Who should write your Dartmouth peer recommendation?

DDartmouth's admissions office strongly encourages applicants to submit a peer recommendation, a written statement of support from someone the applicant considers a peer, because it wants a better understanding of the applicant's interests and character from another perspective. Almost every other selective college hears about a student only from adults: two teachers, a counselor, sometimes an interviewer.

Because the letter is optional, families often treat it as an afterthought, or hand it to the most impressive friend available. Either choice wastes the one voice in the file that does not come from an adult.