Writing Supplement
The writing supplement includes questions specific to Dartmouth that help the Admissions Committee gain a better sense of how you and Dartmouth might be a good "fit" for each other.
Writing supplement prompts included in Dartmouth's application for admission to the Class of 2029
Updated July 8, 2024
Dartmouth's writing supplement requires that applicants write brief responses to three supplemental essay prompts as follows:
1. Required of all applicants. Please respond in 100 words or fewer:
As you seek admission to Dartmouth's Class of 2029, what aspects of the college's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you?
2. Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:
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.
3. Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:
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 "Oh, The Thinks You Can Think," Dr. Seuss invites us to "Think and wonder. Wonder and think." Imagine your anticipated academic major: How does that course of study sync with Dr. Seuss's advice to you?
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. Buddy Teevens '79 was a legendary and much-beloved coach at Dartmouth. He often told parents: "Your son will be a great football player when it's football time, a great student when it's academic time, and a great person all of the time." If Coach Teevens had said that to you, what would it mean to be "a great person"?