How to Write Dartmouth's Supplemental Essays for 2025/26
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Dartmouth's supplemental essays, explained
Dartmouth's essays are where readers stop asking whether you can do the work and start asking whether you belong in the community. Your transcript, testing, and recommendations already establish that you're ready for the academics. The three supplements do the job your grades can't, showing who you are and whether you and Dartmouth fit each other. The short word counts are deliberate. There isn't room to perform, so what's left on the page tends to sound like you.
The fit question runs both ways. Readers aren't only asking whether you're right for Dartmouth; they're watching for whether you've understood what makes Dartmouth right for you.
What are Dartmouth's supplemental essay prompts for 2025/26?
Dartmouth requires three written responses for the Class of 2030. The first is required of everyone. The second asks you to pick one of two prompts, and the third asks you to pick one of seven. All three are short, and all three are read together.
Prompt 1 | Why Dartmouth (Required)
As you seek admission to Dartmouth's Class of 2030, what aspects of the college's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you? (100 words)
Choose one of these two prompts
Prompt 2A | About Yourself
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)
Prompt 2B | About Yourself
"Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself. (250 words)
Choose one of these seven prompts
Prompt 3A | What excites you
What excites you? (250 words)
Prompt 3B | Making an impact
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)
Prompt 3C | Reading and insight
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? (250 words)
Prompt 3D | Difficult conversations
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? (250 words)
Prompt 3E | Your nerdy side
Celebrate your nerdy side. (250 words)
Prompt 3F | Difference and identity
"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? (250 words)
Prompt 3G | Failure and iteration
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. (250 words)
How should you approach Dartmouth's essays?
Treat the three responses as one composite portrait rather than three separate answers. Each prompt catches a different angle of the same person, and a reader who finishes all three should come away with one coherent sense of who you are, what you value, and why Dartmouth specifically. Three strong responses that don't add up to one person is the quieter way this fails.
The short word counts change how you write. A 100-word answer in a teenager's voice can't be buffed into something an adult would write without losing the very voice that makes it work. Use the limit: pick one specific thing per essay and go deep, rather than naming many things thinly. The essay is also the one part of the application you still control. Your transcript and testing are fixed by the time you apply, and the writing is the piece you can shape.
How to answer Prompt 1: Why Dartmouth?
Prompt 1 asks why Dartmouth specifically, and 100 words means every sentence has to earn its place. The answers that work name things only Dartmouth has: a particular course, the Outing Club, the quarter-based D-Plan, a research center, a tradition. The answers that fail reach for praise that could describe any selective school. "Small classes and brilliant professors" is true of every Ivy and tells a reader absolutely nothing.
The current prompt is built around Dartmouth's sense of place, which sets it apart from a standard "Why us?" essay. The wording asks what aspects of the academic program, community, or campus environment draw you. You don't have to cover all three. Pick the one or two you have the most specific material for and go deep.
The fit essay rewards specifics only Dartmouth offers: a named course, the Outing Club, the D-Plan. Praise that could describe any Ivy is the most common way these 100 words fail.
What strong “why Dartmouth?” answers do
The answers that land do at least one of these.
• Frame Dartmouth's physical setting as an ideal place for you to live and learn. You don't have to be outdoorsy or small-town raised. Hanover can be the chance to spend four years somewhere different.
• Connect your academic trajectory or your way of learning to something specific about Dartmouth, whether that's the quarter-based D-Plan, close work with professors, or a term abroad.
• Name a value you see at Dartmouth, then point to exactly where you see it. Specifics show you've looked past the brochure.
• Make the 100 words pull double duty by surfacing a quality that appears nowhere else in your application.
Four reliable ways the fit essay fails
Don't make the small apology (“Dartmouth may be small, but I love it anyway”). Don't call it Dartmouth “university.” Don't name-drop personal connections with people on campus. And don't get the name of a campus landmark or program wrong. Each one signals you didn't do the homework.
Example: The 100-word fit essay
Prompt 1 (Fit)
Admitted student, Dartmouth Class of 2029
Dartmouth is a place for trailblazers (both literally and figuratively). I am constantly searching for new trails, connecting my passions with those of my peers. Through The Problem of Other Minds, I'd connect my knowledge of neural pathways with the information of behavioral psychology that my classmates will provide. I also can't wait to participate in Music Empowerment of the Upper Valley, teaching viola or bodhran and learning about other instruments. In the fall, I hope to hike the trails o
What makes this work
The trailblazer metaphor shows that the student is both a personal fit in terms of their interest in behavioral psychology, but also deeply understands the rugged/environmental spirit behind the college. The metaphor helps the cultural alignment feel real and deeply connected to actual experiences.
The personal fit also extends to both what the student will share with the community (knowledge on neural networks) and gain from peers, highlighting a clear understanding of both what she wants to share but also what she will learn from others. This paints the picture of a student who is not only coming with personal vision, but also willing to learn from the knowledge of others.
Key takeaways
Creativity in response can add depth to an outwardly straightforward question, with the trailblazing metaphor establishing her as both someone who leverages intellectual curiosity and understands the unique spirit of Dartmouth. This holds significantly more weight than just including classes and clubs and helps build a tight narrative structure for the short answer question.
Even at 100 words, cohesion matters in the response. The underlying theme of charting new territory in partnership with peers who are doing the same, is woven through each example. This allows for diversity of contribution, while still maintaining a consistent theme rooted in exploration and discovery.
How do you choose and write the two 250-word essays?
Choose the option you have the most specific, true material for, not the one that sounds most impressive, and write it so the reader is there with you. These two prompts are where the real picture of you comes through. An ordinary subject brought to life beats a grand one left flat, and the everyday material closer to home tends to do more work than the dramatic trip abroad.
Use these two essays to reveal what the rest of the application can't: your values, what keeps you up at night, the problems in the world you want to change. Don't restate your activities list, since a reader already has it. The essay's job is to explain why any of it mattered to you.
Prompt 2: the personal-quality essay (250 words)
Both options under Prompt 2 ask the same underlying thing: what makes you who you are, and which experience or value sits at the center of your character. Option A (the Quaker "let your life speak") routes through the environment you were raised in. Option B (Wilde's "be yourself") asks you to introduce yourself directly. The common version of this essay is a brief life history, which is usually a missed chance.
The answers that work show rather than tell, and they get specific. "I take selfish pleasure in volunteering at the animal shelter, because it makes me feel good" reveals far more than "I am generous." "I inherited my Chelsea fanaticism from my father and his father before him" says more than "I'm a football fan." Option B rewards a bold, declarative tone, a chance to make a statement about who you are. Set that tone in the first line and hold it the whole way through.
On Prompt 2, three things to avoid
Don't describe yourself in the third person or recite how others describe you. Don't feel you have to mention Dartmouth; these prompts are about you. And don't brag or tout your accomplishments, since this is a personal-quality essay, and cockiness isn't an attractive one.
Prompt 3: choose one of seven (250 words)
Prompt 3 gives you seven options, and the right one is simply where you have the most distinctive material to work with. Several of the options reward the same move: take one interest you're honestly obsessed with and show that obsession at close range, rather than describing a passing curiosity in broad strokes. A reader can tell when a student actually wanted to write the thing, and that energy is the hardest quality to fake at 250 words.
Specificity is the whole game on Prompt 3. The option you'd happily overwrite beats the one that sounds impressive, and one battle teaches a reader more than “the Civil War,” which teaches more than “history.”
Prompt | Choose it if | What works | Avoid |
2A — Quaker, “let your life speak” | Your environment (place, family, culture) shaped a value central to you. | Show, don't tell. Trace one or two values to lived detail rather than a brief life history. | A neutral chronological life story that never reveals a quality. |
2B — Wilde, “be yourself” | You can be bold and declarative and want to make a statement, not tell a story. | Set a clear tone in the first line (playful, curious, kind) and hold it. Reveal a true quirk. | Third-person self-description; bragging; cockiness. |
3A — What excites you? | You have a real obsession you can show with palpable enthusiasm. | Go specific: not “history” but one battle. Take the reader down the rabbit hole and teach them something. | Reusing your Common App “lose track of time” topic. Touting accomplishments. |
3B — Huerta, a life of purpose | You have a substantial service project or volunteer work to share. | About 40% impact, 30% motivation, 30% how you'd sustain it. Describe the broad aim and your specific role. | Any “savior” framing. Judging the causes of the problem or those affected. |
3C — Haig, insight from reading | A specific book truly changed how you understand yourself or others. | Name the book and the shift it caused. Show the before and the after instead of summarizing the plot. | A plot summary. A title chosen to look impressive rather than one that moved you. |
3D — Goodall, a difficult conversation | You have a disagreement where you sought common ground. | Lay out the stakes, emphasize listening, and frame more shared understanding as the win. | Judging the other party; projecting your reconciliation onto the whole world. |
3E — Celebrate your nerdy side | You want to share how you nerd out, with enthusiasm, across one or more interests. | Explain the interest briefly, then show how you explore it. Get subject-matter specific. | Claiming true expertise; staying vague or surveying a whole field. |
3F — Kermit, difference & identity | An aspect of your lived experience matters to you and isn't shown elsewhere. | Speak candidly about what shaped you and the quality that resulted; tie it to inclusive dialogue. | Sensationalizing; settling scores with people who treated you poorly. |
3G — Mindy Kaling, failure & reworking | You have a story of trying, failing, and reworking something toward better. | Show the process: the attempt, what broke, and how you revised. Treat “bad on its way to good” as the point. | A failure that's secretly a humblebrag. Skipping the messy middle and the actual reworking. |
Example: a 250-word “let your life speak” essay
Prompt 2A (Quaker saying)
Admitted student, Dartmouth Class of 2029
Nestled in the foothills of the Adirondack mountains lies the village of Gansevoort. It's where urban meets rural, and where I grew up. The community that has formed here has instilled two values in me: ambition and service. When I was younger, my cousins and I tried to climb a tree, each of us facing limitations with the branches of the maple that caused us to fall many times. By the end of the summer we all climbed this tree, covered in scrapes and bruises to prove it. The tenacity I approache
What is Dartmouth really looking for in your essays?
Dartmouth wants the distinctive student behind the credentials. The essays that get there are written in your own voice, with concrete detail and real self-knowledge behind them. The ones that succeed aren't the most polished; they're the ones where you've figured out who you are before you start writing. This is the part of the file where a reader hears you directly, and it's often what separates one capable applicant from the next.
Authentic voice
Answer in your own voice. A reader can tell when an adult did the writing.
Specificity
One concrete detail from your life beats a broad claim. The small thing outperforms the grand.
Answering the prompt
Answer the question on the page, not the one you wish it asked.
Making the ordinary vivid
An everyday moment, put on the page well, can say more about you than any large one.
What are the most common mistakes in Dartmouth essays?
Five mistakes show up repeatedly, and most happen when able students try too hard rather than too little.
1. Recycling a supplement from another school. A polished "Why X" essay adapted for Dartmouth without rebuilding it around what Dartmouth offers reads as borrowed. The writing is fine; the answer to the prompt is missing.
2. Not answering the question. A great story sometimes arrives with the prompt forgotten. Engaging writing that doesn't address what was asked still comes across as a near-miss.
3. Rehashing the activities list. The reader already has your activities. An essay that restates them wastes the one space where you get to explain why any of it mattered.
4. Reaching for the grandest topic. Essays about the biggest moment in your life arrive by the thousands and tend to sound alike. A smaller, specific subject usually produces sharper writing.
5. Neglecting the supplements. The personal statement gets all the attention while the supplements get careless edits, including the classic slip of the wrong school name. Proofread every one.
Read your supplements out loud before submitting
Reading each one aloud is the fastest way to catch what your eye skips: a clumsy line, a missing answer to the prompt, the name of the wrong school. The personal statement tends to get that final scrutiny; give all three of your supplements the same pass.
How do the essays connect to the rest of your Dartmouth application?
The essays are where your application states out loud what the rest of the file only suggests. Your transcript implies a direction; your activities point at what you care about; the essays are where you say, in your own words, what it all adds up to and why. That's why a borrowed supplement or an essay that drifts from the prompt does outsized damage: it's not one weak component among many, it's the file losing its voice at the exact moment it should be clearest. The pieces don't need to repeat each other. They need to agree.
The essay is the one place you get to say directly what your application means. When it answers a different question, or belongs to a different school, the whole file goes quiet at the part that should speak loudest.