities.

If you think Crimson is right for you, you can learn even more about the Crimson story, sign up for consultant-led webinars, and see what kinds of results we get for students.

For insight into how our college admissions services can be tailored to your college journey, schedule a free consultation to learn more and discuss your best next steps with an expert.