2026–27 application cycle · via common_app
Dartmouth College supplemental essays
Every writing prompt on the Dartmouth College application, with word limits, taken from the application itself. 13 prompts.
- Prompt 1Optional250 words max
Purpose & Impact
Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta recommended a life of purpose. How do you aim to make an impact in the world?
How to approach it
Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one concrete problem you care about, connect it to something you have already touched in real life, and let the ambition be specific enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.
- Prompt 2Optional250 words max
Reading & Growth
Reflect on how reading has deepened your understanding of yourself and others.
- Prompt 3Optional250 words max
Difficult Dialogue
Share a difficult conversation where you found common ground with someone holding different views.
How to approach it
For a challenge prompt, the challenge is the setup, not the essay. Spend most of the words on what you did and how you changed. Readers are wary of trauma used as currency; growth is the currency.
- Prompt 4Optional250 words max
Difference & Identity
Discuss how difference has shaped your identity and sense of purpose.
How to approach it
Community and identity prompts reward specificity over significance. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label described from the outside. End on what you carry from it into a campus, not on a moral.
- Prompt 5Required100 words max
Why Dartmouth
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?
How to approach it
This is a why-us prompt. The trap is describing the school back to itself; rankings and campus beauty read as filler. Name the two or three specific things (a program, a professor's work, a structure like open curriculum) you would actually use, and tie each to something you have already done.
- Prompt 6Required250 words max
Where you were raised
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.
How to approach it
Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one concrete problem you care about, connect it to something you have already touched in real life, and let the ambition be specific enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.
- Prompt 7Required250 words max
Introduce yourself
"Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself.
- Prompt 8Required250 words max
What excites you
What excites you?
- Prompt 9Required250 words max
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?
How to approach it
Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one concrete problem you care about, connect it to something you have already touched in real life, and let the ambition be specific enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.
- Prompt 10Required250 words max
A book that stayed
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?
How to approach it
Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one concrete problem you care about, connect it to something you have already touched in real life, and let the ambition be specific enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.
- Prompt 11Required250 words max
Finding common ground
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?
How to approach it
Community and identity prompts reward specificity over significance. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label described from the outside. End on what you carry from it into a campus, not on a moral.
- Prompt 12Required250 words max
Your nerdy side
Celebrate your nerdy side.
- Prompt 13Required250 words max
Embracing difference
'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?
How to approach it
Community and identity prompts reward specificity over significance. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label described from the outside. End on what you carry from it into a campus, not on a moral.
Common questions
Dartmouth College essays, answered
How many essays does Dartmouth College require?
Dartmouth College lists 13 writing supplements for the 2026–27 cycle, of which 9 are required. That is on top of the main personal statement.
How long are the Dartmouth College supplemental essays?
Word limits across the listed prompts add up to roughly 3,100 words. Budget real time for them: supplements are where admissions sees your specific interest in Dartmouth College.
Do the Dartmouth College supplemental essays matter?
Yes, and more as selectivity rises. Grades and scores put you in the pool; supplements are one of the few places you control what the reader learns about you, and a generic why-us essay is one of the most common self-inflicted wounds in admissions.
What Spike does with this
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