Dartmouth supplemental essays 2026-27

Answer one of these two

• “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.”

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: All first-year applicants; Prompt 2, choose one of two (required to answer one) · One of a choice

  Pick one part of your background and one moment where it mattered, then show what it changed in how you act now. A survey of your whole life in 250 words reads as a list, and readers have the rest of the file for that.

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

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: All first-year applicants; Prompt 2, choose one of two · One of a choice

  This is the kind of question readers look forward to, because it is where a file starts to sound like a person. Answer it literally and specifically: a real, slightly odd detail does more than a profound one, and 250 words is enough for one image followed all the way through.

Answer one of these six

• “What excites you?”

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: All first-year applicants; Prompt 3, choose one of six (required to answer one) · One of a choice

  Readers check this answer against your transcript and activities, so it has to match them. Name the specific question, course or project that pulls you, show where the interest started, and point to what you would use at Dartmouth by its real name.

• “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?”

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: Prompt 3, choose one of six · One of a choice

  Goals read as believable when they grow out of something already in the file. Connect the future you describe to one concrete thing you have done, and keep it specific enough to check.

• “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?”

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: Prompt 3, choose one of six · One of a choice

• “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?”

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: Prompt 3, choose one of six · One of a choice

  Readers want the actual exchange: who it was, what each of you said, and what you did next. An answer that ends on everyone should listen more reads like all the others; the specific habit you changed afterward is what they remember.

• “Celebrate your nerdy side.”

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: Prompt 3, choose one of six · One of a choice

• “'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?”

  Limit: 250 words or fewer · Who: Prompt 3, choose one of six · One of a choice