The Dartmouth supplemental essays are a fun but tricky mix of formats. There is a very short, required "Why Dartmouth," then two sets of choose-one prompts, each limited to 250 words and each built around a quote or an invitation. The choice itself is part of the exercise: Dartmouth wants to see what you pick and what that says about you. This guide explains each part, offers a framework for choosing, and walks through strategies for the Why Dartmouth and the optional-style prompts. The prompts below are those published for the Class of 2031, which corresponds to the 2026-27 application cycle. Dartmouth changes its prompts regularly, so confirm the current wording on the Dartmouth Admissions writing supplement page.
The Dartmouth Supplement at a Glance
Prompt 1: Why Dartmouth (required, 100 words or fewer)
As you seek admission to Dartmouth's Class of 2031, what aspects of the college's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you?
Prompt 2: Choose one (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.
Prompt 3: Choose one (250 words or fewer)
- A. What excites you?
- B. A quote from Dolores Huerta about using our lives to make the world better. Describe your impact or intended impact.
- C. A quote from Matt Haig about how novels let us imagine other lives. Discuss insights you have gained from reading.
- D. A quote from Dame Jane Goodall about dialogue and understanding different perspectives. Share a moment when you engaged with a differing viewpoint.
- E. Celebrate your nerdy side.
- F. A reference to Kermit the Frog's refrain about not being easy being green. 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?
Quotes and wording can change from one year to the next. The skills behind them stay consistent.
Prompt 1: Why Dartmouth in 100 Words
What this prompt is really asking
This is a classic "why us" essay compressed to an extreme. With only 100 words, you cannot survey the college. You have room for two or three details and a sentence of reflection. The prompt lists academic program, community, and campus environment as areas to address, but you do not need to cover all three. It also asks "how is Dartmouth a good fit for you?" which is where the personal part comes in.
How to approach it
- Choose one or two specific, distinctive features. Think about what is characteristic of Dartmouth: its focus on undergraduate teaching, the D-Plan calendar that lets you shape when you study and when you do other things, its outdoor tradition and the setting in Hanover, and the way the community tends to be close-knit. Pick the one or two that truly connect to you.
- Tie each feature to something you do or want. A feature on its own is just a brochure line. A feature plus a specific need or habit of yours is a reason.
- End with fit, not flattery. A single sentence about the kind of student you are and how that matches the place is enough.
Example of the difference
Weak: "Dartmouth's strong academics, beautiful campus, and tight-knit community make it my dream school." Stronger: a sentence that names a particular academic approach or opportunity you would use, a sentence about a tradition or setting that fits how you spend your time, and a closing line connecting the two to your values. The stronger version could not be pasted into another college's application.
Mistakes to avoid
- Listing three or four features with no explanation.
- Praising rankings or prestige.
- Using up half your words on the opening.
For more on this format, see how to write a Why This College essay and how to write short supplemental essays.
Prompt 2: Where You Come From, or Who You Are
Both options in this group are about self-description. They differ in how much structure they give you.
Option A: "Let your life speak"
This option asks about the environment in which you were raised and its impact on who you are. Environment can be a physical place, a family, a community, a school, a culture, or a set of expectations. The key is to show cause and effect: this atmosphere, these habits, this way of seeing, therefore this part of who I am.
- Describe the environment through specifics. Sensory details, recurring routines, the sound of a particular room, the unwritten rules of a place.
- Identify the trait it produced. What do you do differently because of where you grew up?
- Connect to the present. Show how that trait appears in your life now, not only in your childhood.
Option B: "Be yourself. Everyone else is taken."
The invitation to introduce yourself is the most open prompt in the supplement. It rewards confident, structured creativity. You could introduce yourself through a list, a set of objects, a conversation, or a day in your life, but there should be an organizing idea. Think about the one or two things you would want a new friend to understand about you in the first five minutes.
- Pick a frame. A theme, a metaphor, or a recurring detail will make the essay feel designed instead of random.
- Avoid repeating your résumé. This is your chance to speak in a more personal voice.
- Be warm. The essay should sound like someone you would want to sit across from at dinner.
How to choose
Choose A if the environment you grew up in is central to who you are and not yet visible in the rest of your application. Choose B if you want to show personality, creativity, or a side of you that a straightforward narrative cannot capture.
Prompt 3: Six Ways to Show a Dimension of Yourself
With six options, the trick is to avoid choosing what sounds safest or most impressive. Instead, ask: what does my application not show yet? Then pick the prompt that fills the gap.
What excites you?
The simplest prompt is also the most revealing. Pick something you are truly enthusiastic about and describe it with energy and detail. The content can be serious or silly. What matters is that the reader senses real excitement.
The Huerta prompt: impact
This one is about using your life to make the world better. Describe your impact or intended impact. Choose a real example of effort and consequence over a vague wish. Show scale honestly: a modest, local impact described precisely is stronger than a global ambition described loosely.
The Haig prompt: insight from reading
Choose this if reading has shaped how you think. Discuss a book or several, and what you learned about imagining other lives. Specific scenes, characters, or passages that changed your view are stronger than a book report. Show how the insight affected how you behave.
The Goodall prompt: engaging with differing viewpoints
This prompt is about dialogue. Choose a moment when you engaged with someone who saw the world differently from you. As with similar prompts at other schools, focus on process: how you listened, how you asked questions, and what you learned about the person and yourself. You do not need a resolution.
Celebrate your nerdy side
This is a chance to show intellectual joy. Go beyond saying you love a subject. Show your nerdiness: the specific questions, the obscure facts, the depth of engagement. The essay should make the reader smile and learn something. If you choose it, commit fully. A timid nerd essay is a contradiction.
The Kermit prompt: difference and identity
This option asks how difference has been part of your life and how you have embraced it as part of your identity, outlook, or sense of purpose. It can be about culture, ability, background, interests, or any other way in which you felt distinct. The key word is embraced. Show how you moved from awareness to ownership, and how it influences what you want to do.
How to Plan the Three Responses Together
Dartmouth reads these three responses alongside your Common App essay and the rest of your file. Plan them as a set:
- Write the Why Dartmouth after you know what the other responses cover, so it fills a different space.
- Use Prompt 2 to show where you come from or who you are in a way that is not in your Common App essay.
- Use Prompt 3 to show an additional dimension: curiosity, impact, empathy, or humor.
A good test is to ask, for each response, what the reader will know about me after reading this that they did not know before. If two responses answer the same way, revise one.
Common Mistakes
- Choosing prompts based on perceived prestige. Choose the ones you can answer best.
- Letting the quote do the work. The quote is a starting point, not the content.
- A generic Why Dartmouth. If it can be sent to other schools, rewrite it.
- Using the same story twice. Three responses, three different angles.
- Forgetting the word limits. The 100-word response is brutal about padding.
For context on the school, read what it takes to get into Dartmouth and the Dartmouth D-Plan explained.
Weak Versus Strong Sentences
These contrasts are illustrations of the kind of revision that helps. They are not language to copy.
- Weak (Why Dartmouth): "Dartmouth's close-knit community, beautiful campus, and strong academics make it my top choice." Stronger: "I want to design my own calendar, studying in the fall and working in a lab in the winter, because I have always learned best by alternating between theory and building."
- Weak (environment): "I grew up in a small town and it taught me about community." Stronger: "In a town where the hardware store closes at noon on Saturdays, I learned to plan ahead, borrow tools, and return them better than I found them."
- Weak (introduce yourself): "I am a driven, curious, and compassionate person." Stronger: "I am the person who reads the back of every cereal box, folds the corners of maps, and asks the bus driver what the route used to be."
- Weak (nerdy side): "I am a nerd who loves history." Stronger: "I can tell you which medieval monk misspelled the same word in four manuscripts, and I have strong feelings about whether it was an accident."
- Weak (difference): "I am different and I embrace it." Stronger: "I used to hide my accent. Now I read my poems aloud with it, and ask people to tell me where they think I am from."
Choosing Among the Six Prompt Options
A simple approach is to write a quick paragraph for each option you are drawn to, then see which paragraph surprises you or runs long. Here are a few additional ways to decide.
- If your application is mostly serious, consider "What excites you?" or "Celebrate your nerdy side," where a playful voice adds range.
- If your application is mostly about achievement, consider the reading, differing-viewpoints, or difference prompts, which give you space for reflection.
- If you have a clear service or impact story, the Huerta prompt fits, but make sure your example is specific and recent.
- If you read widely, the Haig prompt invites a different kind of intellectual portrait, as long as you can name a real change in your thinking.
Researching Dartmouth for a 100-Word Essay
Short essays require focused research. Spend an hour on these questions.
- What is the academic structure that makes Dartmouth different, and how would it change how I plan my time?
- Which one or two campus or community traditions would I actually participate in?
- What is a course, program, or research opportunity connected to my interests, and what would I do with it?
- What do I like about the setting, and how does it match the way I spend my free time?
Choose the one or two answers that feel most like you and build your 100 words around them.
Final Self-Edit Checklist for Dartmouth
- Does my Why Dartmouth have no more than two specific features, each tied to me?
- Is it within 100 words?
- Does my Prompt 2 response show me in a way my other essays do not?
- Does my Prompt 3 response use the quote as a starting point, not the content?
- Are my three responses different from each other and from my Common App essay?
- Have I confirmed the current prompts on Dartmouth's admissions site?
Why These Essays Are Hard to Edit Alone
Dartmouth's mix of tiny and medium-length responses makes it easy to over- or under-write. A trained reader can tell you which prompt choice is working, where the Why Dartmouth is generic, and whether your three responses complement each other.